The Goodness of .CA and meshwest
If you want to feel the warm tingles of being a proud Canadian in a digital world, you need only watch the .CA Impact Awards video. I guarantee you will feel the urge to create something with a .CA on the end of it just so you too can be part of this legacy!
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.
Thank You meshmarketing Sponsors!
A key goal for mesh has been to create a Canadian forum where people could discuss what’s next online, and how that is changing the way we live, work and play.
Our partners have let make mesh a national conversation. Yahoo! And Desjardins were quick to lend their support to Calgary, Edmonton and our up coming Dec.5 event in Vancouver.
You would be hard-pressed to find a conference that appreciates its sponsors more then mesh so we’d like to say thank-you to those who have made this journey possible!
CIRA has been a key part of mesh. The .ca domain is like a Canadian flag that says you believe in a safe, secure and trustworthy experience. We, at mesh, are honoured they have chosen mesh as a key way to engage the Canadian online community.
Chevrolet is another partner supporting mesh on a national level. While we might fly to get to some of these places, we drive a Chevy! In fact, if you can’t find Mathew Ingram on November 15, it’s possible he is still circling the block in his wickedly cool Volt, courtesy of our friends at GM.
Marketwire + Sysomos is the newest partner to mesh on a national level. Their focus on integrating traditional media and digital and social environments to drive more meaningful conversations couldn’t align better with what the core messaging at mesh is all about.
We are also very excited to welcome Entrinsic to meshmarketing, an amazing sponsor that joined us at mesh11 last May. Entrinsic is a corporate social media agency run by Eli Singer, a long-time participant in Toronto social media and unconference scene. Eli and Entrinsic are producing Social Media Week Toronto on Feb. 13-17, 2012.
When we were in Edmonton, we partnered with MiniGroup, and we’re excited to bring them to meshmarketing. Minigroup is a private platform that lets you share the right stuff with the right people without intrusion from strangers, friends-of-friends, or search engines…all from a single account. Welcome to Toronto MiniGroup!
While the content at mesh why we sell out every year, we know, secretly, you all love the snacks and swag mesh is so well known for! Please show our sponsors some love on Nov. 15,. We can’t wait to see you all there!
Tags: mesh, meshmarketing, sponsors
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Here’s Why You Should Attend meshmarketing
Let’s face it, there are lots of conferences going on so people have plenty of options. So why should you come to meshmarketing on Nov. 15 in Toronto? Here are a few reasons why meshmarketing is worth your time and money.
1. The programming is first-rate and features top-notch speakers: At the core of what we do with meshmarketing (and mesh) is spend lots of time focused on content and speakers. We spend hundreds of hours deciding what topics to cover and who should be invited to do our keynote presentations, panels and workshops.
For us, programming is the foundation of what we do and the value we offer. It’s one of the reasons why we don’t accept speaker submissions. To us, the process of curating and selecting speakers is crucial so we depend on our experience and networks to source speakers who can bring it.
As important about the people who we invite present is they don’t just speak and go. Instead, they stick around, connect, engage and participate in the event. At the last mesh, for example, I had a great lunch-time chat with David Armano.
2. Food for thought and hands-on sessions. meshmarketing kicks off with keynote presentations that provide context, perspective and insight about key industry trends and issues from people in the eye of the hurricane. The afternoon is devoted to panel and workshops that are hands-on, interactive and engaging. As much as they designed to deliver information and insight, the goal is to have attendees do business differently or better when they go back to work. Our panels and workshops are designed to get the “dirt” from people in the trenches in an environment in which questions and discussions are encouraged, and real-world experience is shared.
3. The opportunity to network with people from different sectors: As much as we deliver great content, we also recognize part of why people come to a conference is networking opportunities. It’s the reason we have healthy gaps between each session, why lunch features big round tables that encourage people to engage, and why our post-event socials are so important. Another thing that makes our events different from a networking perspective is attendees come from a wide variety of sectors, which means you’re bound to meet someone new who can offer perspective and thought you may not have heard before.
4. Great value: Whether you work for a large company, a start-up or run your own business, each dollar counts so we price our events so they’re accessible and offer a solid return on investment. And to encourage students to attend, we offer amazingly low ticket prices. The value of meshmarketing and mesh ticket includes a great venue, excellent food, swag and a good group of out-of-town speakers, many of whom have never been to Toronto before. For example, Klout.com’s Joe Fernandez is one of our keynote speakers. For anyone interested in influence and influencers, Joe would be a perfect excuse to come to meshmarketing.
If we have convinced you of the value of meshmarketing, it’s easy to buy a ticket. And if you purchase one by Oct. 21, you’ll get the early-bird ticket price of $489.
Tags: mesh, meshmarketing, Toronto
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mesh Edmonton: Ready for Takeoff!
In many ways, conferences are a labour of love.
There is an awful lot of work involved, dozens of balls in the air at the same time, speakers to invite, venues to be secured, etc. At the end of the day, it is rewarding to see everything come together, particularly when you’re organizing a first-time event.
This has struck me over the past few weeks as we have put the final touches on mesh Edmonton, which happens on Oct. 4. As the second leg of a three-stop tour in Western Canada (along with Calgary, which happened in June, and Vancouver, which happens Dec. 5), Edmonton is a market with a vibrant digital community that mesh is excited to embrace.
Over the past few months, we’ve reached out to lots of individuals, companies and associations to get a lay of the land, put together programming, identify potential speakers, and establish partnerships. It has taken a lot of time and effort but it is great to see things come together.
While I’m biased, I have to say the speaker line-up for mesh Edmonton looks great. We’ve got Ali Asaria, founder and CEO with Well.ca, kicking things off with a discussion on how Well went from a scrappy startup to Canada’s leading beauty and health e-commerce sites.
There’s a terrific entrepreneurs panel featuring Jevon MacDonald, Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana and Maura Rodgers that will provide real-world insight about how to create, operate, grow and finance a start-up.
For anyone interested in how social media happens tactically on a day-to-day basis, Allyson Simpson (Osum Oil Sands), Scott Walker (HootSuite) and Doug van Spronsen (DDB Canada) will shed light on what happens.
Another panel features Ashley Casovan and Mack Male, who will talk about open data and the impact it is having on how government operates and, as important, how citizens are getting more involved and engaged with government.
There is growing interest in how the real-time digital landscape is affecting crisis communications so there is bound to be great advice from a panel that features Christina Rontynen from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers).
And last – but certainly least – we end the day with a panel about game design featuring Owen Brierley talking with Victor Rubba (Fluik Entertainment), Jason Suriano (Rocketfuel Games) and Patrick Weekes (Bioware)
With a week to go, there are a few things that still need to get done but we’re ready for takeoff!
To purchase tickets for the event, which happens at the Shaw Conference Centre, head on over to our registration site. Early-bird tickets can be purchased for $239.
Tags: edmonton, mesh, meshwest
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The Lineup for meshwest Edmonton
In two weeks (Oct. 4 to be exact), meshwest will be moving into Edmonton – the second leg of our “tour” that started in Calgary last June.
After a lot of work behind the scenes over the summer – always a difficult time to focus on things other than vacations and BBQs – we’ve come up with a great line-up of speakers.
The day kicks off with Ali Asaria, the founder and CEO with Well.ca, which has become Canada’s leading health and beauty e-commerce site. Ali will talk about how to build an online business in a large but competitive market, the process of raising venture capital, and how to manage growth while maintaining great customer service.
Speaking of entrepreneurs, there is a terrific triple-bill featuring Jevon MacDonald (GoInsight), Maura Rodgers (Strutta) and Dups Wijayawardhana (Empire Avenue), who will talk about Canada’s start-up landscape and provide insight into running and growing a start-up.
Ashley Casovan from the city of Edmonton and Mack D. Male will sit down with Rob Hyndman to talk about how open data is changing how government operates and how citizens are getting more involved in engaging with government and creating new services.
For people looking to learn how companies operate social media programs, we’ve got a panel featuring Allyson Simpson from Osum Oil Sands and HootSuite’s Scott Walker. We did this panel in Calgary, and decided to do it again amid the great reception about the behind-the-scenes, tactical insight provided by the panel, which included Simpson, who was then working for the popular Melrose Cafe.
We end the day with a panel about crisis communications in real-time – something many companies are trying to get their heads around given the fast-moving and dynamic nature of social media. The panel includes Christina Rontynen from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
Early-bird tickets are now on sale for $239 so buy now.
Tags: edmonton, mesh, meshwest
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mesh, mesh and more mesh
It used to be that mesh happened once a year. It was an annual “party” that we threw and then invited all of our friends.
As mesh has grown, we’ve expanded the mesh “footprint” by launching meshU, meshmarketing and, most recently, meshwest, which kicked off in Calgary in June.
In the process, mesh has gone from happening in May to happening thorough the year – with the exception of the summer when we try to get off the grid or, at least, be on the grid less often.
Over the next three months, there are three mesh events happening. The list includes:
1. meshwest (Edmonton) on Oct. 4, which features a keynote by Well.ca founder and CEO Ali Asaria. Well.ca is one of Canada’s biggest e-commerce success stories, and established itself as the leading online health and beauty store.
meshwest also features a great start-up panel featuring Jevon MacDonald (GoInstant), Maura Rodgers (Strutta) and Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana (Empire Avenue). We’ve also got Ashley Casovan from the City of Edmonton talking about its embrace of open data. And then there’s a social media panel that will provide great real-world insight about how to execute operationally on a day-to-day basis.
2. meshmarketing in Toronto on Nov. 15. We’ll be unveiling the updated Web site and speakers soon so stayed tuned.
3. meshwest (Vancouver) on Dec. 5. Janice Diner will be doing a presentation that will deliver great insight into how to create a successful Facebook Page, along with lots of case studies of companies doing things right. Hiten Shah from KissMetrics will talk about digging into data to pull out intelligence needed to make smarter business decisions.
Needless to say, it will be a busy fall for the mesh gang but we’re looking forward to a great slate of speakers and programming.
Tickets for meshwest (Edmonton and Vancouver) can be purchased here. Tickets for meshmarketing will go on sale soon.
Tags: edmonton, mesh, meshmarketing, vancouver
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Now on to Calgary for meshwest
After two great days of mesh, we’re going to take a short breather – okay, breather’s over – before we head out to Calgary for meshwest on June 8.
It’s the first event we’ve done in another province so we’re excited about hitting the road with a great line-up of speakers and programming. When we started mesh in 2006, we wanted to create a national event. It has taken us a little longer than we expected but it’s now happening.
The keynote speaker for meshwest is Tobi Lutke, the co-founder and CEO with Shopify.com, which has quietly become one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies. Based in Ottawa, Shopify has more than 10,000 customers and attracted financing from Bessemer, a high-profile U.S. venture capitalist.
Our panels and workshops feature:
- Mark MacLeod and Danny Robinson talking about the state of venture capital in Canada
- Leigh Himel, Sarah Dickinson and WestJet’s Greg Hounslow looking at what companies need to do to prepare themselves for success with social media.
- Doug Lacombe leading a panel on how to effectively use Twitter as a marketing tool
- ICUC CEO Keith Bilous talking with Mathew Ingram about moderating and managing a community, and
- Mark Evans looking at how to customize Facebook Page that do more than just attract “Likes”.
You can see the full schedule here, as well as details about the post-meshwest social event.
Tickets for meshwest can purchased here. We’ve got an early-bird special for $239 that ends at midnight tonight.
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Vote for the 15MOF Winner
You really can’t start mesh without a good pre party. Please join us at the Drake Tuesday (yup- tonight) at 6pm to start the conversation.
We are also opening the voting lines for our six 15MOF finalists. They will be demo’ing in the Village on Wednesday, so you will have an opportunity to check out the technology and meet the people behind the idea.
Here is a bit of each of our finalists’. . .
InGamer is a real-time social game played in conjunction with live sports. The future of media engagement is about amplifying the audience experience by unifying 3-screens in real-time. Play InGamer LIVE with CBC & Hockey Night in Canada at http://starselector.cbc.ca. With 76+ minute Time on Site since launch, the stickiness of the InGamer platform is eye-popping!
Hipsell lets you sell stuff fast and painlessly right from your phone. Your item is posted on Hipsell and Craigslist, and we manage offers and questions for you. We make it fun to sell things.
Lymbix is best known for ToneCheck, the e-mail add-in that checks the tone of your message before you send it. The concept is solid and we know it. (After all, who hasn’t experienced a “say what?” moment after receiving an email message from a boss, colleague or friend that was obviously poorly thought-out.) That said, we’re _so_ much more than an email add-in. We’re often asked: “How do you know that the email tone is ‘off’?” Well my friends: that’s where the magic happens.
Wavo.me is a new service that takes your favorite media sources like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Soundcloud and extracts all the videos, music and pictures that really matter to you. You can then listen, watch, broadcast and discuss directly on Wavo. The best part is with a click of the mouse you decide which song or video to save to your library where they can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. Our easy to use bookmarklet takes this one step further, allowing you to save and pull content from anywhere on the web. Wavo is your intelligent multi-media library that makes finding and saving cool content easier and more addictive than ever.”
Atomic Reach is a social publishing platform that connects companies and brands looking for high-quality content with the people who create great content every day. It’s an exciting and new concept driven by the belief that content is going to become more important as companies look for new opportunities to engage and provide value to consumers. In simple terms, Atomic Reach helps brands deliver compelling content by tapping into a wide variety of contributors such as bloggers and videographers. For large companies, Atomic Reach offers a powerful and user-friendly content management platform that makes it easy for them to become online publishers.
The benefits: your own team of content producers comprised of your consumers, a platform to manage the people, as well as the content and publishing process, resulting in great content for your web and social media sites every day. The value, more content leads more traffic and greater visibility within your customer base. We also have tools to push your message, offers and promos out onto the web in a cost-effective way, extending the reach of your sales and marketing network.
Padpholio is a user-generated social media portfolio engine for the typical freelancer. padpholio makes you web noticed a lot easier on any search engine and a lot sooner by agencies. Currently in beta and still in development. The creative platform with designers in mind to be introduced this Fall 2011. Accounts are free to set up and feedback is always welcome and considered. Follow padpholio on twitter – http://twitter.com/padpholio; make friends with padpholio fans on facebook – http://facebook.com/padpholio OR simply click in for the early experience – www.padpholio.com”
Congratulations 15MOF Winners
After a hiatus, we decided to bring back “15 Minutes of Fame” this year as a way to help put the spotlight on the growing number of start-ups doing interesting things. We were delighted to receive a flurry of applications from a wide variety of start-ups. It made life difficult for our judges who were given the challenge of boiling it down to six selections.
In the end, the following companies were picked:
The six companies get a pass to mesh11 and an opportunity to demo their idea in the mesh Village. mesh attendees will be asked to vote for the Grand Prize Winner, which will receive the following package:
- A mentorship lunch with Farhan Thawar, vice-president, engineering, with Xtreme Labs
- A half-day PR training session from Edelman
- A one-year membership from the Toronto Board of Trade (more details here)
- A one-hour consulting session with Mark Evans, a mesh co-founder and digital marketing strategist.
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Sponsor Spotlight: Florist One
I know I’m probably not allowed to say this, it’s like saying you actually prefer one kid over the next, but I immediately liked Brian, a Partner at Florist One.
His story is the kind of story that means mesh is doing exactly what mesh is meant to do- inspire!
Brian has been attending mesh from the start, this will be his sixth year attending, and if you ask him, he’ll tell you he looks forward to it like it’s Christmas morning.
He was suffering, like a lot of you out there, not finding conferences that really captured what was going on with Web 2.0 in terms of social media, user generated content and the participatory web. Intro. ..mesh conference!
Florist One’s API is a direct result of Brian’s “mesh” learning.
In learning about APIs, he thought about they could be applied to Florist One - they are an online florist that delivers flowers through local florists in the U.S. and Canada. They had an affiliate program where they paid affiliate partners on flowers they would sell for them. They ran their program like a traditional affiliate program – with links that take a visitor from the affiliate’s site to their site where the visitor makes the purchase. The affiliate is paid a commission on the sale.
With the Florist One API, a partner such as Stewart Enterprises, a large operator of funeral homes in the U.S., can create a flower storefront directly on their website. For example, Stewart’s Garden of Memories website offers flowers using the Florist One API - the visitor never has to leave the Garden of Memories to make a purchase. The order is sent to Florist One via the API and they handle every aspect of order fulfillment and customer service.
The Florist One API can also be used to build mobile applications on any mobile operating system to let users of the applications send florist-delivered flowers through their phones. Florist Now is a mobile application built by an affiliate that is available through iTunes that let’s you send flower nationwide through your iPhone or iPad. Mobile Florist is another application built by an affiliate using the API for the HP webOS operating system.
There are many uses of the Florist One API including Facebook applications, dating websites, helping corporations and helping good causes. Their API let’s our partners offer flowers directly and it creates new and easy revenue streams for them.
The Florist One API fundamentally changes flower buying in many ways – mainly in that flower buying moves across the internet and trust is leveraged as the visitor never has to leave a website or application to make a purchase.
The release of the Florist One API and their presence at mesh this year as a sponsor is like coming full circle.
It helps that Brian is also amazingly prompt, extremely hard working and a really really nice guy. Make sure you take some time to connect with Brian next week.
These are the stories that inspire US.
Tags: api, florist one, mesh, sponsor
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