Corporate sponsor.  The words hovered on the otherwise empty screen above Steven Cox on the stage of the Vogue Theatre. Volume 20 of Pecha Kucha Night, sold out as usual, and Cox aimed his message deftly at the audience of 1,200: Pecha Kucha, a huge success by any standards, lacked the support sponsorship would afford.  

Corporate sponsor.  That's where he would put your company name, Cox joked in all seriousness.  This is the moment he'd take to tell about all the great things your company does for the city.  And he'd thank you for your support.  He'd issued the invitation.  And it wasn't the first time.

But no corporate sponsor had yet come forward to share in the success of  of Vancouver's most intellectually stimulating repeat cultural event, an event that both celebrates and communicates the people that make Vancouver particular, extraordinary and compelling.

Douglas Coupland, the internationally acclaimed writer, artist and thought leader (author of Generation X) is giving his keynote speech. He's introduced as a "satirist of consumerism, leader in pop culture, transition of culture and Vancouver resident". Here are some notes from the speech (disclaimer: not a transcript, just some notable quotes):  

1:40 -- Coupland welcomes everyone.  Talks about Google.  "They're going to be talking about one of their radical new projects, "city without people.'"  We also have with us here Mayor of Kansas City, Sly James.   

Jokes with mayor of Kansas City, Mayor Nenshi.  Introduces Gregor Robertson: Gregor was recently profiled in the up coming spring edition of "sizzlingly hot mayors." 

The carbon belongs to Canada, VO climate change blogger Barry Saxifrage wrote me in an email this morning. 

He said he noticed that David Suzuki quoted a stat from an article saying that 40 per cent of profits from oil in Canada are foreign owned. This was in Suzuki's CBC radio interview about Enbridge this morning.

Since 1989, foreign control of non-financial corporate assets in Canada grew from 25 per cent to more than 30 per cent. Statistics Canada reports that of $240 billion in foreign direct investment in Canada, $212 billion involved ownership of subsidiaries in which non-resident owners held more than half the voting equity.

-- The Vancouver Sun, Jan. 10