scott schmidt

Show Highlights:

• Introducing Scott Schmidt
• What it takes driving creative operations at PwC
• The importance of having a single system of record for your in-house team
• The importance of creating technology planning horizons
• Keeping an eye on the overall quality of brand voice and brand consistency
• The importance of team bonding and team cohesion

Quotes:

SCOTT: The importance of having a single platform for work and records

“We know they're not all gonna work the same, but to be able to have everything in a single place in our system of record. And that was the most important thing is that it could not only have the team work together or work separately, when appropriate, but also to gather the metrics for our leadership, that show that we can prove that we are. One of the things is very important for an in-house agency is proving your value.”

SCOTT: Importance of team bonding and cohesion

“Make sure people are happy and able to work efficiently and collaboratively. I'm sure being in-person at times would be great and when we can do it, when we can come into in-person collaborate, it does happen. We do try and get together when possible. But it's something that we've been very fortunate that we were already in a position where we were ready to work virtually.”

Connect with Scott and find out more about his work:

Scott Schmidt | PwC | PwC.com

Connect with Kevin and find out more about his work:

Kevin Groome | Pica9 | Pica9.com

Empower your brand with Pica9, the brand-to-local marketing platform that helps world-class distributed brands empower their franchisees and dealer networks. 

BOOK A DEMO NOW!

As the second wave of COVID-19 rages on in Alberta and across the country, most of us are starting to truly understand what a global crisis is like. For advocates like Emma Jackson, co-founder of Climate Justice Edmonton, seeing that level of widespread clarity has been a dream scenario regarding the nightmare we face with our climate. 

The climate crisis is a real f#@king emergency and it’s way past time the entire world and our governments treat is as such. The Forgotten Corner welcomes Emma to the show this week for a no-punches-pulled conversation about the global climate crisis.

We talk about CJE and what led her and a group of like-minded women to establish it, and Emma tells us the story of getting arrested in Vancouver in 2018 as part of a daring protest over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. 

For our “main course,” we talk with Emma about the Green New Deal and why it’s really “the only way” forward as we tackle this crisis that we have created. She takes aim at politicians, past and present, for their “new climate denialism” and this batshit crazy idea that we can keep expanding fossil fuel extraction while fighting the realities of climate change. 

Follow Emma on Twitter at @EmmaJackson57

Follow CJE at @CJEdmonton, or like their Facebook page.

Visit their website.

Read more about the bridge protest in Vancouver.

In part two of our interview with Thomas Lukaszuk, the longtime Progressive Conservative MLA, cabinet minister and former Deputy Premier looks back at some of the portfolios he oversaw, the hard decisions he had to implement, some of the regrets that he has and the responsibility he feels, in hindsight, for the consequences of governing.

Listen to Part 1 here.

Lukaszuk offers advice for fellow Albertans who feel like they’re without a political home, talks about the differences between opposing Rachel Notley’s governance and opposing Jason Kenney’s, and takes aim at the current government and its unabashed neoliberal approach to running the province.

Take it from a man who has personally known every premier since the 1970s… the UCP is nothing like Albertans have ever seen before.

Follow Thomas on Twitter at @LukaszukAB

We at The Forgotten Corner understand that most Albertans aren’t going to listen to this show and immediately adopt a new outlook on how the province should be governed. We know that being a conservative means a great deal to a lot of people here, and that feeling comes from their bones, from their blood.

Listen to Part 2 here.

However, as not only journalists but citizens of Alberta, if there is one thing we hope to help people realize, it’s that the United Conservatives are not the “conservatives” you might think they are. And, what better way to help shed some light on that than welcoming to the show a longtime conservative Albertan, who not only held several provincial cabinet positions and the Deputy Premier role, but who also personally knows the conservative leaders of our past.

In part one of our interview with Thomas Lukaszuk, we look back on his early life in Canada as a Polish immigrant escaping a dictatorship, through to his happenstance foray into the world of politics. Thomas takes listeners through the events that led to his first time on a ballot, the circumstances behind his 2004 three-vote victory, how he landed his first role in cabinet and what it was like to balance and compromise his way through several portfolios.

Part one caps off with Thomas’s views on what it was like to run for the Progressive Conservative leadership against eventual winner, the late Jim Prentice, complete with a compelling accusation you won’t want to miss.

Follow Thomas on Twitter at @LukaszukAB

Tune in next week for part two, where the former Deputy Premier pulls no punches on the kind of government brought in by Jason Kenney’s United Conservatives. Part two also contains plenty more about Lukaszuk’s lengthy political career, including the gift of hindsight and the parts of his tenure that he looks back on with want, or even regret.

The United Conservative government announced in February its plan to close 20 provincial parks and seek third-party management for 164 Crown sites, and the public was furious.

Then COVID-19 hit.

With all that has occurred in 2020 to date, it’s easy to understate the importance (and danger) of this decision, as what is already a vastly under-protected environment is opened up to the possibility of exploitation for profit. But a 57,000-signature petition urging the reversal of the UCP’s decision suggests plenty of Albertans are fighting for parks, and with the pandemic highlighting our need to preserve nature, this is a story that deserves more of our focus.

Grace Wark is a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, a Calgary-based, non-partisan, non-profit group devoted to promoting community care of wildlife and wilderness. She joins The Forgotten Corner this week to offer expertise into the impact that park closures of this magnitude will have.

In an environmentally essential episode, we dissect the UCP’s shortsighted decision and discuss some of the various for-profit results that could emerge at the literal expense of Albertans and the wilderness surrounding them.

Follow Grace on Twitter at @WarkInProgress
Follow the Alberta Wilderness Association on Twitter at @ABWilderness

Read Grace’s op-ed in the Narwhal here.

Read more on the parks closures here:
https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/ucp-moves-forward-with-plans-to-delist-alberta-parks-as-government-commits-43-million-to-improve-existing-sites/wcm/2c11bb0f-6d8a-4c6c-ad0b-19bfbab253d7/amp/

https://globalnews.ca/news/6899395/alberta-government-parks-partnership-rules/amp/

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5484095

Medicine Hat is in the midst of a suicide epidemic. Around 10 young men have taken their lives since June, compared to two who have died from COVID since March. What causes someone to lose hope to the extent that they consider ending their lives? 

We brought in a panel of people from the same demographic as the suicide victims to discuss their own brushes with mental health and addiction, breaking a code of silence surrounding suicidal ideation, especially among young men. 

Hatters Ryan Oscar, Damyan Davis and Rick Armstrong join us to open up about their personal struggles in an effort to show those who are currently struggling that they are not alone. It is only through frank discussion of the issue at hand that we can even begin to address this crisis. 

If you are in the depths of depression and are looking for someone to listen who has experienced what you're going through, you can reach Ryan at rkroscar@gmail.com, Damyan at damyandavis@gmail.com or Rick at rickarmstrong1@gmail.com. 

Help is also available 24-7 through Alberta's Mental Health Help Line, which can be reached toll free at 1-877-303-2642. 

Life, death and being a man in Medicine Hat 

If the United Conservative government in Alberta is hell bent on picking fights with the province’s workforce, the Alberta Federation of Labour says, “Bring it on.”

Premier Jason Kenney knows the labour movement is the biggest threat his government faces in its pursuit of a more private, less public Alberta where corporations are freer than ever to continue their decades-long exploitation of the province’s people and its resources. That’s why the UCP has taken aim at organized labour on multiple occasions — workers have power.

The Forgotten Corner welcomes AFL president Gil McGowan to the show this week for a spirited conversation about what the province’s workforce faces from its own government in the coming months and years. Gil is a born-and-raised Albertan who caught the bug for journalism in his youth but was quickly scooped up by the labour movement, and is now in his eighth elected term at the helm of the province’s labour umbrella.

Nearly 16 years and seven premiers later, Gil and the AFL face their biggest challenge yet, all while the government they face is writing laws to weaken their resolve. But if Kenney wants a fight, Gil says he’s got one.

Follow Gil on Twitter at @gilmcgowan

Alberta Federation of Labour:
https://www.afl.org/

Read about the AFL resistance:
https://www.kenneyscuts.ca/

For the past five years, Calgary-based Support Our Students has been a vocal advocate for strong, universal public education system from the perspective of Alberta’s youth. Barb Silva, who has handled the non-partisan group’s communications during that time, has made a name as the outspoken public voice of SOS, drawing attention from politicians and private citizens as a no-holds-barred, no-nonsense representative.

The Forgotten Corner welcomes Barb to the show this week to discuss the United Conservative’s so-called plan for a safe return to schools, which will occur province-wide on Aug. 31. Barb takes listeners through her life growing up in Canada with her father, a political refugee of Augusto Pinochet’s Chile, and her personal journey through becoming an engineer, then teacher, then mother of three, before taking aim at the current provincial government and the Alberta Teachers Association regarding their lacklustre efforts for the betterment of the province’s education system, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Barb is leaving Alberta with her family for personal reasons, but as one of her final acts as a member of SOS, she lays out exactly how she feels about the upcoming return to school and the plan(s) in place to ensure safety for all. Join us for one of our more passionate conversations to date, especially if you or someone you know has kids heading back to school next week.

Follow Barb on Twitter:

@thatSilvaLining

Learn more about Support Our Students:

https://www.supportourstudents.ca/

Read the UCP’s ‘plan’ for a safe return to school here:

https://www.alberta.ca/k-to-12-school-re-entry-2020-21-school-year.aspx

For all its promises of the good ol’ days, the United Conservatives’ handling of Alberta’s oil industry has been one of its most prominent failures to date… and there have been plenty.

Longtime journalist Markham Hislop has been exclusively covering the energy industry long enough that, although hesitant to admit it, he’s become an expert in the field. Most notably, Markham has focused his efforts on the coming (and already here) transition away from fossil fuels, clean energy, technology and just a little bit of politics.

As the publisher and No. 1 contributor to Energi Media, Markham has dedicated his career to properly educating the public — and politicians — on the energy industry and the challenges it faces. Markham joins The Forgotten Corner this week to discuss how he came to run an Alberta energy-centric media outlet from Vancouver Island, his recently drafted Energy Declaration and why he thinks you need to sign it, and, of course, some of the ways in which the Alberta government is blowing a crucial opportunity at a crucial time.

Follow Markham on Twitter at @politicalham

Read Markham’s work at Energi Media here:
https://energi.media/

Read the Energy Declaration here:
https://energi.media/the-energi-declaration/