Last Thursday, Mia was invited to a speak at Ad Lounge’s Conversuation, held at Toronto’s Arts & Letters Club. Set up as an intimate fireside chat — chesterfield, faux fire and marshmallows included —  the event gathered Canada’s communications leaders to discuss the topic of culture and what it means in our industry today.

Mia presented alongside two other “storytellers”, each of whom had 20 minutes to share their opinions and anecdotes on the culture of advertising, social media and PR —  Jeff Swystun, chief communications officer, DDB World Wide and Greg Hounslow, emerging media advisor, WestJet.

Mia shared her perspectives on how the industry can only benefit from risk and that we need more of it in order to spark innovation and growth.  In addition to sharing her personal story as an entrepreneur and co-founder of High Road, she talked about how to grow a unified corporate culture, foster an environment of innovation and empower the entire organization to take strategic risks. Her outlook on the benefits of risk was echoed by the fellow speakers and the audience.

To showcase how risk plays a pivotal role in cultivating innovation, Mia referenced the following quote from Bill Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft :

“The most dangerous way of all to play is so-called safe. Safe leads to atrophy and certain death—of spirit, culture, and enterprise. There is not a single institution of merit or worthy of respect in our society that was not created out of risk. Risk is not only not to be avoided, it is to be embraced—for survival.” - Bill Buxton, Microsoft.

The message was loud and clear amongst our industry colleagues; at HRC we don’t take the safe and familiar road. Show us the risks and we’ll find the innovation.

Thanks to Trina at Ad Lounge for the use of the photos.

High Road’s Toronto office had a few celebrity sightings on Friday as the office geared up for Halloween.

Elin Nordegren (formerly Woods),  MC Hammer, and Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton all made appearances, complete with a few performances. Check out Kenny and Dolly’s award-winning duet–they took home first prize for Best Presentation.

 In Mia’s most recent column, she reflects on the number of municipal elections that wrapped up last week and discusses how, no matter the size of your business, there are definite lessons to be learned from the various political campaigns and the way they used social media.

 She shares and expands on eight key lessons:

1. Be there
2. Strategy before tactics
3. Integrate digital and traditional communications
4. Pay attention
5. Target your efforts
6. Put the social in social media
7. Spend wisely
8. Don’t abandon your networks

 Mia writes: “Over the past few years, social media has had a transformative effect on politics, journalism, marketing and advertising, and public relations. No matter what your industry is, or the size of your business, you should be eager to harness the power of social networking to broaden your reach and thoughtfully engage with your audience. Chatter is happening online about your company and clients whether you participate or not, but by following these eight rules, you can become a valuable part of that conversation.”

Check out Mia’s column every Thursday in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.