Vancouver’s “Man About Town”, Fred Lee, has been covering events for major publications for over 20 years while attending A-list parties, red carpet galas, and all of the most noteworthy fundraising events throughout the city. He has been writing columns that have appeared in Vancouver Magazine, Vancouver Boulevard, and The Province as well as a regular contributor to The Vancouver Courier, BC Business, Look Magazine, Living Magazine and TV Week. Our City Tonight (OCT) sat down recently with Fred Lee (FL).  

OCT: Fred, it is great to finally sit down to chat with you. You are such an accomplished media personality in our city. You’re a host, an auctioneer, a presenter, a writer…and of course you can be seen at most of the galas.

FL: Thank you for the invitation. And yes, it’s been so much fun too.

OCT:  Let’s just jump right into it and ask the question, how did you get into media?

FL: Well, it’s been 25 years that I’ve had the pleasure of being in media. When I started in media, I was the publisher of Xtra West. And even though I moved on, I am still part of UBC and Alumni Engagement and the Development office and I’ve always kept my media credentials current. I’ve had the pleasure of working with incredible media outlets like the CBC, like National Post and I believe I’ve written for every publication in this city.  

I’ve had the benefit of seeing this city grow up as well as the pleasure and opportunity to continue to tell stories about the incredible humans who are doing incredible things for our community. I have been very blessed to have had all the opportunities that I have had. And as you know, as a member of the media like the two of you are, we do get invited to MC and to host a lot of great activities. 

As you become engaged with all of these incredible organizations and wonderful causes, you can’t help but feel more compelled to get involved. I must say I have been very privileged over 25 years and over that time I have been given the platforms to be able to do the storytelling and to share the extraordinary work of good people doing good things for others.

OCT:  Yes, and that’s also one of the very interesting things we get to do. But also, one of the things we were talking about before we sat down for this interview was, how we all had to evolve over the past years, in that we do print, we do TV, radio and utilize the many social media platforms.  

When we see you at events, you are busy with other media platforms because you have to publish something right now at the event but still  contribute something to traditional media a couple days after the event. When we go to events, we have to spend a lot of time filming content for TV but we too have to also use social media platforms to get the story out right away to the public, so we do understand.

FL: I agree and it is interesting about the evolution of our jobs. For many years I was chronicling all the various events through my columns, and of course, always with the camera in hand. I think with the evolution of the social media platforms that we have today, we are still seeing a demonstration and creation of the storytelling. It’s not just myself, or you, or folks like Malcolm Parry and others that are sharing and chronicling and generating those stories. 

Everyone is generating stories every single day, every single hour, and every single minute. I do think that as we have all pivoted, we have all seen the evolution and experienced it and I do think it’s wonderful now that it’s not just left up to a privileged few, but that all of us have the opportunity to do the storytelling.

With that said, I do think there is some concern with media as the landscape reveals that we’re losing some talented journalists. I think the ability to embrace these tools that we now have including Chat GPT (AI app) we need to understand that these tools can actually benefit and support all of us. 

Storytelling is also not just the photos posted I believe it goes beyond the photos. It piques our interest and once the photograph piques our interest, we still need those people to tell the stories and to produce the stories in ways where not only is it seen on your TV program but also, I’m sure it can be seen the next day on another platform like YouTube and so many others. I’m very proud of the work that we have all done and I do hope that for all of our colleagues that as we evolve, we also find different ways to communicate and continue to engage with this wonderful community.

OCT:  We would like to throw this next question out there and ask, what is your favourite part of this media industry? 

FL: For me, the favourite part of media has always been just meeting the people. I’m a people person and I love it. Can you tell, that I am a bit of an extrovert (laughs) and so for me it has always been about meeting the people and hearing their stories and  everyone has a story.

OCT: Fred, thank you, it has been a pleasure for Our City Tonight to finally get to sit down and interview you. You really are a great member of this city, and for all that you do to give back to the community.

You can follow Fred Lee on Instagram and Twitter @FredAboutTown