Our Marketing Manager, Jeff Carter is this week’s guest blogger who shares a recent experience many of us here at MLSE were able to be apart of.

“On Friday, April 20^th, me and 230 of my colleagues set out to participate in the City of Toronto Corporate Clean Up. This is the third year in a row that I’ve participated in this event and I’m amazed by how much waste we’re able to collect off the streets in just 20 minutes every year.

This year, we not only collected waste from around Air Canada Centre, BMO Field, The Ricoh Coliseum and our broadcast studio on Lakeshore Blvd, we also pitched in to help keep two of our former MLSE Team Up Foundation refurbishment sites clean; David Crombie Park and Ramsden Park.

When all was said and done, we collected more than 150 bags of waste! To put that into perspective, we process half that amount in waste after an average Toronto Maple Leafs game at Air Canada Centre. An amazing effort from my co-workers; I’m very proud to say that I work for an organization that values giving back to the community like this.”

- Jeff Carter – Marketing Manager, MLSE

Check this fantastic video feature put together by our own Marketing team highlighting the event:

A couple months back Real Sports Executive Chef Tony Glitz got wind of a competition – Toronto’s first annual Wing Festival.  The event was organized to celebrate all of the delicious chicken wing options in the city of Toronto and crown one Chef the Wing King. Eagerly he signed up his brigade for the competition and quickly went to work preparing for the event.

With twelve different sauces on the menu it was a a challenge in its self to narrow it down to a short list of three for the competition.  After much debate (and several taste tests) Chef decided to bring to the competition the Bacon Maple Mustard, RP Lime & Salt and his famous Thai Sweet Chili wings.  To prepare Chef Tony used MLSE Full Time employees as his guinea pigs one afternoon where a toonie for Team Up Foundation got us a sampling of each of the three competition flavors.

On Friday April 20th Chef and his brigade loaded up their gear and over 200lbs of chicken wings.  His opposition was steep competing against some of Toronto’s tastiest: Sneaky Dee’s, The Pour House and Hard Rock Cafe.  None of them could match the size, flavor and presentation of Chef Tony’s wings!  Working around the room sampling each of the competitors wings it was clear where my vote would go.  After all the votes were counted and the judges discussed, Real Sports and Chef Tony took two outof three awards on the night – People Choice for Toronto’s Favorite Wing and Most Exotic Sauce (Bacon Maple Mustard).

One of our many talented Chefs at MLSE, Chef de cuisine at our restaurant e11even Graham Pelley, and I sat down today. I wanted to understand more about his passion and leadership he brings to our successful fine dining establishment’s kitchen. And more.

Graham participates in one of the Leadership Learning programs I facilitate at MLSE; I’ve been really impressed with the wisdom he shares with us in our discussions on Leadership.

I find out that Graham spent much of his youth on a family farm near Fergus, Ontario and through those years growing up on a fully working farm he came to appreciate the importance of the land, and sustainable food. In fact, he attributes these experiences to laying the foundation for who he is today both personally and professionally.

Graham got into music in high school, and pursued music endeavours both in school music programs and as a member of a punk-rock garage band. He was drummer. The band actually had an album released and toured in Ontario and Quebec. Graham later pursued a post-secondary education in Audio Engineering, continuing his passion.

In terms of bringing up his team at e11even, a group of talented and aspiring Chefs, Graham encourages them to be confident and push themselves to get to the next step like he learned and his mentor encouraged him to continue to do. He believes in humility though, and maintains that there is a fine line between the two.

Oh, and not unlike most of our employees, Graham gives back to our Community. His next community endeavour will be as a guest Chef at a charitable culinary event Festival of Chefs in May.

Thanks Graham, for the leadership and passion you and your team bring to the sumptious cuisine you create at e11even, your patrons, our community, and our Company.

~Debra

When you PVR a game on Leafs TV do you fast forward the intro and get right into the action? Not me. I think the intro is the best part. The distinctive voice of Paul Hendrick outlines the stories that are about to unfold and the flashy graphics and images get the viewers excited for the fast paced action they are about to watch. Well those flashy, graphics and electrifying images that ‘excite every fan’ are all designed by Yopie Hage and his team of talented designers/animators.

From an early age, Yopie has been focused on design and animation, originally dreaming of being a comic book artist. He’s taken his passion for art, added some formal training (Graphic Design program at Sheridan College) and years of hard work (8 at MLSE) to become the leader he is today (Senior Broadcast Designer). Yopie has tons of energy, he’s positive, he’s fun and when he speaks, he uses hand motions and even sound effects to describe his animations. After meeting with him and his team, I left with some extra pep in my step, so I can imagine how his team would be motivated after a project briefing or meeting with him.

Yopie Hage, Senior Broadcast Designer

Remember the first time the game score and time clock were super-imposed on the screen during the game? Yopie’s team designs those too.

It’s not just broadcast elements they design, but also all the images and animations presented on the various digital signage displays throughout our venues. Think about the many shapes and sizes: scoreboards, 360 ribbon boards, field boards, octo boards, ACC Gate 1 random shape board (not the technical term) and so on. The aspect ratios are all over the place. This variation in screen specifications presents a huge challenge to Yopie’s team as they work to display a message across such a wide variety of mediums.

His team needs to be proactive and think ahead when they begin building an animation “How will this animation transfer onto the 360 should the client request it?” The client; there’s another challenge for Yopie’s team as there are commonly several clients on a single project (ex: Marketing, Partnerships and of course the partner organization) all with their own ideas/vision.

Yopie has faced these challenges by emulating the work of one of his inspirations, Steve Jobs, whose success can arguably be attributed to his ability to design products whose greatest appeal was their sleek, elegant, streamlined, clean and functional interface design. Yopie has found a way to take any complex design/animation project and develop a sleek, elegant, streamlined, clean and easy to understand message that fits seamlessly across multiple mediums, while adhering to the instructions/guidance of several different clients. Impressive work.

Yopie is certainly dedicated to his team; instead of simply having his animators focus on projects aligned with their strengths; he allows them to work on different projects allowing them to grow/develop into well rounded designers. He channels his enthusiasm in order to motivate his team to push the boundaries and develop innovative ideas/techniques that are so commonly expected from MLSE.

Chyrons? Octos? Squeeze backs?

Clearly Yopie and his team speak a different language, but besides not understanding half of what he says, it was great getting to know Yopie, great to learn what makes him tick, what challenges his team and ultimately see what makes him a great leader at MLSE.

~Matt O’Brien, Manager Fan Loyalty

How many gallons of water would it take to fill Ricoh Coliseum? Well let’s see… if it takes 7, 851 fans to sell out the building, and Lake Ontario is just down the street, then… I don’t know what I’m taking about. But what I do know, is that Tanya Smither, Coordinator, Ricoh Coliseum/BMO Field Event Operations is the motor behind 3 grandfathered events: The Royal, The CNE and this week’s feature, The Toronto International Boat Show. A onetime part-time Event Supervisor with MLSE, Tanya has quickly matured into a fearless leader amongst her peers. Tanya was recently honoured as one of MLSE’s Stars of the Month (November 2011) for her relentless commitment and dedication to her craft.

Every event is different… make sure you’re proactive rather than reactive, and anticipate things before they happen. – Tanya Smither

Ricoh Coliseum is the world’s largest indoor lake! Coliseum… lake… not exactly synonymous with one another, but Tanya and her Operations team make the annual Boat Show a perennial success! Unlike the majority of events that pass through Ricoh Coliseum, The Boat Show runs for 10 days, not including the ever so important “load in” and “load out”. The transformation of rink to lake, and conversely lake back to rink, takes 1 week each just to set up! Suffice it to say, the event is an undertaking of considerable complexity…

Here are some cold hard facts for those wet behind the ears:

Liner is 250 feet long by 119 feet wide ♦ 12 Hours to fill man-made lake, 10 hours to drain it ♦ +65 Workers required to help convert rink into lake ♦ Water is 2ºC to 5ºC on average ♦ +500 Exhibitors at The Boat Show

Curious how they get the caramel inside the Caramilk bar (water into the Coliseum)? Watch Tanya’s explanation and takeaways below!

- Duke

Two of the most anticipated People Recognition events for our 2500+ Part-Time Operations & Event People at MLSE are the “Taste of the ACC” and “Part Time Skate.” This season we combined these events to one awesome evening of fun, food and recognition.

Traditionally the “Taste of the ACC” is an event held a few hours before a Sunday afternoon Raptors game where all of our Part-Time Operations & Event People are invited into the ACC to try some of the food we serve to our Fans and watch a “fashion show” of all of the great wears available to Fans at our kiosks on the concourse.  Many of our corporate partners come on board with the event supplying us with product samples.  Other kiosks are set up to try Burkie’s Dogs, chicken wings, popcorn and samples from Real Sports Bar & Grill and e11even Restaurant.  The “Part Time Skate” has been held on a non-event day where our People are given the opportunity to come down with a guest to skate on the ice at the Air Canada Centre and then come up to a concession stand for pizza and drinks.

This year’s event combined our two previous event themes and gave our staff the ability to share the “Taste of the ACC” and experience of skating on our ice with friends and family. Tickets were distributed for the staff to come down to one of  six skating time blocks.  On their arrival our People were greeted with tickets to an upcoming Marlies game before taken down rink side to lace up their skates.  After 45min on the same ice that the Maple Leafs and Senators played on the night before,  our People were off to the concourse where they had the opportunity to try some of our entrees (hot dogs, pizza and sandwiches), snacks (chips, popcorn and nachos) and desserts (chocolate bars, ice cream and funnel cake fries).

I’ve attached a couple of pictures of some of our Food & Beverage Managers hard at work preparing and giving back to the many People they lead during our games and concerts, at the event.  After all the skaters were through, raffle prizes were claimed and food was eaten it was time to clean up and start the planning for next years event!

Until next time-stay hungry my friends! ~Dusty