The 2012 .CA Impact Awards open for entries January 9, 2012.  They are looking for people and organizations that use .CA sites to truly make a difference in the lives of their users and those around them.

There are four categories you can enter:

Public Sector and Not-for-Profit, eLearning, Small Business and Applications (including gaming and mobile).

The honest truth of it all is that, mesh couldn’t be mesh, without great partners like CIRA, the member-driven organization that manages Canada’s .CA domain name registry.  It is a pretty cool thing when two entities like mesh and CIRA can come together to promote the same Canadian conversation around what is happening online.

It has been so exciting taking mesh to Western Canada.  We’ve already touched down in Calgary and Edmonton, and on Dec. 5, we will be in your backyard Vancouver!

CIRA, in their on-going support of mesh and in celebration of the.CA Impact Awards, is sponsoring a special block of tickets that are being sold at $249. Since it is 55 days to their entry deadline, from the release date of this block, there are 55 tickets available (or there were when I first stated writing this post- so don’t delay in buying quickly!).

I know the folks at CIRA hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to participate in Canada’s Internet conversation through mesh and the .CA Impact Awards.

It is our hope that you will join us in Vancouver on Dec. 5 to connect, share and inspire.

Now go watch that video again – I swear, it gets me every time!

To purchase tickets for meshwest, you can purchase tickets here. Our speakers include Stewart Butterfield, Zite’s Mark Johnson, Janice Diner and Erik Blachford.

We led off with a great keynote conversation with Ali Asaria, founder and CEO of Well.ca, who talked with Stuart MacDonald about his vision for the company, and how he sees a bright future for e-commerce in Canada. Some video of the keynote is embedded below (apologies for any shakiness and low audio quality — I took it on my iPhone).

After that, we had a rousing debate about entrepreneurship in Canada, with Maura Rodgers of Strutta, Jevon MacDonald of GoInstant, and Empire Avenue founder and CEO Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana. The panel talked with Mike McDerment (who of course has his own views on the topic, as the co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks) about starting and running companies in smaller centres like Halifax or Edmonton, as well as what the government should be doing to encourage the startup community.

Another panel talked about the value of “open data,” with advocate and Edmonton blogger Mack Male, and Ashley Casovan — who helps to run the city of Edmonton’s open-data initiatives. And then we had Stuart moderating a panel with Allyson Simpson of Osum Oil Sands, Scott Walker of HootSuite and Doug van Spronsen of DDB Canada talking about practical lessons on using social media for communications purposes. I followed that up with a conversation between Boyd Neil of Hill & Knowlton and Christina Rontynen of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers about using social media such as Twitter and Facebook for crisis communications.

And to end the day, we had a quartet of local game developers — including Victor Rubba from Fluik Entertainment, Jason Suriano from Rocketfuel Game, Patrick Weekes from Bioware and Andrew Czarnietzki from 3DI — who talked with Owen Brierly about their favorite games and how the nature of game development is changing thanks to new tools and new game platforms.

Of course, it wouldn’t be mesh without some great food and great conversations between panels, at lunch and afterwards at a social event near the conference center. Most of the people I spoke to said that they felt Edmonton’s startup and web community was on the brink of really exploding, thanks in part to ventures such as Startup Edmonton — a non-profit run by Ken Bautista, Cam Linke, Sam Jenkins and Tiffany Linke-Boyko that provides advice and support for startups, and has just raised a fund that will help provide seed capital.

We’d like to thank Marketwire and the Edmonton Journal and Homestars and all the other sponsors and friends who helped us get the word out about mesh, and helped make the conference such a great experience. Thanks for meshing!

Their eagerness to partner with us, support us and help take the mesh message to Calgary on June 8, Edmonton in October and Vancouver in December was more then we could ask for. Yahoo, like mesh, has the reach to get to the qualified audience you’re seeking.

As a creative and innovative company, they make a perfect partner in our meshwest adventure.

So giddy up and Yahoo!

See you next week in Calgary!

Paul Graham’s Y Combinator, Boulder Colorado’s Techstars, Fred Wilson of Union Ventures – these are some of the early examples of these new models of startup creation and seed finance to emerge in the US. But the same thing is happening north of the 49th, and new startup ecosystems are emerging and thriving across Canada.

These are heady and dynamic times, and there’s much to stay abreast of. Join us for a conversation on Canada’s startup landscape with Mark MacLeod, a General Partner with Montreal’s Real Ventures, Canada’s largest seed venture fund, and BCIC’s Danny Robinson, co-founder of Vancouver’s Bootup Labs.

Tickets for meshwest can be purchased here. The early-bird special of $239 ends today (May 30) at midnight. After that, tickets are $279.

With every mesh event we try to create a space that you can make your own, one that will help you connect, share and inspire — and be inspired. Based on the feedback we’ve had so far about the Allstream Centre and the Sponsor Village, we think we managed to do that this year. To all of the sponsors who stepped forward to support us and give us the means to put on this event, you have been truly outstanding. And to the 30+ volunteers who offered a hand (or two) and then some, we could not have done any of this without you either — thanks so much for your help.

We spend A LOT of time thinking about the content that we present, and selecting those who will offer their insights and expertise, and we think the range of speakers we had this year was second to none in terms of knowledge and expertise. But this is also a conversation, and a critical part of that equation is you — the participant. At #mesh11, you inspired us with your insights, your energy and your commitment to mesh, and we got so much from each and every one of you.

So to our speakers, our sponsors, our volunteers and our attendees: thank you so much for all you have done for (and with) us. This was more than just a conference — it was an experience. Now on to meshwest in Calgary!

(for more photos of mesh11, see the Flickr stream)

The panel will feature:

• Charlie Angus, MP for Timmins – James Bay, whose party rode an “Orange Wave” out of third-party status.
• Tony Clement, MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka and president of the federal Treasury Board
• Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and techPresident
• Jesse Brown, host of TVO’s Search Engine
• Wilf Dinnick, CEO of Toronto-based OpenFile

For more info and video once the show is done, check out The Agenda website.

Months of prep and here we are! from mesh conference on Vimeo.

The conference is quickly approaching and we want to let you know how you can experience the award-winning Motorola XOOM at mesh.

Come visit us in the mesh village to sign out a Motorola XOOM. We’ve scheduled the loan periods around the keynotes and sessions so you don’t miss out on everything mesh has to offer.

Looking for some apps to demo during your Motorola XOOM loan? Check out these free ones from the Android Market:

• Twitter for Android – Perfect for sharing mesh happenings, 140 characters at a time.
• Google Docs – Take notes during the mesh sessions with Google Docs. The app lets you create, edit, upload and share your documents.
• Documents To Go – Can’t go an hour without reading a work document? Use this app to view native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and attachments.
• Angry Birds – Addicted to throwing birds at pigs? You’re not alone. Practice your aim on the Motorola XOOM’s 10.1” HD screen.
• Facebook for Android – Share and stay connected to friends during the conference with the Facebook app.

With over 200,000 apps in the Android Market, we’re sure you’ll find apps to suit all of your needs.

CNET dubbed the Motorola XOOM “the most potentially disruptive technology” at CES. We can’t wait to hear what you’ll call it!

Connect with us on Twitter @Motorola_CA and on Facebook.

*Don’t forget to bring a piece of ID to leave behind while you experience the Motorola XOOM.