Monday March 31st 9:30AM Jim Balsillie LIVE on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos !

I'm already confirmed for 2 tickets to go! I'm really stoked about this, and I have only 2 questions to ask (1 personal & 1 Technical), however I dobt I'll get to ask either of them.

Anyone else planning on going?!

BTW, George is a long time celebrity interviewer. Those of you in Canada that have watched MuchMusic Rock interviews of several years ago will be aware of his humble beginnings. He does his research VERY well, and has a way of being intimate with questions without being invasive, yet also strong questions of one's business dealings and trying to future information out of the interviewee.


Its going to be downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada (just a short drive from headquarters in Waterloo ;) ).

sorry, I can't stop laughing ... I really thought you meant George Stephanopoulos

... apparently the rest of the world confuses these two guys.

lol, I thought so too at first, until I read "will be aware of his humble beginnings".

Who's George Stephanopoulos??

Gotta look it up on wiki.

LOL i thought the same thing there hdawg

...i thought he meant George Costanza

Thanks for posting this Jagga. If I didn't have a previously booked meeting on the 31st I'd be going in person too.

For anyone who has interest in watching the interview but living south of the border episodes of The Hour can be viewed online here:

The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC Television

I love The Hour... its a shame he's on a pre-recorded segment, not on live with the rest of the show. Still, if i wasn't busy i would have made the hike over. George Stroumboulopoulos is a great host and interviewer.

Just came back from the pre-taping of "The Hour" with host George Strombolopoulus here in Toronto. The live show airs later tonight I believe with the inserts of this mornings pre-taping. Guess who I went to see?!

Jim Balsillie!

The dude looks younger in person, and it was very cool to see him still nervous in front of a small, more intimate audience. If I figured out how to correctly take pictures (that were NOT so dark, let alone video) on my K850i (not much practice yet) then I would've. I did try to take an audio recording but I'm so PISSED at this phone I could throw it against the wall right now. If you press the red hangup button it dis-regards the current recording! What kind of stupidness is THAT!? Credit to George that he spends time with Jim to make him feel comfortable & also spends lunch with him before the live airing sometime this afternoon. Seeing Jim nervous just approaching the stage though makes me view him has human; definately a driven family man.

Anywho, I was hoping to see the 9000 being flashed but unfortunately he brought the 8820 (usually the 8320 is his main device). I wonder who's in charge of managing his emails on the number of devices he carries around - email duplication must be a nightmare as the server must be tricky to set some emails as read and some not when switching devices, unless he has many email accounts which are mirrored. Hardly any talk about RIM at all, as most of the questions where about his other endeavors (Hockey, philantropic installations, etc). However his passion is Hockey but not necessarily looking to purchase a team in Canada but as long as it falls in line with what his focus in that passion is. He forgets about tomorrow, and keeps an eye on the future, but lives for today and focus' on today when it comes to RIM.

There was a statement that he made that kinda shocked me but I think he's not letting anyone know more about. He mentioned that RIM's portfolio is not very diversified and its focused on the device & service. Its Go or BUST; almost to paraphrase him. I have a feeling its more than that given the home server application: BlackBerry Unite! Don't worry though you can tell when the show airs that he's FULLY loving his BlackBerry products as he 'drums' his fingers right his 8820 model (I'd doubt he'd have the 8800 as there was no signal in the studio).

If you can catch the show later, then give it a peak; it's not a bad interview show, like nothing you've seen before. Also Jim's bouncer looks devilishly HUGE! Lastly I was hoping to ask just one question - even being right behind him leaving the studio on the 6th Floor, but I felt it would be rude if I did approach him.

PS. If by chance I'm on the show - I'm wearing a black Kangol hat ;).