Services and Programs
Special Projects
Odyssey’s special projects are missions of a different nature, not just an effort to beat the clock and end up in the record books, but projects with diverse and unique objectives.
Continuing our lifestyle media series with GM Canada: Buicks in British Columbia (July 2010)
A relaxed event that hosted two groups of social media journalists and online influencers started at Quail's Gate Estate Winery, overnighting at the Burrowing Owl Estate Winery and Guesthouse. Besides tooling around the Okanagan in a fleet of beautiful 2011 Buick Regals, journalists had the chance to experience the warm waters of Osoyoos Lake on personal watercraft, luscious spa treatments at the Sonora Desert Spa at Spirit Ridge, walking amongst rattlesnakes at the spectacular Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, and even some daring rock-climbing at Skaha Bluffs with knowledgeable guide Russ Turner of Skaha Rock Adventures.
Vancouver, 2010
Join us on Facebook at OlympicFuelCell to see what we have been up to in Vancouver since 1 October 2009 while managing a a fleet of 8 zero-emissions, petroleum-free Chevy Fuel Cell Equinox vehicles. These unique vehicles are part of GM Canada's efforts to help VANOC achieve its goal to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games with the smallest carbon footprint in history.
David Hasselhoff, aka The Hoff, and Director Kelly Sandefur
Some activities the Fuel Cell Equinoxes have been up to:
- Torchbearers #1 and #2 (Olympians Catriona Le May Doan and Alexandre Despatie) arrived at the start of Torch Relay from the airport in Victoria in a Fuel Cell Vehicle.
- David Hasselhoff, aka The Hoff, and Director Kelly Sandefur, of the production 'Dancing Ninja' were zipped around town in a Chevy Fuel Cell Equinox.
- John Furlong, CEO of VANOC, has been a repeat driver and passenger.
- Ashley MacIsaac, Cape Breton fiddler, and Dave MacEachern (Olympic Gold Medalist) rode to the opening celebrations of Atlantic Canada House in a Chevy Fuel Cell Equinox.
- We've delivered Santa and Mrs. Claus to Richmond Centre where cheering children and the paparazzi were waiting for them.
- We delivered 3 carloads of food to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank from UBC just before Christmas.
- Eight soloists in town, including Canadian sopranos Measha Brueggergosman and Tracy Dahl, to perform the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Cultural Olympiad production of the Symphony of a Thousand: Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, have been getting to rehearsals and about town in Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles
These vehicles have been busy and all without emitting any greenhouse gases or burning any fossil fuels!!
Olympian Alexandre Despatie with Lisa Calvi of Odyssey International Limited
Olympian Catriona Le May Doan
2009 Honda Insight into Canada
Odyssey teamed up with Honda Canada to create ‘Insight into Canada’ where Canada’s most affordable hybrid car went on an environmental awareness journey across Canada that began during Earth Week 2009.
The journey started 21 April 2009 from Mile Zero in Victoria, British Columbia and ended 22 May 2009 at Mile Zero, St. John’s, Newfoundland. From sea to shining sea.
We divided the country into about two dozen drive legs and let the vehicle blog about the adventures that journalists experienced while checking the environmental pulse of Canadians, visiting earth-friendly places and inspirational people who are doing their share to lessen our country’s carbon footprint, reduce energy use or improve recycling efforts. Visit the Insight Into Canada blog.
Montreal's Biosphere
Continuing our lifestyle media series with GM Canada:
Chevy Equinox Wonderland Adventure (Ontario)
In a small fleet of new functional and fuel-efficient Chevy Equinox vehicles, three pairs of journalists roamed the roads of the Lake Muskoka area north of Toronto, the geological nucleus of the North American continent, the Canadian Shield, the oldest rock formation on Earth.
Activities along the way included ziplining, horseback trail riding, wakeboarding on Lake Joseph, golf and tennis. And a stay at the beautiful, historic Windermere House in Windermere.
Chevy Equinox Rocky Mountain Adventure
A full-on adventure that had media participants journeying on a path that has been used by humans for thousands of years, the Valley of the Bow River. They and their 2010 Chevy Equinoxes spent time in Canada’s first national park and the world’s third, Banff National Park. They visited the mountain town of Banff, an outdoor mecca for international fun-seeakers with a year-round population is 7,600 but 4.3 million visitors a year; then Lake Louise, that glacial, impossibly emerald lake that stuns the eyes and brain with its beauty. Overnight at the cozy, rustic Num-ti-jah Lodge on Bow Lake then an exhiliarating early-morning hike on the Athabasca Glacier.
Participants climbed the steep face of Yamnuska Mountain, rafted the white-water of the Kananaskis River, and rose 700 metres in 8 minutes on the Banff Gondola to enjoy the spectacular views laid out below.
Cadillac & Buick Okanagan Valley Sun, Surf and Sip Adventure
In the 2010 Buick LaCrosse and the 2010 Cadillac SRX, the Okanagan Valley hosted four pairs of journalists. The Valley is a paradise that has been rated by Environment Canada as having ‘the most desirable climate in Canada’, supplies the rest of us with apricots, cherries, pears, peaches, plums, apples and, of course, grapes and wine. Residents here live on average 2 years longer than they do anywhere else in Canada and the valley gets more than 2,000 hours of sun per year.
Our guests took in horseback riding in the Osoyoos Desert, waterskiing on Lake Osoyoos, the warmest freshwater lake in the country, ornamental gardens and a guided tour of some of the Okanagan’s top wineries.
Overnight hotels included Spirit Ridge Resort in Osoyoos and the historic Hotel Eldorado in bustling Kelowna.
Chevy Equinox Road Trip: Québec, La Belle Province
Bienvenue à la ville de Québec, the Algonquin word for ‘the place where the river narrows’, the last remaining walled city north of Mexico. This is where the adventure started for a group of Canadian travel writers. Carriage rides through Old Town preceded those of the horsless carriage variety.
The primary route of the road trip followed the Saint Lawrence River, one of the principal rivers of North America, from the flats just east of Quebec, the Beaupré coast to a plateau of 800 metres (about 2,600 feet) to Charlevoix, a captivating, craggy land of unpolluted air and pure waters.
This region is famous for food, art, history and culture, great driving roads and jaw-dropping vistas and that is exactly what our guests experienced with stops at quirky art galleries in Baie-Saint-Paul, a paper-making museum in Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive, a suspension bridge walk across the Montmorency Falls that outpour Niagara Falls and a world-class bird preserve.
Overnight hotels: Auberge Saint-Antoine in Quebec City and Auberge La Pinsonniere in La Malbaie.
Cadillac & Buick Girls’ Road Trip: Vancouver to Harrison Hot Springs
Vancouver, Host City for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, also played host to a group of journalists and bloggers, who joined us for a Girls’ Road Trip to Harrison Hot Springs through the lush Fraser Valley in a fleet of Cadillac SRXs and Buick LaCrosses.
Pastoral Agassiz, cozy Fort Langley and winding roads through tranquil farmlands were the highlights, that is, until arrival at Harrison Hot Springs where everyone regrouped and replenished themselves in the soul-soothing Healing Springs Spa.
Honda Insight Eco-Challenge
Twelve journalists and their spouses participated in three motoring challenges, hosted by Honda Canada, in Victoria, Ottawa and Quebec City.
The Challenge was broken into scoring sections. A trivia quiz with questions like: ‘What is the greatest water user in a typical household? (a) The Teenager (b) The Toilet (c) The Dishwasher’ and ‘How much of the world’s water is available for human consumption: 97%, 23%, 3%, less than 1%’ and ‘Name three songs that have the word ‘green’ in their title.’ to get them thinking.
A photo contest to shoot items en route that began with the letters I-N-S-I-G-H-T and E-C-O-N. Points were awarded for a shot of 4 strangers in their Insight as well as a ‘beauty shot’ of their car. At a slide show at dinner, the competitors determined who had the best shots for even more bonus points.
There was also a simple parking challenge and, of course, a fuel economy challenge , the big kahuna worth 50% of the overall score.
2008 GM Canada School Spirit Challenge
Odyssey teamed up with General Motors of Canada to gauge the school spirit of colleges and universities across Canada. Teams competed in a series of campus and community challenges, including choosing, buying and delivering food to local food banks.
The competition was held in five cities across Canada (Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver). The winner in each city (out of three universities or colleges in each city) received a $1,000 donation to their school. A national winner was selected from the five regional winners and that winner, Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, NS, received an additional $5,000 for their school.
Facebook provided a great social media component. Our Group, GM Canada School Spirit Challenge, saw a lot of action during the Challenge. Please visit to see the photos.
2008 Chevy Malibu Hybrid Las Vegas to Death Valley — Lifestyle Media Program
Media participants went from Las Vegas, Nevada, the Entertainment Capital of the world, to Death Valley, California, the hottest, driest, lowest spot in North America and back to experience a drive in the Chevrolet Malibu hybrid, the 2008 North American Car of the Year. Along the way, there was a stop at Amargosa Opera House, an improbable structure rising out of the scrabbly desert, a peek at Death Valley from Dante’s View, a mile up and a walk on the saltiest, lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, to name a few highlights!
2008 Saturn Astra in New Brunswick-Lifestyle Media Program
A full-on adventure that had media participants using the nimble 2009 Saturn Astra to deliver them to a busy slate of adventures including rappelling off cliffs hanging over the Bay of Fundy, sea kayaking in the waters that boast the highest tides in the world, hiking on the bottom of the ocean floor and delving in the belly of the earth with some caving. All of this on the spectacular Bay of Fundy shores of New Brunswick.
2008 Honda Accord FOUR Challenge
Twelve journalists and their spouses participated in three motoring challenges, hosted by Honda Canada, in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
The Challenge was broken into four scoring sections. A trivia quiz with questions like: ‘What are the 4 Greek classical elements? Name 4 things that come in fours. Name 4 songs that have the word four in them. What flies and has 4 wings?’ to get them thinking. A photo contest to shoot items en route that began with the letters F-O-U-R and A-C-C-O-R-D. Points were awarded for a shot of 4 strangers in their Accord as well as a ‘beauty shot’ of their car. At a slide show at dinner, the competitors determined who had the best shots for even more bonus points.
There was also a simple parking challenge and a fuel economy challenge, the big kahuna worth 50% of the overall score.
2008 Catch the Vibe Multi-City Tour
Armed only with a new 2009 Pontiac Vibe team car, a BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8130 smartphone from Bell and the CatchTheVibe.ca website, 96 journalists, bloggers and enthusiasts from all walks of life were set loose on the streets of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to compete in an urban relay challenge event.
Team members had to rely on each other’s strengths and experiences and fully utilize their social media network. The driving challenge included 4 daily legs for one week in each city. Two members from each team competed each day in a series of challenges to earn points for their teams. At the end of each day’s challenge, team members passed over their keys and communications devices (and the wisdom they accumulated from their day’s experiences) to their teammates who continued the challenge the following day.
Visitors to the site got involved and had the opportunity to win a 1-year lease of a 2009 Pontiac Vibe or one of six BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8130 smartphones from Bell or one of four Sony VAIO TZ-Series notebook personal computers.
2008 Audi R8 Trans Canada Performance Tour
To showcase the highly anticipated 2008 Audi R8 mid-engine sports car, Odyssey developed, with Audi Canada, a cross-country tour that commenced in St. John’s at Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America, on Wednesday, September 12th, and concluded at Mile ‘0’ of the Trans Canada Highway in Victoria on October 9th, 2007.
We hosted 18 different media personalities as they relayed the 4.2-Litre, 420-bhp, FSI V8 engine, quattro permanent all-wheel drive supercar across the country. The Tour stopped at Audi Dealers along the way where customers were given a chance to ride in the R8 and to test-drive Audi’s S8, S6 and RS 4 premium vehicles.
2007 GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado Challenge
At a test track just north of Montreal, automotive journalists came together to evaluate, on a level playing field, the towing, handling, braking and acceleration capabilities of the major contenders in the light-duty pickup truck market.
Buick Lucerne travels the Trans Canada Highway (2006)
For Buick Division, General Motors Corporation in Detroit, Odyssey developed and executed a motoring adventure for U.S.-based media that centred around the world’s longest national highway, the Trans Canada, that 7,821 kilometre asphalt ribbon that connects St. John’s to Victoria and Prince Rupert.
The drives took place on Vancouver Island and Vancouver, Calgary and the Rocky Mountains. Quebec and Charlevoix, Prince Edward Island and the BonavistaPeninsula in Newfoundland.
Duramax Diesel Heavy Duty Towing Challenge-Beiseker, Alberta (2006)
Odyssey organized a 300-metre 'drag race' on a landing strip at Beiseker airport, near Calgary for a handful of Canadian automotive journalists.
The contenders: a Chevy 2500 Crew Cab pick-up with a 360-horsepower V-8 Duramax Diesel engine harnessed to a 6-speed Allison automatic transmission, a Powerstroke V-8, 325-horsepower Ford F-250 with 570 lbs-ft of torque and a Cummins-powered I6 2500-series Quad Cab Dodge with 325-horsepower and 610 lbs-ft of torque.
The weight: three Road Boss flat-deck trailers loaded with three Case JX55 farm tractors with a combined weight of about 4,000 kilograms each.
Chevy’s Duramax consistently out-hauled the competition by a truck-trailer length, or two, or three. A good day for Chevrolet.
General Motors Vehicle-to-Vehicle Advanced Technology Demonstration and Fleet Product Preview (2006)
Amid lightning, torrential downpours and the brilliant, tropical sunshine of Key Biscayne, Florida, Odyssey worked with General Motors' LAAM (Latin America, Africa, Middle East) Operations and GM's Advanced Technology Division to demonstrate its Vehicle-to-Vehicle Collision Avoidance System and Fleet offerings to broadcast and print media from South Florida, Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Twenty-five years of Red Cloud
In homage to the accomplishment of Red Cloud, the 1980 Volvo wagon that Garry Sowerby and Ken Langley powered into the Guinness Book of Records on November 19, 1980 by driving around the world in the record time of 74 days, 1 hour and 11 minutes, and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that feat, we took a trip around the world without leaving Halifax.
Setting out from Point Pleasant Park at 11:11 AM on November 18, 2005, we visited locations that represented the 21 countries that the Odyssey team visited on the first circumnavigation in the same order (see below). The trek ended 7 hours, 41 minutes and 11 seconds later on Citadel Hill at 6:52 PM.
Red Cloud rides again!!
Presentation of General Motors' Halo Cars (2005)
An exclusive group of Canadian media was invited to Las Vegas, Nevada to experience some of GM's hottest cars on a breathtaking road course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Vehicles included the 2006 Corvette Z06, Cadillac CTS-V, Pontiac G6 GTP, Pontiac Solstice, and Chevy SSR. Heart-stopping laps were also provided by Canadian NASCAR Champion Ron Fellowes as a special treat in his CTS-V Racecar.
GM Community Wheels (2005)
Odyssey helped General Motors of Canada launch GM Community Wheels in the Halifax Region. The program provides new Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn vans to local organizations that require vehicles as part of their efforts to help people in the community. GM Community Wheels was piloted in Edmonton with United Way of the Alberta Capital Region in 2003, and since then GM has expanded the program to include Vancouver, Montreal, Quebec and now, Halifax.
Mission Green (2004)
Odyssey conceptualized, developed and executed this cross-Canada drive in search of 85 environmental initiatives that would highlight Canadians’ concern and compassion for the environment.
The ‘Mission Green’ team drove a General Motors’ Chevy Silverado Parallel Hybrid Pickup Truck (PHT) which offers a 15%* savings (*2004 NRCan Fuel Consumption Values) in fuel consumption, and a GMC E-85 capable Yukon, which, when fuelled with Iogen Corporation’s cellulose ethanol, has lower net GHG emissions than any of the hybrid vehicles on the market today.
The drive set a record for being the first time a vehicle using cellulose-based ethanol has been driven across the country. It also marked the first time a hybrid truck was driven from coast-to-coast. In total, the Mission Green vehicles logged more than 30,000 kilometres.
Mission Green was accomplished in two months beginning at the Halifax Harbour on August 16, 2004 and ending at the Victoria Harbour, on October 20, 2004.
A bilingual website (missiongreen.com) communicated the journey to Canadians with daily journal updates describing each initiative, the people involved and the benefits to the environment. As the tour crossed the country, the team and its mission received newspaper, radio and television media coverage.
Baja Multiple Choice Adventure (2002)
To introduce the 2003 Subaru Baja to lifestyle journalists, Subaru of America asked Odyssey to put together a program that would challenge not only the vehicle but the participants as well.
We designed an overland trek that took participants from the desert to the surf – Las Vegas, Nevada to Morro Bay, California in 3 days. Participants were treated to a variety of road and driving conditions across vastly diverse terrain ranging from arid desert and craggy mountains to Sequoia forests, wild canyons and fragrant farmlands.
The Multiple Choice Adventure also included: clinging to the side of a rock face by fingertips, an awesome 4,200-foot descent down the side of a mountain (on 2 wheels!) and getting friendly with the California surf.
The Annual Funky Museum Roadshow (1999-2001)
The Funky Museum Roadshow — an annual cult occurrence that showcased everything funky and cool about the 100+ museums in Nova Scotia. The public was challenged to come out and “find the funk” in their local museum.
GlobaLearn’s Classroom without Walls (1995)
A virtual geography and geo-political educational survey conducted through Turkey in partnership with Yale University and the GlobaLearn organization. Odyssey handled logistics and planning of the tour as it wound its way through Turkey. On the road, daily journals were transmitted to the G7 Ministerial Conference in Brussels through the internet, providing an innovative live demonstration of the burgeoning information highway.
Getting to School on Time (1995)
Using the 1984 GMC Suburban in which Garry set the record for fastest transit of the world’s largest landmass (Africa-Arctic Challenge), he set out from Halifax, NS and reached Los Angeles 30 days later. Obviously not a record run, the drive had a self-imposed mandate that only 2-lane roads be used and no chain hotels or restaurants were allowed.
En route, Sowerby taught Geography to students in 6th grade across Canada and the U.S. in towns whose names corresponded to name of cities that he had traversed on his Africa-Arctic Challenge in 1984, like Baghdad, Arizona.
Others:
- National Fuel Economy Challenge
- The Great Escape Vacation
- 7 Junkyards in 7 Hours
- Dicey Romance Getaway
- Back Roads Halifax to Toronto
- Seven Resorts in 24 Hours
- Quinpool Cruise
