Tag: canwea

CanWEA 2009

I’m probably supposed to be on my way to the opening do, but I thought I’d post before it got too busy.

CanWEA 2009: Infinite Possibilities opened last night. Though attendance is up from last year, I think more people are coming into town today. It’s going to be a big event.

Tasty noms with Kyle MacNeill

at The Urban Element, Ottawa

Meena Peruvemba (CanWEA), Kyle MacNeill and Derek Lim Soo (GE) prepare the veggies at The Urban Element

The CanWEA board, and as many staff who could make it, went to The Urban Element last night for a team-building dinner. I usually shy away from team building things (I’ve have too many There is no I in team sessions, to which I usually respond, “Yes, but there is me, and also meat, so I think that says something”) but this one was good.

The Urban Element isn’t your average resto. You prepare and cook your own dinner, with the direct supervision of chef Kyle MacNeill and his assistants. Now it helps a lot that they’ve chosen very fine ingredients, and measured them out just so, and also have a properly set up kitchen and utensils, but we had to do the mixing, marinading and cooking.

What we made:

  • Grilled romain caesar salad
  • Kerr Farms flatiron steaks with asparagus and Yukon gold potatoes with rosemary butter
  • Toasted saffron couscous with chick peas, cashews, tomatoes and sweet peppers
  • Crispy fennel flatbread
  • Chocolate praline tart with frangelico sauce

It was good; very good. Really amazingly good. Great atmosphere and a very pleasant evening.

but at least I didn’t jump up and down like Reese did in “Election”

Last night at the banquet and annual awards ceremony, I was elected onto the board of directors of The Canadian Wind Energy Association (L’Association canadienne de l’énergie éolienne). The other new directors are:

I’d like to thank everyone who helped me, and look forward to a busy three years on the board.

canwea over

Well, that’s CanWEA 2005 fully over. Yes, I’m still sifting through the contacts, brochures and swag I picked up, but it’s back to work for me.

I met a lot of people (including, quite unexpectedly, Stuart Hall of Natural Power in Scotland, whom I hadn’t seen in about 8 years), and the show seemed to be absolutely jumping. Could 2005/2006 be the year that Canada gets wind energy?

review of CanWEA 2005 swag bag

So I’m at the 2005 CanWEA conference for the next few days. The swag bag is a standard nondescript nylon thing, thankfully big enough to take my iBook and a few other bits and pieces. The contents are a bit disappointing, though:

  • a very plasticky flashlight that I may discard after harvesting its batteries.
  • a small bag of jujubes.
  • a copy of North American Windpower magazine (which in itself is quite a decent magazine, so is actually one of the highlights).
  • a trade show guide, but no conference program (they were held up in customs; can’t we print ’em here?)
  • various company brochures, zzzz.

You’ll note an absence of useful pens, pads, USB keys, model turbines, or other special swag. I was hoping for more …