Edelman Wrap Party
It’s hard to think about the end of mesh, but at least it will go our with a bang! All mesh participants are welcome to join us for a Wrap Party sponsored by Edelman from 5 to 7pm on Wednesday, April 8th at Proof Lounge (220 Bloor Street West) following the conclusion of mesh09.
See you there?
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What Questions do You Want Us to Ask?
One of the things we really focus on at mesh is getting plenty of input from those who are attending — the “people formerly known as the audience” to use Dan Gillmor’s phrase. We do that by devoting lots of time after keynotes and panels for a question-and answer session, but we’re always looking for ways to do more.
In that vein, we’ve set up a couple of interesting ways for you to tell us what questions you want the answers to at mesh ‘09.
I’m going to be chatting with Mike Masnick — founder and CEO of Floor64 and chief blogger at Techdirt.com — as part of the media “keynote conversation” this year, and I’ve set up a Google Moderator account so that you can submit questions you’d like Mike to answer, and/or vote on questions that others have suggested we ask.
Rob Hyndman will be speaking with Kiva.org founder Jessica Jackley in the keynote conversation for the society stream, and he’s set up a Google Moderator account as well for your submissions.
And Mark Evans will be talking with musician David Usher as part of the media stream, and has used Rypple — the customer feedback service that is also a mesh sponsor — to gather questions for his chat.
We can’t promise that we’ll ask every question you submit, but we’ll certainly do our best. Feel free to leave some in the comments on this post as well, or find us on Twitter at @meshconference, @mathewi, @markevans and @rhh.
mesh on!
Tags: Google, mesh09, questions
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Marketing Keynote: Bonin Bough of Pepsi
It’s all well and good to talk about the potential of social media and the digital realm, but who is actually doing something about it?
Bonin is.
As the Global Director of Digital and Social Media at Pepsi, his job is to figure this stuff out and deliver a return for the many Pepsi brands out there. And he knows his stuff: prior to running this area for Pepsi he was EVP of Interactive for Weber Shandwick and a Professor of Online Media at NYU.
While we are sorry that our previously announced keynote is being called away unavoidably, if taking the digital channel from the world of potential to the world of results matters to you, you won’t to miss my Keynote Conversation with Bonin Bough on Day 2 of mesh09.
Haven’t registered yet? Do so here.
Tags: marketing, mesh news, mesh09
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An all-star lineup and a special guest
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the lineup at mesh ‘09 in April, but we are pleased to announce another very special one: a surprise appearance by Toronto mayor David Miller, who will be doing a one-on-one interview on April 8th, the second day of the conference (there’s a full version of the two-day schedule here — and be sure to register soon, because tickets are going quickly).
Mayor Miller will share with mesh attendees some of his thoughts on the idea of an “open city,” with all that that implies about issues such as civic transparency, data sharing and connecting directly with citizens. Toronto has made some major strides in that area recently, including some ongoing steps by the Toronto Transit Commission to open up and share its data, as well as the Mayor’s own use of Twitter to connect directly with residents.
This conversation with Mayor Miller fits right in with one of the themes of mesh ‘09: the rise of what might be called “politics 2.0″ — a move towards more transparency, more direct civic engagement and the use of social-media tools as a way of empowering citizens to speak out about a host of important issues. Much of this wave is due to the success of the Obama campaign in the U.S., and that is a topic one mesh panel will be discussing in detail: how the campaign took shape, what it is like to cover the new politics from a media perspective, and what it suggests about how politics as a whole is changing.
Moderated by former Huffington Post writer Rachel Sklar, the panel includes top political reporter Jonathan Martin from Politico.com — one of North America’s leading new media entities — and Micah Sifry, co-founder of TechPresident.com, which has been tracking and analyzing the changing nature of politics and the Web since Howard Dean first discovered the power of the blogosphere.
We also have a panel that will look at the increasing use of the Web and social media as tools for advocacy and citizen engagement on civic issues. Moderated by Darren Barefoot, the panel includes Duarte Da Silva, one of the co-organizers of the massively successful Hohoto charity event and Sarah Prevette — who ran the Toronto version of the international charitable event known as Twestival.
If community management is your focus, we have a panel that will tackle that issue head-on — a panel including George Tsiolis, founder of the small-cap investing community Agoracom, as well as Howard Forums founder Howard Chui and Keith Bilous, co-founder of ICUC, a Winnipeg-based company that handles community management for the CBC and CTV. There’s also a panel on word-of-mouth as a marketing tool that includes Sean Moffitt and Freshbooks community manager Saul Colt.
In the media stream, meanwhile, we have a panel featuring Gabe Rivera — founder of the popular tech aggregator Techmeme – as well as Rachel Nixon, news director of Vancouver-based NowPublic.com, and David Cohn. David has been involved with several “citizen journalism” ventures such as the OffTheBus project with The Huffington Post, and is the founder of a new “crowd-funded” journalism venture called Spot.us.
And in the business stream at mesh, we will have a powerhouse panel featuring Paul Kedrosky — whose Infectious Greed blog is one of the most popular finance websites, and who advises several venture funds in the U.S. — and Howard Lindzon, a venture capitalist and investor who is also the co-founder of the video blog Wallstrip (which was sold to CBS) and the investment network Stocktwits.com.
There’s more — much more — including a special one-on-one interview with David Usher, one of Canada’s most social-media savvy musicians; a panel on managing your advertising buy online; a panel looking at the risks and benefits of developing for platforms such as Facebook and the iPhone; workshops on dealing with iTunes as a content provider, monetizing your video content and managing your online persona.
And of course we have our four excellent keynotes: Kiva.org co-founder Jessica Jackley, Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis, Ford’s Scott Monty of Ford and Mike Masnick of Floor64 and Techdirt.com.
Please think about getting a ticket soon — they tend to sell out quickly, and we’d love to see you there. Mesh on!
Tags: mesh09
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mesh09 Marketing Keynote: Scott Monty – Ford Motor Company
At mesh we really try to focus on people and ideas which are leading the way, and actively putting “what’s next” into action. With that in mind, and against any measure Scott is someone worth hearing from. As a key online face of Ford during the current economic challenge in the auto sector, Scott has been right there in the middle of the fire. Never mind client or agency talk of “should we be doing anything in social media?” or “is there any value in it?” or “is it worth the money?” — Scott has been living it, and in doing so has been putting Ford at the forefront of online brand building and rapid-fire communication response and management.
I can’t wait to get him on the stage at mesh09 and talk about life in the digital trenches. And I bet many of you will want to get in on the action, too.
Stuart
Posted in mesh news, mesh09 | 4 Comments
mesh09 ticket sales are *GO* next Tuesday
Prepare to get your mesh on!
Starting next Tuesday, tickets to mesh09 will be available for purchase. The three previous events were sell-outs and so, as the saying goes “book early to avoid disappointment” 
We are very pleased to be bringing back our very popular student program, with a limited number of tickets being made available to students with i.d. for only $50.00 + GST. These always go quickly – as in immediately – so if you or someone you know is a student who would like to attend, be sure to let them know so they are able to get in on the goodness.
We take great pleasure in being able to bring mesh to life each year as an affordable, accessible event and this year is no exception. Admission will be only $469.00 + GST for two days of the best content and interaction you’re going to find anywhere.
So next Tuesday, November 18th, get yours at www.meshconference.com.
Tags: mesh09
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mesh is hiring!
In the past three years, mesh has grown from humble roots – five guys who just wanted to do something to talk about all the exciting things happening online – to become Canada’s Web conference. Now is your chance to be a part of mesh by joining us in part-time sponsorship sales.
So what’s involved? Mostly, it means working with the mesh gang to manage our existing sponsors and find new ones. So, what’s in it for you? You will earn a commission on each new sponsor you secure, and most importantly, an opportunity to help make mesh thrive.
Are you interested? We’d like to hear from you.
Email me your C.V. at stuart (at) meshconference (dot) com.
Tags: mesh09
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mesh and meshU ‘09 news coming soon
If you’ve been following our mesh adventures you probably know that we’ve sold out for three years running. And every year, like clockwork, we feel like schmucks because some folks find out about mesh too late to fit us in to their schedule or their budget, or to buy tickets before they sell out. The same is true for meshU, the new addition to our family.
So this year, we’ve decided to announce dates and put tickets on sale as early as possible – sometime next week you’ll be able to buy tickets and we’ll post the dates so you can (hopefully) fit us in to your schedule. We’ll make the announcement here, on Twitter and probably on our own blogs, too. If you know people who you think might like to come to mesh or meshU this year, please pass along the news!
Tags: conference, mesh09, meshU
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Who do you want to see at mesh 2009?
The mesh team — Rob Hyndman, Mark Evans of PlanetEye, Stuart Macdonald of Tripharbor, Mike McDerment of Freshbooks and I — have been brainstorming about mesh 2009 next spring, and we were hoping some of you might want to contribute some of your brains to the storm, as it were. Let us know who you would most like to see speak at mesh and maybe a little about what you want them to talk about — and whether you think they would fit best in the business, marketing, media or society streams — and we will do our best to make it happen. If you want to re-live the wonders of mesh ‘08, check out the links here.
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meshU student tickets are sold out
Just a quick note to let everyone know that the 30 student tickets we had set aside for meshU this April 6th have been snapped up. For those who bought tickets, we ask that you provide a student ID that proves you are enrolled in a secondary school or post-secondary (undergrad or graduate) program at a recognized institution of some kind in order to pick up your ticket.
Meanwhile, regular tickets for meshU continue to sell quickly, and will likely ramp up given our recent announcement about some great new speakers. You can get a meshU ticket right here. Register early and register often
And if the main mesh conference is more your thing, be sure to drop by the ticket window and pick up a pass for that too. We just announced our fourth and final keynote today: Mike Masnick, founder of floor64 and Techdirt, who will be speaking about the impact that the Web is having on music, movies, books and a variety of other content industries, and how they can learn to profit from scarcity and embrace abundance.
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