« September 2008 | Main | November 2008 »

Posts from October 2008

Attending the CMA's Digital Marketing Conference This Week in Toronto

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?


Darth Tater herding Cows

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:

All-in-all looks to be a great two days!  Please make sure you find me and say hello if you're attending!

26 October 2008 in Canadian, Marketing, Technology & the Internet, Toronto | | Comments (1)

Making Los Angeles seem like Winnipeg on The Office

Nup_131881_0091 I'm a big fan of the TV show, The Office (the American version, not the British one).  Apparently an upcoming episode has the main character, Michael Scott (played by Steve Carrell) headed to Winnipeg on a business trip.  The show's budget is pretty limited, so instead of shooting on location, they recreated Winnipeg in LA.  With a little help ...

The whole episode was shot in the Los Angeles area, with the aid of some background footage and a shipment of Canadiana from Destination Winnipeg.

The show's propmaster contacted the Winnipeg tourism promotion agency, which sent along airport baggage tags, shopping bags from The Bay, Old Dutch potato chips, Fort Garry brewing company paraphernalia and other distinctive items.

I guess this happens a lot for film and TV shoots. It's just never something I really thought about ... what a cool  gig "Hey, Sophia Coppola just called.  She wants to recreate Moose Jaw in Reno.  Send her some Moose Jaw artifacts!"

The website for The Office is pretty amazing - they have all kinds of fun, engrossing, related content to the show as well as full video episodes (thank you, NBC, for making them available to Canadians too!).  They also have a series of quite funny PSAs recorded by the cast.  See "Arctic Wolf" below (warning, you might have to watch an ad first) ...

24 October 2008 in Canadian, Films & Movies, Randomness | | Comments (0)

links for 2008-10-22

  • List Of Top Social Media Network Sites | instantShift
    Extensive list, broken down into useful categories, of a number of the major sites out there.
    (tags: tools socialmedia list socialnetworking resources)
  • How to Get a Blogger to Promote Your Product - Stepcase Lifehack
    Some good do's and do-not-do's when trying to engage bloggers.
    (tags: marketing blogs blogger+relations onedegree)
  • Osmosus - Social Energy for a Green Planet
    Client of mine that just went into public beta! From the site ...

    Osmosus is a unique online social community created to address the growing need for dialogue, learning and action related to the environment and sustainability. Osmosus enables us to come together and improve our communities, our world & ultimately ourselves.

    Osmosus was conceived in 2007 by a group of concerned people who saw an increasing volume of information about sustainability, environmentalism and climate change. We realized that it was getting harder and harder to wade through it all and understand what was happening, and what to do. Most importantly, we wanted to know what others were doing on the journey towards a more ecologically harmonious relationship with the planet. And, we wanted the opportunity to discuss and learn from others like us, from our neighbors and from the experts. We realized that change was not going to be easy, but for change to happen people have to come together. And Osmosus was born.


    (tags: socialnetwork beta sustainability green green+energy)

22 October 2008 | | Comments (0)

A YouTube Thanksgiving

2940560008_a844110e2c_m A few weeks ago it was Canadian Thanksgiving.  We spent it over on Vancouver Island with Rose's parents and her brother, James.  They don't have cable so if we're all boardgame'd out, we'll usually watch a movie or often a couple of episodes of TV that they have on DVD (the Vicar of Dibley is a favourite!).

But this year, we spent some turkey-filled downtime in front of the warming glow of the laptop watching various online videos.  We started with the ones that were top of mind with James, Rose and myself:

Then, switched back to politics with ...

And we ended our viewing with another round of the Great Schlep because Sarah is so funny.

A few things I observed:

  • We have a 42" LCD TV at home.  I am a sucker for pretty HD (CSI Miami is so PRETTY in HD).  But watching these videos in "full screen mode" on a laptop was still an enjoyable experience.
  • 66% of the content we watched we could have seen on TV (if we'd been tuned in at the right time) and it was produced by traditional media.
  • Somewhat lower production values from independent producers don't lower a group's enjoyment of the content.
  • Production values of independent producers are continually being raised as tools get more affordable/widespread and producers get better at using them.
  • The Silverman/Damon/Affleck/Kimmel content is 8 months old, but some people still haven't seen it - it's nice to have an archive.

Rose and I had certainly watched online video as our central entertainment before, but this was the first time we had done so in at a family holiday or vacation.  It will be interesting to see if it continues and if we all start bookmarking things to share at these gatherings.  I've certainly become much more conscious of my own entertainment media consumption habits now - as well as the continual blurring of lines between "entertainment time" and "work time".

Photo Credit: Mike Warren

22 October 2008 in Technology & the Internet | | Comments (2)

links for 2008-10-21

21 October 2008 | | Comments (0)

links for 2008-10-20

20 October 2008 | | Comments (0)

Create a music playlist for your trip - Amplified Journeys

Through a series of events that I'm not 100% sure I could duplicate (even if I wanted to), I lost all my playlists in iTunes.  I never really thought much about my playlists because I don't tend to make them for specific events, just more based on my mood ("Frumbly" and "Perk it Up" are my two current favourites) or if I have a block of work to do ("Cut and Paste" and "Inbox Cleanup" see some fair rotation).

But after the big loss, I had to start all over again.  This is one of the reasons I like the new Genius feature of iTunes 8 - where you can create a playlist of items in your library based on one of your songs.  I've used it a couple of times and it works pretty well.

I'm blessed to have some great playlist makers in my family.  Bill, Rose's dad, made a f'awesome playlist for our wedding rehearsal dinner.  Great combo of jazz and world music!  And Rose herself made one for the dance after our wedding cabaret.  She polled blog buddies and her gay man friends to create the best wedding reception playlist ever.

Unfortunately, these skills have not yet rubbed off on me, so I was delighted to discover Amplified Journeys, a new application from harman/kardon (maker of audio and cinema home systems).  Amplified Journeys will create a customized playlist for your roadtrip - just enter your start point, destination and preferred genre.

Amplifiedjourneys

I used our recent trip from Vancouver to San Francisco with the Folk and World music genre as a test case.

Continue reading "Create a music playlist for your trip - Amplified Journeys" »

19 October 2008 in Technology & the Internet | | Comments (0)

Tags: amplified journeys, dopplr, harman kardon, maps, mashup, music

links for 2008-10-17

17 October 2008 | | Comments (0)

links for 2008-10-14

14 October 2008 | | Comments (0)

It's Canadian Election Day - Have You Voted?

I love my adopted country of Canada.  And I am proud  to vote each and every time there is an election.  It is a civic responsibility that I take very seriously.  Rose and I went over the our polling station this morning about 9:00 am.  And per usual, I teared up a little after voting.

And in catching up on my feeds this morning, I also teared up when I watched the video below over at Brendan's blog (and read the original words that the commercial riffed on - that was something I didn't know).  Yes, it's a beer commercial.  But these are the things I (heart) about Canada.

So, if you are Canadian and haven't voted yet, get to it!

  1. Find Your Polling Station
  2. Bring the Right ID! (Rules changed this year - make sure you check before you go!)
  3. Election hours are staggered, so make sure you get to your polling station on time!

Oh, and in case you're still not sure who to vote for, check out CBC's snapshot of the political parties and their stance on key issues.

14 October 2008 in Take Action! | | Comments (0)

Older Posts »