Local Tourist Ottawa featured on CBC Radio

91.5 FM in Ottawa

Wow – what a great week!

Yesterday morning, CBC Radio’s Rebecca Zandbergen welcomed me into the studio to talk a little bit about Local Tourist Ottawa.

I also had a chance to meet Dave Woodbridge, the creator of Outdoor Ottawa, and the three of us had a great 10 minute Q&A about our projects, the city’s thriving blogging community, as well as the power of social networking and an overall strong content marketing strategy.

It was a great chat!

Listen to Jessey's interview on CBC Radio

I’d just like to say a big thanks to Associate Producers Laura Osman and Jeanne Armstrong who reached out to Local Tourist Ottawa for this segment, as well as the folks at CBC who posted the audio clip up really quickly so everyone who missed the show could catch it later.

If you’d like to listen to the interview, please click here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Congratulations (and thank you!) to local DJ Jeff Mauler

Jeff Mauler and Kelly Ripa (click for Live! with Regis and Kelly video)

If you missed all of the chatter on Twitter this morning, much-loved Ottawa DJ Jeff Mauler of Hot 89.9 wowed us all with his appearance on Live! with Regis and Kelly…and we just want to send him a heartfelt congratulations!

Offices across Ottawa (I know this for a fact) took a short break to cheer on Mauler, who was the only Canadian among the five other finalists (and thousands of entries) selected for the show’s “Men of Radio Co-Host for A Day Search.”

Those who were lucky enough to truly honour Mayor Jim Watson’s proclamation of “Kelly Ripa and Jeff Mauler Day”, gathered at Cornerstone Bar & Grill for the station’s official viewing party.

For years, I’ve depended on Mauler, Rush, Jenni and Josie to perk me up in the morning during my drive to work, and I’m sure they do this for many Ottawa residents. Here at Local Tourist Ottawa, we just wanted to send a huge shout out to Mauler, not only for representing our city and our country so well on today’s show, but for making us laugh each and every morning on Hot 89.9.

Jeff Mauler and Kelly Ripa (Click for behind-the-scenes video)

Read full coverage of Mauler’s stellar performance (via the Ottawa Citizen) here, and click the photos in this post to see live show and behind-the-scenes footage.

The Morning HOT Tub with Mauler, Rush, Jenni & Josie is heard weekday mornings from 5:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. on FM 89.9.

Ottawa Magazine: The Weekender (November 27 – 28)

Thanks again to Ottawa Magazine for consistently providing such a great breakdown of what’s up this weekend in Ottawa. That said,  if anyone has another local calendar of events site they’d like to share, please pass it along.

It looks like this weekend we have…

- Warped 45s at the Elmdale Tavern

- Jazz night at Cube Gallery (How come I’ve never heard of this before?)

- Spins and Needles Craft and DJ Night (Has anyone ever been to this? Is it awesome?)

- Sketch at Saw Gallery

- Family workshops at the Science and Technology Museum

Want more info? Head to the source! Want to tell us what you’re up to this weekend? Send us a note!

Ottawa’s Youth Services Bureau celebrates 50th anniversary

Ottawa’s  Youth Services Bureau celebrates its 50th anniversary today, and the Ottawa Citizen’s Kelly Patterson published a great front-page story to mark the important milestone.

The story starts:

At 16, Jimmy Prevost had been living on the streets for two years. At 17, he was already a heavy drinker, and had twice done jail time for attempted theft. It looked like the writing was on the wall.

Now he’s a music and theatre promoter, his walls lined with awards from his career in advertising; two weeks ago, he strode proudly onto the stage of the National Arts Centre to introduce the show he was managing by music icon Liona Boyd.

Jimmy puts it down to the day 50 years ago when he walked into Ottawa’s new Youth Services Bureau as its first client and met a man named Maurice Egan, the agency’s first executive director.

“I loved the guy as soon as I met him,” recalls Jimmy, now 68. More importantly, Maurice had faith that Jimmy would turn out all right — and took Jimmy into his own home for more than a year, so he could try to get his life back on track.

Read more…

Ottawa Magazine: The Weekender (November 20 – 21)

Ottawa Magazine is recommending some good stuff this weekend, although, I’m a little disappointed I missed out on getting tickets to see Royal Wood.

What’s up this weekend?

• Royal Wood at the National Arts Centre (someone get me a ticket to this!)
• The One & Only Craft Sale
• Ottawa International Storytelling Festival
• Christkindlmarket
• Zabava 2010
• Stephan Moccio at the National Arts Centre

Get all the details here!

Also, rumour has it the 41st Annual Help Santa Toy Parade is this Saturday…

Ottawa Citizen: Winterlude needs private funds to continue, NCC chief warns

The Ottawa Citizen’s Kristy Nease has a story today about the future of Winterlude.

She writes:

National Capital Commission CEO Marie Lemay warned Friday morning that the popular Winterlude festival is no longer sustainable — unless private business moves in to take part.

Lemay made the announcement in front of a sold-out crowd of businesspeople at the Sheraton Hotel, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce for its Eggs ‘N Icons breakfast lecture series.

“We know that if we don’t change, really, fundamentally, the way we look at our business, the only thing we’ll end up doing at one point is having to cut an arm,” Lemay said. “That’s the only result at the end of the day if you’re not able to reinvent yourself and make really good use of your funds.”

From now until about 2013, Winterlude will transition to the new approach, becoming a testing ground for how to involve the private sector in future NCC events and plans, Lemay said in an interview following her talk.

Traditionally, the NCC takes on the role of sole producer, but in order for 32 years of Winterlude tradition to move forward, that has to end.” Click here to read the full article …

Ottawa Magazine: The Weekender (November 13 – 14)

So, I was just about to write up a quick “what’s on this weekend” post, when I realized there are some great local news outlets that already put this together each week. For this weekend, have a look at Ottawa Magazine’s The Weekender. They’re recommending a couple of interesting movies, Craftlicious, the Ten Thousand Villages Festival Sale, and I Killed the Group of Seven (you may have seen the posters…) at the Patrick John Mills Gallery.

Thanks Ottawa Magazine!

Did you go to any of these events? Let us know how they went.