Spencer Magazine: proudly a Media Sponsor of this incredibly important event. We encourage you to get involved!
The Women Empowerment Awards has been created to recognize and celebrate the diverse achievements of women in Canadian business.
Are you ready to celebrate? One unforgettable night – September 22nd, with empowering finalists in 10 categories. Recognizing the diverse achievements of women in all sectors and industries. Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to connect, network and be inspired by other extraordinary women.
About this event
Women supporting women. Our awards have been designed to empower women as key change makers in our community and support female entrepreneurs with their business and to help them advance in their careers.
We are firm believers that we rise by lifting others. The Women Empowerment Awards is a movement and platform for women to share their stories and experiences, to have their voices heard, to promote and motivate other women. We want to celebrate the women leaders and entrepreneurs who have made an outstanding impact in our society and empowered others to do the same.
When I was a kid, a million years ago, my treasures included some Mickey Mantle baseball cards, rare marbles, and my killer ride: a bike with high bars and banana seat… but my most valuable possession was my six-shooter cap gun with a real leather holster. Yup, I was a cowboy through and through, influenced by movie stars like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Alan Ladd, Henry Fonda and so many more.
Fast forward a couple of decades and I somehow ended up on a ranch near Johnson City, Texas, working as a cowboy. Seriously, a real cowboy. A dream fulfilled! Minus the cap gun.
No wonder that Virginia City, Nevada holds a special place in my heart, where time stands still, allowing my imagination to run rampant again. An extraordinary travel destination that you will appreciate forever!
What fascinates me the most about this vibrant western town are the colourful characters of the past, and for the sake of inclusivity, the present.
There are many places in this world to visit as a tourist, but very few offer the historical significance of Virginia City, Nevada. In fact, this small town changed the world as we know it.
It all began just before the Civil War, with prospectors searching for gold in the Sierra Nevada. They hit pay-dirt, with one of the most important gold and silver strikes in history, known as the Comstock Lode.
Here’s a bit of interesting trivia for our Canadian readers: Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock, known familiarly as “Old Pancake” was born in Trenton, Ontario, Canada in 1820. He drifted out west as a fur trapper, and settled in the Great Basin’s Gold Canyon, turning to mining. In 1859, Henry Comstock and others discovered a rich silver vein and staked a claim at Gold Hill, giving his name to the ore deposit.
Virginia City became a boomtown overnight. At its peak, with a thriving metropolis of 25,000 people, the community of miners were eventually known as Comstockers.
Sadly, the story doesn’t end well for ‘Old Pancake’ Comstock, though. Before realizing his fortune, he sold out and moved to Montana. In 1870, he shot and killed himself. But his name, at least, will live on forever.
To read the full article, including all of the articles in this issue:
Operating out of his studio in New York City since 1993, Canadian industrial designer Karim Rashid continues to make an indelible impression on the world of design and architecture. When we learn that Karim’s application to the Architectural Studies Program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario was not completed in time to be admitted, we might ask if the design that first earned him universal fame resulted from a twist in fate.
Karim’s approach to design is broadened by an interest in anthropology; how we sit in and enjoy space and how it can improve the quality of our lives. Imbued with a desire to investigate our relationship with space at multiple levels and to witness how it serves and affects us, Karim is a true pluralist. It is from that perspective that he flirts with art, fashion, and music, determined to creatively touch every aspect of our physical and virtual landscape. He has a passion for color, and his understanding of how it is applied in relation to the distance from the equator has motivated him to expand our awareness and to advocate for change. His belief that a paradigm that uses more color in our built environments in very warm climates should be reversed, is reflected in some very striking building projects. That Karim enlists a team of architects who work with mechanical and structural engineers to ensure the physical integrity of his boldly creative designs, has opened doors for him and positioned him to greatly influence the future of design.
The doors to a future in design were opened for Karim at the age of 7, when his father took him and his brother to Expo 1967 in Montreal. While there, Karim found himself overwhelmed by wonder almost daily. His eyes took in a utopian world as shaped by people like Buckminster Fuller, Eero Saarinen, Luigi Colani, George Nelson, Andre Courreges, Marshall McLuhan, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Pierre Cardin, and many others. He recognized the richness of a world he looked forward to grow up in. And, when at the age of 11, he visited the new Domestic Landscape show at MOMA in New York, he fell in love with Italian Radical Design. That experience galvanized a desire to design and shape the world of the future.
Sorting through that broadening maze to choose a place where he might begin however, was not as easy. In his teens he found himself confused as to what profession to enter. He had been accelerated through high school, so when it came time to apply to university, he was only 16. Torn between architecture, fine art, and fashion, he initially applied to study architecture at Carleton University in Ottawa. But by the time he applied, the program was full.
To read the entire story, including Spencer Magazine’s full issue: