hohoto

Lot 12:  Social Media Breakfast 10:30 - 11:00pm
Sponsor: Red Juice Media @RedJuiceMedia

Valued at $750, this is a certificate for a full set of social media consulting services to help you get started: includes account set up on Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress for your business or organization, as well as some content to get you going. It’s a great way to get a head start on social media and get your brand online so you can reach your target audience.

Also included: a free lesson on how to use social media for business and networking, including some helpful resources. This certificate is useful for entrepreneurs, new small businesses, and not-for-profit organizations.

BONUS: limited edition “What happens @HoHoTO stays @HoHoTO” T-shirt

Lot 12 - Red Juice Social Media Breakfast

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 10: Inniskillin Wine Selection 2 - 10:00 - 10:30pm
Sponsor: Inniskillin Wine

5 bottles of Inniskillin Wine
o 2 bottles of Chardonnay 2008
o 1 bottle of Riesling 2008
o 1 bottle of Pinot Grigio 2007
o 1 bottle of 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc

Wine Notes: The 2008 Inniskillin Chardonnay & Riesling featured here are not available for sale anywhere. 2008 was a high point for white wines in Ontario - these are extraordinary wines.  The 2007 Pinot Grigio is not available in stores, only at the Inniskillin Winery.  Inniskillin 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc was released to the LCBO Vintages on Dec 5th. Natalie MacLean awarded the wine a 90 score - and it’s only $16.95 a bottle!

Lot 10 - Inniskillin Wine Selection 2

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 9: Dundurn Mystery Pack 10:00 - 10:30pm

Sponsor: Dundurn Press - @dundurnpress

* Outside The Line ($11.99)
* Sherlock Holmes Handbook ($32)
* Deadly Sin ($11.99)
* On The Head of a Pin  ($11.99)
* Blood & Groom  ($11.99)
* Grave Doubts  ($11.99)
* Sucker Punch  ($11.99)

Lot 9 - Dundurn Mystery Selection

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 8: Telus + Tapscott - 9:30 - 10:00pm

Sponsor: Telus & Don Tapscott (@dtapscott)

* $20 prepaid online game card - Telus
* $20 prepaid long distance card - Telus

Lot 8 - Telus & Tapscott

* $50 Premium Care Service - Telus
* Wikinomics (US$27.95)
* Grown Up Digital (US$27.95)

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 7: Raptors Tickets 9:30 - 10:00pm
Sponsor: @BigThinkerJon

* Raptors vs. Pacers - Sunday Jan 31, 2010.
2 tickets, Sec: 307, Row 2, Seats 5+6
Value $65/each

Lot 7 - Raptors Tickets

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 6: Books That Schmeck 9:00 - 9:30pm

Sponsor: Wilfred Laurier Press @wlupress

* Food That Really Schmecks ($32.95)
* Must Write: Edna Staebler’s Diaries ($24.95)
* Watermelon Syrup ($24.95)

Lot 6 - Books That Schmeck

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 5: Williams-Sonoma Collection - 9:00 - 9:30pm
Sponsor: Raincoast Canada @raincoastbooks

* Essentials of Roasting (US$34.95)
* Comfort Food (US$34.95)
* Essentials of French Cooking (US$34.95)

Lot 5 - Williams-Sonoma Cookbooks

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 4: Biz Collection - 8:30 - 9:00pm

Sponsor: Simon & Schuster Canada

* The Pirate’s Dilemma (US$25)
* Go Put Your Strengths To Work (US$30)
* Egonomics (US$25)
* Why We Buy (US$16)

Lot 4 - Biz Books

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 3: Inniskillin Wine Selection 1 - 8:30 - 9:00pm

Sponsor: Inniskillin Wine

* 4 bottles of Inniskillin Wine
o 2 bottles of Chardonnay 2008
o 1 bottle of Pinot Grigio 2007
o 1 bottle of 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc

Wine Notes: The 2008 Inniskillin Chardonnay featured here is not available for sale anywhere. 2008 was a high point for white wines in Ontario - this is a remarkable Chardonnay.  The 2007 Pinot Grigio is not available in stores, only at the Inniskillin Winery.  Inniskillin 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc was released to the LCBO Vintages on Dec 5th. Natalie MacLean awarded the wine a 90 score - and it’s only $16.95 a bottle!

Lot 3 - Inniskillin Wine Selection

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 11: Green Home selection - 10:30 - 11:00pm
Sponsor: Raincoast Canada @raincoastbooks

* The Bldg Blog Book (US$29.95)
* New Green Home Solutions (US$24.99)
* Prefab Green (US$30)

Lot 11 - Green Home Selection

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 2: Cookbooks - 8:00 - 8:30pm
Sponsor: Raincoast Canada @raincoastbooks

* Tapas ($22.95)
* Christmas Gifts From the Kitchen ($18.95)
* Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking ($50)

Lot 2 - Cook Books

Popularity: 5% [?]

Lot 1: Grab Bag - 8:00 - 8:30pm
Sponsor: Simon & Schuster Canada

* The Year of Living Biblically (value $17.50)
* The Lone Surfer of Montana Kansas ($16.50)
* Lips - Xbox 360 Karaoke Game complete with two microphones by iNis & Microsoft (US$55)

Lot 1 - Grab Bag

Popularity: 5% [?]

The hangovers have now faded, blisters are healing, and that sweaty heap of clothes you left piled in a corner of your bedroom have (probably) been picked up and put in the wash by now… but the memories will remain forever.

Another HoHoTO has come and gone. Another extraordinary outpouring of love and community spirit - achieving the seemingly impossible through sheer force of collective goodwill.

Thank you, Toronto.

Thank you to our generous sponsors - without whom HoHoTO would never happen. Both our cash sponsors and the many in-kind and gift sponsors who fuel our raffle and lubricate our logistics in other ways.

Thank you to the staff and management of The Mod Club, for once again donating their space and their time for the cause.

And most of all, thank you to you - the more than 700 of you who bought tickets, made donations, brought food, and partied the night away with us.  Thank you.

When we first set out on this remarkable voyage, over a year ago, we thought we might be able to raise a few thousand bucks.  Later, we set ourselves what we thought was an ambitious goal of $10,000.  How little we understood the power of the people back then.  As was widely reported, the first HoHoTO in December 2008 raised north of $25,000 for the Daily Bread Food Bank.  Our spin-off summer event, HoHOTo, pulled in more than $13,000.

This is just astonishing to us - that so many of our friends in the Toronto geek, media, marketing and creative community are willing to dig so deep to help their fellow Torontonians.  You’re an incredible bunch of individuals. What we’ve achieved together is jaw-dropping, really, when you stop to think about it.

On November 12th this year, one member of the happy band of misfit toys that organizes HoHoTO sent around an email message to the group with a one word subject line:

“Ahem”

…and the game was afoot once more.

This year, we set a stretch target.  Let’s take the two previous events combined and try to beat that number, we thought. $40,000 became the goal. Forty thousand dollars to help feed hungry Toronotonians this Holiday season. Could we possibly raise $40K - in one night?

We must be insane.

Well, ladies and gentlemen of HoHoTO, we did it.  Oh wow, did we ever do it!

On the night, we presented a cheque for $48,424.50 to the Daily Bread Food Bank and collected 1,000 lbs of food at the door.  With top up donations since then, we’re tantalisingly close to a full $50,000 raised in one night.

Words fail me. Really.  Our minds are just utterly blown by this.

And there’s more to come.  Stay tuned for news of a quick follow-up auction of some extra goodies in the next couple of days. Some hot prizes were left unclaimed at the end of the night, so we’re going to put them up for auction on Twitter to help tip us over that magic $50K threshold. There’s fantastic wine, Raptors tickets, all kinds of treats and treasures to bid on.  More news on that later today.

For now, thank you all again.  This is a critical time for the folk at Daily Bread. On average, more than 80,000 people in the GTA rely on food banks every month. This year again, there has been an alarming increase in food bank use over the past year, up something like 14 per cent in Toronto (18 per cent nationally).

With every dollar we collected through ticket sales, the raffle, direct donations, and the fantastic p#hohotobooth, Daily Bread can purchase more food than we could ever get in a grocery store. They buy in bulk, directly from the food industry, which gives them remarkable spending power to help feed the hungry.

Plus, with the direct cash donation you’ve helped us make, food can get to the people who need it faster. The Daily Bread team can focus on purchasing the food that they are in short supply of - essential staples like baby formula and pasta. The money also helps ensure Daily Bread can fund their other activities to fight hunger in our communities, including helping with the cost of delivering food to about 200 food relief programs across the GTA.

Every one of you who participated in whatever way should feel a well-deserved glow at helping HoHoTO fight hunger this Holiday. You just plain rock, Toronto.

If you’re one of the unlucky ones who missed all the fun, you can catch up on some great post-event coverage from Andrew Louis, Matthew Burpee, The Compendium Daily, and elsewhere. Even the National Post ran a little wrap up about the event, for which we’re very grateful. Although it needs to be pointed out that, contrary to the way the Post frames it, HoHoTO is an event created by and for the community - it’s not a corporate partnership with any one sponsor. Molson have been huge supporters of HoHoTO all along, and we’re proud and honoured to have them on board, but we feel the same way about ALL of our sponsors - from awesome folk like David McKendrick at Fused Network (a tiny firm that gave so very, very much this year) to our friends at Rogers, at Teehan + Lax, and so many other supporters and helpers.

Again, thank you all. We really couldn’t do this thing without you.

Your HoHoTO organizing team,

Leila Boujnane
Alexa Clark
Ryan Coleman
Duarte Da Silva
April Dunford
Peter Flaschner
Rob Hyndman
Sheri Moore
Michael O’Connor Clarke
Michael Penney
Michele Perras
Corey Reid
Ryan Taylor
Rannie Turingan
Elena Yunusov

Popularity: 6% [?]

Ryan Buchnea Fridge Door art for Toronto Hydro

Our good friends at Toronto Hydro-Electric System really get what HoHoTO is all about.

In the spirit of giving, they’ve donated a quite remarkable, one-of-a-kind piece of art to help our fundraising tonight.  This is such a unique piece, we’ve decided it merits a little special handling. First, the background…

Earlier this year, Toronto Hydro wanted to help raise awareness of their free Fridge Pick-Up program, whereby they will come and collect your energy-hungry, clunker of an old fridge and dispose of it in an environmentally-responsible manner.

As a creative way to showcase this program, they commissioned a number of remarkable artworks from young, Canadian artists - who took vintage fridge doors and transformed them into things of jaw-dropping beauty.

You can find out more details about the original program and see all the fridge doors here.

And now they’ve donated one of these gorgeous pieces to help in our HoHoTO fundraising!  The particular piece we have on offer is pictured right, created by Ryan Buchnea (aka Fontski). You’ll find an interview with Ryan about the fridge door here and video about the whole program here.

Ryan’s fridge door will be on display at the party tonight, for those of you attending in person.  It really is a quite stunning piece and would be an impressive addition to a home or office.

Given the value and unique appeal of this piece, here’s what we’re going to do. Some of y0u will recall the post-party Twitter auction we ran this summer, which was a huge success.  We’re going to recreate something like that for this fridge door.

Here’s the deal:

1. The auction for the fridge door is open NOW with a starting bid of $500*
2. To bid, just tweet your bid amount to @hohoto and use the hashtag #hohoTOHydro. To be considered, all bids must be in the format: @hohoto $amount #hohoTOHydro
3. We’ll track and tally all bids here
4. At the party? You can also bid in person. We’ll have a sign-up sheet at the event and will be doing all we can to juggle on-site and online bids to keep you informed through teh Twitter.
5. Follow @hohoto on Twitter for updates (as if you weren’t already) or set up a search on the hashtag (#hohoTOHydro)
6. Bidding will continue after the party until 9pm Thursday, December 19 - at which point the auction will close and we’ll arrange for payment.
7. The winner will be announced once payment is verified.

Payment can be made by cheque or credit card. ALL proceeds from this auction will, naturally, go direct to the Daily Bread Food Bank to help them in their Holiday food drive.

Simple, non?

Many thanks to the folks at Toronto Hydro-Electric system and to ALL our awesome sponsors for their generous donations.

Bidding starts NOW!!

*(Ha ha, yes “the fridge door is open”, chortle chuckle, we get it, etc.)

Popularity: 10% [?]

We’re sure many attendees of HoHoTO have their eye on some new gadget for the Holidays this year. Maybe you’re hoping to find a new HD PVR under the tree. Or perhaps one of those festive looking white BlackBerry Bold 9000s, or a cool new Nokia N86…?

If you’re thinking “Yes, Santa! That is EXACTLY what I’ve been craving. How did you know?” read on!

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Rogers, tonight’s HoHoTO will include the very special #FTW Scavenger Hunt. This is going to be a great way to get your festive mojo working and maybe win something really cool for you or a loved one.

All you need to do is find three items, take a pic with your device, and post it to Twitter with the hashtags #hohoto and #ftw. You’ll find out what the three items are at the party tonight. You’re going to love this…

Members of the Rogers Social Media and Digital Communications team will be handing out the Scavenger Hunt lists at the Mod Club and around the event. They’ll be easy to spot: they’re the ones wearing those alarmingly bright Rogers red shirts with their Twitter ID’s on them (@RogersKeith, @RogersRob, @Rogers_MJ, @RogersMiranda and @RogersMary).

Once you’ve found all three items and posted them to Twitter, head to the Rogers booth (next to the raffle table) and let the team there know. They’ll check your Twitter stream and, if you’ve been good all year, they’ll enter your name in the draw to win one of the several awesome prizes, including the lust-worthy tech gadgets listed above and a handful of Rogers gift cards.

The Scavenger Hunt ends at 11 pm so make sure you get a pic of the three items early.

Happy HoHoHunting!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Ferg Devins, the Chief Public Affairs Officer for Molson Coors Canada, took a few moments earlier in the day to answer some pressing questions for the HoHoTO team!

What is your favourite holiday treat?
This holiday season my favourite treat is a Molson Canadian 67 to keep those calories in check

What is your motto?
Have Molsonjoyable Holiday Season…of Coors you will !

What is your favourite thing about HoHoTO?
HoHoTO is an opportunity for people to help those in need…that’s great.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Ed Lee, the Managing Director from com.motion — one of our much-appreciated Gingerbread Sponsors for HoHoTO ‘09 — took a few minutes to answer some pressing questions about HoHoTO and the holiday season for giving:

Which company in the world do you most admire?
At com.motion, we’re big fans of Google, Apple, RIM (see below) and Facebook but we most admire our cousins at Crispin Porter and Bogusky

Who is your favourite fictional hero?
Right now, it’s got to be Tony Stark and Ironman

What is your favorite holiday treat?
Gingerbread

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
In Make It Seven, com.motion ran the biggest social media campaign in Canadian history

What is your motto?
Not a motto but a great quote from Sir Isaac Newton: If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.

What is your favourite thing about HoHoTO?
The people. Social media is supposed to be social.

Popularity: 12% [?]

As you know, HoHoTO is completely sold out, and has been for afew days. The buzz has continued to grow, however, and demand for tickets is still high.

At the same time, a couple of things have happened:

• Some folk who bought tickets (or received them as part of a sponsor package) have asked us if they can donate their spare tickets back into a pool.
• Others have found wonderful ways to auction off their spare tickets through the Twitter (yay @davecoleman, @maggiefox, @benlucier and others!).

This is awesome on so many levels. Thank you.

We welcome this grey market in HoHoTO tix. Indeed, we want to see if we can facilitate it.  If you have any spare tickets you’d be willing to put back into the pool, there’s an app for that.

Check out the HoHoTO Ticket Swap Shop over here.

Please note: we cannot offer refunds on returned tickets, but by placing them back in the pool you help us to raise more money for the Daily Bread Foodbank and let other people join the party.  You still gain huge karma for your donation in the first place, and double karma for opening the door to another eager reveller.

Of course, if you’d rather just push ahead with a Twitter auction or other way to pump up the volume, you won’t see us getting our tinsel in a twist.  Bring with the bringage and, once you’ve completed the trade, just enter the details in the Swap Shop form so we can keep track.

More $$, more food = more community win.

Popularity: 12% [?]