This was my fourth year to fraternize with a loose moose and attend Northern Voice - Vancouver's ever-evolving personal blogging and social media conference.
I used to try to write up all my notes about all the sessions I attended. But that was a fair amount of work and I really don't think anyone who didn't attend wants the blow-by-blow. So I thought I would just do a point-form post on the things I learned, insights I gathered and new URLs I wrote down to check out later.
- Audio content is such an intimate medium. One of my favourite sessions was about podcasting projects that senior students the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC created to share the stories behind their research. Alicia Hall's piece on Soil (I know - soil!) is incredible. A number of people teared up in the room when they played it. You can listen to it, along with the other students podcasts. Alicia's is the last one and begins around 53:30.
- Chatroulette is one mighty weird and awesome cultural phenomenon. (Video of part of the session - probably NSFW)
- The ability to "view source" and have exposed URLs in our browsers should not be taken for granted. I'm an old skool geek and assume those will always be around. But they may not be.
- Heh, heh ... FarmVillain
- Lot of people using prezi.com this year. Interesting. Wondering if it's just a gimmick to tart up ill-conceived presentations. Needs further study.
- My gay-girl crush on Alexandra Samuel is rooted in her ability to recognize and address how to cope with social media. Also, her ability to semi-regularly get to inbox zero.
- Revist Evernote.
- Location Sharing Apps ... hot, hot, hot! Google Latitude. Facebook. Gowalla. Foursquare. MyTown, check.in. Well, we already knew they were hot. But need to help clients understand that.
- YSLee seems to write some pretty interesting YA fiction. Why didn't they have fiction like this when I was a teen? Oh, I discovered this by spying over So Misguided's shoulder and sneaking a peek at her laptop during a session. Thanks, Monique!
Possibly the most important lesson of all ... always bring your chicken and your banana!
Photo Credits: formfollowsfunction, penmachine and SimoneHudson