My name is Lauren Hjalmarson, and I am the owner of startup media and communications company Lion Speak Creative. As a consultant, I work primarily with companies in British Columbia’s film and animation industries from my home city of Kelowna, B.C.

My academic pursuits and interests have varied from my professional endeavours, yet they can certainly be credited for the foundation on which I now operate. I have a diploma in Theatre Arts from Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and just a few courses left in my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Performance at UBC-Okanagan. The selection of classes that I have taken at UBCO has been about 2:1:1: theatre, creative writing, and visual art.

From 2014 – 2015, I had the opportunity to use several of my classes to produce a children’s book. This had been a lifelong dream of mine. I wrote and illustrated a chapter book called Rory and the Coyote, the aesthetic of which was inspired by Charlotte’s Web. A small local press called Lake Publishing Society released the book, and I’ll be looking for a larger publisher to do a reprint shortly.

Immediately following Rory’s publication, I began a summer contract as a journalist, marketer, and videographer for KelownaNow.com. This was my second term of work with the digital agency Csek Creative – KelownaNow’s parent company – and I now apply the experience I gained there to self-employment work with The Film Factory New Media Creative House. The Film Factory functions as a hub for its industry in the Okanagan, and I am proud to manage the company’s day-to-day operations and social media channels as their brand ambassador, marketer, and web video producer.

As you may have guessed, acting is also close to my heart and I am auditioning regularly for film and theatre jobs through BOSS Management. I don’t know where my career will go from here, but I hope to ride whichever of the waves I am surfing proves most powerful. With all of this in mind, I was grateful to have Technical Communications available as on online course this summer, because I believe what I’ve learned through the class will prove invaluable to my development as a new company owner.