There are traditions and then there are traditions. While attending the Blue Jays home opener is one of the many extra-curricular traditions of High Road’s Toronto office, there are inevitably the traditions that come with the game itself. For example:

The Pregame. Some years you go to a pub and other years you just decided to start your own establishment in the office. That’s what happens when you have 50-plus people going to the game. Besides, the High Road food spread beats anything you’d get in a Skybox or whatever they’re called these days. And no line-up for the beer or the bathroom means more time for the former.

The Lost Tickets. Inevitably someone misplaces their tickets in the hours leading up to the game. This year it happened at 4: 28 p.m. and although those tickets are still missing, the people who lost them were at the game less than two hours later. How did we do it? It helps to know a guy who knows a guy who can call in a favour.

The Game. It always goes by in a blur. This year’s 13-3 thrashing of the Twins made it easy to make time for some serious team building. For example, it was great to see so many people offer to go to the vodka bar on the 200 level to support the colleague who has a wheat allergy and can’t drink beer.  Such sacrifice.

The Post-Game. As much as we love hanging out in our office, it was time to take over a real pub after finishing off the Twins. The best part of the post-game is everyone who turns up – clients who are out on the town, some favourite journalists, and more High Roaders. This is where all the stories of the evening get shared and compared between friends and the planning for next year’s Jays game begins.

Three words about home opener 2012: Office rooftop patio.

Last month, High Road was proud to attend the unveiling of The Ottawa Hospital’s brand new website.

The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) worked with High Road to enhance the way it digitally supports its patients and community. The Hospital’s vision is to “provide world-class care, exceptional service and compassion we would want for our loved ones”, and High Road’s innovative and personalized approach to online communications helped bring this vision to life.

The hospital has three campuses in Ottawa serving 1.2 million Ontario residents. Although the name implies a local hospital, TOH reaches more than just the Ottawa community, with 1,172 beds, a research institute, a foundation and more than 26 departments, including a renowned Cancer Program.

This was a challenging, but incredibly important project for us.

High Road’s objective: to create a seamless, integrated online experience for a diverse number of audiences. The result: a website that connects The Ottawa Hospital brand with patients and its partners at the Research Institute and The Foundation, as well as the more than 26 departments, programs, services and clinics.

From the beginning of the project, TOH’s vision guided High Road’s research into the field of patient care, healthcare and overall communications in this sector. We met with a diverse range of stakeholders, both internal and external, ranging from physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, to patients, volunteers, and other supporters. These conversations helped our team understand what everyone needed the website to provide: adequate and engaging resources as well as support.

A best-practices review of leading hospital web sites and social media properties also helped us set strategic priorities to promote awareness and support for the hospital’s new vision, and raise the overall profile of its clinical departments and programs.

The hospital’s website, www.ottawahospital.on.ca, is now very welcoming and designed to meet both of the patients’ and visitors’ needs.

Here is a quick snapshot of some of the new features:

• The website is fully accessible and enriched with well-organized information;
• Interactive campus maps are used to profile directions, parking and overall accessibility;
• Visitors can now connect with appropriate departments seamlessly via a searchable directory;
• Family physicians, healthcare specialists and visitors can browse TOH’s physician directory to direct their questions accordingly;
• Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been introduced, allowing TOH to stay connected to the healthcare community and offer up news updates and announcements to the public.

We worked very closely with TOH’s internal technical team and their partners to integrate the design and site structure into a new content management system (CMS) that now allows TOH to manage online communications effectively across all departments.

Congratulations to The Ottawa Hospital for having launched such a demanding project.

The final product looks great (and we are excited to see it evolve over time)!

The leading convicts from Death Race 2, Tanit Phoenix and Luke Goss, recently came to Toronto to promote the DVD and Blu-Ray release of their explosive new film from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and High Road was along for the ride.

After a full-day of media interviews at the Thompson Hotel, hundreds of fans of this cult series joined the cast at the ScotiaBank Theatre for an exclusive screening and Q&A.

Following the screening, Toronto media and influencers were blown away by a VIP party held at Tattoo Rock Parlour featuring a performance by the Trews. Party-goers had the chance to mingle with the cast and to get a free (real) tattoo, courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Here’s a synopsis for Death Race 2:

In the world’s most dangerous prison, a new game is born: Death Race.  The rules of this adrenaline-fueled blood sport are simple, drive — or die.  When repentant convict Carl Lucas (Luke Goss) discovers there’s a price on his head, his only hope is to survive a twisted race against an army of hardened criminals and tricked-out cars. Death Race 2 tells the explosive story of how the legendary race began.  Strap yourself in for an insane thrill-ride!