What do you get when you mix storm troopers, top NHL talent Steven Stamkos and Jeremy Roenick and the hottest yet-to-be released video games?

An unforgettable media showcase that only Xbox can deliver!

This year, Xbox Canada took its holiday preview event to a whole new level. With more titles than ever before, the annual event drew an impressive 200 media and influencers to the trendy Muzik Nightclub in downtown Toronto. Those in attendance included top outlets like CTV, Canadian Press, Canadian Living, Huffington Post, Maxim Canada, TSN, Toronto Star, Sun Media, MTV, MuchMusic, SPACE and Electric Playground — just to name a few!

Food and drinks were flowing as the most anticipated titles were on display for some serious gameplay action, including hot new racing title Forza Motorsport 4 and the latest instalment from Epic Games, Gears of War 3.

Though, it wasn’t all fun and games lounging on a couch. Attendees also had the chance to get up and show off their Kinect skills. Whether they were bustin’ a move with Dance Central 2, toning up on Your Shape 2 or channelling their inner athlete on Kinect Sports: Season Two, there was never a dull moment!

Want to see for yourself? Catch all the action with this video from Sway Magazine’s Paul Rubio!

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”!

A Microsoft Canada survey conducted by Harris/Decima recently revealed that a large majority of Canadians believe business leaders need to take more intelligent risks, and Microsoft Canada President Eric Gales has made it his mission to engage Canada’s future and current business leaders and address this important trend.

The January 2011 survey polled senior and junior/mid-level Canadian and U.S. office workers to better understand their views about technology and innovation in the workplace. The results were clear: 84 per cent of Canadians believe business leaders need to take more risks to create innovation, while only 53 per cent of Canadians feel the company they work for is already driving innovation.

This is a topic Mr. Gales is very passionate about.

“Canadian business leaders must embrace an appetite for intelligent risk instead of shying away from it to stay within the comfort of status quo,” he says. “Now is the time to create organizational cultures where risk is not a dirty four-letter word, but is encouraged as a valuable ingredient in fueling learning, creativity and inspiring innovation.”

Starting with an event at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, about two dozen students joined Eric Gales and DeGroote’s Dr. Benson Honig to discuss risk-taking in business. 

The McMaster MBA students certainly had something to say about the state of Canada’s innovation and how risk plays a role. Check it out:

On March 31^st, Microsoft Canada then hosted a media event where Mr. Gales, Peter Aceto, President and CEO of ING Direct Canada, and Dr. Honig, participated in a panel on the very same topic.

The lively exchange, which received coverage in the Financial Post, IT World Canada and IT Business, inspired all of us to take intelligent risks in both our personal and professional lives, but also encouraged Canada’s business leaders to lead the path by creating organizational cultures that encourage teams to take a chance on a great idea.