Link Up

Hi everyone. It's Mike...Olga's husband, and president of the fan club. Olga's asked me to man the blog for a bit and, since I always have something to say, there's going to be lots to read over the next little while.
The Olympic craziness has finally past and we're finally feeling as though we've caught up on all the things that hit the back-burner while we tried to make the best of Canamade. For those that don't know, Canamade was an arts and design exibition during the Olympics that had very limited success despite hosting an undeniably impressive collection of exibitors. Being who we are, Olga and I desided early on to take whatever possitives we could out of Canamade - the people we met being the overwhelming favorite. So, this is hello!
HELLO!
Olga and I want to thank-you for making our three weeks there something worth remembering. It could have been...well, let's not even talk about it. Instead, we count ourselves lucky to have been there. Knowing what we know, we'd do it again. No...really...we would. We made friends at Canamade. Real ones.
Yuck...Sappy...Blah...Pluwwy...Olga and I just watched PS-I Love You last night. I guess some of the romantic comedy juice didn't wash off.
One of the discussions that kept coming up during Canamade was the feeling among vendors that, despite being such a cool and friendly bunch, we didn't really work together or act much as a community outside individual markets. We help each other sell when there's a client at another's table, so why not help each other online? Shouldn't Vancouver's talent have its own network?
So, I thought about it. The more I thought, the more I liked it. So, I'm taking ideas from anyone who has them. I think it's a little premature to try and create Vancouver's answer to ETSY.com, but I did think that we should try to set up as many two-way links to each other's websites as possible. It could be a kind of informal network that offers some individual flexibility (if you don't want to link to someone who's direct competion). The more exibitors that participate, the bigger the network, the more likely it is to get attension and be used by a broad clientelle. This is just my take so, if anyone has a better idea, I'm all about listening.
In the meantime, here is an invitation to create a two-way link between your site and ours. We don't really see anyone as direct competition, so everyone is welcome. Just email Olga at http://www.oladesign.ca/index2.php#/contact/ and she'll set it up.

Until next time!