My work this week brought me to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. TED Conference begins Monday and with Steelcase as a leading sponsor (handling the attendee experience through space design), our video team was part of the pre event commotion covering the furniture install process.

We also scored an interview with Katherine McCarthney, the producer of TED who was just about as lovely as interviewees get. She’s talented and passionate and it shows.

Vancouver is a great city. In a country known for it’s hockey, maple syrup, Tim Hortons and poutine (a local dish of fries covered in gravy and cheese curds), you will find Vancouver located in the southwest side. Vancouver has landed on all sorts of lists in terms of great livability and quality of life and after my visit, I can see why.

While we spent most of our time at the Vancouver Convention Center (where TED Conference is held), we ventured twice into Gastown for dinner and drinks. Gastown is Vancouver’s original downtown where lies it’s very first saloon. If you make it that way, I would recommend both Chill Winston and Flying Pig where we dined two of the nights. 

Had our schedule allowed for just one more day of exploring, I would have liked to visit Capilano Suspension Bridge and take a sky tour of the city on one of the many water planes housed in the bay in front of the convention center; watching them take off and land was pretty neat.

While I’m exhausted from traveling, I’m increasingly invigorated by my work. Video as a medium is becoming less and less of a novelty and more and more of a necessity. And with the video department at Steelcase being a relatively new thing (and extremely small considering the size of our company) I’m excited about where this trend will lead not only my personal role, but also where it’s going to lead the greater team and Steelcase brand.

On the Kladder home front, Jeff has been working just as much as I have (it’s been a booming 2016 so far), we are damn thankful for a healthy kid who puts up with our random schedules. Jeff was able to take some time for himself scoring back to back guys weekend trips for skiing out west and heading up north for a cottage trip – a big thanks to the in-laws for loving on our Miss Natalie while we were away. From the photo updates we received, Nat doesn’t mind being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa one bit. 

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