Rumours of my retirement have been greatly exaggerated.
Story and photo by Deborah Greaves
“Rumours of my retirement have been greatly exaggerated,” says long-time business communicator John Thomson.
Thomson loves his work, and his print-media documentation of the comings, goings and achievements of Okanagan business and industry is just a portion of what he does. He’s known throughout the Okanagan Valley for his ongoing and consistent quest to promote the region as a great place to live and do business.
John Thomson’s career as a business writer began here in this publication, on the pages of Okanagan Business magazine. He arrived in Kelowna in 1989, not as a journalist, but as a public relations representative for B.C. Tree Fruits and Sun-Rype. Though he’d been in public relations and advertising for years, he’d long wanted to write. He started with Paul Byrne in the early days of the magazine as a business columnist, then as editor of Okanagan Business.
Later, Thomson began writing “The Thomson Report” for the Kelowna Daily Courier, commencing a lengthy and positive relationship with the Okanagan business community that became part of the fabric of the Valley. Included in the tantalizing weekly dialogue was a column segment called “Rumours and Things.”
“Ironically, I built up trust with those rumours,” Thomson says. “In reality, those rumours were hints of activities or events to come that were just a step away from official announcement. People could trust me to wait until the right time to let the community know.”
A young-at-heart 70, Thomson has plenty of energy and is anticipating new projects.
He manages the John Thomson Group, the Media Marketing Club, and John Thomson Presents, which started in 1995 and organizes eight events a year with high-profile guest speakers. The Media Marketing Club, now 229 strong, hosts regular working luncheons with guests from the fields of marketing, and P.R., and costs just $35 per year to join. Another enterprise is an Executive Round Table, a once-a-month breakfast group of 16 execs who enjoy in-depth discussions with specially invited guests.
“I’ve always worked at taking the positive approach,” Thomson says. “I’ve found the positives even in the negative issues and situations. There are plenty of ups and downs in business as in life, and you have to be prepared always for that challenge. There is nothing in this world of ours today that will not change.”
Thomson thoroughly enjoys mentoring and looks forward to adding more business-related projects to his slate. Not only are the rumours of his retirement exaggerated, he says, but the R-word is not in his vocabulary.
“I plan to keep right on going,” John Thomson says. “Why stop working when you enjoy yourself as much as I do?”
Deborah Greaves is our Westside contributing editor.
Read more of the original stories celebrated in our 30th-anniversary issue.
Conservation cooperation
2018 OWC COMMUNICATIONS AWARDS WINNER This annual competition recognizes and rewards excellence in outdoor communication. Congrats to Judie Steeves for receiving the Ducks Unlimited Canada Award in Conservation for Conservation Cooperation published in the June 2017...
Helping Syrian refugees find their way in a new world
As seen in our pages. Diddy Evans (centre) felt powerless as she watched the horrors of the war in Syria unfold. “Then I found an opportunity to do something for people who have endured so much,” she says, explaining why she volunteers with a group helping Syrian...
Okanagan Centre for Innovation recognized as Best in BC
Centre awarded Stan Rogers Memorial Award The Okanagan Centre for Innovation was announced winner of the Stan Rogers Memorial Award at the British Columbia Economic Development Association Summit this week in Victoria, B.C. The award recognizes the major project that...
Downtown Vernon: City Centre evolution
Vernon’s historic city centre is buzzing with the kind of renewed vitality that attracts residents and draws visitors.
Recent construction projects update and blend with familiar streetscapes, taking advantage of easy access to the host of retail outlets, restaurants, pro-fessional services, arts and cultural venues already available.
Okanagan literary festival ‘puts Vernon on the map’ with award-winning writers hosting workshops
There’s a novelist who’s written a bestseller about Daniel Boone, a non-fiction writer who voyages to Antarctica, an award-winning playwright whose work is being staged at this moment in Saskatchewan, and a poet whose name is more or less synonymous with creative...
You ate what?!
They’re finally giving astronauts something to make a cheeseburger with—other than flaccid tortillas. Nothing wrong with tortillas, I like them, but cheeseburgers they do not make. Actually, from the NASA handout photos, they look more like the brown rubber gag items...