Is this thing [still] on? A 2019 Wrapup
What a year it’s been! I figured after months of silence, I’d wrap up 2019 with an update on where I’ve been this past year and what’s coming next year.
The biggest news this year was that I decided to leave the freelance lifestyle and join Mike Agerbo’s team at Get Connected Media as their Editorial Director in February. After completing the National Portrait project with Douglas Coupland, I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I wanted to do next after such an amazing experience that I had working with Doug (and many others) on that project. I debated on going back to the corporate world I’d left in 2014. I thought about a lot of different options and ultimately liked the idea of helping to create content like I have been on this site for over a decade. Joining Get Connected made the most sense at the time to me as they had already built a successful radio and television presence and wanted to build out their online profile more.
I really didn’t know what to expect and I’m happy to say that I’ve enjoyed being there very much. It didn’t hurt that I’ve known Mike for years through our regular meetups and sessions at various local media events, CES and the like so it was pretty comfortable almost immediately. It was strange to go into an office regularly after 5 years of working from my couch with Pixel on my lap.
Since I joined, I’ve been doing all sorts of things related to what I love: technology. I now help produce and co-host two weekly radio shows on CKNW (980 in Vancouver) which also has a podcast and I’ve since helped launch a video podcast of the radio shows being made. We also produce a tv show which airs locally on CHEK TV and is available on many streaming services like Roku.
One of the perks of the job (and a big part of why I joined) is the travel. I’ve literally been around the world these past few months as we get invited to many different product launches and events. I’d only been on the job for a few weeks when I headed to Paris, France for a major smartphone launch.
We spent a week in Paris and then stayed on and rented a car to road trip through the French countryside visiting Normandy (and all the historic landing beaches and monuments), Belgium and ultimately I flew home from Brussels after a few days in Bruges.
One of my favourite stops on the trip (or any trip for that matter), was in Normandy in a little fishing town called GrandCamp-Maisy where we rented an AirBnB on the water not far from Juno Beach.
Not long after that trip, we headed to China to visit with Huawei and tour their factories and campuses in Shenzhen. We also had the chance to visit the famous Huaqiangbei electronics marketplace in Shenzhen, literally where everything in the tech world comes from.
This was an interesting time to visit China due to the ongoing trade war the United States was having and the extradition situation with their CFO. In the end, it was a fantastic trip and I got to spend nearly a week in Hong Kong afterwards, including a day trip (via jet boat) to Macau which was amazing. We left Hong Kong shortly before the protests started so it’s been interesting to watch the events unfolding on streets I had just visited. As you’d imagine, the food on that trip was off the charts and I still dream of the dishes I got to eat in the street markets and restaurants. It’s still high on my list of places I want to visit again very soon.
We followed those international trips with a number of stops in Las Vegas and New York City. I also managed to co-produce MakerFaire Vancouver in September at Science World and it was a great event by all accounts.
I’m just about to head back to Las Vegas for CES at the beginning of January and we’re already starting to make plans for more international travel after that which I’m excited to see where we end up visiting in the new year – it’s looking like a few more trips to Europe are in the cards which is exciting.
I’m still doing my weekly “Wired Wednesday” segments on News 1130 and I frequently fill in for Mike on Global BC for the weekly Tech Talk segments.
As always, you can see more photos from the above on my Flickr and Instagram.
