Things are about to get a little mesh-y this week, and over at SMG we’re really excited about it!

SMG is proud to sponsor and be a part of meshmarketing, intermingling with some of the brightest minds in the industry and sharing some of our know-how along the way. What have we learned this year? First, that listening really pays off, especially online.

As a member of the meshmarketing panel: social media beyond monitoring , SMG’s Patrick Gladney, Director and Group Head – Research and Insights, will guide you through social media monitoring and what to do once you know what’s being said about you online.

What else have we learned?

That partnering with a top traditional media monitoring service not only adds value but allows for us to offer clients a complete multi-channel monitoring service.

That’s why we are so excited to announce our new partnership with Canada’s leading media monitoring service FPInfomart, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

What can our clients expect from this new venture? A complete holistic view of the communications landscape that is unmatched in the marketplace, enabling them to understand and act upon what’s being said in any channel.

Want to learn more? Visit www.socialmediagroup.com or call us at 416.703.3764

We look forward to seeing you at the conference, catching up and hearing all about what you’ve been learning too.

Months in the planning, meshmarketing is happening tomorrow at the Allstream Centre.

This is the third meshmarketing, which was started after people who attended the marketing stream at mesh asked for more in-depth and tactical sessions. They wanted to hear from speakers who could provide them with tangible and action-able insight and information to do their jobs better or differently.

With speakers coming from across North America, we have put together a line-up with expertise in digital marketing, content marketing, social media, mobile, data and influence discovery.

meshmarketing kicks off with a morning of thought-provoking discussions that features Stuart MacDonald in conversation with WestJet’s Greg Hounslow about the importance of community, while Mark Evans will sit down with IdeaPaint’s Marcus Wilson and Marcus Sheridan (aka The Sales Lion) about the growing focus and value of content marketing.

After lunch, Klout.com’s Joe Fernandez will provide some insight into why influence and influencers have become such an intriguing, interesting and controversial part of the digital and social media marketing landscapes. Anyone who has a Klout score, particularly those who their scores drop recently after Klout adjusted its methodologies, will no doubt be interested in learning more about the influence world by Fernandez, whose company finds itself within the eye of the hurricane.

Then, meshmarketing gets down and dirty with eight interactive and hands-on sessions and workshops that will provide people with what they need and want to change how they do business. It’s a chance to hear from not only experts but people in the trenches about what’s happening, what’s over the horizon and what businesses need to do and think to stay competition amid an ever-changing landscape.

Unlike other digital marketing conferences that focus on big picture/big thought issues, meshmarketing has been created for people who do digital marketing but looking for new approaches, tools, techniques and ideas on how to do it better, smarter, faster or more successfully. As well, a key part of coming to meshmarketing is being able to network and connect with not only people within your industry but people who work in other sectors who can offer a new or different perspective.

Tickets for meshmarketing are still on sale. Here’s where you can check out the schedule and the speaker line-up.

Speakers: Gail Gabrielle Ordogh (Real Sports), Sheldon Levine (Sysomos) and Dorothy Steel (Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation). Moderated by Michael O’Connor Clarke

Why this panel? For all the talk about best practices and tools, the best advice about using social media comes from companies and people on the front lines who can provide real-world insight into how to leverage social media to drive awareness, engagement, customer service and sales. Learn from people who work in the social media trenches every day how they do their jobs, approach different situations and achieve corporate objectives while using the right tools to be as efficient and productive as possible.

Some of the questions to be addressed include:

-          Why is it important to your organization to incorporate social media in your communications plans?

-          What has been your biggest challenge to date with social media use?

-          What advice do you have for organizations nervous about making the leap into social media?

-          Talking about social media measurement, what’s most important to you?

-          Of the other organizations, brands and companies you’ve seen working in this space, are there any whose social media efforts you particularly admire? Why?

-          Of the social media platforms in use at your organization, which is most important to you strategically? Personally?

-          Where does GooglePlus fit within your plans for 2012? Watch and learn, evaluate, test, actively implement, or ignore?

-          Speed seems to be a constant topic within social media. How fast do you think an organization needs to respond to audience comments, questions or complaints?

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!

Speakers: Patrick Gladney, Social Media Group, and Scott Lake, Swix

What’s it about: In many respects, social media monitoring is table stakes for most companies. Given the growth of the landscape, companies need to know what’s being said about their products, services, brands, competitors and industry, where the activity is taking place, and who’s leading the conversations.

But what happens after the social media data has been aggregated, filtered and presented? What do companies do with it so they gain the insight needed to make strategic and tactical changes?

Why you should attend: This panel is focused on answering the question “Now what?” so people can get a better grasp on what how they gain wisdom, insight and intelligence from social media monitoring.

Here’s where you can find more information about the speakers and schedule for meshmarketing, which happens on Nov. 15 at the Allstream Centre in Toronto. Tickets can be purchased here.

Presentation

Speaker: Hiten Shah, CEO/co-founder, KISSMetrics

What’s it about: These days, data rules the roost on the Web. The more data that can be collected about your users and how they behave, the better you can serve their needs with the right content, offers and advertising opportunities. But how does a company approach the mountains of data being collected? How do they make sense of it to make better strategic and tactical decisions?

In this presentation/workshop, Hiten Shah will provide hands-on insight about how to identify, understand and improve the metrics driving your business. Hiten will covers areas such as conversion rates and funnel paths, how to look at your traffic sources to get information about things such as signups conversations, upgrade conversions and referrals, and offer ways to answer questions about how Web site visitors and customers are using your Web site or application.

Why you should attend: For a growing number of business, data can’t be ignored. It needs to be collected, filtered, analyzed and provide strategic and tactical insight. This presentation is for anyone who wants real-world insight into how to leverage data.

The speakers: Kunal Das, Bing evangelist, Microsoft; and Krista LaRiviere, co-founder and CEO, gShift Labs.

The focus: Search is ubiquitous but it doesn’t mean that it’s not changing or evolving. The emergence of the real-time Web and social media is causing big changes what is being searched, what is being spidered, the content available, and when it’s surfaces. While Google still rules the search roost, there are new players on the scene such as Bing, as well as search engines focused on the real-time and social media marketplaces.

Kunal Das and Kristra LaRiviere bring different perspectives to the panel. Das is responsible for evangelizing Microsoft’s vision and strategy for search and inspiring top marketers, key agencies, and the wider search marketing industry.

LaRiviere, a serial entrepreneur, is looking to grow gShift, a Barrie, Ont.-based startup that is taking a new and different approach to search engine optimization by giving companies and agencies new tools to examine, manage and change their SEO strategies.

Here is the complete schedule and speakers for meshmarketing.

Tickets for meshmarketing can be purchased here.

It’s an interesting question given digital marketing and social media can be used to reach the masses or niche markets. The big issue facing luxury brands is whether leveraging digital and social media marketing drives and enhances what luxury brands are doing or whether it causes luxury brands to lose their lustre, stature of exclusivity.

Given this marketing challenge and opportunity, we thought it would be interesting to have a panel at meshmarketing that looks at what luxury brands are doing digitally and how/if their approach to digital marketing and social media is different that what mass-oriented brands are doing.

The Panelists

We put together a panel that features people from different parts of the luxury marketplace.

Joanna Track is the CEO and co-founder of Dealuxe, an online destination for contemporary designer brands. Felicia Yukich is the global social media marketing manager for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, and Jason Lonsdale, head of planning with TAXI, one of Canada’s leading advertising agencies.

The luxury panel happens on Nov. 15 at the Allstream Centre in Toronto. It is part of an afternoon of workshops and panels that are  hands-on, interactive and engaging so people can go back to work to do their jobs differently or better.

Here’s where you can find more information about the meshmarketing schedule and speakers. You can purchase tickets for meshmarketing here.

It seems like the old adage that ”Content is King” is alive and well as more companies recognize that providing existing and potential customers with a steady flow of content (blog posts, videos, whitepapers, case studies, podcasts, photos) is a great way to drive engagement, loyalty and stickiness.

The Panelists:

- Marcus Wilson, vice-president of marketing with IdeaPaint, which leverages content (YouTube, a blog, Twitter and Facebook) and the ability to distribute it to drive traffic and, as important, leads.

- Marcus Sheridan, author, entrepreneur, pool business owner, business coach, whose The Sales Lion blog has become one of the leading sources for insight on content marketing and social media.

Why the meshmarketing Panel?

For all the talk about conversations and engagement within social media, content has taken a back seat or, at least, it hasn’t received a lot of attention in the wake our fascination with tweets and updates.

But the tide seems to be turning because there’s more interest in using content to differentiate and drive a brand’s digital presence. When everyone is doing social media, the playing field starts to level so content can be an effective way to rise above the crowd.

Tickets for meshmarketing, which happens on Nov. 15 at the Allstream Centre in Toronto, can be purchased here.

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.