Above is a little peak at what the Molson Canadian House has to offer!

The Molson Canadian House is a great venue to visit. Located at Concord Place near Quebec House, Ontario Pavillion and Saskatchewan House.
Molson has put together quite an experience for the 2010 Olympics. Last night Tom Cochrane rocked the house and a special guest appearance from Donald Sutherland were some great highlights!

Things to note about the house

Fanzone Entry – $100.00
VIP Entry – $450.00 and up (depending on day)

Beers are $7.50 CND
Hard Liquor $10.00  CND

Cash or Visa only!

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Today is the last day of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay.

I had the pleasure seeing the torch up close and being passed on right in front of me, along side so many Vancouverites and Olympic fans..

“The Olympic Flame has a sacred history and symbolizes the principles of peace, brotherhood and friendship,” notes VANOC (the Vancouver Olympics Committee), and is “a 45,000 kilometre journey across Canada that will unify the country and build excitement for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.”

According to VANOC, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics torch relay is “the longest in history to be contained within the Host Country.”

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Torch Relay Statistics

Some interesting statistics, provided by VANOC in a media kit released in October, 2010.

• 106 days long (October 30, 2009 – February 12, 2010)
• 187 community celebrations
• 1020 communities and places of interest, including
  • 115 Aboriginal communities
  • 20 places of interest
  • 14 Canadian Forces Bases and Canadian Forces Stations
• 90% of Canada’s 32 million population (about 29 million) will be within one hour’s drive of the relay route
• 12,000 – number of torchbearers
• 45,000 – total kilometres traveled across the country
  • 18,000 – total kilometres by air
  • 1,000 – total kilometres by water
  • 26,000 – total kilometres by land
  • 100 – approximate number of different modes of transportation used along the way

The sheer length of the relay within the host country (with no international legs included) is what has distinguished it from previous Olympic torch relays.

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We had the chance to take a sneak peak inside the Molson Canadian House.
For more information on the Molson Canadian Hockey House check out our earlier post

This place looks like it’s going to be rocking until the wee hours of the morning!

Passes are need to enter into the venue. FANZONE passes are now sold out and some can be found on Vancouver Craiglist.
VIP passes are still available by calling 1 866 523 8959

This morning I had a chance to be one of the first to ride the new Zipline that goes over Robson Street.

Needless to say, it was amazing!

Thanks to ZipTrek EcoTours for putting this on. It opens to the general public FOR FREE on Friday, February 12th. You can watch people ride it on their webcam.

Update: I’ve added another video I shot as well as some photos from the Zipline

So. Much. Fun!

A few of us went to the Opening of CODE Live in Vancouver, last Thursday evening…

We had a chance to explore both the Emily Carr and the Great Northern Way CODE locations.. Emily Carr was a bit more casual, with a video installation, digitalized clothing and fashion art. I hung out with mostly with Mariska, Dave Olson and Bev Davies (Respected Old Skool Punk Photographer)… We had some of the food and met with other social media friends before we made our way to the CODE 1 location..

At 8pm we went to the Great Northern Way Campus for the Opening of CODE 1.

At 7.50$ a beer/wine, it’s not really a cheap venue to go party, but I must say it is worth the detour to have a look at the various installations..

My favourite GNW CODE Installations:

Condemned Bulbes

the ReacTable

the Paparazzi Bots…

near the bar…

old skool ghetto-blasters

and the container outside…

Also, check out kk’s post on CODE, he know’s a thing or two about the project since he is working with them in some capacity…

Here’s the list of Installations featured at each venue:

Great Northern Way Campus: Centre for Digital Media >>weblink>>

Dune 4.0: Studio Roosegaarde (Netherlands)
Artificial Moon: Wang Yuyang, curated by Li Zhenhua (China)
Where are you?: Luc Courschene (Canada)
787 Cliparts: Oliver Laric (Austria)
Vested: Don Ritter (Canada)
Cambridge Bay: A Time and a Place: Souns featuring Tanya Tagaq (Canada)
We are Stardust: George Legrady (Canada)
Paparazzi Bots: Ken Rinaldo (USA)
Condemned Bulbes: Artificiel (Canada)
ECO ART: World Without Water: Tahir Mahmood, co presentation with the Canadian Film Centre (Canada)
Greenhouse: Brendan Wypich, co presentation with the Canadian Film Centre (Canada)
Akoumasflore: Scenoscome, co presentation with the Canadian Film Centre (France)
Seed: Napoleon Brosseau and Gabe Sahwney
Mondo Spider: Zero Emissions: eatART (Canada)
mo_ving: Raquel Kogan, curated by Claudio Rivera-Seguel (Brazil/Chile)
Breaking the Ice: Societé des arts technologiques (Canada)
Reactable: Sergi Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger and Marcos Alonso (Austria/Spain)
Instant Places: Canada CODE: Ian Birse, Laura Kavanaugh (Canada)
PLAY: The Hertzian Collective: Geoffrey Shea (Canada)
Analogue Nostalgia Presents / présente – Foreign Voices, Common Stories (Ghettoblaster): James Phillips (Canada)

CODE Lounge: Featuring works by Organelle and Shea Allan-McCachen

EmilyCarr University of Art and Design >>weblink>>

The Paradise Institute: Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller (Canada)
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada
Electromode / Peau d’Ane : Valerie Lamontagne (Canada)
Skorpions and Captain Electric : Joanna Berzowska, XS Labs (Canada)
Walking City and Living Pod : Ying Gao (Canada)
Company Keeper and Emotional Ties : Sara Diamond (Canada)
Blue Code, Jacket Antics and Tornado Dress (Barbara Layne, Studio subTela: Canada)
Electric Skin and Barking Mad L Suzi Webster with Jordan Benwick (Canada)
Tendrils : Thecla Schiphorst (Canada)
*glisten)HIVE: Julie Andreyev (Canada)
CODE.lab: M. Simon Levin and Jer Thorp with Emily Carr Students and Faculty (Canada)
Song of Solomon: Julian Jonker and Ralph Borland (South Africa)
Odd Spaces: Faisal Anwar (Canada / Pakistan)
CODE Dialogues: Co presented with Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Canada)

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This morning we went to the BCMC (British Columbia Media Centre) where Premier Campbell and Minister of State for the Olympics Mary McNeil greeted the media and gave us a brief intro of the BC International Media Centre’s features.

(Why is Gordon wearing his HBC Olympic Red Mittens indoors and trying to use the touch screen with them on? Je ne sais pas!)

After, Premier Campbell and five-time Olympian Charmaine Crooks will demonstrate one of the exciting activities open to the public during the 2010 Winter Games and ride the new 170-metre-long zipline across Robson Square…

For a complete list of things to-do during the 2010 Winter Games, check out our “free event guide“…

We managed to take several pictures, and I got to play with my new Canon 7D.. Which now allows me do do video.. So I recorded the Premier Campbell conference after he zipline over Robson Square.

Where is this?

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Today Premier Campbell had the exciting chance to be one of the first people to try out the zip-line in Robson Square.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to fly across Robson Square in downtown Vancouver.

The Zip Line will be available to the public starting February 12 2010 at 10am everyday for 17 days!
Get there early or be prepared to wait in line. As this is a very popular activity during the 2010 Olympics.

It’s apparent by the way we speak about the Games that we are passionate about the Olympics. We love to create fan stories and talk about the culture behind these amazing international events..

As individuals we have had the honour to attend, cover and enjoy several Olympic games.

In 2006, Kris and I where part of a delegation of Vancouver companies that attended the games in Torino, Italy. Accredited by the Piedmonte Media Centre, we generated fan stories, using YouTube and other web tools to share our experiences. We tested a new video streaming device built by iMate (JazJar), running on a software created by ComVue. We also held a symposium on Social Media and the Olympics at the BC Canada House.

This first hand experience helped us create our strategy for 2008 where we attended the games in Beijing, China. Again, we covered fan and cultural stories and took part in an academic symposium on Olympic research. Some of our social media coverage gain popularity and was distributed by the BBC, the LA Time and various other media outlets.

Before our adventures in Torino and Beijing, our multi-talented friend Dave Olson attended the games in Salt Lake City and was living in Nagano before the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Over the past few years, as a group, we have spoken at various conferences and events about the impact of citizen journalism, social media and the internet on the various Olympics, IOC and “ANY”OC brands. We sent VANOC several letters over the past 18 months requesting to meet with them, and have a discussion about this change in culture… Without any replies.

Andrew Lavigne, a filmaker has been working on a project called “With Glowing Hearts” a documentary film about the use of social media and the upcoming 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver..

In this webisode, Kris, Dave and Rebecca speak about an ad-hoc project we have been tinkering with since November 2008, it’s called the True North Media House.

“The True North Media House project aims to inspire social media creation and educate about best practices for sharing content with audience. We’ll do this through a variety of meet-ups, photo walks, field trips, and outings with international media makers and aggregating Olympic culture-related content licensed with a Creative Commons license.”

If you would like to register with the True North project, it’s simple.. just fill up our online application.

To find out more about Andre and his project, follow him on Twitter…