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Article courtesy of ANOKHI Magazine.

DEOCSTA has designed and developed an interactive website with stunning graphics that immerse you in the visual decor and delicious fare.

Visit ShakaiOrlando.com and experience the atmosphere – without leaving the comfort of your home! 

Restaurant Homepage – click on “Lounge” on the right to visit the Lounge!

Lounge Homepage

Osgoode Hall’s Entertainment and Sports Law Association presents an exciting opportunity for students interested in music, motion pictures, television, sports, broadcasting, publishing and other creative or artistic industries to combine their passion with their legal studies.

Learn more about OESLA – click here!

DECOSTA Marketing and PBI Sports (a Pinnacle Business Company) are pleased to announce the creation of DECOSTA – PBI Sports Management creating a seamless offering to their existing and new clients, combining the creative marketing component with the Business Management side of individuals’ personal brand. 

The PBI Sports’ roster includes names like World Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Jamie Sale, Zurich Lions Head Coach Marc Crawford, Sports and News Anchor Dara McIntosh, and Hockey Night in Canada Broadcaster Craig Simpson.

With over 20 years of experience, this joint venture alliance will operate as DECOSTA – PBI and both Jesse DeCosta, President of DECOSTA Marketing and Neil Glasberg, President, PBI Sports and Pinnacle Business Inc. are focused on their respective growth trajectories by offering clients expert advice, counsel, guidance and management of their particular affairs. 

“Our alliance with PBI Sports will strengthen DECOSTA‘s offering to the entertainment business, by providing a holistic approach to complete brand management” says DECOSTA President, Jesse DeCosta. “Business management services are in demand by some of the biggest names in Sports and Entertainment, and with DECOSTA – PBI our company is now the total solution”

“This is a very exciting day in the evolution of sports representation services and in particular, the life cycle of PBI Sports,” says Neil Glasberg, PBI Sports President.  “Providing personal branding solutions to athletes, coaches and media personalities is a huge differentiator from typical agency services. It’s time that those with celebrity status are proactively guided with wholesome, creative strategies that align to personal career and business objectives.” 

For more information, visit:
www.decostainc.com
http://www.pbisports.com/

Become a Fan of DECOSTA on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/D-E-C-O-S-T-A-Marketing

 Follow DECOSTA on Twitter: 
@decostainc

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Available for Interviews:
Jesse DeCosta, President, DECOSTA
Neil Glasberg, President, PBI Sports

For media inquiries please contact:
Pennant Media Group
Kevin Pennant  kp@pennantmediagroup.com  
Toronto 416.596.2978 
USA 855.596.2978

B.A.N.D. required a easy-to-use microsite to promote the various Black History Month events across Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax. 

Don’t miss a month of celebration, arts and culture!

To read more about the TD Then & Now events please visit the B.A.N.D. website: www.blackartndialog.com/

What was like growing up in Edmonton, Alberta? How do you think that experience influenced you later in life?  

It was the early seventies and I was young, so I don’t remember much. I do recall things being sweet, but also dangerous, especially for a brown kid in Edmonton. Now, you look at this room (Decosta points to to the workspace Extreme Startups occupies, which it shares with the Toronto Standard) and the whole world is represented in it, but Edmonton wasn’t like that in the early 70s. There was a huge negative impression of immigrants—you know, taking jobs and all that kind of stuff. So like I said, it was fun, but I used to go to school in fear (laughs). Thankfully, things started changing in the 80s.  

As for how it influenced me, I think half of it has to do with my family situation at the time: my dad was unemployed for six years so we didn’t have any money. I had to find ways to entertain myself without any money. The other part of it is that Edmonton has a unique position in the country, because, for at least the last fifteen years, no one thought anything of the city. For a long time, people would say to me, “Oh you’re from Calgary?” And I would answer, “No… I’m from Edmonton.” But when you’re there growing up, you gain this perspective on Canada and rest of the world that’s very different from what anyone else in the country gets. I think that perspective, along with what I learned from my family situation, helps me with my work.  

Read the rest of the article on the Toronto Standard.

Igor Bonifacic is a writer working for the Toronto Standard. You can follow him on twitter @igorbonifacic. 

As a teenager Jesse DeCosta hid the fact his family was so poor they had to store their clothes in garbage bags. Today, the successful Mississauga businessman credits his hardscrabble past for helping him land high-profile Hollywood clients like Will Smith and Jamie Foxx.

“All of my clients have had major struggles in their life,” said DeCosta, now 41, whose company – DECOSTA Marketing Inc . – gets paid to build websites and manage the social media accounts for a number of Hollywood celebrities.

“There’s something that has happened to them that’s traumatic or that pushed them to want to be better and I think that’s a common ground,” he said.

DeCosta has had his share of adversity. Born in Dar es Salaam, a large port city in Tanzania on the east coast of Africa, DeCosta’s family fled to Canada shortly thereafter to escape a tumultuous political climate. On the suggestion of a customs official, they ended up in Edmonton at the beginning of the 1970?s oil boom.

But the move was no bonanza. After working sporadically for years as a draftsman, DeCosta’s father died suddenly of a heart attack in 1987 when Jesse was just 16 years old. Without any income, the bank took their home and DeCosta’s mother moved the family to Toronto, where they lived in a one-room apartment in Scarborough.

“Horrible years,” confessed DeCosta. “We basically lost everything, because he was the
breadwinner. Literally our clothes were in garbage bags. I’m not ashamed of that anymore – I used to be.”

It was shortly after the move that DeCosta’s entrepreneurial career took flight. Tapping his father’s artistic abilities, DeCosta’s first job was drawing caricatures for people outside theme parks.

“I had to find any way to make money and one of the things I could do was draw,” said
DeCosta, adding he made as much as $80 a day.

He took an interest in computers and became a graphic artist, which led to a job at Sony designing CD covers for emerging artists. “I don’t think I had any special gift, I could just work faster.”

When the Internet came along, DeCosta moved from album covers to designing websites that ultimately led him to launching his company in 1999. His first client was Canadian songstress Deborah Cox, who opened the door to bigger stars like Smith.

Today, DeCosta manages 100 clients globally, including Will Smith’s wife, Jada, and their two children Jaden and Willow, actors Kevin James and Leah Remini and musicians Jennifer Hudson, Robin Thicke and the remaining Jackson brothers.

The company also controls the Facebook and Twitter accounts for the estates of rappers Tupac S hakur and The N otorious B.I.G . Since creating the Twitter feed for Shakur (@2pac) at the beginning of 2011, DeCosta has grown it to nearly 170,000 followers. He also said the rapper’s Facebook page is visited by more than 40 million fans per month.

“I saw it as an opportunity because it didn’t exist,” said DeCosta, who noted his success has come from not being scared to think big. “We have such gigantic brands that we manage that have such big numbers of fans that you’re able to see trends in a big way.”

In addition to entertainment clients, DeCosta has worked with major brands like McDonald’ s and represents the Ontario government, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and non-profit organizations such as Unicef and the United Way.

DeCosta, who splits his time between offices in Mississauga and Los Angeles, said he’s looking to evolve his company to produce original content, in particular for television and film. However, the biggest obstacle is money and the current lending atmosphere remains tight, especially in Canada.

“I just wish there was some sort of an entrepreneurial division of a bank that gets the territory that we’re in and the fact that we have the clients that we have,” said DeCosta, who notes his company’s revenue growth has averaged about 10 per cent annually.

“They can’t make that mental leap to think a Canadian company could be doing this.”

DeCosta says he gets offers every week to move his business permanently south of the border, but he doesn’t want to leave Mississauga, where his wife was born and raised and the only home his two daughters have ever known. “I really do love Mississauga. I love coming home.”

His support system in Mississauga became even more important after DeCosta’s mother died in 2006. “You always have your mum and dad to look after you. When that goes away you’re suddenly left with (the feeling of) ‘Oh my God, I’m alone.’”

Her death was followed by the global recession, which put a crimp in DeCosta’s business.  DeCosta has offset some of that squeeze by giving up his Toronto-based office that he said was costing $14,000 a month in rent, and working out of his home in Mississauga. He also set up his 15 employees – four of which are local – with the technology to work from anywhere.

“We’ve done this whole virtualization thing for two years and nobody wants to go back to an office,” he said. “Everyone is twice as productive as they used to be.”

Another tip DeCosta has for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to find greater success is to stay true to who you are.

“I’m not a typical corporate kind of guy. I don’t wear suits and ties, so I don’t play that part of a business guy,” adding his clients “immediately feel creativity, because I come into
the room with ideas.”

Guyana Precious Metals (GPM) s a Canadian based mineral exploration company focused on acquiring key gold exploration and development properties in the country of Guyana, South America.

DECOSTA was engaged to redesign and develop the new Guyana Precious Metals website.  The new website is a perfect visual representation of the golden company.

Tanya Kim has joined the DECOSTA Family with the new design and development of the Official Tanya Kim website. 

Visit TanyaKim.ca for the latest Dog Tips, Daily Style File and all things TK!

Welcome to the family, TK!

This is Deborah’ s return to Broadway after playing Aida in the Broadway musical from February 17 – September 4, 2012.

Don’t miss Deborah during the U.S. National Tour.  Click here for dates.

Broadway 13-weeek limited engagement begins on April 5, 2013.  Buy your tickets here!

Watch the new TV commercial of Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical starring Deborah Cox and Constantine Maroulis!