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Mashable Connect Take Two

29 Apr

Next weekend I will make my way to Walt Disney World once again to attend my second Mashable Connect conference.

The intimate conference that brings the Mashable community together with the brightest minds in social and digital media is back for the 2012 edition with this year’s theme: Future of Digital.

What I love about this conference are the number of opportunities that allow attendees to connect with each other. From the opening night networking event to the activities inside the Disney parks and seated meals, Mashable Connect lives up to its name of bringing the community together to share, inspire and connect with one another offline.

Some of the speakers include: Burt Herman, Co-founder, Storify; Joe Fernandez, Founder & CEO, Klout; Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics; Hilary Mason, Chief Scientist, Bit.ly and June Cohen, Executive Producer, TED Media.

Here’s my favourite session from last year that features Craig Engler of Syfy Digital speaking on community engagement.

Save the date for the 2011 Edition of The Gratitude Tea

5 Nov

I am excited to be yet again working on another Gratitude Tea, our annual fundraising tea for a local charity. Our charity of choice will be announced soon.

Come share a little gratitude in a high tea ceremony at Rosewater Toronto on December 11 with us. You won’t regret it ;)

I’m going to Disney World!

25 Apr
Digital media and Walt Disney World. My two favourite things have actually collided to produce the perfect conference. In a few short weeks I will be off to sunny Florida to attend Mashable Connect to exchange information with leading social media experts from around the world!

If you are wondering why an iconic tourist draw like Disney World was chosen for an important social media conference, it is most likely because it has completely embraced social media as part of how it does business. Most recently Disney partnered with Gowalla to customize a stamp or pin for every park-sanctioned hotel, attraction, restaurant and ride to help visitors explore the parks and attractions – the largest Gowalla partnership with a brand to date. I am sure Josh Williams, the CEO of Gowalla who is a Mashable Connect speaker will speak to this when he presents on Day One of the conference. I am hopeful the organizers will have an activity planned that will allow us to experience this partnership first-hand via our mobile devices and Gowalla app.

The weekend is packed with an incredible line up of speakers. To name just a few….

  • Rohit Bhargava, SVP, Global Strategy & Marketing, Ogilvy
  • Sabrina Caluori, Director of Social Media & Marketing, HBO
  • Cameron Death, Senior Vice President and General Manager, NBCUniversal Digital Studio
  • Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup
  • David Karp, Founder, Tumblr
  • Steve Rubel, SVP/Director of Insights, Edelman Digital
  • Raymie Stata, SVP, Chief Technology Officer, Yahoo
  • Josh Williams, CEO, Gowalla

I will be blogging while at the conference so look out for a few videos, posts, photos and tweets!

You’re late, you’re late…for a very important date!

13 Nov

 

It’s almost December, so that means it’s almost time for another Gratitude Tea! This charity event is all about raising spirits, receiving praise and spreading goodwill. Well actually it is a formal way to say ‘thank you’ to that unsung hero in your life We are giving you the grandest of opportunities to speak out about that special person in a way that they will always remember. Bringing a guest is just as special too. Just by bringing them as your guest speaks volumes to how they have impacted your life.

Oh and there is tea too! Lots of yummy sweets and treats, clotted cream and tiny sandwiches that only Marie Antoinette would approve of.

Where: Rosewater

When: Sunday December 5, 2010

Time: 1:00 to 3:30 pm.

www.gratitudetea.com

 

 

Attend This Event

 

It’s Been a Year…Time for a Little Reflection

20 Aug

It’s time to get a little personal, which is something I don’t do very often on this blog. If you have ever lost someone very close to you, maybe you can relate.

It has been one year (Aug 3) since my mom died. It has been a wild one but a challenging one as well. Not just the challenge of learning how to grieve, or move forward but learning how to grow from this situation and try to turn some of the negatives into positives.

Looking back at this past year, it’s remarkable I was even able to do anything at all, considering in the first three weeks since the event took place, I didn’t even want to feed myself.

I was able to get back into a normal routine and I think being able to focus on work again really helped me put things into perspective. I can’t say I was too productive at work though, because my mind was thinking about a million things…what to do with my mom’s house, where will my sister and I live? Can I afford a mortgage or a downpayment?

Despite all the worry in my head, I tried not to get caught up in all the grown up stuff I had to take care of and made it a priority to have fun, see friends, treat myself to getting my nails done and the general stuff that would make me happy and distract me from all the negative emotions I had.

If I also did not have the support of my boyfriend I may have probably had a much tougher time coping.

I feel I accomplished a lot this year. I was still able to host another WordCamp Toronto, change jobs – which is somewhat of a scary prospect in challenging times and I was able to put on a charity fundraising event in honour of my mom, now an annual event called The Gratitude Tea.

The best thing I’ve learned from this year is that friends are really important. They will cheer you up when you’re feeling down, take you out for dinner to distract you and remind you that everything will be okay. More importantly, life will go on.

I am my mom’s legacy and I know she would be proud knowing my sister and I picked ourselves up after tragedy and continued to look forward. She was a self-made woman and I try to live by her example everyday.

Here’s a video treat I put together for people who knew my mom. It was taken at my sister’s graduation in the spring of 2009. You can hear in the video that my sister is telling me to put the camera away but I’m glad I didn’t listen. It’s the only video I have of her in recent history.

Cupcake Camp Toronto 2010

4 May

Seriously, what makes you happier than a cupcake? Okay, a few things but the cupcake I’m sure ranks high on most people’s lists of stuff they like.

Enter Cupcake Camp. A meet-up for cupcake fanatics, makers and bakers and shakers in the cupcake-making industry. Based on the BarCamp/DemoCamp style of conference, Cupcake Camp allows cupcake entrepreneurs and hobbyists the chance to showcase their sweet creations to the eager samplers of Toronto.

Traditional cupcakes like the vanilla, chocolate, red velvet and mint chocolate variety were available for sampling but interestingly enough people went to the extreme with some flavours. Elvis cupcakes in particular were all the rage. There were at least three different cupcakes that featured the banana-peanut butter combo that the King made so famous and one even had bacon on it! Speaking of bacon, there were three kinds of cupcakes that included bacon. I can’t say that I’m a big fan of meat with my sweets but it was worth trying out.

There were edible gold cupcakes, pear and green tea, strawberry daiquiri, orange creamsicle, black forest flavoured ones among the 50 or more varieties they had to try.

The most creative had to be the cupcakes in the flower pots, with crumbs on top to look like dirt, a flower sticking out and gummy worms for added realism. My favourite of the day though, was the cheeseburger cupcake that looked so much like an actual hamburger you would think there was meat in it.

If you ever want to sample more cupcakes than you can imagine, then find a way to get yourself to Cupcake Camp Toronto 2011!

The PodCamp Toronto 2010 Survival Guide

17 Feb

PodCamp Toronto 2010

February 20 to 21, 2010

Rogers Communications Centre at Ryerson University

Ah PodCamp…a great event that demands your full attention. Can you handle the responsibility of learning from great veteran speakers and ambitious newbies this weekend?

If you have never been to a camp before or even if you have and you saw the schedule of events on podcamptoronto.com, it’s enough to intimidate the most fearless of conference hoppers.
Fear not young PodCampers! If you are ready to tackle PCT 2010, I assure you it will be a fun and exciting weekend.

The PodCamp Challenge:

  • Pick 5 sessions that stand out to you – Attend at least 5 sessions if you can. You may not want to stay for the whole weekend as a first timer but if you are going to come out, make it worthwhile and attend a few sessions you think you will enjoy.
  • It doesn’t matter which sessions you attend – The great thing about PodCamp is you learn from everyone. You learn from the speakers, from the people you network with and that includes the time in between sessions.
  • Meet at least 5 new people – That shouldn’t be hard to do considering PCT attracts hundreds to its event every year.
  • Write down people’s Twitter handles and other contact information – Be sure to follow up with them post-event.
  • Bring some business cards – Even if you are student, there are cheap and easy ways to get your information down on a piece of paper to hand out to people.
  • Take a recording device – Bring a video camera, digital camera, paper and pen or computer and share your ideas with other people who attended.
  • Attend the after parties – Sure this sounds like fun..and it is but it is also a great way to meet people and network in a social setting.
  • Follow the Twitter stream @PodCampToronto, to hear what people are saying about the event in real time.
  • Take notes, learn, take more notes, ask questions and soak up as much information as you can.

If you are very new to the world of social media, attend these sessions:

  • Podcasting for Amateurs: It’s Priceless
  • Social Media 101
  • The PodCamp Three (or Maybe Four or Even Five)

 

The bottom line is anyone who attends PodCamp is in a unique position to collect and absorb a ton of insight from leading experts for free! This event is one of the best because of the quality of speakers and knowledge that is shared over the course of the weekend. So get as much as you can out of PCT 2010 and have fun!

A Video Recap From WordCamp Chicago 2009

10 Feb

A video from WordCamp Chicago 2009, which I attended. For more information about WordCamp Chicago 2010 visit http://www.wordcampchicago.com

Wordcamp Chicago 2009 from Brian Artka on Vimeo.

It’s 2010 and that means a new WordCamp Toronto

5 Jan

 

It seems right after the shortbread is eaten, the parties finish, the champagne has been drank from New Years and the relaxing comes to a halt, the reality of the holidays ending hits you in the face with the cold harsh reminder that it’s January in Canada. With warm weather months away it seems kind of depressing, doesn’t it? Unless you have something to look forward to. For me it’s WordCamp Toronto 2010, coming to the Centennial College Student Centre once again. For two days in March (27 & 28), WordPressers unite for an unconference like no other seen before.

Last time we threw a two-day meetup in the traditional sense with speakers, lunch and impromptu get togethers. This time around we are going to try a few new things. For one there will be a networking breakfast, WordPress success stories will be told, a dj will play music in between sessions and a wine and cheese mix and mingle will end the first day, followed by an official after party. One of the greatest challenges from 2008 was getting people to the venue, so this time we are picking you up! Yes, we will have a WordCamp TO bus to pick you up from one of 4 locations in downtown Toronto and Scarborough.

There is just over two months so we need to act fast to ensure this runs smoothly. If you would like to help with this year’s WordCamp, please contact me or visit www.wordcamptoronto.com and fill out the contact form for speaker, sponsorship and volunteer opportunities. 

Looking forward to planning this year’s WCT with the kick ass Toronto tech community!

A Look at the Gratitude Tea

15 Dec

I immediately felt sad after our event concluded because I had poured a lot of passion and hard work into something I loved planning. It was a good sadness, a sigh of relief you could say after completing something you felt went off without a hitch and flew by too quickly. The Gratitude Tea, a charity event I planned with my best friends and sister was a huge success and I say that humbly because the positive feedback we received was overwhelming from event attendees and the charity. The money we raised in one afternoon for a good cause made me feel pretty good too.

The idea of a Gratitude Tea is to bring someone you are thankful for having in your life and sharing with everyone (if you wish) why you are grateful for them. Maybe this person has had a major impact on your upbringing or has influenced you positively. Naturally most brought their mothers and other family members but some came just to observe and enjoy a high tea on a lovely Sunday afternoon in downtown Toronto. 

The charity we raised money for, Dress for Success Toronto came to support the event and Jessica Roelink, the Executive Director spoke about how the money we raised will directly impact women in the GTA.

Thanks to the guests of the event, we were able to donate 18 bags of gently-used work clothing to Dress for Success as well as raise a couple thousand for the charity.

It was such a pleasure to organize this event with close friends and I look forward to making the event bigger and better next year.

Our site: www.gratitudetea.com

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