Wow…what a week in Ottawa.
Last Tuesday, I spent my morning having a Social Media Breakfast at Overlay.TV and hearing Fat Canary’s Ryan Anderson give a great, quick talk on Reputation 2.0 (thanks for having me out, even though I signed up late).
I think that the breakfast format is a great way to do these things, and I look forward to helping Joe Thornley get them off the ground here in Toronto. As much as I love having a beer and chatting with people after work, I also love going home at the end of the day and would much rather wake up early with a cup of a coffee, some breakfast and an inspiring talk.
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On Wednesday and Thursday, I participated in the Advanced Learning Institute’s Social Media For Government Conference. Joe Thornley did a great job of making people feel guilty for not using Twitter, and I think there were more than just a few who felt his heat and signed up on the spot.
In fact, Twitter was huge at this conference. In addition to the rookies, there were a number of vets that helped keep the Twitter conversation going. While others were speaking, I found a lot of value in having side conversations with others in the room who I only knew via Twitter.
(For those of you new to Twitter, Mark Goren has two great blog posts about how to get started (part one, part two) and I’d also recomend a post I wrote a few weeks ago)
On Thursday morning while I was giving my presentation about Social Media Releases I was also pleased to learn that the Twitter conversation continued on. I also felt pretty pleased with the fact that #ALI was the sixth most popular trending topic during my presentation, according to Search.Twitter.com. As a speaker, it provided me with great feedback about my presention.
It also gives me a chance to follow up with some of the questions or concerns that the audience had at the time.
“Distribution of social media releases is the elephant in the room because wire services can’t send out social media releases” tweeted one audience member. While it is true that the actual newswire can’t distribute social media releases over the wire due to limitations of the technology on the side of the major media points, newswires like CNW have gotten around this by issuing an SMR advisory over the wire, and by distributing the actual Social Media Release via Twitter and RSS.
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I also had a great time at the CPRS Ottawa season kick-off event last Thursday, hanging out with the CNW Group Ottawa Bureau crew and other CPRS members in Capital City (and CPRS Toronto has a lot to learn from CPRS Ottawa, particularly in how their websites are designed and updated…more on this later).
It was a busy week, and I didn’t have time for blogging but I’ve got what I think will be a couple of kick-ass posts brewing up.
If you are reading this because I met you in Ottawa, thanks for checking out BlogCampaigning! You can subscribe via the orange button on the right hand side of this page. Feel free to get in touch with me via Twitter, email (parker (at) blogcampaigning (dot) com) or by commenting here on the blog.
-Parker
Posted in Online, Parker Mason, Social Media | 
Tags: ALI, Conferences, Ottawa, Social Media Breakfast, Speaking
3 Responses to “Ottawa Wrap-Up, Conference Follow-up”
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Thanks for coming out to Social Media Breakfast Ottawa 3 Parker! Hope to see you again at a future Ottawa event. And, look forward to attending a Toronto one soon!
Great recap and excellent perspective as to what Twitter brought to the conference. I share your view (naturally) about it adding value and, I’d say, there’s two important distinctions to recognize when getting into Twitter:
1. Like so many social networks, you really only get out what you put in. So don’t expect to think Twitter is the be all and end all if you’re not prepared to follow/create/find the community that works for you within Twitter, or if you don’t take advantage of tools like search.twitter.com to look for areas you can gain specific value, as defined by your own needs.
2. Give it a real try. Don’t just jump in during a conference and make a conclusion based on one conversation and five tweets. Live with Twitter for a little while and then decided if it’s worth the effort for you. Like so many other things we use + play with, you’ll start to generate ideas and applications for this service if you’re seeing the big picture.
Cheers!
Thanks for the comments, guys!
Simon – look me up if you’re in Toronto, and I’ll do the same next time I’m in Ottawa.
Mark – great tips that apply not just to the online world, but life in general.