Fade to Play

In a couple of hours I will be giving a presentation entitled Facebook for Business: How to build relationships, express identity, and manage information in a social ecology. It is for a workshop being organised by the International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA). I am very excited and actually pretty nervous as I always get nervous speaking in public. I feel privileged to get this opportunity and I am in excellent company as UBC Internet Marketing professor Ean Jackson, Maureen McCartney, Web Marketing Manager at Citizens Bank, and Michael Fergusson Chief Products and Innovation Officer at Uniserve and the Founder of Kinzen will be speaking prior to myself.

Their biographies are available here.

What You’ll Learn:

* start with an overview by UBC Internet Marketing professor Ean Jackson that gives some background on the phenomenally-successful social networking application and how it stacks up with contenders such as MySpace and LinkedIn.
* Case Study - Citizens Bank of Canada. Maureen McCartney, Web Marketing Manager at Citizens Bank will share how a financial institution used Facebook to promote brand awareness and drive business results.
* Case Study – Uniserve/Kinzin. Michael Fergusson Chief Products and Innovation Officer at Uniserve and the Founder of Kinzen will talk about how and why he created a Facebook application that now boasts 1.5 million users
* Facebook How-to Workshop. Phillip Jeffrey of the UBC Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC), will take you on an entertaining voyage of discovery as you learn how to use Facebook for your business

Unfortunately it has been sold out for a little while now, but there will be a similar event in the Fall. I will be placing my slide deck on slideshare tonight.

Relevance: Although Facebook has been public since Sept 2006, many people still are unaware on its value as a tool for productivity, business, and getting things done.

Winners of City Chase Vancouver

Last Saturday I was the Blackberry station captain for the Vancouver location of City Chase 2008. City Chase is similar to the Amazing Race as teams of two race around the city doing activities at different stations in order to acquire points. The first team to acquire the necessary points wins.

It is definitely something that I recommend participating in as it is fun and provides the opportunity to get out of your comfort-zone interacting with strangers in your city while testing your physical and mental limits. Vancouver was the first city on the Canadian tour. If you are American, you can participate in the US events. The World Championship will be in November where winning teams from Canada, USA, France, UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Australia, Hong-Kong and Singapore compete.

The Blackberry Station that I was the captain of involved teams having to use the video and photo function to do creative activities. Five of the seven need to be completed within 30 minutes without being assessed a time penalty.

The tasks to choose from were:

• photo of 2 non-participants kissing
• 15 sec video of team members acting as cats (including meowing)
• 15 sec video of 4 non-participants singing O Canada
• photo of tatoo below the waist
• 15 sec video of team member eating food simultaneously with stranger
• photo of stranger drinking a coke
• 15 sec video of a team member tickling barefoot of stranger

I enjoyed being a part of City Chase and I definitely look forward to involvement in the future.

[update] flickr photos are here.

Relevance: Get outside and play a game with others. It is fun and will teach you skills to better your life.

Next week will be a busy week for Darren. Two days before his appearance at a panel discussing online media relations at Covergence 2008, he will be the guest speaker for Third Tuesday and his presentation is entitled: Getting the attention of the web influencers.

As more marketers become aware of them, the web’s new influencers have been as difficult to contact as journalists. The demand for their attention is as high, and their inbox is as full as the average reporter’s.

How do you cut through the noise and get a popular blogger’s attention? You have to be creative, authentic and tenacious. Darren will present a case study of a recent marketing campaign for a BC startup, where a little ingenuity helped grab the attention of some prominent bloggers.

Should be a great event and Darren is a dynamic and knowledgeable speaker.

Make sure you RSVP as it will sell out.

When: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Century House Restaurant & Bar
Facebook event

Relevance: An opportunity to socialise with marketing people and listen to a Social Media expert.

Convergence 2008 is a digital marketing and communications event organised by Cossette West that is taking place next week in Vancouver. It will bring together marketing and communication professionals from across North America in order to gain knowledge and share information regarding branding, cross-platform marketing, and the culture of social media in our society. This all day session will also be of benefit to students, bloggers, and people interested in developing their brand for successful promotion to a targeted audience in this digital age.

The keynote speaker is Grant McCracken, a cultural anthropologist.

Grant McCracken is the author of several books including Culture and Consumption, Plenitude, and Transformation, and Culture and Consumption II: Markets, meaning and brand management. His work has been covered in The New York Times and on Oprah. In his newest book, Flock and Flow: Predicting and Managing Change in a Dynamic Marketplace McCracken deploys “complex adaptive theory” to track the movement of trends and new groupings of consumers. He shows how to monitor new trends, whether and when to introduce new brands and brand extensions, how to speak to niche markets, and how to avoid costly mistakes.

Sebastian Siethoff will be one of the speakers. He is a Global Marketing Director - Young Adults, McDonald’s Corporation which is providing sponsorship for the alternate reality game, The Lost Ring created by Jane McGonigal. As a participant of this game (see blog post), I am interested in how McDonald’s has marketed itself in relation to the game.

Darren Barefoot and Rebecca Bollwitt are two well-known BC bloggers that are part of a panel entitled “Blogger Relations: Influencing Online Influencers”. It should be an insightful discussion and worth attending for anyone that want to enhance their online identity.

The dialogue about your brand is happening in a much more transparent manner these days. Influencers have grown beyond just traditional media outlets to include bloggers, who reign in the online space and who can drastically affect perceptions about your brand, your campaigns and/or any other aspect of your company operations. Are you listening? If so, are you talking back? In the very least, you should be working to tell your side of the story; at best, maximizing your message impact among these powerful individuals. Our panel of experts will share the good the bad and the ugly about successful - and not so successful - approaches to online media relations.

List of speakers are here
Event schedule is here
Registration is here

Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008
Time: 9:30-5pm
Location: Granville Island Arts Club Theatre, 1585 Johnston St
Cost: $200 (until May 13th); $225 (after May 13th)

If you have a vidfest VIP Pass, access is provided to the main stage

Relevance: A great opportunity to learning about digital marketing and social media.

MaRS and Web of Change will be holding a Social Media training workshop in late June. It is called Social Tech Training and takes place in Toronto as a hands-on Web 2.0 oriented learning session for people that are working within the social change environment.

From the Web of Change page:

The Social Tech Training, produced in partnership with MaRS, will mark our first-ever full length urban event. This intensive three-day workshop will provide 65 participants from across Canada and the US with the skills and the tools required to produce a comprehensive Web 2.0 communications plan for their organization. Perfect for social change groups wanting to deepen their impact using in-house talent!

When
June 22-24, 2008

Where
MaRS Centre, in Toronto’s Discovery District

There are a number of qualified people that will be participating as faculty such as Kris Krüg of Raincity Studios and Alexandra Samuel of Social Signal.

Here is the agenda.

You can register here.

Relevance: Social media events are hot right now in Canada (e.g. Launch Party Vancouver 4, nextMEDIA in Banff, and Podcamp Toronto). If you are an organisation or person looking to enhance your Social Media and Web 2.0 knowledge, you should come.

nextMEDIA: The Future of Digital Content is an annual conference taking place in Banff, Canada each year.

nextMEDIA - The Future of Digital Content is where the world’s content creators, broadcasters, financiers, carriers, digital publishers, technology solution-providers, and advertisers meet to extend their knowledge and nurture key business relationships.

Set in spectacular Banff, Alberta, nextMEDIA is the sister event to the world renowned Banff World Television Festival. The event takes advantage of the synergies connecting the television and new media industries by facilitating a high-value networking environment.

The Fairmont Banff Springs is one of the world’s finest heritage resorts. Modeled after a Scottish baronial castle and set amid the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies, “The Springs” is a grand and gracious edifice, combining timeless elegance and state-of-the-art facilities.

Banff Hotel photo courtesy of Flickr user rgoshko

NextMEDIA launched 4 years ago and this event is of interest to content producers, media executives and Web entrepreneurs not only within Canada, but around the world. Looking at the schedule, there are an exceptional list of Canadian speakers.

Day 1 Keynote: Bill Buxton, Insights Into the Field of Human-Computer Interaction

In his keynote address Bill will speak to emerging trends in physical computing and outline how a more human-centered approach to design can create better technology.

Bill is, himself, the recipient of numerous awards, including a Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society Award for contributions to research in computer graphics and human-computer interaction. In 2000, he was presented with the “New Media Visionary of the Year Award” at the Canadian New Media Awards. More recently, Bill was named Doctor of Design, Honoris Causa by the Ontario College of Art and Design.

For the past two years, Bill has been Principal Scientist at Microsoft Corp., where he has consulted on Microsoft Surface, the first commercially available surface computer. He recently authored a new book, Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design (Morgan Kaufmann).

Day 2 Keynote: Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3, The Future of Digital Content

Jim Louderback joined Revision3 as the CEO in July 2007 after 16 years in various media and technology management roles, including leading editorial and lab efforts for PC Week, and being on the launch team for ZDTV/TechTV – the first 24-hour cable network devoted to technology. During his keynote, Jim will outline the important relationship existing between content and community, and discuss the various strategies that have made Revision3 a hit with both audiences and advertisers.

Revision3 was founded in April 2005 by Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson, co-founders of the social bookmarking site digg, and David Prager, a producer, tech writer and journalist with ZDTV and TechTV.

Relevance: There are a number of interesting Digital and Social Media events happening across Canada this summer(e.g. vidfest in Vancouver, nextMEDIA in Banff, Social Tech Training in Toronto). This is definitely an opportunity not to miss in Banff.

City Chase 2007 participants

Next Saturday City Chase 2008 will be taking place in Vancouver. It is a fun adventure race in which teams of two run around to different stations in the city performing activities. The first team to complete the required number of stations in the fastest time is the winner.

The City Chase is a unique urban adventure that requires participants to exhibit teamwork, resourcefulness, determination and the ability to make decisions on the fly as they search for ChasePoints scattered in unknown locations throughout the city. ChasePoints are designed to test teams with a variety of physical, mental, and otherwise adventurous challenges.

To conquer this 4-6 hour urban event, 2-person teams will run, walk and use public transit to navigate their way throughout the city, while calling family and friends for help, accessing the Internet, and even employing assistance of total strangers. The first team to complete the required ChasePoints and cross the finish line WINS

It is a fun event and great opportunity to get to know your partner. People of all ages participate and alot focus on just enjoying themselves rather than winning. If you aren’t in Vancouver, check the schedule to see if it is coming to your city.

[update] Can’t forget about the Facebook event.

Relevance: Games are fun and teach us socialisation and collaborative skills that are relevant to everyday life.

Last Wednesday I attended WordCamp Vancouver as a media sponsor. It was hosted by Tazzu . It was the first time that WordCamp has been held in Vancouver and there were a fun and energetic group of us at the Network Hub, a shared space for startups.

For a good summary of the night, please see the live blogging by Miss 604.

Please see my photos from the night on Flickr.

The Network Hub mission is to become a catalyst for early stage companies to graduate into venture capital ready companies. Start-ups and entrepreneurs can capitalize on the experience, skills and networks that The Network Hub to provide to streamline development and accelerate commercialization of idea

from wordpress.org

WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on hundreds of thousands of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

The first presenter of the night was Jeff Kee, the owner/director of Synchronous Design and Marketing.

According to their website:

Our mission is to help you achieve your marketing goals by providing you with great design and effective communication material.

Jeff Kee’s presentation was entitled “WordPress for total website development” and he discussed how he was able to design their website entirely using WordPress. He shared the benefits of using plugins with WordPress and demoed some examples.

John Kee of Synchronous Design and Marketing

Next up was Monica Hamburg who spoke about Blogging & Social Media. Her presentation addressed how her experience as a writer influences her blogging and ability to evangelise about social media.

Monica Hamburg

Next up was Rebecca Bollwitt aka Miss 604. She discussed and demoed how to add plugins to your WordPress blog (e.g. the Flickr Photo Album).

Rebecca Bollwitt of miss604.com

Duane Storey spoke next entitled “WordPress and mobile blogging” and talked specifically about BraveNewCode and the release of the WPTouch iPhone theme earlier in the week which I had blogged about.

Duane Storey

Then we had a break to stretch and grab donuts. Some of us used the opportunity to take pictures of Interweb celebs.

With Lisa Bettany

Rebecca Bollwitt and Lisa Bettany

After the break Kulpreet Singh gave a presentation entitled “Using WordPress to create a custom library, catalog, or other mashup-type site”. He talked about how WordPress is a Content Management System and demoed a plugin called Enzymes. According to their blog:

Enzymes is a Wordpress Plugin for retrieving properties and custom fields of posts, pages, and authors, right into the visual editor of posts and pages, and everywhere else.

Kulpreet Singh

Bruce Byfield spoke about how he came to enjoy blogging “The Joys of Amateur Blogging”. It was a fun presentation and let to a number of questions from the audience (e.g. How often should one blog?).

Bruce Byfield

The presentation portion of the night ended with John Chow of John Chow dot com whose presentation was entitled “How to make money using a WordPress Blog”. He makes alot of money from his blog ($30 000 each month) and he shared some advice such as how he uses OIOpublisher. He even showed us some copycats of his blog by other people (e.g. John Cow dot com).

John Chow

With the presentations over we headed to Flux for drinks and conversation. Thanks to Automattic for covering the first round.

Duane Storey eating

Post-WordCamp conversation

I enjoyed learning about WordPress from the different people that night who were providing smart and interesting perspectives on why they like to use WordPress and what they get out of it. Like Duane Storey commented, I also enjoy being part of the Open Source community — these are good times we are living in.

Relevance: WordPress rocks — play with it, learn about it, and then share your knowledge with others through twitter, your blog, word of mouth.

Alternate Reality Games (args) and designers of args are becoming more commonplace at digital and social media conferences. Recently Jane McGonigal, an ARG designer on the ilovebees game was the keynote at the SXSW interactive conference and next month 42 Entertainment, the ARG company behind the ilovebees project, will be attending the Vancouver International Digital Festival (VIDFEST).

The Vancouver International Digital Festival is an event for the top creative minds working in digital media. Join visionaries from games and digital entertainment, Web 2.0, interactive design, animation and mobile applications, at this annual ‘must-attend’ in Vancouver, Canada. Get access to international business match-making, ‘big picture’ conference sessions on the latest trends and markets in digital media, a recruiting fair, high-level seminars for creators, designers, and producers, and loads of networking parties.

The festival is organised by New Media BC. Should be good times this year.

What: VIDFEST
When: May 21-24, 2008
Where: Vancouver, Canada

Flickr photo courtesy of kk+

Relevance: Vancouver is a strong environment for digital media and it is expected that key leaders in this industry will be in attendance. Definitely an opportunity to network.

Vancouver is a great place for creative forms of expression to flourish in the areas of mobile technology and social media. I continue to be amazed at the quality of talent here. Tomorrow, Duane Storey will be a speaker at the first WordPress camp at the Network Hub. He will be speaking on mobile blogging because he has just launched the WPTouch iPhone theme in collaboration with Dale Mugford, one of his partners at BraveNewCode. Rebecca Bollwitt provided a fine review regarding her early impressions with screenshots. As well, Duane provides solid information about his theme on his blog.

As I don’t yet have an iPhone (I think I’m the only one if my circle without one), I am using iPhoney, an iPhone web browser simulator for designers to test out the look and feel of the theme on an iPhone. Looking at this theme, is definitely motivating me to get an iPhone. With a little help from Duane and following the well-written instructions, I was able to download the theme, upload it to my WordPress server, and activate it using iPhoney. The screenshots are of my blog on the iPhoney before and after with the WPTouch activated.

My blog without WPTouch

My blog with WPTouch

My blog entry with WPTouch

The theme is already being used by the CBC.

Relevance: Another example of talent within the Vancouver Tech scene.