Our group was originally formed as a result of our love for reading, then expanded into a “Girls Night Out” – not one of our members are the same – whether it be age or stage of life – and we like it that way! So while we believe that the love of reading needs to start early – dust off your inner Grumpy Bird – and join the bigger kids for a fun night!

For more details – and to join the group, please visit our Facebook Group Page

Inspire Marketing and The Coach & Lantern Pub @CoachandLantern have partnered for the
2nd Annual “Give the Gift of Literacy Program.” #InspireHolidayEvent

Help us to place a new book in the hands of needy children in our community – no one should be without a new book.

From now until December 19th, for every new toy donated,
Inspire Marketing will purchase a new book to be paired with it.
We are proud & honoured to be part of a community that donated over 200 toys to this drive last year -
help us to set a new record in 2011!

Drop off your Toy donation at: The Coach and Lantern Pub, 384 Wilson Street E Ancaster
or call Brent at Inspire Marketing for pickup: 905-515-3639.

Please tag your toy “Inspire” so we can track donations!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Wonderful New Year!

Mission Services Opportunity Centres provides hope to over 30,000 people every year, including 6,800 children. Literacy is vital to preparing the youth of our community for growth through lifelong learning – Reading is Fun!

I love my Community, I love living in such a great City and I{love} that I am a part of it. So when I was asked if I would come and talk to a room full of people that I engage with everyday on ‘the twitter’ – I said yes immediately… then proceeded to sweat over what I would say. 

When you watch the video (and you’re all going to watch it right?!) you will see that I was so nervous, I clearly need to brush up on my 80′s music… Note to Trivia Players: think twice about having me answer these category questions for you! That aside, I was thrown off track by the two minute warning, (Clearly 2 minutes meant I needed to wrap up immediately and NOT finish!) that I didn’t get out the most important part of my story. The message I wanted to leave everyone with was how important it is for us to be a part of our Community.

Here is my {complete} talk:

I like to talk a lot. So when my husband and business partner @Brent Kinnaird suggested we get on ‘the twitter’ I reacted like many have: I was hesitant & thought he was crazy – you want me to talk to strangers? And secondly – what do these people care what I have to eat?! (I’m grateful that you do – as I just cracked the 3,000 follower mark! – thank you!)

We created our accounts the same day Brent has close to 5,000 tweets and I have close to 29,000… Proving to all my school teachers that yes, I do talk A LOT .. BUT apparently people do care what it’s about!

Never did I imagine that in such a short period of time Social Media would become such an important part of our business, as well as resulting in meeting a lot of really fantastic people who have become great friends.

I love quotes & I think this one is fitting for why I talk about my Community: By Dr. Seuss “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to happen it’s not.”

The key is engagement and offering good content. Building your brand is important… Brand = Sum total of experiences, beliefs and stories about you.

I wanted to share a few examples of how Social Media has impacted Inspire Marketing and my Community.

Personal interests have translated into new relationships. We live close to Locke St â all I need is within walking distance, including STARBUCKS, and you all know my love affair with them.

I talk about all of these things A LOT! Not because I have to, but because I want to and i’d like to think that by doing this, it brought attention to my community and attention means people -specifically bringing people into it, and that’s a good thing.

Starbucks & #AmandaLatte

The folks at Starbucks have been kind to me again, I talk about them not because I have to, but because I want to. And as a result, they have sent me some pretty nice packages because they found out I was put on a Starbucks Budget thus creating the AmandaLatte using my Tassimo – And they missed my smiling face..I’m hoping that if I talk enough about my #AmandaLatte they will put it in their menu â and the day that happens, you had better believe I will be tweeting about that!

Now for the part I didn’t get to:

Another example â how you can help others and find ways to work together:

Mission Services & Coach & Lantern

I have a shellfish allergy so eating out is difficult â something I often talk about on twitter. I’ve discovered some great restaurants because of this â The Coach & Lantern is one.

After tweeting about my allergy, I received a note from Andrea at the Coach & Lantern assuring me I would be safe to eat there – Brent and I went up one Friday night and not only had a great dinner, but also fantastic conversation with Andrea – who sat with us for a half hour, but also made a new friend.

As result of this new relationship, when we received a call in Early December 2010 from our friends at Mission Services saying their Christmas Hamper Program was in desperate need of donations – they had the highest number of families signed up to get one, and they were at the lowest ever for donations – was there anything we could do; Brent and I called Andrea and asked if she could help us with our Toy drive.

Without the help from The Coach & Lantern – who generously allowed their restaurant to be the drop off location for new toys, as well as handed out bookmarks to their customers, we would not have been able to deliver close to 200 toys matched with books donated by Inspire Marketing and $300 in cash donations. ÂTHIS is the true meaning of a Community coming together.

For me, engaging in Social Media has brought some great exposure to my company & our clients we are talking to people that live and work in our community and getting them along with others excited about it. #HamOnt

One last quote to sum up me on Twitter:

It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice…

Thank you once again to Trevor, Kevin & the entire tweetstock team for inviting me to participate in your event you should be very proud of it’s success & i’m honoured to have been asked.

Amanda

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Learn the secrets of cooking local foods from HGTV/The Food Channel’s DAVID ADJEY, from The Restaurant Makeover. Tickets are $15 and proceeds will go to the Art Gallery’s Art without Barriers Summmer Camp for kids. Welcome to our sponsor Frank Rocchi, BMO Nesbitt Burns. Visa/Mastercard available.

Once again we will be visiting four beautiful wineries in the Niagara Region – in style!

A Limo bus will take us to our destinations & a gourmet box lunch will be catered from La Piazza Allegra

All the details will be posted soon!

on Sunday July 10th at Pier 8

The Hamilton Port Authority won a 2010 Tourism Hamilton Award in the event category for the

Blount Small Ship Adventures cruise ship visit in summer 2010.

We are very excited to have them add Hamilton as a stop on their itinerary two times in Summer 2011!