Cromulent Marketing recently turned two (on September 1st, for those of you scoring at home). Our second year was terrific—filled with fun projects, a slightly expanded scope of capabilities, and making new friends.

I got to thinking how to mark the occasion, but I was really struggling to come up with something that didn’t feel cheesy or self-serving.

Then I remembered: the Kitchener Public Library and Waterloo Public Library each have a program (KPL|WPL) that allows library members to borrow an Internet hotspot. These programs are extremely popular and vitally important, because they help to bridge the digital gap that exists in many Canadian communities—including our own.

One cost of participating in society is having at least one monthly Internet subscription. Just think of everything you do online: finding information, applying for jobs, doing your job, engaging in social contact and staying in touch, having fun, … and so on. And now think for a moment how hard it would be to do any of those things, let alone all of those things, if you couldn’t access an Internet connection on demand.

So, short story shorter, I reached out to the KPL and WPL, and Cromulent Marketing is now the very proud sponsor of two new “Borrow the Internet” hotspots, one each at the KPL and WPL. For you legal sticklers who want the details, our donations will be used by each library to acquire a new hotspot and to pay for a year of unlimited data for its users.

I feel really good knowing that we’re helping the community with something so important—it’s a great way to celebrate our little milestone =)

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Of course, I’d be remiss not to thank the people who’ve made this possible, including:

• Cromulent’s clients, who’ve really embraced us and keep us busy with interesting projects
• The extended Cromulent team, who do all the cool stuff I can’t do
• The Cromulent terrier team (see below), for just being so terrier-ific and ensuring I take frequent breaks
• My friends and former colleagues, who I ask for advice when I’m stepping outside my wheelhouse (including Double-Beef Deeth, who made me aware of the Internet hotspot programs a few years ago)
• My family, who were tremendously supportive when I resigned from my job a few years ago without the slightest thought as to what I was going to do
• My accountant, who keeps things all nice and legal
• And everyone else who’s said good things about us, supported us, and so on

What do the terrible twos have in store? I haven’t thought that far ahead, so I guess we’ll find out together!