With all the awesome guests I’ve had over the past few weeks, I had not had the chance to do a solo show in a while. Today, I want to focus on what I think is the prime real state of audio technology. I’m talking, of course, about flash briefings! And what better way to dive into them than by going over the best ones. Here is a list of the current top ten flash briefings in Canada, based on average customer ratings! Time to countdown the top ten!

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Ready? Here we go! The Top 10 Flash Briefings in Canada!

#10 Easter Egg Daily, by LME Skills.

The first of the flash briefings on our list is all about Easter eggs, and these Easter eggs are fun little nuggets of entertainment. When enabled, this flash briefing provides you with short statements or questions (in Alexa’s voice) on what you can say to Alexa, like “Why are there so many rainbows?” for example.  There are lots of other fun tidbits that you can learn about through the flash briefing. The Easter eggs are curated from the Things to Ask Alexa archive, on the Love My Echo site.

#9 Today in Canada, by Freeacademy.

Are you interested in what happened on in a particular day in Canadian history? Then the second flash briefing in our flash briefings list is for you. Today in Canada will tell you about something that happened on the particular day in Canada’s history. This one is also in Alexa’s voice.

#8 The Canadian Press Hourly News Updates, by The Canadian Press.

This is a news flash briefing with a twist: unlike other news flash briefings, this one has two feeds. As per their description: Get a 60-second or four-minute update from Canada’s national news agency − breaking regional, national and world updates, including sports news, weather bulletins and more. You can chose if you want to subscribe to one or both feeds. The four-minute feed is better produced, including a snazzy jingle which I believe makes for great audio branding by The Canadian Press.

#7 Word of the Day, by Volley Inc.

This flash briefing is for word aficionados, people wishing to become walking dictionaries, or for anyone looking to improve their vocabulary. According to their description: Word of the Day’s host teaches you a useful word, its definition, spelling, and an example of how to use it in a sentence. In other words, fun! Or should I say amusing, enjoyable, entertaining… To boot, the briefing updates daily and is narrated with a fresh sense of humour.

#6 CBC News, by CBC.

Let’s start with their description: CBC News brings you a Canadian perspective on what’s happening here, and around the world right now… wherever and whenever you want it. Every hour, every day, we are there with the best of CBC journalism, so you can hear and feel the world change, and know why it matters to you. And just like their description, the flash briefing oozes with professionalism: they have an anchor who sets up the stories and adds all the flavor of your usual radio news show. On a lower note, there have been a couple of times where the briefing was not available.

#5 BNN Bloomberg Flash Briefing, by Bell Media.

As you might have come to expect from the Bloomberg brand, this flash briefing is all about news. And just news. It fact, it is so direct it doesn’t even have time for any audio branding. It does have a human touch, however. The news is read by a human narrator. Let’s hear it from them: Get the latest business headlines and breaking financial news from the Business News Network Bloomberg every hour. That sums it up pretty well!

#4 GaryVee 365, by VaynerMedia

Here’s their description: A series of daily motivational quotes, phrases and sayings from Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO and co-founder of VaynerMedia. Listen to Gary talk about Hustle, Self-Awareness, Self-Esteem, Empathy, Optimism, Gratitude, Patience, Legacy, Culture and more. One small note, though: you may not want to start the briefing around children. On this briefing, we get Gary Vaynerchuk as we’ve come to know and like him, without filters. Having said that, if you are looking for some inspiration from one of the top entrepreneurial minds around today, check this one out!

And now the top 3!

#3 The Daily from The New York Times, by The New York Times Company.

I can honestly say this is the best produced flash briefing I’ve come across. It’s NPR-style radio. It’s informative and entertaining. What separates it from the pack is its use of dialogue and commentary. And, following the trend of the other top flash briefings on the list, it also includes a solid audio branding. Here’s their description: This is how the news should sound. Fifteen minutes a day, five days a week. Only what you want to know and none of what you don’t. Hosted by Michael Barbaro. Powered by New York Times journalism. Ready by 6 a.m. Enjoy this one!

#2 Hashtag Trending, by ITWC

This briefing is also incredibly well produced. Their site describes them as providing “updates on the trending technology news from top web sources like Google, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Product Hunt, and more. This skill contains one podcast feed that is updated every weekday and is about two minutes in length.” And they do this pretty efficiently, too. One of a variety of hosts starts by announcing the top three headlines from the day before, and then they break each of them down. Overall, it’s a great way to stay up to date on technology.

#1 Voice in Canada, by Voice in Canada.

As you of course know, this is my own flash briefing and I won’t dwell too much on it. I just want to note that, like the other top flash briefings on the list, Voice in Canada packs the key ingredients for what I believe makes a successful flash briefing: it has recognizable audio branding (i.e. jingle), and a human touch (i.e. recorded audio and NOT Alexa’s voice) – in this case, me! Last but not least, I want to thank all the people who have rated it and made it number one.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

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