In town for an event tomorrow night, David Jones of Hill and Knowlton will be speaking to the Third Tuesday crowd in Vancouver tonight.
We hear the horror stories of fake blogs, spam pitches and general ignorance of the social media community by PR practitioners who leap into the online space without first understanding what it is and why it’s different. David will talk about how Hill & Knowlton approaches the online space and how it’s incorporated into virtually every PR program they execute on behalf of companies like HP, Motorola, Bayer and Molson. [ThirdTuesday]
I’m lucky to have been pitched by several great PR and marketing firms and professionals, and I’ve written my share of proposals. Within this month alone I have worked with the fine folks at Zipcar for National Digital Media Day, DreamBank for the Blog World Expo and I have ongoing partnerships with organizations like Fitness World, which is keeping me healthy over the next year.
I am once again a media sponsor (by way of liveblogging) thanks to the lovely organizers Tanya and Monica. The liveblog will begin around 7:00pm so check back soon for updates on the go. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
With National Digital Media Day only 10 days away, my grand scheme of being mobile and liveblogging across the region wouldn’t be coming to fruition without the help of Zipcar.
Thanks to the car sharing network, I’ll be able to cover more than just Vancouver in the spirit of this national celebration of digital media. As such, I had a quick interview with the General Manager of Zipcar in Vancouver, which you can download, play and listen to over on RadioZoom.
Here are a few key points about National Digital Media Day:
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. 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.
New Media BC and the Canadian Interactive Alliance (CIAIC), are committed to remain at the forefront of this issue.
Many critical and market successes – in BC and around the world – would not have been possible without the support of the CNMF.
More background is available on the Ning social network.
I will have all posts tagged NDMD08 and all Flickr photos will also be in my NDMD08 set.
The super special Miss604 discount referral link for Zipcar (mentioned in the podcast) will be published on every blog post I write on September 25th so stay tuned.
If you have a suggestion for one of my stops on National Digital Media Day (from Langley to Richmond and everywhere in between) please submit it in the comments below.
Update: The Vancouver Park Board has voted unanimously for a 1,900 square foot addition to the Brockton Totem Pole Interpretive Centre. [News1130]
It’s one of the first stops all the tour buses make as they cruise around our city’s beloved Stanley Park and recently there’s been a proposal to expand the totem pole visitor centre to accommodate all of its visitors.
“The argument is we need to provide a washroom, bigger washroom, for the tour buses and the tourists that come through there because it can get congested at the busiest times. So, it’s a big project. They also want to expand the gift shop by about 1,400 square feet.†[News1130]
“The totem pole display area at Brockton Point is the most visited tourist attraction in all of British Columbia and it has an interesting history,” and contrary to popular belief, they were not native to the park. They were purchased and placed by the parks board over the last century [VPB].
If you’ve been a reader of mine for a while, you’ll know I’m never really a fan of more paving, building, and demolishing nature for the sake of “tourism” in the park, and this is no exception.
I love the totem poles in the park, however if you would like to learn more about the history, culture and traditions behind them, I also recommend the Museum of Anthropology at UBC or the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.
I believe Stanley Park should be enjoyed as a park in all its natural beauty. I like that it’s a city park with amenities but when they start ripping up the entire reason we were drawn to the spot in the first place, it seems a bit silly.
Luckily there are some Parks Board members like Spencer Herbert who feel the same way: “My main concern is green space in the park,†Herbert told the Straight. “Stanley Park isn’t expanding but buildings in the park are.â€
Running through the park this morning we saw tents and makeshift campsites all over the place. It sure would be nice to find homes for these people before we build another washroom with handsfree faucets for the next busload of tourists.
There’s just one day to go in the Benji, Casey, Pete and Bella campaign for Paws for a Cause. For months now Keira has been fundraising for this very worthy organization and Matt (who helped Duane and I with the Blogathon) also backed the fundraising effort with updates on his website. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
Read all of my IMC posts and view my Flickr photos
The last two days at the Internet Marketing Conference have been great. I learned that companies are using their websites and what most of their goals might be, that many marketers do not yet know the value of social media and SEO (or they do, they just don’t know how to implement it), and that the staff at the Coast Plaza on Denman are extremely nice and accommodating.
I really enjoyed the panelists and workshops today, as well as yesterday’s speakers. They all seemed to have that ideal blend of “corporate suit business talker” mixed with “having an actual grasp on the value of the internet and social media.” Coming from the blogging, podcasting, and social media consulting realm myself it was definitely an education for me as well – just being able to live on the other side of the corporate pond for the past two days. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
