Perspective - Summer 2011

or some reason, I am thinking a lot about lists these days. Checklists, to-do lists, top five lists, award lists, etc. It seems that even though our lives are dictated so heavily by technology (smart phones, iPads, BBM, Twitter and Facebook), we don’t seem to be able to get away from having that handy piece of paper on our desks with the inevitable list of things that have to be done—hopefully on time. That being said, I am going to give you a list of five things that I have been thinking about lately.

1. Izzy Idonije–Our cover photo of Izzy says a lot about him. It is sort of that ‘I am going to come and get you (my opponents on the field) and get to your quarterback.’ It also says, ‘I am really happy with my life and my work, helping those who need a leg up. I am going to use my platform as a top-tier NFL player to help create awareness and create a positive impact directly with kids who not only need this, but more than deserve it.’

I know that this is reading a lot into a photo, but if you have had the pleasure of meeting Izzy (and if you haven’t, you can get introduced to him at winnipegmen.com), you will know that he is one of those people who is just pure quality. He perseveres, continually learns and gives back A LOT to the kids involved in the Israel Idonije Foundation (israelidonije.org). He is a true ambassador to our province and we are grateful that Izzy continues to come back home a few times a year to visit family and give back to our local community. His community efforts were also acknowledged by his peers in the NFL by being named a finalist in the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Although he was not named the award winner on Super Bowl Sunday, in our hearts back in Manitoba he already had won many times over.

It was a true pleasure for us to be involved in the Pan Am Clinic Foundation Fire and Ice Gala recently. Izzy’s presence helped to attract a sold-out crowd for the event, with the purpose of raising funds for the foundation to continue its research into musculoskeletal conditions and new treatments that get affected people back into a normal life routine faster.

2. Pursuit–For the sixth year in a row, we are hosting our Pursuit driving event. What has quickly become one of our most popular events, we have a very special event planned this year for the Saturday night. We will be heading up to the Interlake and Clear Lake area—so make sure you get your entries in by visiting us at winnipegmen.com. It is a weekend to get to know great people and drive amazing cars, but don’t forget, you also have a job to do, which is to give us the feedback that will help create our article each year, so it is not all fun and games!

3. The ‘Peg This Week–In today’s fast-paced world, it is often difficult for the media to have the chance to really break down the stories that affect us locally. Social media, the Internet and the general pace of life only stokes this fire of quick headlines and short stories. For some time, I have wanted to be able to get insight and opinion that is drilled down and looked at from all sides. With that in mind, we have developed a new program created by a mutually beneficial partnership between Shaw and iTVWinnipeg.com. Called The ‘Peg This Week, the show will be hosted by longtime media personality Jon Ljungberg. The regular half-hour Sunday morning show will be a panel discussion including topic experts, other media, our politicians and others who will provide you with information and intelligent opinion more in-depth than what you can catch during the week’s headlines. You will be able to watch the program on Sundays on Shaw at 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and throughout the day. In the event that you miss the program on Sunday or hear about it around the water cooler on Monday and want to catch it, you will be able to see every episode on iTVWinnipeg.com. You can also join the conversation with us on facebook.com/thepegthisweek.

4. Winnipeg’s Hottest Men–I had an interesting conversation with one of Winnipeg’s most vibrant radio personalities, Ace Burpee, one day when I ran into him at Starbucks. The conversation went sort of like this: “Hey Glenn, love your magazines, but how come you have a special issue for Winnipeg’s Most Beautiful Women and not one for men who qualify for doing amazing things?” “Good question, Ace; why don’t we do one together with Hot 103 and Winnipeg Men magazine?” “Awesome! Let’s do it.” That was it, and here we go. We get such great feedback from our Winnipeg’s Most Beautiful Women issue and gala event, that we want to extend it to you guys. We all know someone who is amazing, lies under the radar and quietly impacts people in positive ways, or even those guys who just always look great, are happy and make everyone around them feel better. There are no requirements, categories or criteria—we just want to help celebrate the great men we have in our community and we need your help. Visit HOT103live.com or winnipegmen.com to send us your nominee’s story. A panel of judges will choose our ‘finalists’ and we will showcase them in our summer issue—out this June. You will also hear their stories with Ace on Hot 103.

5. Young Entrepreneurs–For some time, I have been telling as many people as I can about my thoughts on the future leaders in our community. There is a sense of positive energy out there that makes me believe we are in good shape. There is an under-35 group of men and women who are poised to step into the influential leadership roles in our community. Two groups in particular that come to mind are the Young Associates and the Sons of Italy. Both of these groups are made up of a young group of men and women who impact businesses, community initiatives and are fantastic networks of individuals. I am continually impressed with what they do.

On an individual level, one of these young entrepreneurs who has quickly established himself in our community is Brian Lowes at Mercedes-Benz Winnipeg. As someone who fits into that under-35 group, Brian moved here from Edmonton only a few years ago to take on his role as president and GM of the local Mercedes dealership, changed the atmosphere at the store and got involved in the community. His success has not gone unnoticed by Mercedes-Benz at the corporate level and they recently awarded Brian and his team with the 2010 Star Dealer Award. This is not something that is given out easily. There are a maximum of five awarded in a year, with competition from much larger stores around the country, and are personally chosen by the president of Mercedes-Benz Canada. Brian deserves the accolades and he has been a great addition to our community. When I add Brian to the list of other amazing young men and women we have here, and who are choosing to stay here, I have a feeling we are in for a good run into the future.

Enjoy this packed issue of information, trends, tips and stories. This is by far our largest spring issue we have ever done and I have to give thanks to all of our advertising partners and of course you, our readers, for your positive comments about the magazine, story ideas and support. There is only more to come.

We hope you noticed our cover is done in Chicago Bears’ and University of Manitoba Bisons colors in honour of Izzy.

For those of you who are thumbing through the pages looking for our annual Pursuit Test Drive event with readers, I apologize. This year’s event was postponed to the fall. I don’t want to blame the flood for everything, but we did have a route chosen, rooms booked, and arrangements made to drive up towards Manitoba Narrows and over to Clear Lake. With roads being closed and flooding happening in the area, we decided that we should change plans. Unfortunately, the time constraints did not allow us to make all of the arrangements needed, so we decided to move it to the fall. This means that you now have time to get your name in the hat for a spot on this annual event. People continue to ask how they get on the list. It is really simple—visit winnipegmen.com and click on the contest link to send your information to us. We have some very cool new models that we are setting up for the fall event, so you won’t want to miss your chance.

Although I want summer to last a long time, I am quite excited about the return of the NHL this fall. We were really excited to be part of the announcement directly when we live streamed online it in partnership with CJOB. Almost 27,000 people logged in to watch the announcement live on our feed via iTVWinnipeg.com and we also put the live streaming feed onto the digital billboard at Portage and Main where I got reports of 2,000 people watching it. If you want to relive the day, you can go to the website and watch it all over again. On the same day, I was also interviewed by a sports show on Sirius radio called Journeys Into Hockey. The interview was meant to be about the best-selling book we published—The Winnipeg Jets—but ended up being about the return of the NHL to our great city. You can listen to the interview on our winnipegmen.com website. It was quite a day that I will not soon forget because it will always be a neat story to tell when people ask “Where were you when the return of the NHL team got announced?”

 

I have to give kudos go to the entire team at True North for the way that they so professionally went about making this happen. Based on the way that the Manitoba Moose were operated, I think it is safe to say that the NHL will be at least as successful here in The ‘Peg. It will be great to have a generation of kids—mine included—cheering for a home team. The only trouble I have is switching my six-year-old from cheering for the Blackhawks, because of past cover model of Winnipeg Men Magazine Jonathan Toews, to our own team. Might I be so bold as to suggest that maybe Mr. Toews would look good playing in a Winnipeg uniform? No matter what, it will be an exciting time.

Thanks for your continued positive comments about the magazine. I never get tired of hearing how much you like what you read and with some planned changes coming for fall, I think you will like it even more.

Have a great summer Winnipeg Men readers.

Glenn Tinley