When Mark Evans (one of the guys behind the mesh group – mesh conference, meshmarketing and meshU) and I had coffee last Spring, I was seven months pregnant and thinking of giving the Ad Lounge team a little hiatus from its events – until at least the fall, if not the winter.

The conversation, however, evolved from a “Here’s what we do at mesh” and “Here’s what we do at Ad Lounge” to a mutual “WOW! Love what you do. It’s innovative, fresh, and so perfect for our audience. How can we figure out a way to work together?”

That’s when the collaboration began.

As it turned out, the mesh team was looking for ways to connect with the advertising and marketing industry more intimately, while Ad Lounge was looking for a way to expand its event offerings to perhaps include a day-long conference. Ad Lounge has been asked to collaborate on many industry events, but this one just seemed right. The team behind the mesh group had a collaborative culture that Ad Lounge stands behind in every project we get involved with. The idea about being innovative and unique really resonated with the Ad Lounge objectives so we went for it.

And that brought us to now – where we are co-producing meshmarketing ‘10. Ad Lounge was asked to handle the programming and agenda for the conference, and with that we went on a hunt to seek out the most relevant and current to marketers in 2010. So that’s what we are doing. The mesh group is handling the event production and all the fine details that go along with planning events.

It has proved to be an incredibly successful partnership – actually, one that should have happened a long time ago. To top it off, I had my baby, a beautiful girl, and managed to get accustomed to moomyhood AND help to produce this incredible event simultaneously.

Add meshmarketing (Nov. 17, 2010) to your calendars, everyone. We’re bringing you some very topical sessions, including “The Digitization of Retail”, “The Emerging Social TV”, and “The ROI of Social Media Customer Service”.

And we’ve been very careful to select speakers who are fresh and new to the conference circuit… thus giving you content that original, thought-provoking, current and new, delivered by people who are at the eye of the storm (people living and doing the work, who can give us tangible insight and stories about their firsthand experiences).

It’s exciting times for both Ad Lounge and the mesh team – and we hope to see you at meshmarketing! Tickets, by the way, can be purchased here.

So, we’re really excited to pull the covers of meshmarketing ‘10. meshmarketing is happening on November 17, 2010 in downtown Toronto. (We’ll announce the location soon.) Tickets are $489 (plus HST) before Sept. 17, and $539 afterwards. There are also 50 student tickets for $99 each (plus HST). And, of course, we’ll have a social afterwards. Tickets can be purchased here.

While we’re keeping the same focus and approach, there are some wrinkles that we think are going to make meshmarketing even better.

First, we’ve partnered with Trina Boos, who has been running the successful Ad Lounge events. Trina delivers terrific insight into the advertising and marketing worlds, as well as a huge community that she has nurtured and built over the past nine years. As meshmarketing’s programming director, Trina is the driving force behind the event’s sessions and and speakers, and we’re overjoyed about her key role within meshmarketing.

Second, we’ve tweaked the programming format. Rather than have a single keynote, we will kick off meshmarketing with two keynotes – Michael Slaby and Marian Salzman – along with a super-presentation by Lee LeFever. Part of the change in format was our excitement about several speakers. Rather than pick only one, we decided to go with a three-pack.

Michael Slaby is executive vice-president and global practice chair of Edelman’s digital practice. Before joining Edelman, he was a technology and new media advisor to the Obama administration where he led operational and long-term planning for technology including web strategy and utilization, and data integration opportunities.

Marian Salzman, one of the world’s top five trend spotters, will offer insights into the future of digital marketing and communications. As a leading communications professional, digital marketer and author, Marian will provide her insight on what’s on the horizon and what we need to know now to prepare.

And for those not familar with Lee LeFever, he (along with his partner and wife, Sachi) are the brains behind the popular Common Craft video series that provides user-friendly insight into technology and technology trends that everyone can understand.

As for the rest of the programming, we’ve got a great line-up of speakers, panels and workshops – everything from the ROI of social media customer and trans-media storytelling to how retailers are using location-based services, and future of social TV. For more details, visit the speaker and schedule page.

meshmarketing tickets can be purchased here. Don’t forget to take advantage of the early-bird special until Sept. 17.

Business Keynote – Scott Thompson

Day Two began with a discussion of the future of money with the President of PayPal, Scott Thompson. Formerly a CTO at Visa, Thompson sees the value in having tech businesses actually be run by people who have hands-on experience in technology. Thompson also stresses the importance of consumer and business partner feedback, saying “if you can measure something, you can improve it.” This seems to have paid off – PayPal serving 84 million consumers internationally in 190 countries!

Scott Thompson with Mike McDerment

Photo Credit: Mike McNulty, as uploaded to media.meshconference.com

Marketing/Communications Keynote – Arvind Rajan

{Disclosure: LinkedIn is an Edelman client}

Up next was Arvind Rajan from LinkedIn to talk about making lasting connections in the professional online space. Rajan gave mesh attendees a crash course in LinkedIn job hunting, saying that a filled-out profile, listing interests, and regular updating are the best ways to attract recruiters. Rajan also piqued the crowd’s interest when he said, “It’s fair to say that we’re looking at ways for users to leverage their LinkedIn network further online.” Looks like there’s much more to come from LinkedIn, especially with the opening of a Canadian office!

Top tweet: @erin_bury: Best quote of #mesh10 from @stuartma while interviewing LinkedIn’s @arajan: “I joined LinkedIn on Monday.”

Check out this video of Arvind Rajan speaking with mesh co-founder Stuart MacDonald

What Businesses Should Really Do with Facebook – Janice Diner

Janice Diner took the stage to talk about how businesses should be using Facebook to engage with their communities. Since Canadians spend an average of 429 minutes on Facebook per month, it’s important for brands to optimize their Facebook utilization. Diner suggests following Facebook’s guiding principles: make it social, keep it simple, optimize for speed and be sure to integrate.

Real-Time and How it Forces Marketers to be Real – David Carroll, Salima Valji and Leigh Himel

Next up was a great panel discussion about real-time marketing that included David Carroll, known for his viral smash hit “United Breaks Guitars” YouTube video. Over eight million views later, he believes that companies should implement a holistic and integrated marketing approach; an approach also mirrored by Valji and Himel. The key take away from the panel is that real-time is about authentic relationship building and transparency.

Photo: http://twitpic.com/1p73gg | Photo Credit: Rob Hyndman, as uploaded to twitpic.

More Excitement!

Speaking of David Carroll – he’s playing “United Breaks Guitars” and other songs from his latest album at Edelman’s mesh10 Wrap Party. For those who miss Dave’s performance tonight, he’ll be at the Duke of Westminster tomorrow night and Edelman Digital invites you to join us for a very sociable evening.

See you at meshMarketing and #mesh11!

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Edelman is a founding sponsor of mesh and proud supporter of Canada’s premier web 2.0 conference. Blog posts and Twitter updates are brought to you by @lauraroni and @melissaretty from Toronto’s @edelmandigital team. Edelman is the largest independently-owned communications firm in the world. For more information, check out Edelman.com

Stuart MacDonald kicked off the first day of #mesh10 with a huge thank you to all of the sponsors, volunteers, and fellow organizers – without you, this conference could not be possible! 

Media Keynote: Chris Thorpe

Chris Thorpe, Developer Advocate for the Open Platform at The Guardian, took the stage for the first keynote of the day. Thorpe described the “mutualization” of news as the guiding principle of the Guardian’s work in extending their open API to build businesses with the people who use their content.

Top Tweet: mesh Presenter @JayRosen_nyu provided context and tweeted- “#mesh10 The Guardian’s “mutualization of news” http://jr.ly/3t8f is explicated by @jaggeree: Means putting the “co” in, as in co-reporting.”

 
Chris Thorpe talking with Mathew Ingram

Photo Credit: Mike McNaulty, as uploaded to media.meshconference.com

Society Keynote: Joseph Menn

Next up was Joseph Menn, author of “Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet”, who entertained mesh attendees with his incredible stories of espionage and internet security. Even though some attendees thought Menn’s talk had “idea density too rich with awesomeness to extract nuggets”, here are our top three favourite Menn quotes:

“I don’t think I’ve met a top computer security guy yet that hasn’t done something bad as a teenager”
“…it’s not like the mob’s saying ‘We gotta open an online division’”
[On his own personal security] “In the unlikely event I get wacked, it’ll at least raise awareness”

Joseph Menn talking with Rob Hyndman

Photo Credit: Mike McNaulty, as uploaded to media.meshconference.com

The afternoon was packed with workshops and panel sessions that allowed attendees to ask questions and engage with our speakers. Here are some highlights:

 Special Session: TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin on “Our Digital Future”

 As TVO’s The Agenda continued their series on the future of digital, their session discussed one of the top themes of the day at mesh: the evolution of online privacy. @TheAgenda examined this issue looking at Facebook privacy questions and the growing concern amongst parents on how to monitor their children’s online activity.  Click here to watch past videos from the Our Digital Future series. The session aired tonight at 8 p.m. on TVO!

Privacy in the Age of Facebook with Dr. Ann Cavoukian, David Fraser and David Fewer

 This panel tackled the growing debate over Facebook privacy settings and featured Dr. Ann Cavoukian from the Office of the Commissioner of Privacy for Ontario (@embedprivacy). Key takeaways from the panel included the importance of opt-in versus an opt-out policy for privacy settings and that the power for change lies within the hands of the 500 million users of Facebook. 

Top Tweet: @michaelocc:  Worth re-posting: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/ – will auto-audit your Facebook privacy sessions for you and highlight issues. #mesh10

Dr. Ann Cavoukian, David Fraser & David Fewer
Photo Credit: mesh Live iPhone App, as uploaded on media.meshconference.com

More Excitement: The mesh Prize

mesh had an exciting first today – Teehan + Lax announced the recipient of the first ever mesh Prize of $40,000 to Pixels to Products, who announced plans to conduct research and develop reports and a database about the size and scope of the Canadian digital community! Congratulations to Justin Kozuch, and we look forward to seeing your results at mesh11!

That’s it for day one! See you all tomorrow!! 

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Edelman is a founding sponsor of mesh and a proud supporter of Canada’s largest web 2.0 conference. Blog posts and Twitter updates are brought to you by @lauraroni and @melissaretty from Toronto’s @edelmandigital team. Edelman is the largest independently-owned communications firm in the world. For more information, check out Edelman.com

It’s the place within mesh where mesh attendees (and non-attendees) can share their photos and videos. There are two parts of meshMedia: you can create a profile that includes your photos, videos and comments. There’s also meshLive, which is a general pool where everyone’s photos and videos exist.

Here are three ways you can share photos and videos:

1. Send your photos and videos as an attachment via upload@meshconference.com. This can be done using a laptop or wireless device, and the photos and videos will become part of the meshLive stream.

2. After logging into your meshMedia profile, you upload photos and videos.

3. Using the mesh iPhone app, you can upload photos and videos to meshLive. Keep in mind that videos should be uploaded using Wi-Fi because they may consume a lot of 3G bandwidth.