I'm a little bummed that I'm going to be missing the upcoming Digital Day conference in Toronto (November 2, 2010 - put on by the Canadian Marketing Association and Marketing Magazine). I'm on the planning committee so I've been privy to all the great speakers and other things planned.
Update Feb 8: I've drawn the two winners (thank you random.org). They are Robin Vandekleut and Kat Hanley. Congrats to the two of you! And many thanks to everyone who participated! If you're still keen to attend, remember you can get a $50 discount with the promo code, SK23.
The Art of Marketing - now, this is a conference I'd consider heading into the Big Smoke to attend. I've seen most of these speakers before (all except Dan Heath and James Othmer), and they are all amazing and inspirational and smart.
Sally Hogshead is one of my favourite speakers. I saw her at a CMA conference a few years ago. Her book Radical Careering had just been released and she led this great interactive session on having a career that meant something to you.
The Art of Marketing takes place on March 2nd at the John Bassett Theatre in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Tickets start at $399, but you can use Promo Code SK23 to get a $50 discount.
Plus .. the good folks at The Art of Marketing have given me a pair of tickets to give away. Yay, Art of Marketing!
So .. if you'd like to be entered in my random draw, just leave a comment saying which speaker you're most interested in seeing and what you'd ask them. I'll close the comments on February 5 and will do the draw the following week.
Here's there their promo video - in case you want to get all jazzed-up to kicky music :)
Don't forget to enter the draw for the pair of tickets!
Every once in a while I still miss Toronto and all its *happenings*. Vancouver is delightful, but smaller, so we generally don't have the variety of activities here as there. In particular, I was recently very jealous of Toronto's CupCakeCamp. Sure .. BarCamp is great and DemoCamp .. also good. But CupCakeCamp?!?! Who wouldn't want to attend CupCakeCamp?
Seeking Simone is a new lesbian web series about online
dating. Follow the adventures of Simone Selkin as she dates her way
through gay Toronto!
"What's so great about meeting 'in real life' first anyway? That's how Ava Braun met Hitler and look how that turned out."
Simone
Selkin is single and in no way ready to mingle. Her excuses? Well,
she's new to Toronto, she's trying to make the most of her big break on
CSIS:ForensicSWAT and, if she's honest, she's still getting
over her ex, Rebecca, who was a total skank. But back in Vancouver,
Simone's best friend Audrey has a plan to get Simone back on the horse.
And that plan is "online dating".
Don't fret, hets - Seeking Simone is not just for homos. It's a comedy for anyone who's ever dared to date - and lived to cringe forever over the tale.
Episodes 1 and 2 are ready and watch-able. And I hear their editor is working furiously on the third. Below is the trailer, to give you a taste of the show. I, of course, think it is charming and funny. But I acknowledge I'm biased. Still, give it a view - I'll bet you like it too!
A few weeks ago when I was in Toronto, I was browsing through a local bookstore spending a few pleasant minutes before the start of a movie at an adjacent theatre. I spent some time in the "eco" section, looking for some content ideas for a client, and I came across Adria Vasil's Ecoholic.
Sweet.
As I picked up Ecoholic to flip through it, it fell open at the "Home Improvement" section of the book. On the PAINT page. The page was marked with postcard from Homestead House Paint Company, a Toronto company that specializes in eco-friendly paints, stains and finishes. The other side of the postcard advertises Cycling Painters, another Toronto-based company that will apply your eco-friendly paint for you - and cycles to your location, for the good of the environment.
I thought this was pretty clever. It reaches a targeted, local, niche audience when and where they are looking for a specific product or service that the advertisers have to offer. And it's portable, so the potential customer could event take this piece of marketing with them without buying the book.
One reason this works, of course, is that everyone ISN'T doing it. I certainly don't want to have my book browsing time turned into a hybrid of Times Square billboards and "Subscribe!" magazine notices. But I thought that this was a good, highly-targeted low-cost example of what a local business can do to get the word out.
I rail a lot about the lack of visibility of women in marketing and technology. Mainly as speakers at events, but as attendees too.
Well, I'm DELIGHTED to let you know about what FITC Toronto is doing. FITC = Flash in the Can - the premiere Flash conference in the world. It got its start in Toronto and is back in Toronto again. This year, the organizers have set aside 100 tickets to give to women who want to attend.
FITC wants to see more females at FITC Toronto
FITC recognizes that females in our industry are underrepresented. We feel
there are some amazing women working in this industry, and want to see
them at FITC Toronto 2009. As such, FITC is stepping up and offering 100 festival tickets to any women who would like to attend.
So AWESOME - thank you, FITC Toronto!!
Yes, you have to make a video. Shouldn't be a big deal. FITC have posted the directions on how to do it (bottom of the page). Make sure you tag it FITC Toronto (and maybe FITC Female for good measure - yeah, it's weird they used "female" instead of "women" - whatever - cut 'em some slack) Here's an example video ...
First 100 women get the tickets - so get cracking! Ultimately, this offer closes on March 29, 2009 - but I'm sure those 100 tix will go faster than that!
Again, big thanks to FITC and to Julie Giles over at GreenHAT Digital who gave me the head's up! Oh, and this isn't just for web designers! Are you an account person in an interactive shop? Well FITC is for you too!!
Plus they're giving away some Fujifilm digital cameras!
So, there are a few ways to win ...
First, the F list Scavenger Hunt! The F list team has hidden two Fujifilm S100fs (valued at over $700) in both Vancouver and Toronto. One of them has been found in Toronto, but neither have been found in Vancouver! Get on it! I'm pretty sure I know where location #2 in Vancouver is - see pics below. Race ya?!
Second, the Best Gift/Worst Gift photo contests. Have you had an awesome gift? What about a less than awesome (some might say, craptastic) gift? Here's your chance to share your joy or, uh, your un-joy. You can win a Fujifilm S2000HD (valued at $300) for submitting a photo and getting your friends to vote. There are winners each week. Weekly contests end on Saturdays. Get the deets at the links below.
Third, instant win! Yeah, I know. Sneaky, eh? Here's the secret link. Shhh. It's just between you and me. The link takes you to a page where you register for the F list. Copy the secret code on the page. You then paste it into a box on the reg page. It should tell you if you've won or not. The instant win is for a Fujifilm J100.
Finally .. and you've waited long enough ... you can win a Fujifilm S2000HD from me! All you have to do is leave a comment telling me your favourite Christmas carol. I'll give you one entry into my draw.
If you're really keen ... upload a video somewhere of you singing your favourite Christmas carol (just a line or two, not the whole thing; and if you're camera shy, hide behind a poinsettia). Work the word "Fujifilm" or "digital camera" in there too. Then come back here and post the link. I'll give you 10 entries into my random draw.
You have to leave a comment and/or a video link by NOON PST on Dec 23rd. I'll do a random draw sometime after that. I'll post the winner here by Christmas eve.
Winner Update: Well, exploiting your children (and a little extra effort) goes a long way. DaniGirl's name was pulled out of the jar last night. Congrats to her! And many thanks to all of you for playing and to Fujifilm Canada for the prize. I learned about a number of new holiday songs. I hope you did too. In fact, I even made a playlist (many thanks to @digitaljoy who told be about awesome Grooveshark!) It's below. It, amazingly, has every song that was mentioned. I am particularly delighted by the Italian Christmas Donkey song.
Disclaimers: Eligibility - if you read my blog, you're eligible. If you live outside of Canada and happen to win, we'll figure out how to get you the prize. By entering you agree to the following: My decision is final. If my childhood friend Binky happens to win the draw, you can't complain. You agree that neither I nor Fujifilm are responsible if your comment doesn't get posted or if your video disappears or for any other computer glitch associated with this contest. You also acknowledge that if you win, you will not receive the camera in time for the holidays so you won't plan on giving it to someone. Also, if you do win, you agree that I can post your name here. And finally, you agree that if you DON'T win and you decide to FREAK OUT about it, Santa WILL put you on the Naughty List. Permanently.
So, that's it! Try 'em all to win! But mainly mine b/c I think it will be AWESOME to see a bunch of videos from my friends singing their favourite Christmas carol!!
By the way, aside from all this camera-y goodness, there's actually a bunch of great content over on the F list site. They have a gift finder (and no, it doesn't recommend JUST Fujifilm cameras). They also have an F list expert blog where they share cool gift ideas and other gift-related tidbits. They profile some very cool stores in Toronto and Vancouver as well as the weekly best and worst gift winners. Plus, they are pretty witty over at the F list. I leave you with these gems from the post, The Costly Crime of Bad Gifting:
8 in 10 people receive gifts that they don't want
17% of those people return their gifts just because they don't like them
the top 2 groups of bad gift givers are parents and spouses
38% of bad gift recipients hide their bad gifts
31% of surveyed people admitted to re-gifting
65% of gifts men give women are returned, never used, or stored in some obscure random location never to be seen again.
60% of re-gifters are women
European research suggests that we
give the worst presents to the people we love the most mistakenly
believing our tastes are theirs.
Happy holidays, everyone!
Disclosure (for folks who think that product bloggers have hidden agendas): I am not being paid to post about this. I happen to know the folks who are working with Fujifilm on this promo and they said "Hey, want to give away a camera on your blog?" and I said "Yes. Yes I do!"
This is one conference I definitely wish I was going to be in town for! I've blogged about them before - they have some great speakers lined up. I attended the nextMEDIA event in Banff last year and it was excellent.
It's easy to enter the draw - just let us know (in the comments on this post) the speaker or the session you're most interested in. Enter by Thursday noon. We'll post the winner bright and early on Friday.
I'm headed into Toronto tonight to spend a few days with clients and then attend the CMA's Digital Marketing Conference. I enjoy the DMC for a number of reasons; there is usually really great content as well as a good venue and amenities. Plus, it's like attending my high school reunion - I end up seeing people I haven't seen, well, since last year's DMC. Always great to catch-up!
Plus, this will be my third (fourth?) year moderating the Blogging Experience Exchange Roundtable. This year, Podcasting is also included in my roundtable session which will be fun for me - usually Bill Sweetman does the Podcasting one, but they've added a Domain roundtable that he's taking on, so I get Podcasting too!
Speaking of Bill Sweetman, he's put together a great post on the Seven Killer Reasons to Attend the 2008 DMC. All good reasons. But I'm secretly excited about #7. Tucows generally gives good schwag (as you can see in the photo below). How will they top the squishy-cow?
In addition to moderating the Blogging and Podcasting roundtable, I'll be covering the DMC for One Degree along with the lovely and talented Alexa Clark. Alexa will be conducting video interviews with a number of the speakers as well as "One Minute with One Degree" interviews with attendees. Make sure you find us!
And speaking of One Degree, over the last couple of weeks, we have had a preview of some of the great content and speakers you'll will find at the DMC:
I'm a fan for a few reasons. Personally, I think hyper-local is in. And these aren't just city-based recommendations, but neighbourhood-based recommendations. So, I can find a stroller-friendly coffeeshop in the Beaches in Toronto or in Kitslano in Vancouver.
Secondly, SavvyShare.ca is a perfect resource for families who are traveling to cities they aren't familiar with. Want to know what you and your kids can do while you're visiting Edmonton - check it out on ShareSavvy.ca.
The launch of ShareSavvy.ca was a soft-launch with some ongoing social media activities and blogger outreach. One of the pieces that I was most excited about was the social media release that SavvyMom created. The SMR as a tool is still evolving (and should, ultimately, evolve into a digital press room), but there were a couple of interesting elements in this one. First, we did a Twitter summary. The idea was first suggested in a post by Jeremiah Owyang (further riffed on by Todd Defren) offering his thoughts on SMRs. This was the summary:
Just launched for Canadian Moms! Share your neighbourhood favs and trusted mom resources at ShareSavvy.ca http://is.gd/2xnQ.
As you can imagine, it was met with some skepticism by the socmed folks on Twitter. Legitimately, the question was raised about whether or not anyone would use it. To date, I don't think anyone has; however, that, for me anyway, was not the only goal. It was a good writing exercise to get the summary of the launch and a link into 140 characters. And having it, as well as other multi-media chunks, has shaped how we think about the content we provide to the people we'd like to have write stories about us.
A Contest - Win A Range or Groceries
And for those of you who are inclined to write a review or two of your favourite local resources ... there is a contest happening right now on ShareSavvy.ca. For every review you write, you receive an entry into a draw for either a Whirlpool Gold ® Free-Standing Range worth $1599 courtesy of
Whirlpool® Home Appliances or $500 worth of groceries courtesy of
President’s Choice. You can sign up over at ShareSavvy.ca.
I often rant about how no one in Canada is bringing in strong women keynotes at marketing/technology conferences. Well, I thought it would be nice to recognize someone who IS.
Susan Bonds comes to nextMEDIA with a presentation detailing 42 Entertainment’s forays into branded entertainment and sponsorship. In particular, Ms. Bonds will speak to her company’s involvement in the production of an innovative alternate reality game for Warner Bros. summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight. An award-winning Interactive producer, Susan has produced all of 42's projects, including 2006's Last Call Poker (Activision), Dead Man's Tale (Disney and MSN) and 2007's The Vanishing Point, the first global puzzle game.
Alexandra Levy unveils the workings behind Google’s bold step into the distribution business with a presentation that focuses on the company’s plans to syndicate a new animation series by Seth MacFarlane (“Family Guy”). The series, entitled “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” carries a multimillion-dollar production price tag and is the first original content play to be distributed using the AdSense advertising system. Prior to joining Google in 2007, Alex was the Director of Business Development at MTV Networks in New York, where she managed a national multi-media New Business team that sold on-air, online, digital, and multi-screen packages to a national client base.
There will be a number of other excellent speakers at nextMEDIA: Monetizing Digital Content as well:
nextMEDIA is being held Nov 18th and 19th in Toronto; hopefully they will have the full schedule up soon! It is piggy-backing on the Canadian New Media Awards on Nov 18th.
Hi, my name is Kate Trgovac. I write about social media, interactive marketing, technology, design and some other miscellany. If you're looking for Kate Leroux, you'll find her at the .com :)
These are some of the images, videos & quotes that resonate with me, but I don't feel like writing a full post about. So I publish them on my tumblr. And there is a feed for these if you're keen ...
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