On April 25, Canadian engineering firm, Smith + Anderson, hosted their eighth Eco Jam fundraising event at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto. This year’s coveted event was sold out, selling over 800 tickets in less than two weeks, and was the most successful Eco Jam to date.
The event raised $60,000 in donations for Forest Recovery Canada (a division of Forests Ontario) to aid in 12,000 tree-planting initiatives. Since Eco Jam’s inception in 2013, 33,000 trees have been planted through direct donations to Forest Ontario.
This year’s event sponsors included:
- Bird Construction
- City Core Mechanical Ltd.
- Engineered Comfort
- HGC Engineering – Noise, Vibration and Acoustics
- Plan Group Inc.
- VR Mechanical Solutions Inc.
Encore sponsors included:
- Flynn Group of Companies
- Gillam
- Henry Company
- Salex Inc.
- HTS Engineering – Heat Transfer Solutions
- Stella Custom Glass Hardware
- Symtech Innovations Ltd.
- Victaulic
Known as one of the coolest industry events, the Eco Jam benefit rock concert highlights hidden talent, as architecture, engineering, and construction leaders from across the GTA enjoy musical performances from their peers. This year’s event featured 15 bands, including participants from BDP Quadrangle, B+H Architects, Bird Construction, CS&P Architects, Diamond Schmitt Architects, EllisDon, Entuitive, Hariri Pontarini, Arcadis IBI Group, Montgomery Sisam, QuadReal Property Group, Smith + Andersen, Turner Fleischer Architects Inc., University of Toronto, and Zeidler.
One of the event’s attendees and performers was Terry Flynn, seasoned real estate manager turned industry consultant, who works passionately in assisting real estate firms reach their goals, along with providing expert guidance to assist the MEC Real Learning Building Operations Designation (BOD) program.
“I have been fortunate to play at EcoJam multiple years, and this year we formed a band just for the event, called City Core Consortium, named after our sponsor, City Core Mechanical,” said Flynn. “The event’s entertainment is so high-level. As an example, one of our members, Steve Ketchen of Quadreal, played with us at the event and was headed to a club the following night for the release of his latest album.” He continues, “I recently read an article that reinforced what I knew to be true: that exercising the right brain with art and music can improve the left brain’s more business-orientated function.” When asked about why he enjoyed the event so thoroughly, he answered, “What’s not to like about playing music in a great sold-out venue, in front of a generous crowd, while raising money to plant trees?”
For updates on next year’s event, visit the Smith + Anderson website.
