Spotlight: Gabe Zichermann, mesh ’11 Keynote
There’s an old adage in the entertainment industry to always leave them wanting more.
This was not Gabe Zichermann’s intention at the meshMarketing conference when he had to cut short his presentation, “The Future of Marketing is Gamification”, to catch a flight back to the U.S. There was so much interest and excitement from people who were in the room and those heard about it afterward, it made total sense to invite Gabe back to Toronto for mesh ’11 as our marketing keynote on May 26.
As one of the world’s experts on gamification, Gabe has established himself as one of the leading voices exploring the connection between the power of games with brand and marketing strategies. As much as people have embraced the Web, there are still major challenges motivating and managing their behaviour and activity. Gamification is one approach addressing the psychology and habits of the online user.
Gabe’s most recent book, “Game-Based Marketing”, received critical and industry acclaim. His next book on game mechanics is a detailed technical look at architecture and implementation.
For a taste of Gabe’s keynote, check out this Google Tech Talk.
Tags: conference, gabe zichermann, keynote, Mesh11
Spotlight: Jeff Jarvis, Mesh 2011 Media Keynote
Anyone who cares about the future of media and journalism in a digital world knows the name Jeff Jarvis. Even those who disagree with him about what newspapers or other traditional media should do — and there are many who fall into that category — would likely admit that he cares deeply about the media industry, and he is fearless about the need to experiment and push the envelope online.
Jeff is also quick to spot a sea change in the way journalism functions — such as WikiLeaks, which he argues makes it even more obvious that journalists have to add value and not just distribute information: “Thanks to the internet, the marginal cost of sharing information today is zero,” he says. “So the value of the journalist in merely distributing information is nearing zero.”
In addition to doing the media keynote for mesh 2011, in which we will try to get him to tell us what his crystal ball shows for the future of media online, Jeff will also be taking part in a panel about the implications of WikiLeaks for journalism — along with Micah Sifry of TechPresident and the Personal Democracy Forum, and the former head of digital at The Guardian, Emily Bell, who is now the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.
Along with being a media consultant and a widely-acclaimed public speaker on media topics, Jeff is also the author of the book What Would Google Do?, and of an upcoming book about privacy online called Public Parts. He is also an associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program and the New Business Models For News project at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Jeff is also a consulting editor and a partner at Daylife, a news startup, writes a new media column for The Guardian and is host of its Media Talk USA podcast. Until 2005, he was president and creative director of Advance.net, the online arm of Advance Publications, and prior to that, he was creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, TV critic for TV Guide and People, a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner, assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a reporter for Chicago Today.
Tags: Jeff Jarvis, keynote, Media, Mesh11, Mesh2011
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mesh’s Marketing Keynote: LinkedIn VP International Arvind Rajan
There’s little doubt that marketing is a dramatically changing landscape these days. But among shifting audience loyalties, the relentless growth of digital, the true emergence of wireless, and the always-connected generation, one thing remains constant: marketing today is all about connecting.
Be it connecting with an audience, connecting via technology, connecting with like-minded others or connecting with a feeling, connecting is becoming the overarching theme of marketing in the 21st century.
Given this, who better than Arvind Rajan, VP International of LinkedIn, to be the keynote conversation of the marketing stream at mesh10? Arvind has been in the world of grassroots or connection marketing for many years, and through his role leading LinkedIn’s International efforts is – literally – at the hub of their growing ecosystem which makes personal and business connections possible.
A very engaging and knowledgeable speaker, Arvind will kick-off the marketing stream on Day Two of mesh10 on May 19th. Don’t miss it.
Tickets for mesh can be purchased here.
Tags: arvind rajan, keynote, linkined, mesh
mesh’s Business Keynote: Paypal CEO Scott Thompson
Since PayPal was launched in 2000, it has become the world’s leading global online payment system – making it easy for millions of people to buy and sell products and merchandise. In many respects, Paypal has been verb as in “Just PayPal it to me”.
Given PayPal’s ubiquity and continued strong growth, we’re thrilled to have PayPal president Scott Thompson as the business keynote for mesh this year. We’re looking forward to hearing Scott offer his insight on PayPal’s strategic direction and how the global e-commerce market is growing and evolving.
Before joining PayPal, Scott worked for Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa that was created to oversee its global technology. As Executive Vice-President of Technology Solutions at Inovant, he was responsible for all development, support and maintenance of Visa’s global payment system.
Visit the mesh Web site for more information about our keynotes, panels and workshops. Tickets for mesh, which happens May 18 and 19 at the MaRS Collaboration Centre in downtown Toronto, can be purchased here.
Tags: keynote, mesh, paypal, scott thompson
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Bill Buxton to Keynote meshU
For the last couple of years, meshU has been a well-kept secret – a one-day event featuring hands-on workshop about Web design, development and team management.
We hope to change meshU’s low profile by introducing meshU’s inaugural keynote speaker, Bill Buxton.
One of the world’s most influential designers, Bill is currently a Principal researcher at Microsoft Research and the author of “Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design”.
His experience also includes time as a researcher at Xerox PARC, a professor at the University of Toronto, and Chief Scientist of Alias Research and SGI Inc.
We’re really excited that Bill will be meshU’s first keynote, and that he will set the stage for an amazing day.
If you’re looking buy meshU tickets, you can register here.
Tags: bill buxton, keynote, mesh, meshU
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mesh keynote update: Matt Mason
For anyone who was looking forward to the mesh keynote by Pirate’s Dilemma author Matt Mason (and that includes all of us on the mesh organizing team) we got some bad news over the weekend. Unfortunately, Matt has run into some visa problems in the United States, and he won’t be able to make it to mesh. While we are disappointed that we couldn’t work things out in time — as is Matt — we do have a top-notch replacement for him as the society keynote: Dr. Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa law professor and copyright expert.
Dr. Geist was originally scheduled to do a presentation Wednesday afternoon about how Facebook and other social media tools are being used for grassroots lobbying and advocacy purposes, building on his experience in setting up a Facebook group opposed to Ottawa’s anticipated copyright legislation. In Matt Mason’s absence, we have asked Dr. Geist to adapt his presentation as the keynote for the society stream, which will take place at 10:40 a.m. on Wednesday. Taking the place of his original presentation Wednesday afternoon will be a panel discussion on “Managing the Mozilla Way” with Mic Berman, John Resig and Mike Shaver, moderated by Michael McDerment.
For more information, please see the mesh schedule at www.meshconference.com/schedule2008.
Tags: Geist, keynote, Mason, mesh2008
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mesh08 keynote: Garrett Camp of StumbleUpon
A quick update to let everyone know that Garrett Camp, one of the founders of StumbleUpon, is coming to mesh 2008 as our keynote speaker for the business stream (you can see the other keynotes here, as well as some of the other great speakers and panelists we have lined up). We’re pretty excited to be able to bring one of Canada’s leading Web entrepreneurs to Toronto for one of mesh’s “keynote conversations.”
Garrett co-founded StumbleUpon in 2001 with several university friends while he was finishing his degree in software engineering at the University of Calgary. He and a couple of the other members of the StumbleUpon team later moved to San Francisco after getting venture financing, and last year the company was acquired by eBay for $75-million. Garrett is still responsible for StumbleUpon’s product design and strategy, and the service has more than 3.5M members.
mesh on!
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