TGIF at Jugnoo – Fun Fridays!

It’s that time of week again – the weekend is coming (and it’s a long one here in Canada, yay!) so that must mean it’s time to share some fun stuff with you!

So, without further ado…

Steam Whistle Tour

On Wednesday, our in-house Scotsman Danny Brown decided to show his current colleagues how his fellow Scottish folk spend their workdays – drinking!

As one of Danny’s hands is always on a cold brew, he used his other hand to bring a handful of Jugnoo employees to educate us further on how barley turns into beer at the Steam Whistle Brewery.

NOTE: We joke because we love. Danny never drinks before noon.

We kicked it off with an extremely hairy introduction to our tour guide, Brandon and his self-professed wife, Beverly the Beer Fridge.

We learned the history of the location, the company and the glass bottles they come in. Fun fact: if you look directly under the logo on the glass you will see 3FG etched into the glass.

This stands for 3 Fired Guys, which was the original name of the brewery based on the employment status of the 3 founding chaps.

What we learned from the tour? A lot. But these were our top three lessons of the day:

• A well-hydrated team is a productive team.
• Creativity flows best in a heavily yeasted environment.
• We are a team. It takes more than 1 person to drink a 2-4 of Steam Whistle (hopefully).

Thanks Danny for taking us on the adventure of a workday!

It’s the Weekend!

Today doesn’t only mark the beginning of the weekend. It marks the beginning of one of the best weekends of the year.

Why? Well, it’s Queen Victoria’s birthday – that really deserves an entire week off rather than just one day. But in true Canadian fashion we will condense an entire week’s worth of activities into three long glorious days.

May long weekend also kicks off summer. This is the weekend that cottage goers venture to their humble huts in the northern woods with a broom in hand. The turning on of the water at most non-winterized cottages is a milestone that marks the return of the cottage from its yearly hibernation.

Lastly, May 2-4 (as the weekend is commonly known) was given its name because it is the weekend to purchase two-dozen beers (or a 2-4).

If you fall into this last category, we encourage you to buy Steam Whistle. If you are going to the cottage, we encourage you to wear sunscreen. If you are doing both… consider yourself extremely lucky!

Unfortunately, not everyone can escape the city lights for the long weekend some Jugnoo employees are here to provide fun alternatives in the Toronto and surrounding areas.

Long, one of our staple developers, is getting creative and going to divide and conquer. His primary objective of the weekend is “to play Diablo until I die.” And if he makes it through the game he will be heading to the Blue Jays game on Sunday because it’s Brandon Morrow bobblehead day!

Anna, our office manager extraordinaire, is planning a phenomenal stay-cation. It’s a toss up between a biking tour through Niagara or the Edgewalk around the CN tower but fireworks in the beaches is a must. She promised she would let us know what she decides.

When asked what she was doing this weekend, Lynsey, our customer service rep, replied with a strong one-word answer “nothing!” As the weekend progresses, plans will arise for this socialite but doing nothing does not sound too bad for the weekend.

Enjoy the weekend everyone. Queen Victoria’s birthday only happens once a year.

Beer in Review

On Tuesday, Jugnoo participated in PwC’s ‘Connecting Vision to Reality’ event at Ryerson. Our CEO, Aamir, provided insight into the lessons he’s learned from running startups in the past.

Aamir is truly a visionary so it was great to hear him connect his ideas to reality. Stay tuned for the video footage of his talk- it’s worth watching! Eric Reis came by in the afternoon to give pointers out of his best-seller “The Lean Startup” . Major takeaway from his speech? Listen to what people want and need.

If you build it, customers will not necessarily come. But if you listen to what customers are asking for, then you will be successful. Unless of course you’re a Starbucks, where people are breaking down doors to get their caffeine fix for the day.

As the breakout sessions and Eric Reis’ keynote winded down, the networking came out in full force. Molson sponsored the networking portion to promote their new beverage – Coors Light Iced Tea.

What’d we think of it? Coors Light Iced Tea combines two of summer’s classic drinks to create a sweet beer. Perfect for those cottage docks in the summer. Maybe next they will come up with Coors Light Diet Coke – what do you think? Let us know if you get a chance to try it!

Thanks for reading. Hopefully you have plans (doing nothing is still a plan!) that will make this the best May long weekend of the year! Stick around for next week. Our employees will be revitalized from the extra day off and debauchery is bound to ensue.

Laters!