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- Our ClientsAcumen prides itself on providing first class service to its clients.
It's Finally Summer - No, Really!
We've been waiting for some sunny warm weather here on Vancouver Island - and it looks like it might finally be arriving. Good thing too because we've got some pretty cool outside events to highlight for you.
Acumen News
Tour de Victoria
Ryder HesjedalIt’s fun to be a part of history. And for the past few months, Acumen has been pouring our hearts into making the inaugural Tour de Victoria a reality. The one-day event – to be held May 28th – will feature up to 1,500 enthusiastic cyclists riding through the beautiful roads of southern Vancouver Island. The 140 km ride will be led by Tour de France superstar Ryder Hesjedal, who still calls Victoria home. Kim and her team have been leading the communications strategy for the ride, which features an all-star list of Canadian sporting heroes. There’s also a shorter 90 km version and a 1.5 hour Community Ride for families. As you can imagine, pulling an event like this together with a rookie team of organizers and a lot of dedicated volunteers has been a labour of love. But it will all be worth it on May 28th. If you’re in Victoria, come on out and be part of the fun. We can still use volunteers and for those of you who aren't up to the long rides, consider the Community Ride, led by our good friend Silken Laumann. It's a great way to spend some time on the bike and it's for a great cause. All proceeds go to Power To Be Adventure Therapy. Everyone's welcome. Visit www.tourdevictoria.com for more information.
Hitting the links in style
This is our summer for outdoor fun – or at least fun outdoor events. In July, Victoria will be buzzing with celebrity sightings, as the stars arrive for the Courtnall Classic golf tournament. The Courtnall brothers – famous from their NHL playing days – have recruited a bunch of A-listers from Hollywood and the pro sports world to come to Victoria and help raise a lot of money for a very worthy cause – the Archie Courtnall Centre at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital – named in honour of their dad. Acumen has been working closely with the Victoria Hospitals Foundation to ensure the success of this fundraising event, which promises to be one of the media highlights of the summer.
A Grand Re-opening
We’ve told you before about our work with the Historic Kinsol Trestle fundraising campaign. And now we’re proud to report that years of work by dedicated volunteers has finally paid off. The rehabilitated Kinsol Trestle – Canada’s largest free-standing wooden trestle – will officially reopen as part of the TransCanada Trail in late July. For the last 18 months, work has continued through all kinds of weather. The massive Douglas fir timbers have been upgraded and replaced and a new walkway across the structure is complete. And thanks to a massive fundraising effort and the support of everyone in the Cowichan Valley, this historic landmark will once again carry people across the Koksilah River. We’re proud to have played a part in this remarkable project, which will truly be a project that will stand for many, many years to come. Click on the picture to see a cool time-lapse video of the restoration.
Cool Tools
In The News
We're always looking for ways to improve the service we give to the most important people around us - our clients. We're proud of our client service and if you want to know more about it, just ask some of our clients. There's a list of them on the website and you're welcome to contact any of them yourself.
We also love technology - some of us more than others, of course - and over the past couple of years, we've adopted new tools that help us in our daily business. We're proud of our website and creating effective sites for our clients has also become an important part of our communications tool kit. But it's not enough for a tool to help us - it has to work for clients too. That might mean saving some money or a higher-quality product for the same money. And it always means more bang for your PR dollar.
The Digital Era
Tracking how often they appear in the media has always been a challenge for our clients - especially those with more limited budgets. Government organizations and large companies have been more likely to hire expensive agencies to keep track of the newspaper, radio and TV coverage they get. But for smaller organizations it's been a challenge. Fortunately, that's changing.
For our clients who use our media relations services, we now offer a daily media clip summary, featuring hard copies of print stories, links to web coverage, audio clips of radio interviews and on-line clips of TV coverage. The growth of on-line resources means that more and more of what we call "traditional media" is available online. And we're able to create a private on-line client area where we organize and post stories, audio and video clips for out clients. Best of all, the private areas are available to our clients 24/7.
Tweet, Tweet, etc
We're also living in the social media world. For those of you that haven't seen it, we have a Facebook page and we're on Twitter. The social web truly is a new frontier and we're having a good time figuring out how we can take advantage of what it offers to continue delivering the best service for our clients.
Gossip Corner
Flipped out in Hawaii
Kim was in Hawaii in March - but it wasn't for fun - or so she claimed. She was at a triathlon camp for 10 days, riding, swimming and running around the lava flows and along the beautiful beaches.
Unfortunately, on the last day, in the last mile of her last ride, she ended up flipping over her handlebars, breaking her left wrist. She's been in a cast for seven weeks - and unable to type much. But it hasn't really slowed her down, although she's not as fast on her Blackberry as she used to be.
Summer holidays
Unlike last year, the Acumen folks are sticking closer to home this year. No exotic vacations this year - unless you count Saskatchewan. But we do hope to get in some hiking, hanging out at the beach and cycling. But the office will be staffed all summer, so feel free to call or drop by and visit with whoever is holding down the fort.