As you’ve probably already read, MediaStyle has a brand new home on Bank St.

We also have a new member of the team, Producer Gabriela Warrior Renaud. To commemorate, check out Gabriela’s video profile of our new office, narrated by Ian.

You’ll be seeing a lot more of Gabriela’s work here on the blog (and plenty more cool stuff from our office) in the coming weeks.

In our last post we looked at some of our highlights from 2011. In this post, we’ll take a look to the future and take a swing at what the coolest things 2012 will bring.

Ian

Co-Working Takes Off in ’12

Ottawa’s about to see a major shake up in the labour market. The tech-sector is still hurting, the Harper Government is after the public service and more young people are creating their businesses. MediaStyle is a prime example of the type of company that needed shared working space to grow. The recent opening of the Hub adds co-working space to the downtown core, and the co-working spaces at the Chateau Laurier will be housing more established organizations.

Watch for: The official opening of the Hub, Shopify’s official launch of their incubator project and the continued growth of the Code Factory. (MediaStyle’s former home!)

Locavores rule the Capital

Early on the go-local-scene was Apartment 613, with their energizer bunny-style posting schedule they reinforced their core ethos that: Ottawa is more fun than you think it is. Local media like OpenFile and Spacing Ottawa are now go-to news sources of the go-local movement. The emerging Hintonburg restaurant scene, the success of town (on Elgin) and the ongoing revitalization of Bank St (my work continues with the now officially designated Village) are signs of a growing local culture.

Watch for: A redesign of Apt613, more cross-promotions between local businesses, an every-growing farmer’s market network and more Ottawa-centric pride than ever before.

Sara

Nuit Blanche

Anyone who’s ever attended the all-night art even Nuit Blanche in a city like Toronto, Montreal or Paris will tell you about its eclectic energy. I’m excited to see it unfold in Ottawa, with the participation of most Ottawa Art Galleries, the National Capital Commission and the biennial photography festival, Festival X.

Watch for: Guest Curator Stefan St-Laurent takes over Nuit Blanche Ottawa, providing our wonderful city with some of the world’s coolest artists. On September 22nd 2012, grab all your friends and family and spend the night discovering art and Ottawa.

Travis

Comment sections

Filled with hate speech and wildly unsubstantiated claims, comments sections are the bottom of the bottom of the Internet barrel, but it looks like the world is finally fed up with it. Check out the latest On The Media for great discussions on how comment sections can be improved. New video games publication Venus Patrol has talked about charging for or limiting user’s comments.

Watch out for: Whatever OpenFile does in the future, Venus Patrol, and prepare yourself for major publications eschewing comment sections altogether.

Television

Remember how we re-invented radio and called it podcasts? This is the year we re-invent TV and call it something else. Netflix and Hulu laid the groundwork for demonstrating to the 1% that streaming can still be profitable, and home media centers are incorporating streaming from computers more than ever.

Watch out for: The rumoured Apple television, legal television streaming becoming available in more countries, and major movie releases streaming the same day as theatrical releases.

Banner image courtesy Chris Wild

Wondering what some of MediaStyle’s favourite thing were of 2011? MediaStyle got up to a lot last year–consuming media, going to events, and making some of our own. Below are some of our favourite things from last year, broken down by MediaStyle team member.

Travis

IFTT gets different web services to talk together and do cool things for the user. It’s simple, brilliant, and some day I’ll find a use for it. [IFTT]

David Friedman interviews great modern inventors. A wonderful Vimeo series. [Inventor Portrait]

For whatever reason, Little Printer impressed me like crazy. I can’t wait for this adorable future. [Little Printer]

Ian

A must read, Kurt Vonnegut on how to write with style. [Advice to Writers]

The Merlin Mann and Jon Benjamin talk productivity, work, and communication on the great Back to Work podcast. [5By5]

Think Threadless for food nerds. Tasty Cotton shirts. [Tasty Cotton]

Sara

The official coffee of MediaStyle, we can’t get enough Neat coffee. [Neat]

Wunderkammer, like its name implies, is a new Ottawa shop full of cool curio and local artists’ work. [Wunderkammer]

The Ottawa International Animation Festival is consistently one the City’s best events. A highlight from this year: Nick Cross’ The Pig Farmer. [Animation Festival]

Banner image courtesy Sebastian Mary.

We’ve been getting some questions about the podcasts we produce out of the MediaStyle studio.

All of our podcasts are recorded live on location or right here in our studio, where we produce and edit all of our audio and video content.

Next week we’ll be blogging about valuable tips for amateur podcasters, but for now here’s a rundown of the steadily growing MediaStyle Studio podcast network:

The Voice: The Voice is our flagship podcast, produced in cooperation with IABC Ottawa. If you’ve been following our weekly blog posts, you know that The Voice pulls in some of the brightest communicators in Ottawa and beyond to talk about topics that actually matter in our line of work–that means everything from how to deal with famous clients, to the pitfalls of outsourcing social media.

eVOLution: We produced this podcast for our friends at Volunteer Canada. It’s a four-part interview show dealing with advice for communicators in the volunteer and not-for-profit sector.

Backpack to Briefcase: Based on conversations between Ian Capstick, speechwriter Phil Geroux, and University of Ottawa students. This five-part podcast was recorded on location at the University of Ottawa and gives students information on how to work in the political and communications realm in Ottawa.

Soundcrimes: Soundcrimes is the podcast of the weekly radio show hosted by our Senior Producer (that’s me). Along with CHUO Music Director Joni Sadler, Soundcrimes plays the latest in independent, local, and avant garde music.

If you have any questions about the MediaStyle Studio podcasts, or need help (or a studio) producing your own, send me an email at travis@mediastyle.ca

Banner image courtesy Fey Ilyas

All four episodes are available now to download. MediaStyle Studio edited the episodes and produced the intros and outros for each.

The bulk of credit goes to host of The Voice Graham Macachek. Graham handled recording, hosting, and producing duties on eVOLution and brought some top-notch guests to the table to discuss–among other hot topics–social media, emerging technologies, and the importance of integrity in the not-for-profit sector.

You can subscribe on iTunes here, and don’t forget to leave a review while you’re at it.

Zen Kitchen, one of MediaStyle’s favourite Ottawa restaurants, hosted Wednesday night’s event. The night included fire performers, belly dancing, a burlesque show, an auction and way too much delicious food–all in the name of supporting the Ottawa Fringe Festival.

A big thanks to our co-sponsors Zen Kitchen, Northern Army, Confersense.

Don’t forget to check out (and tag liberally) the photos on MediaStyle’s Facebook page.

Alistair Morton is responsible for the design. It didn’t take him long to understand what our team is all about. We value handmade goods with impeccable style. Our style is modern with a twist.

The re-designed MediaStyle.ca now better reflects who we are as a firm.

Importantly: the sidebar now provides more ways to access the rich archive of two years of near-daily content. The site also provides a much stronger showcase for our portfolio of videos, text and audio content. The new site even has a cute spot (scroll all the way to the bottom) for the office to post about our well-known cupcakes.

We love how they have infused the site with subtle detailing and really captured what MediaStyle is all about. It’s bold, but bespoke as well.

The amazing team photos – and this neat time-lapse below – are the work of Ottawa’s super Dad and amazing photo talent Justin Van Leeuwen.

Let us know what you think! And, if you encounter any issues or bugs – please comment below or send a quick note to travis [@] mediastyle.ca

At the wine and chocolate tasting we featured selected wine pairings with Ottawa’s own fair trade Camino chocolate. The wine and chocolate videos we showcased can be viewed here.

If you couldn’t make it to the event all of the Camino chocolate bars can be found at Ottawa’s best grocery stores and all of the wines at the LCBO. Using our tasting notes, which can be found here, you can have your own tasting at home.

We screened three short videos as tasting notes, featuring somaliers from some of the best restaurants around Ottawa, and you can find them all on Vimeo starting today.

If you’d like to be on our invite list for future events, or stay up-to-date with our ongoing projects, just click here and you will be sure to hear about all of our upcoming events! We’ll be delivering special boxes of MediaStyle cupcakes featuring Camino chocolate to randomly selected new sign ups over the next two weeks.

Thanks again to IABC Ottawa and all of the members that attended. For more information on IABC, be sure to check out the IABC Ottawa website, and subscribe to the IABC Ottawa podcast.

My professional background is in marketing and communications in the arts and business.  My interest in working in a variety of mediums, from blog posts, press releases, video, podcasts, and more stems from my educational background and personal interest in the visual arts. My activity in the arts has given me a varied and diverse platform in which to approach marketing, communications and content creation.

My approach to content creation whether on the canvas or on the web comes out of a great interest in storytelling.  The best communications work I have seen, from ad campaigns to gallery exhibitions, tells a story that can be interpreted in a number of ways by the viewer while still delivering key messages.

I’m a visual artist, and my practice has focused on traditional printmaking and painting. My interest in printmaking has deeply informed my work in new media, seeking the links and history between the origin of the multiple carried out from the printing press to the endless multiplicity of media on the internet.

I look forward to working with the MediaStyle team to create a variety of content for our clients, as well as to discover some great stories about the people, businesses and organizations we work with. Hoping to meet many of you soon in our offices for cupcakes and coffee or at one of our signature events.

MediaStyle is an energetic start-up communications company specializing in content creation, communications training and has recently opened a multimedia studio in downtown Ottawa. We work  with progressive organizations, NGOs and non-profits.

An update: We’ve hired two amazing communicators to join our team . Our new producer Ashley Andrews and associate producer Sara Lola Thompson will be joining us at our office on Queen Street in the coming weeks. Both will be contributing to the blog on a regular basis and I know they will be eager to introduce themselves soon. But, in the meantime… a teaser: Ashley is a painter, printmaker and an accomplished digital communicator. She also teaches video and art classes to youth in Ottawa. Many of our clients will have met Sara Lola at our MediaStyle events – we’re thrilled she is bringing her vibrant personality to the office several days a week as our associate producer.