So today is an absolutely beautiful morning here in downtown Toronto.  The sun is shining - but not too much, and the temperature is warm - though not too hot.  Watching all the people slowly walk on by in Leslieville it’s really easy to want to take it easy, especially in light of all the other summer distractions that are available.  However, summer also provides a great opportunity during these slow times for entrepreneurs to catch up on working on the extras in your business.  Typically for most businesses summer is a bit of a slower time as many people are away on vacations or taking it easy in other ways.  Summer though is a great time though to work on the little extras that will make your business thrive.  Take advantage of these slower times to update your contact lists - specifically check in with them and see how they are doing.  Also this is a good time to review your business plan’s marketing and operations section.  It’s a bit like walking down memory lane to see where you thought your business was heading and seeing how things actually played out.  Maybe there are some great ideas in there waiting to be implemented that you have put aside for lack of time.  If so, take this slow period to have fun and get creative.

Martin Cleaver has complied a great little listing of what’s going on where.

 Saw british phenom Adele live in concert at the Rivoli where she promptly broke my heart with an accustic version of Make You Feel My Love.  The concert itself was a bit too short for my taste, but no complaints were heard from the crowd leaving because every minute that she did perform was fantastic.  With her cute banter between songs she seems like someone you want to have a pint with or keep her in a little box where you take her out sometimes and hug and pinch her cheeks.  I know.  I am a bit weird.

And for one day of the year, most of the population of beer drinkers around the world have at least one pint of it. 

I can only imagine what their corporate offices look like today.  It must be like Christmas morning with everyone waiting at their desks for all the final numbers to come in.

Its an image that is as olde school as they get - the State Farm Insurance logo.  Whithout doing an official poll, I feel comfortable in saying/concluding  that it is one of the un-sexiest logos out there.  Their new marketing campaign, which you may have seen in recent print publications is an evokative urban image of various situations.  The one I see most often, is a bike locked to one bike wheel hanging lonley at a downtown street corner.  The only text is that of nowwhat.ca

I love that this new campaign of State Farm attempts to connect to a new audience that are not so interested in insuring the family car and adding new drivers.  But instead are looking for insurance for their laptop while on the go as well as learning the insides and outs of content insurance when you are renting.

I hope you all can make it down tonight to The Rivoli on Queen West tonight for cocktails and scarcastic commentary.

The festivities start at 7pm. I especially hope that some of the wonderful people at Podcamp Toronto 2008 where I’ve spent my weekend make it down as well. For further info email me

More to come about Podcamp Toronto tomorrow.