Telsec Business Centres Inc.

A recent study by the Toronto Board of Trade states “Toronto is a great place to live, if only you could manage to get to work”.

This study shows that Toronto commute times are getting to be the worst in the world. Of the nineteen big cities included in the study, The average Toronto commute was about 80 minutes. Not only is this 12 minutes longer than the average New York City commute, but it was 24 minutes longer than Los Angeles. New York and LA are the two largest cities in North America and both are notorious for their traffic and gridlock. The European city that is most known for its gridlock and traffic is Barcelona, yet the average commute there was 32 minutes shorter than that of Toronto. It should also be noted that Toronto even fell behind Montreal and London England in terms of commute times (between 4 and 5 minutes).

While the numbers do come from both transit and car commuters, they do not say much for our city traffic planners or our underfunded transit system. It is estimated that the gridlock and transit woes of Toronto, cost Toronto businesses $5 billion in productivity losses.

After reading this in the Toronto Star, I talked to my neighbour (who I have previously posted about his commute being sometimes 20 or 25 minutes longer than mine), he told me the longest part of his commute is once he gets off the Don Valley parkway and onto the Gardner Expressway and then onto the streets of the city core. Once I leave the Don Valley Parkway it takes me only 3 to 5 minutes to get to my downtown Toronto office space for lease. The more interesting fact is from my Toronto office space at 1 Yonge Street, I can walk to the core within 5 to 10 minutes (including to my neighbours office at First Canadian Place) During non rush hour times, I can take a taxi to his office within 4 or 5 minutes.

I also learned that the daily rate where my neighbour parks his care is over $20 per day, where I pay a daily rate of $10 or less for parking (depending on which lot I park in). In an average year, I would spend approximately $1500 to $2000 less than him on parking, let alone the large 50 or so hours a year that I would save on my commute.

The commuting hours and the parking costs are not the only savings when you chose a Toronto office for lease at Telsec, there are so many more cost savings that you have to investigate for your business…. I know my neighbour is investigating it.

I know I have not brought this up in a while, but I want to remind you that the coffee and tea at Telsec Toronto office space is always complimentary. This can also save you and your business several hundred dollars a year, and that is not including the productivity savings from having to go down the hall rather than having to spend the time leaving the office to go to the underground food court to get a cup of coffee.

Speaking of going down to a food court from your office, I wonder if someone will commission a study on the average elevator commute.

While Good Friday falls on April 2, 2010 and Easter Sunday is April 4th. Passover will start on Tuesday, the 30th of March and will continue for 7 days until Monday, the 5th of April.,

Easter is a Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ; celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Easter is also the end of the Lenten period where many observing Christians have given up certain foods or pleasures.

Passover is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays (Yom Tov), and is commemorated by many affiliated and nonaffiliated Jews alike as a time to contemplate the endurance of the Jewish people throughout history.

The culmination of these two religious observations just happen to coincide this year, where some years they end a week apart.

The Telsec reception and live telephone answering may be closed this Good Friday, but for those who want to work in their Toronto office space, they can still access their office space Toronto. While some government offices and schools observe Easter Monday as a Holiday, Telsec business office centre will be open Monday April 5^th.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday March 27th at 8.30pm (local time) and the lights will be out for an hour somewhere in the world for that hour. Once again, famous and not so famous buildings along with landmarks and little known places will turn off their lights in contemplation of our planet.  Houses and businesses located everywhere from Australia, Europe,  Asia, Africa, to South America and North America will go dark for one hour. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights in contemplation of our planet.

Earth Hour began back in 2007 when 2.2 million homes and businesses  in Sydney Australia turned their lights off for one hour. This was to be their way of showing a commitment to climate change. Then one year later more than 50 million people across 35 countries participated. Even major landmarks like The CN Tower in Toronto, The Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, to demonstrate their commitment  to the cause.

When March 2009 came around, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour.  These hundreds of millions included people from over four thousand cities in 88 countries officially switched off their light in a pledge of their support for their planet, this made Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative.

At Telsec they too are concerned with be ecologically and green friendly.  Located in a green friendly building, Telsec Toronto office space has also taken steps to be a green office space. With a state of the art computerized lighting system, making sure that lights are not burning all night when no one is in their office space Toronto. On Saturday March 27th 2010 at Telsec’s Downtown Toronto office space, all non essential lights will be off at 8:30 pm. Because their Toronto office space is a 24 hour facility, Telsec has informed its clients that all lights will be shut off between 8:30 and 9:30 pm in observance of Earth Hour 2010.

With NCAA (US college) basketball championship underway, March Madness has began. The NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 65 college basketball teams, both conference champions and at-large selections.  While The phrase “March Madness” was coined by Henry V. Porter in 1939 to describe an Illinois high school basketball tournament. In 1982 Brent Musburger used the term “March Madness” to describe the madness of the single elimination tournament style that is used in the Men’s Division 1 College Basketball Championship. Another term used to describe this playoff tournament is “The Big Dance”

This tournament will determine who the “sweet Sixteen” teams that fight for a place in the “Final Four” of NCAA basketball.  This tournament is so special because it is the complete opposite of every other major playoff tournament. It thrives on the little guy, or the underdog, wreaking havoc on the much favored teams. With all the unexpected upsets, this is why most sports book operations make a majority of their years work off people making the wrong bet.  This year Kansas, Duke, Kentucky and Syracuse were given top seeds for the 2010 NCAA Tournament, but the sport bookies are hoping they are heavily bet on and a underdog team will take them out.

March Madness may be a great way to describe a basketball tournament, but it should not be a way of describing your search for Toronto Downtown office space. Trying to narrow down your choices to the Final Four, may not be the answer when looking for an office space Toronto. You want a Toronto office space that not only has a professional business address in a prestigious building like the Toronto Star building at 1 Yonge Street, but you also want to have a professional receptionist who answers your calls in a manner that is set down by you and best reflects your business image.

I was at a social event on Saturday night and overheard a conversation about someone looking for downtown Toronto office space. It did not take long for one of the people involved in the conversation to point me out and say … “you should talk to him, he blogs about office space Toronto”. So I was pulled into this conversation and heard the person who was looking for downtown Toronto office space say that they were frustrated in their search. It seems that they had been looking at a number of raw office space locations downtown and none of them would work for their business.

The more I talked to this entrepreneur, the more I learned that what they were looking for was a serviced downtown Toronto office, rather than just a downtown Toronto office location. Their office space downtown needs were mainly for having an address downtown and the ability to service downtown Toronto clients. I pointed out to them that they did not have to sacrifice profits to have a downtown Toronto office space and hire support staff to show their clients that they were professional.

I told them that they needed a downtown office space that already had the support staff they needed and they only needed to pay them as they used them.  This is why so many companies chose to use Telsec Business office  space. They get quality service at a great downtown Toronto office space location, without having to invest in all the overhead.

Yes, with a Telsec downtown Toronto office space, you do not need to worry about investing in office space equipment, they take care of that and you only pay for what you use.

First there was the cola war between Coke and Pepsi, then there was the burger war of Wopper versus Big Mac, now its the coffee war of McDonalds versus Tim Hortons.

Over the past few years, McDonalds has been stepping up their game when it comes to coffee in order to compete with Tim Hortons. McDonalds took big steps when they introduced their premium blend CafeeRoast, a 100% Arabica coffee and not a blend. Blind taste test after taste test, McDonalds was being chosen hands down over Tim Hortons and Starbucks. But this was not helping them win the coffee war by having the better tasting coffee, they needed to get people to truly try it for themself.

For the first two weeks of March McDonalds started handing out free coffee at any time of day, no purchase required. This just happens to coincide with Tim Hortons 24th annual “Roll Up The Rim” contest. Who will win this coffee war between these two giants is anyone’s guess.

In just a short while the latest round in the coffee war will be over and they will start planning the next round. At Telsec’s office space Toronto, the coffee war continues. This coffee war is not over McDonalds versus Tim Hortons, but which Telsec coffee is better. Some will tell you the regular coffee is great, but others will tell you that the hazelnut vanilla is much better. The biggest winner of this coffee war is the Toronto office space clients, as they can get their coffee right down the hall and do not have to go to an underground food court to get a cup of coffee. Oh and if you are new to this blog, I should tell you the biggest bonus. At Telsec Toronto office space for rent, the coffee and tea are always complimentary.

Today (8 March), is International Women’s Day a day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future all around the world. The first IWD was run in 1911. Next year marks the IWD Global Centenary 1911-2011

With International Women’s Day now an official holiday in countries like China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, and colleagues  with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent of Mother’s Day status, where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

International Women’s Day is also a day that we celebrate what women have brought to the work of business. Not only have women achieved so much in the corporate world and climbed to the top positions, they also make up the largest group of entrepreneurs. At Telsec, many of our office space Toronto clients are women running their own successful businesses. These women spend countless hours in their downtown Toronto office space building and growing their business. Many have chosen Telsec for its prestigious address at the number one address on Canada’s #1 Street (the longest street in the world) 1 Yonge Street. This address is also famous for being the home of Canada’s number one daily newspaper, The Toronto Star.

While many of Telsec’s Toronto office space clients and their staff are female, most of Telsec’s own office space Toronto support staff are also female.

Happy International Women’s Day to all the women who work out of Telsec’s office space Toronto.

The 82nd Academy Awards were held Sunday night, but overnight ratings are not expected to be good.  This is due in part to declining ratings in past years and the show running an hour past prime time.  This is also due to the fact that people are losing interest in the show.

These days there are more choices when it comes to TV viewing, there are more channels, there are more programs and there are on-demand and DVR’s. The Oscars had there heyday when there were few networks and fewer channels. Polls on the Internet are showing that more people will not be watching the Oscars than will be watching.

Even those people who are interested in the Academy Award results, can find those results on the Internet, seconds after they were announced. or wait until after the show to get the full results. See the bottom of this blog entry to get the Academy Awards results.

Just as there are so many television options as alternatives to the Ocars, Telsec has many options for Toronto office space solutions. At Telsec, you can choose shared office space, semi private office space, team space, executive office space, city view office, lake view office and even a corner office. The choices of office options do not end at physical office space, as Telsec also offers Toronto virtual offices. You can choose to have Toronto mail service at a prestigious address or mail and telephone answering service Toronto where your calls are answered by a professional receptionist who handle your calls to your instructions.

Before I give you the Academy Award results, I should mention that when you choose office space Toronto from Telsec, you are not only getting a great office space, but you are also getting a great downtown office location that offers easy access to public transit and plenty of inexpensive parking.

Now “The Oscar goes to”:  (well just the top searched Oscar results)

BEST PICTURE – The Hurt Locker
BEST DIRECTOR – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
BEST ACTOR – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
BEST ACTRESS – Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – Mo’nique, Precious
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE – Up
CINEMATOGRAPHY – Avatar Mauro Fiore
COSTUME DESIGN – The Young Victoria Sandy Powell
FILM EDITING – The Hurt Locker Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
MAKEUP – Star Trek Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
ORIGINAL SCORE – Up Michael Giacchino
ORIGINAL SONG – The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)

In closing, I also have to send a compliment to the organizers and staff of the Toronto International Bicycle Show for a fantastic job they did this past weekend.  I was not only entertained, but I found some amazing deals.  A new feature to this years bicycle show was the 24 hour spin. Hundreds of cyclists rode stationary bikes over the coarse of 24 hours to raise money for children with cancer.

While it is not bicycle weather yet, unless you are one of the hard core cyclists that ride year round.

It has been a long and cold winter, so with the warmer weather approaching, people are starting to think of getting out their bike and getting it ready for a spring tune up.  Many others will be heading to the Toronto international Bicycle Show this weekend at the Better Living Centre, Exhibition Place.

Besides looking for the new bicycle models, some people will be going to the bicycle show for the newest trends and fashions in bicycle clothing and the newest innovations in bikes parts and accessories, others will be going to watch some of the great bicycle demonstrations and competitions.

Competitions include Toronto BMX Jam returning  for the 11th year. A number of the world’s best Professional Street Course BMX riders will battle it out for thousands of dollars in cash and prizes.  Also returning is the Pro Mountain Bike and BMX in the all new Toronto Indoor Stadium 4 Cross Races feature a diabolical course right on the floor of The Better Living Centre. A special feature of the show will be the Freestyle Jumping competition taking place all weekend.

Some of the other features of the Toronto Bicycle Show is the Meta Bikes Trials Contest.  The Kids Cycling Zone – A carpeted area the kids can pedal away on some neat tricycles – helmets provided, adult supervision required. There is also a Test Ride Zone for adults too.

You can also meet representatives from Bicycle Clubs and learn how they can make your cycling more enjoyable and fulfilling. Or take in the InVita Fashion Show – A spectacular 15 minutes of cycling Spring/Summer fashion showcasing Europe’s best from Assos, Castelli, GSG and Wilier Triestina.

So what are you doing this weekend?

If you are looking for a great office space Toronto that is easy to get to with the new bicycle you purchased at the bicycle show, then consider Telsec’s Toronto office space. Located at One Yonge Street in the Toronto Star Building. Just outside the building there are dedicated bike lanes that connect to both major multi-use pathways that are primarily used as bicycle paths.

In some ways this is the saddest blog I have to write, it is also one of the happiest. I am sad that it is over, yet so happy with the results of these Vancouver Olympic Games.

Canada’s last gold medal of these Olympic Games was the one that most Canadian’s were waiting to see. In a nail biting overtime time win, Canada beat the USA in men’s ice hockey 3 to 2.  At the closing ceremonies, the crowd in the stands actually let out a sigh when the  IOC president  declared the games closed, as no one wanted the games to be over. This has been the best Olympics for Canada in so many ways, outside of the Gold Medal Records for a nation at the winter games and the most Gold Medals by a host nation at a winter Olympic Games.

What most impressed me was the positive spin that the American broadcaster NBC gave to not only how well organized these games were, but to many of the Gold Medal winning Canadian athletes. In fact a lot of the international media had nothing but praise today for how well the Vancouver Olympics were run, and how well that Canadian’s stepped up to the podium, even though they did not live up to their “own the podium” claims.  While we did not meet the standards set by the “Own the Podium” predictions, our athletes surpassed any possible Gold Medal predictions that the program expected…. They did own the Gold.

Over the past 17 days, I have been very impressed with the professionalism by the athletes and the thousands of volunteers who smiled and cheered on the athletes of all countries. In the words of the Vanoc president “Cypress mountain 1, Volunteers 3”, the volunteers were the real hero’s of the Vancouver Olympic Games.

On behalf of all the staff and support member of Telsec Toronto office space, I have to say congratulations Team Canada and congratulations to the Vancouver Organizing  Committee. You did our nation proud. You made Canada shine on an international stage where many had predicted you would fail.

While the Olympic games may be over there are still the paralympic games to come and Canada is expected to earn lots of medals there too.