VIDFEST (Vancouver International Digital Festival) 2008 is fast-approaching and I’m just now beginning to comprehend how many elements, conferences, galas and events all fit under its 4-day festival umbrella.

The Vancouver International Digital Festival is an event for the top creative minds working in digital media. Join visionaries from games and digital entertainment, Web 2.0, interactive design, animation and mobile applications, at this annual ‘must-attend’ in Vancouver, Canada. [VIDFEST]

Here is some more info from their “core facts” sheet:

There are several local webby companies up for PopVox Awards and anyone is encouraged to head to the website and vote for your favourite in categories ranging from Best Digital Animated Short, Best Mobile (Game) to Best Do-Gooder site (Social Change Initiative) or Homegrown Award (Best BC-based Venture).

Some nominees close to my heart include, ChangeEverything, Strutta, MemeLabs, Now Public, and the Knob Hockey folks (just to name a few).

Here’s a quick condensed version of the festival schedule overall:

May 21st – VIDFEST and VIGS Opening Reception at the Vancouver Art Gallery

May 22nd – International Partnering Forum (IPF) and Convergence 2008 (featuring my panel, yay!), then Happy Hour

May 23rd – Creative Exchange Conference (featuring speakers such as Heather “Dooce” Armstrong and Chris Anderson of Wired with the Keynote), Schmooze Lounge and the PopVox Awards

May 24th – Pitch ‘n’ Play and Recruiting Fair

There’s a TON of action going on having to do with all facets of digital media. You can purchase single tickets for Chris Anderson’s keynote, or daily passes for each of the mini festivals within starting at $50 for the PopVox Awards ceremony only, going up to $375 for VIP, and $875 for a joint pass for VIGS and VIDFEST.

Here are a few more tips and tricks that I’ve come across in the Twitter microblogging community:

Twemes: First introduced at DemoCamp by Rochelle Grayson, Twemes is a website that comprehensively sorts and categorizes the things people Twitter about as long as they put a hashtag in front of it. Example, those currently at DrupalCamp Vancouver will be Twittering and including #DCV08 in their updates. If I go to Twemes, or the DrupalCamp website that is aggregating the Tweme, I can see filtered updates specifically pertaining to #DCV08 because of that tag.

Hashtags: I discovered this months after Twemes was released and it follows the same concept although you need to add a “bot” to your account to use it. For Twemes, you don’t need to do anything except start using a hashtag in your keywords/updates.

TwitBin: An alternative to Twitterfox, this slips your Twitter steam into your Firefox sidebar.

Twidget: Add a Twitter widget to your Mac’s dashboard.

Twitter Local: Hat tip to Jeremy Latham for Twittering about this earlier. You can filter updates to only view those from people within your geographical vicinity

Twinkle: Hat tip to Jenn Loether and John Biehler: “A location aware Twitter client. It features a slick presentation not unlike the web version of PocketTweats but also locates you and enables you to see who else is using Twinkle near you.” – [JohnBiehler.com]

Twitter Tweet Sheet: “There’s one things that annoys me about Twitter. Okay, there are two things: 1. They are always down. 2. There doesn’t seem to be one official place (including their own site) to get a complete list of mobile and IM commands.” – [Jason Theodor.com] Jason compiled an “easy to print” card that you can take with you for on-the-go Twittering.

From TweetClouds

And just for kicks you can read more about “Top Twitter Apps” on these lovely sites:

Thanks to the effort of many hardworking folks, DrupalCamp Vancouver officially launched this evening at Flux Bistro in Gastown.

Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. [Drupal]

Until Saturday evening the city will be overrun with Drupalists from across this great nation to learn, discuss, code and partake in some of the following:

John and I had a chance to talk to Glenn of Image X Media, chat with a few familiar faces, give DaveO lots of hugs, then send our tired selves home.

If you’re heading to the sold out DrupalCamp make sure to tag any photos on Flickr with “dcv08” and hashtag your updates in Twitter with “#dcv08“.

A few months ago I was interviewed as a part of a video series by Reachd, a local firm that teaches and preaches the values of SEO. They are now offering video blogging seminars (learn how to make video, how to promote it etc.) and with the cost of signup comes a Flip Camera for all those who register.

Not surprisingly, the workshop registrations soared and they have now sold out the first event. However, you still have a chance to win your way in if you head over to the Techvibes Blog and drop a comment on this post over the next two weeks.

Their first 20-spot session on May 13th is sold-out but they’ve added a 2nd workshop on May 28th and set aside a free seat (and video camera) for a Techvibes reader. [Techvibes]

The workshops are 3 hours long (2pm to 5pm), the registration fee of $200 includes the fancy new camera, and will take place at Ceili’s Irish Pub. I had a chance to use Colleen’s Flip last night and I have to say, it’s a pretty slick compact video-making device.

If you haven’t got your head around the concept of blogging, your mind might be blown with the latest term: microblogging. To those on Facebook, think “status updates”. Sites like Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce (just to name a few and not including all the video ones out there) allow folks to update their contacts or followers using brief 140 character max. messages. To better explain it, here’s another great video from CommonCraft.

The “power of Twitter” is pretty vast. Last night we were out having dinner and John put a call out on Twitter for people to join us, a short time later we were graced with Tanya‘s presence, which was super fun.

When I was recording my bit for the Lab with Leo I Twittered that I was “backstage” and within 45 seconds Leo came out from the studio to meet me and shake my hand.

Most recently, Nadia from Meme Labs Twittered this news story… about Twitter.

Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. “Arrested.”

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt — the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier — were alerted that he was being held. [CNN]

People have various reasons for using Twitter, whether they want to meet up with other folks in the area, share a news story, use it to syndicate their blog posts, do a poll, have pointless battles, ask questions, or share what they ate for lunch that afternoon. Though sometimes I get a bit of a “chat room” feel when I see people sending endless messages back and forth, I certainly value having this tool at my disposal.

Two things of note: You can get intuitive clients that will bring in your Twitter feed so you don’t have to update from the website ie. Twhirl (for PC) or Twitterific (for Mac). Also, if your updates aren’t locked or “private” they are fully available in a Google search, meaning anything you say in Twitter, doesn’t stay in Twitter.