Last week the Vancouver startup and tech scene met for the 6th Launch Party over at the Uber Lounge at The Landing and Steamworks. Kudos to the organizers for using this great space, there was room to move, check out the demos, grab tasty canapes as they passed by, and chat with many interesting attendees.
The good folk at Strutta brought Launch Party to Vancouver and through events like these we are introduced to the latest and greatest innovations on the web that are happening right here in town. The winners at LPV6 were Rilli.com (People’s Choice) and Mobify.me (Judge’s Choice).
“Rilli is a map-based online and mobile event creation tool for social people, doing real things, in the real world.” Along with an interactive Google Map, Rilli allows you to add and manage events which can even be synced with sites like Facebook or Upcoming. You can comment on events, get feedback, and interact with other attendees.
“We’re launching a new tool called MobifyMe to let webmasters extend their current websites to mobile without developing separate mobile sites.†I’ve been pretty pleased with my WordPress plugin that pretty much runs seamlessly on my site without effort while optimizing it for mobile readers. However, with Mobify you can go beyond WordPress, beyond the iPhone, and tailor your website for a specifically mobile audience – however this customization is best suited for developers and webmasters, not the average user. With Mobify you can strip down the design of your site while adding elements such as a map to your business or special mobile information that will be available for Blackberry, iPhone or any other hand-held.
The next Launch Party will take place at the end of May, check out the website for information on the next batch of presenters.
Yesterday John and I headed East to hang out with our pal Duane and after an evening housewarming party, we ventured up to Cultus Lake for a chilly photowalk this morning. It was also my first official photowalk with my new Fuji Finepix S2000HD cam, which I am falling in love with after years of being a Canon girl.
It’s easy to find a nice place for a brisk walk, especially out here, and it’s a great way to cure the winter blues. You can view the rest of my photos in my Chilliwack Flickr set.
I think the most blogging I’ve done in a 24 hour period usually happens on an annual basis during Blogathon, where bloggers are encouraged to join me in writing on their own sites for 24 hours straight, publishing 1 blog post every 30 minutes, and raising funds for charity. Turns out, the folks at BCIT are far more adventurous and will be attempting 67 straight hours of content production including posting to Twitter, a blog, live blogging, and video updates and interviews.
Combined with the face-to-face meet ‘n greet event, Big Info, the goal will be to highlight education in the province and as such, three lucky participants will receive $1,000 towards their education at BCIT and two others will receive $1,000 towards their education at any school of their choice in BC to boost their own personal education funds [contest details].
It’s no secret that I’m a born and raised girl from Surrey and as such, I love to use my site to share some of lighter side of the City — from park info and news, to development and festivals like Winterfest, there’s so much happening that unfortunately doesn’t always end up in the limelight. At the end of March I’ll have my first speaking engagement in my hometown, sharing some blogging basics at the Surrey Museum.
When: March 26th, 2009 from 7:00pm until 8:00pm
What: The benefits of blogging and how to get started
The Surrey Museum hosts many other programs, aside from the adult speaker series, and has some upcoming spring break sessions including their Tot Tour workshops for pre-schoolers, as well as the Thinking Caps Club for 7-10 year olds.
As a side note, there was also a call out today in the Now newspaper for memorabilia to add to the Surrey Museum.
I encourage everyone to stop by this great facility (not just for my session) and if you have any questions you’d like to ask me ahead of time about blogging, please feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll try to address them on the 26th.
For the last few years, a few days each summer have been dedicated to individuals who come together and walk for a cause during the Weekend to End Breast Cancer across our nation in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
The Weekend to End Breast Cancer benefiting BC Cancer Foundation. During one amazing weekend, August 14-16, 2009, you will unite with thousands of women and men to walk 60km in 2 days or 30km in 1 day, in the fight against breast cancer and other women’s cancers. The money raised will go to benefit BC Cancer Foundation.
It’s a long walk, but the journey to get diagnosis, treatment and support for all cancers that affect women is an even longer road for any woman and her loved ones. I recently caught a message from Helen on Twitter about her fundraising efforts and I thought that it was the perfect time to learn more about the event and how anyone can get involved.
Helen is a mother, wife, and nurse who will taking part in her first Weekend to End Breast Cancer this summer in Vancouver. “I’ve always been curious about it,” said Helen. “This year is the first year that I felt like I could commit to the required fundraising effort (minimum $2000 per walker) and the two-day walk.”
Participants have a great support system that help them prep for the walk as well as fundraising tips. “I attended an orientation last night and I’m really inspired now. It’s incredible to know how much this walk has improved breast cancer research in BC and all the people it has affected. I am so excited to be a part of it for the first time.” Helen also has a very personal connection to the cause, “I lost a very dear aunt about 10 years ago to breast cancer. She died before getting a chance to see her daughters marry or to be a grandma to their 4 children.”
I think each one of us has been touched by this in one way or another and by sharing personal stories or at least making personal efforts to contribute, inform, and make a change in our own lives, helps just a little bit more.
“Since I’ve started my fundraising, I’ve been amazed to hear how many people have been touched by this terrible disease,” noted Helen who had an original goal of $2,000 but is hoping to push that up to $4,000. “I decided I want my husband to join me on the walk, and he’s told me he will if I can raise another $2000.” Helen has until August to meet her goals and she’s come up with several unique ways to get her there.
“I’ve been trying a few different methods to kick-start my fundraising. The first was to ask all my online crafter friends from Etsy.com to donate products for me to auction off on my blog, with donations going straight to my online donations page. This has been going great. I’ve had some wonderful things donated. People are so generous and I’ve enjoyed promoting their businesses for them, so it’s a win-win.” She is also running several auctions, which you can get to from her website, Triage From Home.
She is also planning a garage sale at her home for the weekend of March 28th and 29th. “I’ve been out delivering flyers in my neighbourhood asking for donations of unwanted items and advertising on Craigslist.” Helen said that she’s been getting a great response from Craigslist alone, “My garage is quickly filling up with stuff and I’m kind of worried about how much time it’s going to take me to sort through it all!”
All proceeds from the auction and garage sale will go straight to her Walk fund, along with funds raised from a few other fun projects, including breast cupcakes and awareness ribbon cookies.
To contribute any items to the garage sale (which comes with perfect spring cleaning timing) or if you would like to purchase a cookie from Helen, you can contact her through her website. If you would like to contribute to Helen’s effort directly, you can do so through the Weekend to End Breast Cancer website or learn more and feel free to join Helen and thousands of others when they walk in August.
Update, August 13, 2009: The event is only a few days away and official “Cheering Stations” have been announced so that non-participants can encourage those doing the walk.
Cheering Stations – Saturday August 15th (Day 1)
Sunset Beach Park, 1204 Beach Avenue (at Bute St)
Douglas Park, 801 W 22nd Avenue (at Heather St)
Cheering Stations – Sunday August 16th (Day 2)
Tisdall Park, 6210 Tisdall St (at W 49th Avenue & Tisdall St)
Kitsilano Beach, 1499 Arbutus St (at Cornwall Avenue)
The opening ceremonies are at 8:00am at the Rocky Mountaineer Station then there will be lunch and entertainment from 11:00am – 1:00pm at Harbour Green Park. At camp that evening there will also be activities from 4:00pm – 8:00pm in Killarney Park.
On Sunday breakfast will be from 6:00am – 7:00am with walkers leaving the camp by 8:00am. Lunch will be from 11:00am – 1:00pm at Quilchena Park and the closing ceremonies will be at 3:00pm at the Rocky Mountaineer Station.
The Surrey Museum hosts many 
