Hundreds of people lined up to check out the grand opening of the first international Microsoft Retail Store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre on November 16^th, the first retail hub outside of the United States.

Consumers, customers and Microsoft partners were excited to watch as the curtain dropped and the store doors officially opened in Canada – and High Road was thrilled to work with Microsoft to make it happen.

In advance of the grand opening, over twenty Canadian media were invited to the store for a sneak peek and had the opportunity to play with the latest products including, the coveted Surface tablet and the new Windows Phone 8.  The Microsoft Store manager, Alison Evans, and Microsoft’s Eastern U.S. marketing manager, Pete Harrington, were on hand to talk to media about Microsoft’s store strategy and what consumers can expect from the store.

On November 16^th, Toronto’s top broadcast stations were onsite to capture the excitement of the day.

The result? Tons of buzz both online and offline with attention from top tier outlets including Global News, CTV.ca and the Globe and Mail.  Not to mention, media and consumers were thrilled for the chance to chat with Microsoft Canada’s president, Max Long about the new store opening.

To kick things up another notch, Microsoft celebrated the grand opening with Wayne Gretzky and the band Train who were onsite during opening weekend to celebrate with consumers.  Gretzky was at the store playing Kinect with a few lucky consumers, and Train held a private concert on November 17^th outside of the Yorkdale mall.

Overall, the store opening was a huge success and Torontonians are delighted to have a Microsoft Store close to home.  Check out what people had to say:

Folks traveling domestic through the Toronto Pearson International Airport were delighted by an extra special bit of holiday spirit in December: they got the chance to strike a pose with a Holiday Elf at the Windows Picture Perfect Holiday area in terminals one and three.

High Road Communications worked with Microsoft Canada’s Windows integrated agency team to support the launch of the year-end holiday campaign.  The experience included a great photo moment, as well as the chance to edit the photo on site with Photo Fuse, then immediately store and share them with family and friends via SkyDrive and Windows Live.

The message shared with travellers?

Great technology helps families stay connected through the holidays – and that starts with a Windows 7 PC.

Long gone are the days when an office consisted of fixed real estate, a desk (and a desktop), boardrooms and cubicles. The new office reality of the 21^st century includes coffee shops, bedrooms, airport lounges…even taxis! Developments in technology are enabling an agile, flexible and connected workforce irrespective of a shared office space.  Today’s worker can remain productive and make fruitful contributions to any organization no matter where in the world they may be.

On Tuesday June 28^th, High Road worked with Microsoft Canada to host the launch of Office 365, a cloud productivity service targeted to small and medium sized businesses, at Atelier Café in downtown Toronto.  The upscale coffee shop provided the ideal backdrop for the event, representing the ever-expanding definition of “the office.” With Office 365, popular staples like Microsoft Word and Excel are now available as a cloud-based service. Because the software is accessed through the Internet – the “cloud” – and is stored on Microsoft’s computer servers, rather than a company’s own servers, it allows businesses to use popular programs and access files from just about anywhere. The service also brings incredible cost-savings, allowing businesses to follow a pay-as-you-go rent model rather than investing in expensive IT infrastructure.

To celebrate the arrival of Office 365 along with the successes of local businesses, High Road invited media to demo the service, interact with an expert panel of customers and enjoy 1:1 interviews following the event. With top tier media in attendance, the event showcased the voices of Canadian SMB beta users along with Bell Canada and Microsoft President Eric Gales to demonstrate the value Office 365 brings to the market.  The event was complemented by valuable research commissioned by Microsoft Canada which examined Canadian SMBs’ attitudes towards growth, technology and cloud adoption.

The end result? Widespread coverage in both national newspapers and industry trade magazines promoting cloud adoption, along with tremendous exposure for the local businesses involved.

There’s no doubt about it: High Road is on “cloud 9”!