Every year, Devon McGeary, a Business Analyst here at Point2 Technologies, registers herself in the annual MS Society of Canada Walk for Multiple Sclerosis.  This year, rather than simply registering herself and asking her co-workers for donations, she’s enlisted them to help her raise the donations.  This is the first time Point2 has entered a team to particpate in the walk!

Point2 is proud of our community spirit and we are pleased to see 22 of our employees (although some are camera shy) rising to the challenge to raise money for multiple sclerosis research.  Hats off to the Point2 team!  Currently the goal is to raise $1200 by our team.  You can help!  Donate here.

Show your support for the Point2 Team and for furthering critical research for multiple sclerosis by donating today.  Every little bit counts and you can make a difference!

Join us on Sunday, April 25th as we walk for MS!

Just one week after being honored as one of Saskatchewan’s Top 20 Businesses, Point2 has the distinct pleasure of announcing that we have been awarded the Achievement for Business Excellence (ABEX) award by the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce in the category of job creation.

This award, which is given to the company that “demonstrates exceptional performance in the creation of new permanent jobs” is in recognition of Point2’s sustained growth between March 2008 and March 2009. During this period, we increased our staff count by nearly 50%, in support of our rapidly expanding business.

To put it in perspective, that is an additional 30 developers whose sole job is to provide our customers with the best software in the world, or an additional 20 Customer Care representatives to help make sure that our members squeeze every last drop of value out of our products.

But this award doesn’t mean we are going to lose steam or rest on our laurels.  Oh no.  In the words of Charles Dickens, we’ve got “great expectations” for Point2 – all of which require additional manpower.

Speaking of which – do you want to work for Point2?  If you think you’ve got the chops, head on over to our careers page and see what’s available.

If this post post is any indication, we are probably hiring.

Point2 was pleased to be a sponsor of the Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® Annual Golf Tournament which was held on Thursday, June 11 at The Willows Golf & Country Club. 

We sent along four of our finest golf experts (Shane Baillargeon, Chris O’Neill, Quentin Karmark, and Allison Stakiw) to spend the afternoon and hand out some prizes at the end of the day.

There were four lucky recipients of our awesome Point2 prizes.

Men’s Long Drive Winner: Ryan Bamford

Men’s Runner-up: Sean Wilson

Women’s Long Drive Winner: Linda Brown

Women’s Runner-up: Barb Wilson

First place winners each received a full year subscription to the Point2 Agent Professional membership and a water bottle.  Runners-up were awarded with Point2-emblazoned windbreakers and a coffee mug.

Congratulations to the winners!  Everyone really enjoyed themselves and Point2 was pleased to be able to have a share in this event.

So, I decided it was time to make an escape.  And I have found just the place where I am going to run to.

Yep, that’s right, I’m going to Los Cabos, baby!  I found this listing on Point2 Homes and fell in love.  It’s just $7.9 million, and what a view. 

Because I am so generous I might be willing to go half-ers on the property with anyone who is interested.  There’s one condition though - I get dibs on what months of the year I get the place.

Ah nuts, I just checked my bank account.  I’m a few million dollars shy of the asking price.

Guess it’s onto Plan B – I hear the forecast calls for warmer weather on the weekend and into next week.  Finally!  That’ll do. 

There are some beautiful properties for sale closer to home too.  Maybe instead of going south, I’ll find myself up north at one of the many Saskatchewan lakes.

The purpose of BarCamp is to connect our fledging tech community members and companies in the spirit of sharing and learning from one another; and after attending with our 15+ Point2 delegation I would say without hesitation, it was a great success.

There were a number of fantastic presentations on subjects ranging from iPhone software development (without breaking the developer NDA of course) to sharing of womens stories in technology – each one spurring valuable discussion.

Personally, my favorite session(s) on the evening would be a toss-up between the excellent User Interface talk curiously titled “Manipulating people via their eyes, but not literally” or Point2’s very own Zach Scott and Aidan Rogers’ presentation on Agile programming – the methodology which drives Point2 Agent’s development.

In addition to the great presentations, conferences like BarCamp are also a perfect way to meet people, expand your local network, and advertise your business. To help facilitate this, the organizers even went as far as to compliment the generic “Hi, my name is:” nametags with “Hey, my Twitter name is:” Needless to say, this morning I had to spend a few minutes adding people to my following list and accepting follows from fellow attendees who I had met.

In terms of advertising, Point2 took the guerilla marketing route by equipping attending team members with some irresistible Point2 branded air fresheners (vanilla scented if you must know), and distributed them to people they met throughout the course of the event.

Since I volunteered to help with distributing t-shirts at registration (that’s right – complimentary shirts), I made sure to give an air freshener to everyone that I handed a shirt out to.

To see if there is a BarCamp happening in your area, check out the main site – and if there is a camp happening I would recommend it to anyone, technically inclined or otherwise. It is a great learning experience, and there all almost always to a session that piques your interest, no matter how discerning your tastes.

Oh, by the way. If anyone wants an air freshener drop me a comment or send me a tweet – there are still a few left!