Category Archives: Conference

WordCamp Toronto’s Hash Tag Hilarity

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Great story about WordCamp Toronto 2008. My cousin and I were sitting in our hotel room, and we couldn’t find any mention of what the WordCamp Toronto hash tag for the event was going to be, and so my cousin, Mark Wood, decided that it should be something like #wcto08. He put out a message on Twitter at 08:13 AM on October 4th, saying “WordCamp Toronto in an hour and a half. Hope to meet some cool people while I am there. #WCTO08”. I then, only a minute later, put out a quick Twitter saying, “WordCamp Toronto hash tag #WCTO08 😛 Deal with it. :)”.

After our messages, people started using the same tag for their Twitters, and other things, until we got to the event, and the organizers let us know that the hash tag should be #wct08. Despite this set back, I continued to push out as many tweets as possible under the one my cousin had created, and when Joseph Thornley took the stage, it only got more complicated as he announced that the hash tag for the event should be #wpto08. We then had three event tags on Twitter, for a single event. It was safe to say that many people were confused, and slightly annoyed.

Questions started circulating if people should just add two or all three tags to their Twitters so that they are easy to find. No one wanted their tweets to be ignored for the event, especially as it was a great bulletin board of communication.

Over time, thanks to my constant messaging on Twitter, and my work at converting others, the #wcto08 hash tag showed up on the trending list, as an event tag that was being used fairly often. The other tags not getting a mention at all, and so over the course of Saturday, messages went out with the #wcto08 tag at a rate of ten to every one message that included the “official” #wct08 tag.

The second day began with the same confusion, as it was stated at the start of the day that we should be using the #wct08 hash tag on Twitter, and ideally on all sites we post WordCamp Toronto content on. It then became apparent that, while we still had many supporters, the #wct08 hash tag might win the day. It quickly appeared on Twitter’s Trending list, and over the course of the day the two fought out for their spot.

Interestingly enough though, my cousin, a few others, and myself continued to use the tag that Mark had come up with, and we were the heavier Twitter users, so by the end of the second, and final day, I think we had created enough messages that the #wcto08 tag was pushed out at around a rate of three or four messages to every one that was tagged as #wct08.

I know this all seems silly, but the issue could have been fixed quite easily. Since the #wcto08 tag was trending higher, and faster, the organizers, instead of sticking to their guns, could have adapted and promoted the more popular tag, so that people didn’t feel the need to tag their messages with both hash tags for the event.

Next time though, I think the tag for the event will be chosen much earlier to avoid such confusion, but for histories sake, I want to say again that my cousin, Mark Wood, selected the Twitter hash tag that became more popular than the official one, at WordCamp Toronto 2008.

Originally posted on October 6, 2008 @ 5:04 pm

Gary’s Blog World Expo Keynote in More Formats

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For those of you that have been complaining about the huge file, or the bad quality of the Viddler upload in my previous post, a friend of mine, Tom Leroux, has created some more great ways for you guys to have access to Gary’s great keynote speech from Blog World Expo.

A nice compact 230MB Quicktime Movie version.
A MP3 version and a M4A version as the audio is the most important part.

Very cool stuff for those that haven’t checked this out yet.

Originally posted on September 29, 2008 @ 8:17 pm

Blog World Expo E&E Experience

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I can’t believe how many amazing people I am meeting at this conference. Attending wasn’t to learn new things and so I won’t yet comment on the presentations, but the people are amazing.

So far I’ve met Lorelle, Vic, Jim Kukral, Deb Ng, and others. I’ve been Twittering like mad on Twitter.

More to come when I pull out my laptop.

Originally posted on September 19, 2008 @ 2:54 pm

nextMEDIA: First Thoughts

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Before the event even started, nextMEDIA was suffering a few issues. The venue that they had chosen, CiRCA, a club, wasn’t ideally suited to the event. While being very beautiful and stylistic, it was also dark, a little cramped, strangely laid out, and the seats were the fold-out kind. Despite the little bit of padding the seats include, I highly doubt people will be enjoying them by the end of the day.

There are a limited number of couches though for those that are unable to take the discomfort any longer, but those are placed far from optimal viewing angles of the stage, and part of the experience is always to be able to see the slides and presentations that these companies put together.

Not only that, but there was an even bigger issue that really aggravated me: there was no open wireless Internet connection. There is a wireless connection available, but it was locked down and only staff for the event seemed to be permitted to use it.

This frustrated more than just myself, as a new media event, with speeches on social networking, and monetizing digital media, many people assumed that there would be access for them to use. How could they invite new media specialists, bloggers and more, and not have any open wireless Internet for us to use? Very strange.

Worse still, because of the thick concrete and brick walls, we are unable to connect to Toronto’s city wide wireless network which, while costing money, would have still been an alternative to use.

They did provide two small laptops hooked into wired Internet connections as an Internet station, but placed large signs limiting us to a maximum of fifteen minutes at a time.

One other thing to note is that they didn’t seem to have the same kind of exhibitor booth space that they had last year, and so there most likely won’t be any cool displays of new technology. The two companies that I saw were Casale Media, an advertisement agency, and a local school of arts and design. Both are interesting, though somewhat uninspired choices.

The breakfast provided was nice though, with a wide assortment of drinks, and snacks. I have to commend them on that aspect. Also, all of the staff at the event seems to be well trained, very friendly, and efficient. Which for events as complicated as this one seems to be, is key.

Will nextMEDIA turn out to be an event to remember thanks to some great presentations, or will it end up being a flop worth forgetting? As we wait for the delayed opening speech, I am very concerned.

For more information on the nextMEDIA conference, and every post I am making regarding the event, please check out BrandingDavid.com.

Originally posted on November 18, 2008 @ 2:56 pm

Blog World Expo: My Adventure Begins

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For those of you that are regular readers, you might have seen me mention that I will be not only attending Blog World Expo in Las Vegas this year, but I will also be speaking on two panels. I am fairly nervous about speaking in front of so many of my peers, but I am also very excited about this trip.

There are so many things I still have to do to get ready to go, but I wanted to explain a bit of the silence as of late, and why things might be a little quite here over the next few days.

Tomorrow morning I leave home and head into London with my wife. She has to go to school, and I have to start going through the airport security fun. I am bringing a minimal amount of stuff in order to make sure I can get through as efficiently as possible, and I won’t be checking any baggage if possible.

I will be bringing a very small suit case and my laptop bag and trying to manage both as I fly from London, Ontario to Toronto, Ontario, which if you know the area well you’ll notice is the wrong direction, but Toronto is a hub here and where Air Canada does their international flights. I haven’t had very many positive experiences in flying with Air Canada, and so hopefully this time it goes better.

After a few hours in Toronto, I then board a plane to Las Vegas. Hopefully, during this part of the trip, I will be able to get some writing done, and relax as right now I am a bit wound up thinking about the people I am going to get to meet and where I am going.

I really wish my wife was coming with me, but we just couldn’t afford it at this time. It seems like we are forever going on different trips to different places, though mine are always work related.

One thing I checked out was which planes I would be flying on, and which seats I might want to avoid. I found that on Seat Guru, a site that I had heard about a long time ago thanks to either TechTV or Revision3 at some point or another.

I haven’t been in the Unite States for almost ten years now, and the last time I was in Nevada, we only didn’t stop in Vegas so this should be quite the experience for me.

I want to thank Jim Kukral and the Blow World Expo organizers for having me speak and Ryan Caldwell, my boss, for giving me the time off from College Crunch to attend.

If you see me at the event, please come and say “hi” as I’d really love to meet as many people as possible.

Originally posted on September 17, 2008 @ 7:04 pm