Why we use social media

Submitted by Bob Gomes, Stantec president and chief executive officer

Bob Gomes, president & CEO

With the launch of our blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed, I’ve been asked a number of times why Stantec has decided to use social media. Although there are many justifications in the changing media landscape for getting involved in this arena, we have three main reasons for making the plunge.

Our business depends on relationships

As cliché as it may sound to some, we truly are a people business. We don’t have products to sell, widgets to produce, or resources to pull from the ground. We provide a venue for our people to sell their ideas and provide creative and innovative solutions to our clients. The key to success in any consulting business is building and working with networks. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook have become the most powerful networking and relationship-enhancing tools on the planet, with literally hundreds of millions of people using these networks. It is necessary for us as a consulting business to use these tools to connect with clients, employees, potential employees, and investors. Using our blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed, we can help keep Stantec’s brand top of mind for some of our key audiences.

Reputation building and word of mouth have gone online
Traditionally, the best way to build and maintain a positive reputation is to provide exceptional service to our clients and have them be our ambassadors. These days that doesn’t quite go far enough. Social media has put word of mouth into overdrive. Stories, good or bad, about a company posted online have a long shelf life and can repeatedly surface in searches for many years to come. Blogging can not only improve our search results but also give us the opportunity to tell the stories that don’t make it to the media. Stories that describe what it’s like to work at Stantec, what makes us a great company, and what makes our people tick provide our stakeholders with a valuable running narrative. Other tools like Twitter and Facebook give us the ability to listen to and participate in conversations that are happening about Stantec. We need to speak for ourselves on the Web and engage people who are interested in what we do in order to continue to build and manage our positive reputation.

We want to provide our employees with content they can use
More and more of our people are active online and are finding interesting and effective ways to use social media tools for business. By participating in these networks as a company, we are providing our staff with content they can use to sell Stantec to clients and potential employees. For example, we have an album on Facebook that contains pictures of a number of our offices. When recruiting a potential employee, someone in our Human Resources group could email a link to a specific photo with a note saying, “You could be sitting here.” That sends a very personal and powerful message. On our blog, we have posted a video of Gary Sorge, a Stantec employee in New York City, discussing the park renovation designs he did for Harold and Greeley Squares in Manhattan. Landscape architects across the Company can direct clients to that video to showcase some of the interesting work we can do on city parks. Through these tools, we can provide very specific, interactive, and timely information that our staff can employ to market their services in a unique and easy-to-use manner.

This is why we are now using social media. Although we know there are many employees who won’t use these tools, we know there are many who will find creative ways to attract potential employees, network with clients, and win work using social media. It’s our job as a company to support and encourage them along the way.

Sharpening the Saw

Eric Nielsen

US West senior vice president Eric Nielsen clearly isn’t an artisan by trade, but that doesn’t mean that creativity and hard work are not outlets for him.

A family man, part-time cyclist, and softball player, Eric’s outside-the-office passions also include woodworking—and not the garden variety either. From his home workshop, he dedicates hours to crafting jewelry cabinets, hand-turned pens, and, in the largest volume, ornately detailed jewel boxes. Each with their own personality, colors, and accents to complement the natural wood grain finishes, Eric’s collection of boxes has become sizeable to match the years he's dedicated to the therapeutic release they've provided.

His wife, Marilee, a true artist, accomplished watercolor painter, and jewelry designer, suggested she take some of his surplus collection to an upscale Los Angeles boutique, where she planned to sell some of her pieces. Without giving it much thought, he agreed.

A week later, Eric fielded a frantic call from the boutique owner. “Mr. Nielsen, could you send more boxes?" she said. "We’ve sold all of them, the last one to a relatively well-known Hollywood star.”

Needless to say, Eric has kept his day job but has a fun story to share with friends and family who have been the past recipients of his pieces for birthdays and holidays.

A note from the blogging team

Everyone needs an outlet that only he or she can appreciate—something that refuels his or her passion for work and life. Leadership guru Stephen Covey refers to this effective habit as “sharpening the saw.” Through an ongoing series of blog profiles, we look forward to showing you how some of Stantec’s leaders creatively attend to that very task.

More of Eric's work

Biking with Lance Armstrong

Contributed by Shawn Bravender, associate, Planning & Landscape Architecture (Edmonton, Alberta) 

Shawn and his trusted companion, his bicycle.

My love for cycling began as a young boy, granting me all the freedom and speed my legs could muster. But it was as a poor student with my own family and only one vehicle that I really got hooked. Though this was the initial motivation, the economic benefits became less poignant as I began to enjoy the inherent bonuses—health and fitness, clarity of mind, stress relief, reduced environmental impact, and loads of fun.

I have been commuting year-round for over 15 years now and have found no better way to start—and finish—a day. As well, I have dabbled in amateur racing, such as road, mountain, and triathlon—not to mention the last four Stantec Cool Commute challenges. Lately, I am really looking forward to riding with cycling legend Lance Armstrong (seven-time Tour De France winner and cancer survivor and advocate) on August 26 as a fund-raiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Like many, I have had friends and family impacted by cancer, and thus participating in the Ride with Lance Armstrong is the best way for me to mesh my passion for my loved ones with my passion for cycling. My goal is to raise $25,000 because, in the world of science and research, money talks and every dollar donated will aid the cause by funding the fight against this disease. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. In Canada, one in nine women is expected to develop breast cancer during her lifetime. A scary stat, especially when I think about the special women in my life: my mother, sweetheart, daughters, sisters, etc.

I ride with the hope that we can change these odds. Let’s keep the advances against cancer stronger than ever . . . so we can all “Live Strong.”

I plan to enjoy the benefits of cycling for many more years to come—for my heart, lungs, mind, wallet, environment, and now for all cancer sufferers around the world.

Shanghai 2010 World Expo: An Architect’s Impression

Contributed by Stanis Smith, senior vice president, Buildings (Vancouver, British Columbia)

The British pavilion (or hedgehog)

Having been to several World Expos over the years, Shanghai 2010 is a very impressive show, overwhelming in terms of its scale and the amount that has been spent by countries around the world on their pavilions and displays. The planners have dealt with crowd management reasonably well, and the theme (sustainability/green) is relevant and well executed.

The show is vast. I was there for a full day from 7 am to 11 pm and was only able to see one fifth of the pavilions at most. You would need at least three days to walk the whole campus and, even then, you wouldn’t have time to go inside all of the pavilions. Some research in advance is necessary to pick and choose what you want to see.

The two pavilions which have received the most artistic/architectural acclaim are Britain and Spain, and I’d strongly encourage visitors to see those two if nothing else.

Inside the UK pavilion. Being surrounded by 40,000
glowing pointsof light is quite poetic and haunting.

The British pavilion is brilliant in my opinion. It is called the "Seed Cathedral." Quite difficult to describe in words, the best visual analogy I can think of is to imagine a large cube of a building, with 40,000 plexiglass tubes that extend from the outside of the building to the inside, making it look something like a giant “hedgehog.” When you get inside the "hedgehog," each of the plexiglass "quills" has a unique seed embedded in it, most of which come from Kew Gardens. The overall effect of being surrounded by 40,000 glowing points of light, each highlighting its own seed, is quite poetic and haunting.

So other than the seeds coming from Kew, and the fact that the UK has lots of hedgehogs, what does this pavilion have to do with the UK, I hear you ask? Well, not much, really, but it begs the question of the purpose of a World Expo pavilion in the 21st Century, when anyone can go onto the internet and get whatever information they want about any country at any time. As an artistic and architectural tour-de-force, the UK pavilion made more of an impact on me than many other pavilions, which were little more than “advertorials” for corporate sponsors, or feel-good travelogues of the kind you would expect from a Chamber of Commerce or Ministry of Tourism.

The compelling exterior of the Spanish pavilion

The Canadian pavilion was a case-in-point, and was strangely uninspired considering that Cirque du Soleil was responsible for its programming. It consisted of a pleasant but rather nondescript building clad in wood, with two movie-type shows inside. Oddly, there were no Cirque performers (which could have been very memorable), and nothing much in the way of a compelling concept.

The Spanish pavilion combined a compelling concept with a creepy one. The exterior was lyrical and fluid, entirely clad in handmade basketry panels. Think of Bilbao in wicker rather than titanium. The handcrafted aspect of the panels and the way they filtered light to the inside was delightful. The creepy part was the centrepiece of the pavilion, which was a chubby three-storey-tall "animatronic" baby that slowly moved its head and blinked its eyes. Supposedly an homage to the youth of the world, it was more of an homage to Spanish surrealism, but was certainly memorable.

The memorable (and somewhat "creepy")
centrepiece of the Spanish pavilion

Given the vastness of the show, my one-day visit did not do it justice, and I’d recommend a visit to it as a unique world event that is unlikely to be repeated in future. By the way, for those who haven’t been to Shanghai before, the city is an experience not to be missed. The scale of new development in the city rivals Dubai, for better or worse. Be sure to spend a few hours walking along the Bund, and to take the Maglev from the airport to downtown that travels at 300+ km/hr!