meshU
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When is it?

May 21st & 22nd, 2008

Where is it?

MaRS Centre, South Tower
101 College Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5G 1L7

Why is it happening?

mesh is happening because five people with an enthusiasm for the Web and all the next-generation things happening around us decided an event like this one had to take place in Toronto. Events connecting Web ideas and leaders of the future are going on everyday around the world - Geneva has LIFT, Paris has Les Blogs, New York has BlogOn – and now Toronto has mesh so we can be part of the Web 2.0 conversation. Let’s connect, share and inspire… let’s mesh.

Who is running it?

Mark Evans

After more than 10 years of writing about the Internet, I’ve caught the startup bug. Last July, I became director of community with PlanetEye Inc., an online travel guide that uses geotagged photographs, mapping technology and insight from locals to give people a real sense of where they want to go. I also write two blogs - Mark Evans and All About Nortel.

Mathew Ingram

I’m a journalist who writes about business and technology for The Globe and Mail, both for the “dead-tree” edition and the paper’s Web site at theglobeandmail.com. I’ve been working online for the Globe since the site was re-launched as a breaking news site in 2000, and been living and writing online since the early 1990s when a 9600-baud dial-up modem was the hot-rod of the Internet.I have a personal blog at mathewingram.com/work where I write about Web 2.0 ideas and companies, and a media blog at mathewingram.com/media, where I write about the intersection of the Web and the media business. I also do a business/technology blog for globeandmail.com called Geekwatch. I think that the kind of interactivity and dialogue that blogs and other Web 2.0 tools provide is already having — and will continue to have — a profound effect on the media industry and many other industries, and that’s why I wanted to be part of this conference.

Mike McDerment

I’m an entrepreneur, I guess. You can find my infrequent postings at michaelmcderment.com and on FreshThinking. I’m currently running FreshBooks, a rapidly growing online invoicing, time and expense tracking application. It’s a business that grew out of work we did for ourselves at a web design agency I used to run, and now over 300,000 people use FreshBooks for their own businesses. Organizing this conference was something I couldn’t pass up. It’s been a treat to work with these guys over the years and share our enthusiasm for the issues mesh addresses. Looking forward to seeing you all in May.

Rob Hyndman

I’m a Toronto technology business lawyer - my clients are technology companies and their customers. My firm is Hyndman | Law, a boutique law practice that provides legal counsel to technology businesses on a wide variety of business law needs. I’m an unabashed life-long geek who got his start more than 30 years ago as the vice-president of a two-member computer club in high school. I’m passionate about helping grow the Toronto Web 2.0 community and evangelizing the opportunities for connection, sharing and inspiration that the Web has given us. I blog at robhyndman.com, and have been described by Canadian Lawyer magazine as “one of Canada’s most prolific blawggers”. I wish that were cooler than it sounds.

Stuart MacDonald

I’m the CEO and Founder of Tripharbour Limited, operator of Tripharbor.com and Tripharbour.ca, two new, online cruise vacation ecommerce and community sites. We are making it easier for North Americans to find the perfect cruise holiday. As for me, I’m your basic online business geek. My fate was sealed way back when I sat in my apartment marveling at the glory that was eAAsy SABRE on 2400 baud dial-up. I remember watching as flight details, obtuse airport codes and impossible-to-understand pricing come up on my screen one character at a time. I felt like I had just landed on this big secret. I thought “This is going to be big.” Several years later, I brought Expedia to Canada and started Expedia.ca in my spare room. I ended up moving to Seattle as SVP/chief marketing officer for Expedia.com, as well as running the US packages business. Now back in Toronto, I’m a blogger, passionate about what Web 2.0 means for business and society, and very proud to be part of creating mesh.