Brent Klassen has been working with personalized communications programs for more than a decade.

In the early ’90s with Cam Shapansky at Information DesignWorks (IDW), he recognized that certain technologies that were critical to the execution and deployment of personalized communications had not yet sufficiently matured. So he spearheaded IDW’s efforts to build a technology framework for personalized communications that subsequently became the basis for much of that company's work.

With some of the technology issues resolved, Brent turned his analytical skills to focus on the techniques of dynamic communication, embracing the challenges in designing and writing dynamic content. He has written and spoken on these techniques, which are integral in bringing personalization into the mainstream.

In the late ’90s, with wheresfrankie.com, Mspect Canada, and Bell Globemedia Interactive, he expanded his interest in dynamic content to other media – namely, the Internet and various wireless technologies, each of which brings a unique set of challenges to bear on the publication and comprehension of dynamic content.

Starting Blue North Strategies with Cam in 2002 represented a return to corporate communications, but with an enriched background in managing content across various media. As personalization technology matures, Brent continues to focus on the disciplines of design and content creation as they apply to personalized communications, and is able to use his experience to unlock strategic communications opportunities for Blue North’s customers.

Brent lives on a farm near Erin, Ontario, where his wife Val raises livestock and makes maple syrup. He has three energetic boys: Kieran, for whom hockey is religion; Nathan, for whom rock and roll is religion; and Joel, for whom nothing is sacred.

He plays guitar (the real thing, not the Guitar Hero thingee with the flashing lights) as time permits with three young kids and a whack of farm animals to feed.