After collecting some food donations we have headed up to the far reaches of Lynn Valley to visit our friend Dave [happyfrog][RaincityStudios].

I realized this hasn’t left me much time to visit the Greater Vancouver Food Bank today. As such, I’ll keep the drive going until after BarCamp, in case anyone would like to donate some items over the weekend, and I’ll do a drop off next week. Please come and see me at BarCamp (opening night party, morning schedule session, or WordCamp) if you have any items to contribute, it would be greatly appreciated.

Back to the mission of National Digital Media Day, hanging out with good people like this means a lot to me and since we all met through the power of online media. It just goes to show that not only is this medium important to business and industry but also society; digital media is corporate and it’s also personal.

Our travels today are made possibly by Zipcar. If you would like to sign up today, please use this special Miss604 reader discount link where you will receive an annual membership for just $30.

We are at Salt in Gastown right now with Tris Hussey, Kris Krug and Raul – come on down and join us for lunch. Kris is giving impromptu photography advice and I’m live blogging before delicious our “Butcher Plate” arrives. Canned food donations are being accepted for the Food Bank.

Update: Anthony just arrived as well as Jenn and Nadia from Invoke Media.

You can view more photos in Tris’ Flickrstream, and Raul will have his up soon as well. A very big thank you to Anthony from Farmstead Wines for not only sponsoring the wine but also for the amazing lunch here at Salt. We’re now off to North Vancouver to visit Dave Olson (sans his appendix) – podcaster and online content creator extraordinaire.

Our travels today are made possibly by Zipcar. If you would like to sign up today, please use this special Miss604 reader discount link where you will receive an annual membership for just $30.

After a hearty breakfast at Ricky’s we’re now chilling at Blenz in Central City / SFU Surrey. So far this morning the traffic has been horrendous so after this we’ll head straight to Gastown for the 1:00pm meetup.

The kiss event (one of the only events mentioned this morning in one of the local papers) will be starting at 11:30 (right now!) although please check out my NDMD08 posts I have been updating for the last few months for more activities that have been arranged for the rest of today.

If you are able to meet up with us, please bring donations (non-perishable food items) for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank and we’ll swing by there later with our contributions from National Digital Media Day.

Our travels today are made possibly by Zipcar. If you would like to sign up today, please use this special Miss604 reader discount link where you will receive an annual membership for just $30.

It’s here! Today is National Digital Media Day and I’m going to be embarking on a tour of Metro Vancouver, stopping at various points to live blog and promote digital media in our region. Why am I doing this you may ask?

… As you may know, there is wide speculation that the federal government may not renew the $14.5 million Canada New Media Fund (CNMF) when it’s current contract expires on March 31, 2009. You may have read about this issue on the front page of Saturday’s Globe and Mail.

The annual $14 million CNMF, administered by Telefilm, supports new media and Internet-based content creation and marketing activities. The loss of this fund has far-reaching implications for New Media BC’s membership and the BC Digital Media industry as a whole…

… It is of the utmost importance that the Canadian government supports domestic creators of Digital Media content so that our exciting industry may continue to flourish in a province rich with innovation, new ideas, and intellectual property. New Media BC and the CIAIC will continue work on your behalf to ensure our collective concerns are heard. [Ning]

I’ll be picking up Raul and then heading to Ricky’s at Central City in Surrey for some hearty breakfast. If you’re in the vicinity and would like to join us feel free to stop by around 9:00am.

We’ll be collecting items for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank all day, which we’ll be dropping off this afternoon so please help us load up the Zipcar with donations. Rumour has it Buck Pierce and the Grey Cup will also be at the Vancouver Food Bank today at 2:30pm in preparation for Tackle Hunger this weekend.

From there we’ll head to Burnaby for some coffee (location to be determined, check the live blog once it’s going.)

There is also a “Kiss” event taking place at a secret location, meet up at the Art Gallery at 11:30am to find out where to be for this national smooch.

We’ll the be at Salt in Gastown for lunch at 1:00pm. Farmstead Wines will be there with some tasty samples.

After downtown we’re going to cruise over to Richmond (location suggestions are still open!) and wrap it up back over on the North Shore (do you think Waves would be the best pit stop there?).

We’ll then head to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank to drop off donations, then I’ll take Raul to the Vancouver Blogger Meetup before heading to my live blog for the Keall Foundation. Please join us along our route today, either in person or on the blog.

Our travels today are made possibly by Zipcar. If you would like to sign up today, please use this special Miss604 reader discount link where you will receive an annual membership for just $30.

The official snaps won’t be in the Vancouver Sun until tomorrow morning however earlier today I had the pleasure of traipsing around downtown with John, Jeff, and Alanah and meeting all kinds of Canucks thanks to Raise a Reader Day.

“The Canwest Raise-a-Reader program has excellent momentum and this year, on the morning of Wednesday, September 24th, newspapers in 28 communities will host Raise-a-Reader Day activities on city streets from Victoria to St. John’s. Thousands of volunteers and local celebrities will exchange special Raise-a-Reader edition newspapers for donations to literacy… …Through the volunteer efforts of people across Canada, Raise-a-Reader is able to provide the necessary funding and resources to family literacy programs, libraries and school libraries in the greatest need.”

Alanah and me with Mason Raymond of the Canucks (and How I Met Your Mother fame)

Each year I have a blast walking around and meeting players and organization members. It’s such a casual atmosphere, everyone is in high spirits and thinking the best for the season ahead.

One of the best ways to get your day going is by getting a hug from Ryan Kesler.

Legendary (first ever) captain of the Vancouver Canucks, Orland Kurtenbach. Such a nice man who was excited to hear about our podcast (and possible bus ads).

My meeting with Stan “The Steamer” Smyl, who led Vancouver for his entire career until retiring in 1991. His number 12 hangs in the rafters and will soon by joined by number 16.

You can also catch photos on John’s Flickrstream from our adventures at the Canucks game last night where they were kind enough to have a penthouse suite as a token of their appreciation for online content creators like The Crazy Canucks.