Wow, where has the time flown? Vancouverscape will celebrate its 15th year of providing the latest in travel, tech and lifestyle content for Vancouver (and beyond) this week!
We are thrilled beyond belief at the support that the online community has given us. Without all of you, we’d still be lurking in the background. For those of you new to Vancouverscape, our launch came right at the time of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
I was invited to the House of Switzerland on Granville Island right before the start of the Games. Before long, I visited several other Olympic country host venues around the city and gained media accreditation to those as well.
At around that time, I was also enrolled in Simon Fraser University’s copy editing program (I graduated in 2014) and one of my teachers at the time was BC Living’s editor-in-chief.
Since their team didn’t have time to get to many of the events, I received a BC Living media badge and was their on-the-ground photographer, and uploaded dozens of event photos to their Flickr pool (at 1,100 photos, I’m one of their top 3 contributors!).
[Seated right next to freestyle skier Jennifer Heil holding her silver medal at a Birks event]
A few corporate events later, and my business card stack grew higher by the week! The sheer excitement of your city hosting a world stage event like the Olympics served as inspiration for continuing to document life around Vancouver once the Olympic and Paralympic Games packed up and rolled out of town.
At first, my site was focused on festivals and cultural happenings. However, once I began to cover my three main passion topics – travel, tech, and lifestyle – the site took off and I rebranded to Vancouverscape.com.
Close to 3,300 posts later, I haven’t any desire to slow down and realize how lucky I’ve been to travel around the world, tour in helicopters, float planes, on jet skis, cruise ships, meet celebrities and rock stars, and have my work featured as a freelancer in major publications such as Fodor’s Travel and Luxury Travel Australia.
During Canada 150, I sold one of my Vancouver Coast Capital Bhangra Competition photos to the Canadian Museum for Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax.
I’ve also served as media sponsor for several events over the years, from the Rare Disease Foundation to Women in Tech. Vancouverscape has been nominated for several more awards, and in 2014, took home an award in Victoria, BC for Best Personal Blog.
I’ve seen the Northern Lights in both Whitehorse and Yellowknife, viewed puffins and whales on the Atlantic coast, been awed by an octopus swimming below me in the Caribbean, and much, much more, all while fighting cancer. I guess living with a chronic disease puts life into perspective and makes you appreciate everything that much more.
So, here I am, 15 years later, ready for the next 15! I am about to visit my 60th country, and hope to conquer all seven continents (four so far). Antartica, South America, and Australia are on my list. Again, a big thanks to all who’ve visited Vancouverscape, have commented there or on our social media channels, and have socialized with me at events.
Cheers to you all!
