This past weekend I officially popped my Podcamp cherry. Tagged everywhere as PCTO09, PCTO09, Podcamp Toronto was a whirlwind of activity. Although it wasn’t easy motivating myself out from under my nice, warm duvet at 8:00 on a Saturday AND Sunday morning, it was well worth the effort.
Day 1 was pretty intense, with large crowds, and ‘standing room only’ in some of the more popular sessions. Whether you were interesting learning best practice when engaging with bloggers; how to calculate (and dictate) your success on Reddit, Digg, or StumbleUpon; or effectively (and creepily) stalk your audience, there was something for everyone.
The Molson party following the Day 1 festivities was also well attended – apparently we are all easily swayed with promises of free beer tastings, munchies, and swag (who can resist 6 free Heineken glasses!).
Day 2 was a little emptier. I imagine most people were probably nursing their hangovers and live streaming from the comfort of their beds. The great thing about having everything stream live and archived is that you know you’re not missing out on any content – sometimes it was really hard to choose between sessions.
Overall, a great first experience. PCTO was well organized, FREE (thanks to generous sponsors), and filled with tons of networking opportunities. I was able to put names to faces and faces to names, and engage with people whose eyes didn’t glaze over at the first mention of Twitter, SEO, or Blogging. Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers for their hard work – I think it was a great success!
I debated long and hard with myself about whether or not I should post about the recent mesh conference. It was a great experience and I feel I should share it with BlogCampaignign readers (meaning: my mom wants to know why I haven't emailed her in so long), but at the same time blogging about an event where everyone spoke mostly about blogging and social media is starting to feel a bit self-referential for me.
In the end, Heather took the burden off my shoulders by writing a great post about the lessons she learned at the conference. We didn't go to the exact same sessions, but you get the idea.
To add my own personal touch, I will say that I left the conference feeling incredibly inspired. Despite the economy, there was a sense of optimism at the MaRs centre last week. Every room I was in was full of smart people. Social media junkies, webheads and the technologically inclined have known that the old guard has been on its deathbed for years now. In this respect, the mesh conference was almost a celebration for the attendees. Not only are they poised to take control of the world in the next few years, but its something they've been looking forward to for a long time.
Although I wasn't able to attend PodCamp Toronto this year, I've been doing my best to catch up on some of what went on there. One of those sessions was a live recording of Inside PR, and I just got a chance to listen to it today.
During the course of that recording, one of the audience members told Inside PR that she had recently listened to a webcast where the moderator asked the panel of PR pros what a a Social Media Press Release was, and that they couldn't answer (the fact that a panel of apparent PR professionals couldn't explain what a SMR was is another blog post altogether...).
Fortunately, the Inside PR guys were able to answer the question for her, and I really like their answers.
David Jones made the point of saying that the Social Media Press Release (though I prefer the simpler term Social Media Release) is really just "an online, electronic press kit" and that "it is a place to put multimedia content around your client's traditional, static, text press release."
"It is just an easy place to point people to get content," he adds. This is similiar to what Martin Waxman says when he notes that the Social Media Release isn't a magic bullet - just because you've created a release with multimedia content around doesn't mean it will result in coverage for your client. It is a part of a strategy (see #4 on Mitch Joel's list of ways to pitch a writer), but only one part and not the whole thing.
I would also like to add to Terry Fallis' point about breaking out and seperating the quotes in the release. It does make it easier for people to quickly see what is being said and by whom, but I think it is only a stylistic choice. Seperating the quotes can be dones just as easily in a traditional news release, and it all comes down to what the writer thinks the best way to tell the story is.
If I remember correctly, some of the early thoughts on styling a SMR called for breaking out the quotes and providing the information in point form. Again, they are both just stylistic choices.
On a related note, I'm impressed with the quality of the live-recordings of Inside PR. The audience participation also really adds to it, and I think the team should look for more chances to do these.
The following post was written by Heather Morrison
At a recent IABC social sedia event last week the discussion of ‘buy in’ was brought up a number of times, from various perspectives. The question seems to be on every communicators mind – How do you convince your boss/CEO that social media is worth being involved in? How do you get buy in? How do you decrease the risks, and allay their fears.
The first question to ask is: What is their greatest fear or concern?
Costs? This is an easy one. Most social media applications have very little monetary costs associated with them. The real resource needed is time. Many companies combat this by starting small (think baby steps), and working together so that no one person feels over loaded with work.
Making a mistake? More than likely every company first entering into social media will make a few mistakes along the way (close to 50% of initial attempts will flop). But whatever happened to ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try try again’? With proper education, these initial mistakes will provide a good base for future initiatives.
Negative Feedback? There are two types of kids in every schoolyard - the kids who stand up to rumors and bullies, and those who hide from them. While those who hold their heads up might take an initial beating, they will ultimately gain more respect than those seen hiding their heads in the sand. Not everyone will agree with every opinion, post, or decision that you make. That said, people will agree and/or disagree whether you are part of the conversation or not. Social media allows companies to enter these discussions, learn from what’s being said, and provide feedback and perspective directly to their clients/prospects.It also provides an opportunity to sculpt future campaigns based on raw customer feedback.
There is far more to be afraid of by remaining disengaged and distant from your marketthan there is by becoming involved. You don’t want to miss the boat and let the conversation carry your brand and reputation down stream (think Motrin, Walmart, Wholefoods, Kryptonite, and Hertz). As Matthew Ingram once pointed, “you need to have a presence in social media to have a voice when you need it. Don’t try to jump in during the fire!”
Although I won't be able to attend this edition of the always-popular Third Tuesday Toronto (I'll be on vacation), I'm looking forward to following everyone's Tweets about it.
Carol Leaman, CEO of AideRSS/PostRank will be there to discuss her work at PostRank and how they've managed to stay successful.
How does a social media startup not just survive, but continue to grow in the current economic conditions? Carol Leaman, the CEO of AideRSS, the company behind PostRank, will tell us how when she appears at Third Tuesday Toronto on February 17.
As usual, it takes place at Fionn McCool's on University Ave and my employer, CNW Group, is the sponsor.
I'm pretty excited that I've been asked to speak at the Toronto Social Media Summit happening at the end of April.
The title of my workshop is "How To Use Social Media Releases As A Part of Your Communications Campaigns." As part of the presentation, I'll be going over my 4M Theory of Social Media Releases in greater detail.
It looks like my workshop will be in the slot right before Mark Goren'sworkshop. The two of us also presented on the the same day at a Social Media for Government conference in September '08, and they were quite complementary to each other.
I think that if attendees learn as much about social media as conference producer Kelly Flynn did at the Social Media for Government Conference last year, it will be a huge success. Kelly has done a great job of embracing Twitter as a way of connecting with conference speakers and online communities.
For more information about the Social Media Summit in Toronto, check out their website.
My rooomate (pictured above, eating a banana in bed while wearing a hat) is the camera guy for a TV show called Inside Fashion. As the name suggests, it is about the fashion industry in Canada and around the world. This means that he gets to do cool stuff like go to Miami to film the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week or fly to LA to interview Holly Madison at the Playboy Mansion. Like almost everyone else these days, the show has a website (where you can watch episodes for free) that includes an Inside Fashion blog.
I watch the show occasionally, but really only pay attention to what they are doing because I subscribe to the RSS feed for their blog. Because of what I do and because it is easier to criticize than it is to create, I've got some suggestions for them about what they can do to improve their site and online work. Where possible, I've tried to generalize my suggestions so that they would work for other sites.
1.) Sign-up and Set-up Feedburner
Most blogs have an RSS feed automatically built into them, so that when you create a new post, your subscribers can be automatically updated. However, there is no easy way to find out how many people are subscribing with these built in feeds. Feedburner will let you track how many people are subscribing to your blog.
If you're using Wordpress, you can just install the Feedburner plugin after you've got a free Feedburner account. If you're using another blogging platform, you can sign up for the Feedburner account and provide a link on your blog.
Since all shows rely on advertising to keep going, knowing how many people are subscribing to the RSS feed is a great way to demonstrate to advertisers how many people they are reaching.
2.) Set Up An Analytics Tool
Just as Feedburner lets you know how many people are subscribing to your site, a tool like Google Analytics will let you know how many people visit your site, what pages they look at and how long they stay. Again, this is valuable for knowing what kind of online audience you have and to know what parts of your site are getting visitors and which aren't.
Careful - as any blogger will tell you, stats can be addicting.
3.) Use Links
Back in the day, the decision to link away from your site was a difficult one to make. Internet connections were slower, and I don't think it was possible to use tabs in any of the browsers. Directing people away from your site meant that there was a sure chance they wouldn't be returning.
These days, things are different. Pages load quickly, and you can go back and forth between different websites in seconds, or even open them up in another tab or window.
A phrase I'm fond of repeating is "the Internet is made of links." Navigating the web is done, for the most part, by clicking on various links. Its how information is shared, and by linking to someone else you are participating in the online world.
Yes, I am aware of the argument that linking to other people gives up your link juice. However, I think it is more important to provide value to visitors to your site by pointing them towards more information that they might be interested in.
4.) Incorporate Multimedia Content
The internet is a place for multimedia. Unlike a newspaper, a blog post isn't limited by column inches. Even more unlike a newspaper, a webpage can incorporate video and audio. Use these multimedia elements to tell your story and get your message out.
So what does this mean for Inside Fashion? Well, the world of fashion is full of beautiful images. My suggestion is that they incorporate more images into their posts, and actually show the clothing and people that they talk about in the posts. Fashion magazines aren't all text, so why should their website be? (Over the past few weeks, they've actually gotten better at posting images)
Since it is a show, and they are already posting their clips on the main page of the website, I think the Inside Fashion team should also post their clips to their blog. The more ways that they can get people watching it, the better chance they have at growing their audience and providing value to their advertisers.
(BlogCampaigning is also guilty of not incorporating enough images into our own posts, and I'm determined to change this).
5.) Put The Social In Social Media
Some people write blogs because they merely want a place online to store their thoughts and share them with a few friends. They aren't worried about how many people read what they write. However, most organisations have a blog because they want to generate awareness about themselves. While putting up a website is a good start, it won't get many visitors in isolation.
Linking to other bloggers and websites is one way to be social online. So is reaching out to other bloggers and the online community. If they aren't already, the Inside Fashion team should be reading some fashion blogs or getting in touch with the fashion world online.
This social activity extends beyond cyberspace, too. While I enjoy reading blogs written by my friends and colleagues, I feel that I enjoy them more because I've met these people in person. I can put a face to the writing, and I feel more comfortable commenting on their blogs and otherwise getting in touch with them. The Inside Fashion crew are a friendly bunch, and they shouldn't have a problem meeting up with other bloggers and the online world to help promote their show.
6.) Make Content Easy For The Internet Audience To Enjoy
As I mentioned earlier, I think that the internet is the future of television (or, I suppose, the death of television) but we aren't quite there yet. I think that most people aren't yet accustomed to watching full-length episodes of shows via YouTube or on a webpage, and would rather do so on a television. With that in mind, I think that the Inside Fashion crew should still focus on creating 22-minute long episodes for television, but should break these up into 2 or 3 minute clips and post these on their blog rather than the main part of their website.
I think that VBS (the broadcasting wing of Vice Magazine) has done a particularly good job of creating short, web-only videos. To see what, I mean, check out their 8-part series about immigration in LA called Illegal LA. Each part is only about three minutes long, and each is easy to watch on your computer monitor. If you're creating video content for the web, keep this in mind. While you might be the world's next greatest director and are able to keep people enthralled for a two-hour epic, it is probably easier (and cheaper!) to create a shorter video that will keep your audience tuned into for just a couple of minutes.
7.) Make Your Content Embeddable and Sharable
I think it is great that Inside Fashion is putting some of their footage and clips up on their website and letting their audience watch it freely. However, it isn't really possible for me to share those clips without making you leave this page. While I mentioned earlier that linking away from your site is fine, wouldn't you be much more likely to watch a clip form their show if it was embedded right here, on this page?
If you want people to watch your online video, make it easy to share. Upload it to YouTube (or better yet, Vimeo, because all reports seem to point to it being faster and more user friendly for uploading) so that people can repost it on their site.
While they do upload their episodes onto their YouTube channel, you can't find and use these clips from their website.
("But I want to control all of my content, and I don't want people to share it," you might say. Well I have news for you: if people want to share your content, they will.
Even though Inside Fashion didn't offer an embed code for their videos, I was still able to rip this one off of their site (using a program called Orbit), upload it to YouTube and embed it below.
Since people can do this anyways, make it easy and enjoyable for them to use your videos and photos: provide an embed code where possible.)
8.) Make The Blog The Main Part Of The Website
Blogs are great because they constantly have new information. For the 90% of the population that doesn't use RSS, a homepage that is constantly changing gives them a reason to come back for new content and information. While it is great that main page for Inside Fashion always has a featured episode, I think it would be far better if they refresh that content more often. Having the blog as the main page would enable them to do this more easily.
9.) Connect The Dots
Inside Fashion also has a page on Facebook, and a YouTube channel but you wouldn't know that from their website. In each online space, make it easy for fans and interested people to connect to the other online spaces. The more channels that you can distribute your message across, the more likely you are to gain an audience. Some people will watch the show on TV, but others might prefer to watch the videos on YouTube or catch up by way of the blog. The point is that there are a ton of free distribution channels like this out there, and that by reaching each one you have the potential to reach an entirely new audience.
(While you're linking to your other websites, always remember to add the http:// in front the web address. Without this, some sites and message programs won't recognize it as a link and the user will have to cut and paste or retype the address into their web browser rather than simply clicking on the link - make it easy for your audience!)
What do you think about my suggestions? What would you do if you were working for Inside Fashion?
If you live in Toronto and are in the communications game, chances are you might have heard about the breakfast event that CNW put on this morning.
If you were there, thanks for coming out and making the event a success - I think there were almost 300 guests. If you missed it, you can still listen to an archived version of it here. Jay Goldman did a pretty good job of live blogging the event, and you can read his post here.
If you want to get a better idea of what you missed, check out the video below that Mark McKay made:
-Parker Mason
(Disclosure: As usual, this blog reflects my own thoughts and opinions and not necessarily those of my employer, CNW Group)
Well, I've been tagged by Sharon in a great little meme first thrown out there by Collin Douma.
The game is two come up with 5 great examples of social media use that our peers might not have noticed.
List five Social Media projects that deserve better exposure.
Tag EIGHT {as many as you’d like} “Social Media / Digital Experts” at the end of your post and list their names.
Let them know they’ve been tagged.
Tag your post “Five Gems” so we can search for all of these great examples.
I'm also going to go ahead an tack on what I think should be a 6th, rule, and that is that we should all tag our posts (and examples) as 5gems on Delicious so that they are easy to find later.
1. The CNW Group Social Media release announcing the CNW Group Social Media Release - Although a bit self-referrential, I think that this is an excellent case study in how a Social Media Release can be effectively used. People left comments, bloggers embedded the video on their site (due to it being educational, rather than advertorial in nature) and one site even used the CNW logo provided with the release. (disclosure: I work for CNW, and worked directly on this).
2. Journalist Source -While they aren't using social media directly besides having their homepage built on Wordpress and using a Twitter account, they are providing a great service to writers (I'm thinking bloggers here) that might not necessairly have the kind of resources needed to research a story on their own and source experts.
3. MySpace - Look, I know that a lot of people don't care about MySpace anymore because it is just full of retina-burning designs and emo kids. But ever since I started a music blog a few months ago, I've been all over MySpace. It's where the cool stuff happens: the creative kids are on MySpace, designinging their own pages, seeing what they can do within the constraints of the site and promoting themselves. The boring kids are on Facebook, installing applications and de-tagging drunken photos of themselves.
4. I Like Totally Love It -My Blogcampaigning co-author Jens told me about this site a little while ago, and it is definitely worth checking out. I don't really know how to describe it, but they are kind of a social-voting site for products and things that you want, or I guess, things that you, like, totally love.
5. Movember - Growing moustaches for charity...what a great idea, and they've really used the online space to build traction for this. I participated last year, but I can already tell that it has grown alot since then. (if anyone is doing it this year, let me know and I'll sponsor you!).
This afternoon I'll be joining social media vet Michael O'Connor-Clarke and Natalie Johnson, manager of Social Media of General Motors Global Technology Group onstage at the Albany Club in Toronto to discuss Using Advanced Technologies Effectively in front of members of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute.
From the event description:
Advanced technologies are revolutionizing communications in every field. Investor Relations is no exception. New technologies such as blogging, Web 2.0, RSS feeds, search engine optimization (SEO) and new channels such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo Finance are changing the way IR professionals execute their strategies. Join us as our expert speakers explain how best to employ these technologies to improve the effectiveness of your capital markets communications.
I think it should be a great talk, and I'm looking forward to a healthy discussion period with some of Toronto's IR professionals.
The Toronto International Film Festival is known for its glamorous parties full of beautiful people from the worlds of the media and entertainment elite, and this is the first year that Thirsty Thursday is going to take place during the same week as TIFF.
While it isn't an official TIFF event, it is still going to be pretty awesome.
For those of you that haven't attended a Thirsty Thursday event before, the basic idea is that it is a casual get together for young people in Public Relations or Marketing. It began as a few friends meeting for drinks, and has grown into a event to look forward to every month.
Celebrities you will see at this week's Thirsty Thursday:
So get your life together and spend what could be one of the last nice Thursdays of the year swilling beer with Toronto's finest young communicators on the rooftop patio of Pauper's Pub (539 Bloor Street) at around 7pm.
There are a lot of creative people in this world, and there are a lot of reliable people in the world.
There are far fewer people who are both creative AND reliable.
Mark Mckay is one of those people, and I recently had the good fortune of working with him on the video that accompanied CNW Group's announcement about the launch of the CNW Social Media Release (if you haven't seen the video, check it out now on the release here).
For those of you that don't know him, Mark McKay was the fellow that did the video for the 2nd mesh conference ("The Wacky World of Web 2.0"), and he also hosts his own online-TV show called "Happy Hour with Mark McKay. If you watch MTV Canada, you'll know that Mark has parlayed his online success into a regular gig television gig.
I've always thought he was entertaining, and knew that he was skilled at creating video content for the online space.
After working with him on this recent video project for CNW Group, I can also say that he is also incredibly reliable. When we first met to start the project, he gave me a time line of when he would have certain elements of the video ready, from a draft script to a rough version right through to the finished copy. We agreed on the timeline, and he kept right to it, delivering the final version when he said he would.
The only thing stopping me from recommending his services to other people is that I'm worried he'll get too busy, and that I won't get a chance to work with him again.
Yeah, after a few months of wicked hard work from a whole bunch of different people, the CNW Group Social Media Release has arrived!
If you're not sure what a Social Media Release is, check out this video that CNW commissioned the amazing Mark McKay to do:
If you didn't get it from the video, one of the solid points about the CNW SMR is that everything is embeddable. That's how I got the above video into this blog post.
But what's up with the little round face?
He is CNW SMR - the lines coming out of his mouth represent a message, while the ear represents the comments. Essentially, he's a conversationalist, just like the CNW SMR.
It is also one of the first SMRs to truly offer comments on the body of the release. I'm not sure that everyone will go for this sort of thing, but I think that it is a fantastic idea. If one person has a comment (negative or positive) about your organizations announcement, chances are others will as well. With comments, that one person (or more than one person) can voice their opinion directly on the release, and you as a PR pro can also respond directly on the release. The advantage of being able to have an official reply in an offical place is obvious. (Oh yeah, these comments are RSS enabled as well, meaning that if you want to keep up to the conversation via RSS, you can)
In order to give you social media enthusiasts a better idea of how sweet the CNW SMR is, Todd Defren graciously allowed me to adapt a chart he created a few months ago that aimed to "untangle the various SMR offerings" from major wire services.
What else is cool about the CNW SMR? Well, you should check it out here and see for yourself (or check here for more CNW SMRs). You can also follow @CNWGroupSMR on Twitter to be updated when we issue new Social Media Releases on behalf of our clients.
The whole CNW team was awesome to work with on this project. Product Manger Duane Bayley has done a fantastic job (and if you have any questions, hit him up on Twitter) of working with the design team on getting all the elements right. CNW's in-house graphic designer Kelly also did an amazing job of creating all those little face icons that you see on the release (I've also got a lot of respect for Kelly for being so patient with me and all my last minute suggestions).
I'd also like to give props to MarkMcKay for making the kick-ass video above - he was truly a pleasure to work with. And thanks again to Todd Defren (and the SHIFT Communications crew) for letting us adapt their chart and BrianSolis for being a decent enough guy to provide us with both a quote and a photo for our SMR.
So what do you think? Is the CNW SMR the kind of thing you think you would use? Why or why not? Any thoughts on the topic that you can muster up would be greatly appreciated!
Disclosure: if it wasn't already obvious, I work for CNW Group. However, this is a personal blog and the views expressed on it may not reflect those of CNW Group. Basically, I'm going to say what I want here, event if what I want to say has a lot to do with my work. Hey, it is my life and my blog. And Jens' blog. And to a lesser extent these days, Espen's blog. But you get the idea. Does anyone even read disclosure statements these days?
People have been saying that newspapers are dead or dying and although I agree, I can't say I'm happy with it. As I've mentioned before here, one of my favorite things to do on an early weekend morning (or holiday Monday morning like today) is to pick up a copy of the The Globe and Mail and slowly read it over while having a latte from one of my favorite haunts in Toronto's Little Italy area.
One of the articles that I read was headlined "Ads Critical For MySpace" (I'd link to it, but for some reason I can't find it on the Globe and Mail website). I always think it is interesting to read about MySpace because with all the Facebook hype, we often forget that MySpace is more popular in the states, and will probably continue to be for a little while. The article talks about how MySpace now allows advertisers to more directly target users. It seems like a great idea, and similar to what Facebook offers, but I was surprised to read that some advertisers were worried that their ads might show up on MySpace profile pages that displayed risque photos. Is it a valid concern? Possibly. But one that advertisers are going to have to deal with if they want to display their ads in the highly personal world of online social networks.
Another interesting article in today's paper was about an airplane that crashed in BC. Even though the plane's transponder had broken, rescue workers were still able to find the crash survivors thanks to one of them being able to text a friend. I think that as cellular networks have greater range and phones start to come equipped with GPS as a standard feature, we'll see them featuring more regularly in rescues like this.
Another article in the paper mentioned that another Cuban athlete had gone missing at an international tournament in Edmonton. While the article didn't mention what type of tournament the athlete was competing in, it did say that Fidel Castro himself had written a column on the "World Wide Web" criticizing Edmonton for being a "dumping ground for Cuban athletes."
I don't really have an opinion one way or another about the legality of Cuban athletes defecting during mysterious tournaments, but I do question the author's use of the term "World Wide Web." Are we back in 1994?
Maybe I'll make this "Weekend News" type of post a regular feature on BlogCampaigning. I find that I pay more attention to the articles I'm reading when I plan to write about them.
Do you still read paper editions of the newspaper? Or have you moved to completely online versions?
Twitter's downtime doesn't concern.
I'm a lot more worried about the status of another online service: Beerhunter.ca.
The site uses Google Maps and information about the closing and opening times of LCBO and Beer stores in Ontario in real time. I told my roommate about it the other day, and although I question why he was trying to buy beer on a Wednesday morning, he described the site as "the most amazing and useful site for Torontonians."
According to this news release, the site got 30,000 unique visitors in its first three days based on word of mouth (I might be slightly biased, but I have no idea they would use "PR News Now" to issue their release).
That's right, Toronto's finest young communications and PR kids are getting together for a few extra-casual beers at the Green Room this Thursday at 6:30pm.
It's always a great time, so check out the Facebook Event for the deets and sign up. Or just show up. I might even shout you a beer.
See you Thursday!
-Parker
PS: Europe is about five hours ahead, so you better believe that Jess and I will be calling our blogmates Espen and Jens!
After reading an article Wednesday's Globe and Mail about how Toronto Crime Stoppers is effectively using social media tools to both successfully solicit crime tips and to reach out to the community.
Through the work of Constable Scott Mills, they've set up a YouTube channel and a Facebook account. The YouTube channel has apparently already proved itself by providing a number of tips for a recent shooting.
The real test of whether or not a success is to see how long it continues to be effective. I also think that we'll see a lot more of this kind of police work, and it will be interesting to see what kind of effect (if any) it will have on crime rates, especially considering that the criminals have already made pretty good use of these tools.
Even if you're not going to the CPRS talk with Giovanni Rodriguez at the Spoke Club on Wednesday night, stop by Wellington's on Bloor around 9pm. Giovanni will be there to have a nightcap with Third Tuesday Toronto.
See you there!
Some highlights from the past week and upcoming events...
- Last Monday, I went to Third Tuesday Toronto (disclosure: my company, CNW Group, is a sponsor) to hear Darren Barefoot speak. I won't waste too much time or space rewriting what others have written about his talk except to say that I liked his idea of teaching children to create and maintain a Wikipedia page. I also got a chance to catch up with a former coworker of mine, and I hope to see him again soon.
-Tomorrow night, Toronto's finest young PR-types will be meeting at The Abbot On The Hill, which is at 1276 Yonge Street. Join the Facebook Group, or just show up for what promises to be a very informal evening of getting drunk networking.
-And finally, on November 15 I'll be attending Talk Is Cheap, a social media unconference at Centennial College. My boss has sugggesed that I present something, and I'll definitely give the idea some thought. However, the registration list looks pretty full of some very knowledgeable people and I might be better off just going to learn and discuss. Either way, it looks like it'll be a good time.
Well, we've taken a bit of time off over the last few weeks. I've been busy enjoying the final days of summer, Jens has been trying to sort out his life back in Germany, and Espen pretty much went AWOL in Norway.
But now we're all back, and you can expect more solid posts from the boys in Berlin and Oslo while I continue to edit their English and bring you the news from the Toronto side of things.
Also, I'll be playing around with the colors and design of the blog over the next few weeks, so let me know what you think.
This past weekend I officially popped my Podcamp cherry. Tagged everywhere as PCTO09, PCTO09, Podcamp Toronto was a whirlwind of activity. Although it wasn’t easy motivating myself out from under my nice, warm duvet at 8:00 on a Saturday AND Sunday morning, it was well worth the effort.
Day 1 was pretty intense, with large crowds, and ‘standing room only’ in some of the more popular sessions. Whether you were interesting learning best practice when engaging with bloggers; how to calculate (and dictate) your success on Reddit, Digg, or StumbleUpon; or effectively (and creepily) stalk your audience, there was something for everyone.
The Molson party following the Day 1 festivities was also well attended – apparently we are all easily swayed with promises of free beer tastings, munchies, and swag (who can resist 6 free Heineken glasses!).
Day 2 was a little emptier. I imagine most people were probably nursing their hangovers and live streaming from the comfort of their beds. The great thing about having everything stream live and archived is that you know you’re not missing out on any content – sometimes it was really hard to choose between sessions.
Overall, a great first experience. PCTO was well organized, FREE (thanks to generous sponsors), and filled with tons of networking opportunities. I was able to put names to faces and faces to names, and engage with people whose eyes didn’t glaze over at the first mention of Twitter, SEO, or Blogging. Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers for their hard work – I think it was a great success!
My rooomate (pictured above, eating a banana in bed while wearing a hat) is the camera guy for a TV show called 
But what's up with the little round face?