Small Business

Reinventing the Pizza

A Canmore couple makes going green easier to swallow >

Welcome to the Green Economy

If you hadn’t noticed, there’s an economic transition underway and it’s a little green under the collar. These Albertans found a way to make money without being part of the problem >

The Fuzzy-Slipper Arcade

Women want to play too, a Calgary game developer’s success proves most women don’t want to shoot a gun or steal a car in their leisure time. At least that’s what the people at GamesCafe Inc. banked on when they began developing products for the hot “casual” gaming market. Video games are for moms, too – if only someone made them for the 35- to 65-year-old set. >

The Price of Ice

Jerry Antoniuk: owner, Polar Ice Express

Who would have thought that ice – something anyone can make in the freezer – would be the cause of an all-out business war? Certainly not Jerry Antoniuk, owner of Edmonton-based Polar Ice Express, when he entered the ice-making business in 2001. And yet, that’s exactly what happened with competitor Arctic Glacier, the largest packaged ice producer in Canada and one of the largest in the U.S. >

Urban Cowboy

Love him or hate him, Paul Vickers is forcing Calgarians to decide what they want their downtown to be

Sporting tight, black “Team Cowboys” t -shirts, Paul Vickers and a posse of striking female cowpokes trickle into the crowded appeal room in the old Calgary City Hall. >

If I Knew Then …

NAME: Glenn Street

COMPANY: Street Characters

WHAT THEY WOULD DO OVER AGAIN: Create – and share – a company vision >

Good to the Last Drop

A Calgary coffeehouse learns how to compete in a global marke

When a small business first recognizes that its customers are defecting to a massive competitor, it has two options. One is to try to capitalize on the advantages of small business and further its roots in the community. The other is to follow the lead of the competitor and go big in hopes of capturing a share of the market. >

The Sexy Apps

Two young Calgarians are proving that GPS applications don’t have to be dull >

Built to Last

They don’t make buildings in Edmonton like they used to. In fact, there are no others standing on 97 Street that are timber-pressed, metal-clad or built before World War II. >

Work and Progress

Destination: Athabasca

Where the golden expanse of prairie along Highway 2 north of Edmonton trails into a lush, green valley, you’ll find the town of Athabasca. Its watery namesake, the Athabasca River, travels north 1,200 kilometres from the Columbia Icefield towards the Arctic Ocean. For more than 200 years, this waterway formed an important route for the fur trade and Klondike Gold Rush. The town’s river landing was once the scene of shipbuilding. Sternwheelers and scows constructed right on the water’s edge took prospectors north through Fort McMurray to Fort Resolution. The gold diggers continued on the Mackenzie River towards their journey’s end at the Bell and Porcupine Rivers in a voyage that could take up to two months.
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