In my formative teenage years, I was involved in almost anything under the sun. I was one of the school’s yearbook editors, on the student council, sports council, played 5 sports and was a part of Encounters Canada Youth Ambassadors. Later on I had the chance to work with children and younger teens, which lead to some of the best summers of my life. Although I could have slowed down a little (geesh), I highly value every organization, team and event I was ever a part of.
In a few months, BC Youth Week will kick off with events and programs all over the province, and including awards of recognition for youth involved in their communities.
Celebrate youth in our community during BC Youth Week, May 1 – 7. Youth Week is an international celebration recognizing the value, diversity and positive contributions youth make in their communities. Be sure to catch one of the hundreds of events including everything from sporting events and art shows to award ceremonies and random acts of kindness. To find out what’s happening in your community today, check out www.bcyouthweek.com for more information.
There’s a Facebook page dedicated to BCYW, and you can find out more information on the official website.
Side note: I haven’t yet seen any events listed for Surrey, but this is around the time of the Surrey Youth Band Jam on May 3rd, which will showcase musicians and revive the good ‘ol days of Stardust with some indoor roller skating.
BC Youth Week events will include things like dances, concerts, a pool tournament, cooking competition, film festival, scavenger hunts and more in Langley, Maple Ridge, Mission, Vancouver, the North Shore and many other communities.
A few years go John had a blog post series called, “WILT” (What I’m Listening To). Inspired by Keira’s post about music yesterday, and Raul’s follow-up, here’s a sampling of what’s currently on my iPhone:
Albums
Nada Surf – The Weight is a Gift – They’re coming to town March 29th and playing the Commodore
The Format – Interventions and Lullabies – Currently on a haitus, but still great tunes
Against Me! – New Wave – In love with this album, one of the best of 2007
Matthew Good – Hospital Music – Official best of 2007
Shiny Toy Guns – We Are Pilots – Heard them on Seattle radio and have been hooked since
The Black Keys – Magic Potion – Also in town very soon, April 6th at Richards on Richards
Podcasts
The Crazy Canucks – Yeah, I listen to our own stuff, with 5 voices it helps to listen to the final production
Choogle On – One of DaveO’s many projects
Lipgloss and Laptops – by Kerry Anne and Airdrie
The Onion Radio News – Cause it’s pretty freakin’ hilarious
After the Credits – by Dale, Marina and Colleen whom I had the pleasure of meeting up with yesterday
Podcasting is not dead, it’s alive and well. Visit any of the fine sites above to subscribe and remember: “You don’t need an iPod to listen to a podcast,” – John Bollwitt.
This afternoon I stopped by the Union Gospel Mission on East Cordova as I was invited to an open house to celebrate the launch of their new website. Built by a local company and using a sleek-looking cms (content management system) the UGM has been pretty excited about the changes.
The most ambitious part of the new website was the development and implementation of The Street, a blog by UGM outreach workers. Aside from being on social networking sites like Facebook, the UGM has given their street-level workers a voice. This includes a chance to promote events and simply talk about they see and go through every day.
I also got to chat with a man that works in the kitchen and moonlights in the UGM Thrift Store. He said he’s been clean and sober for 15 years and working with the UGM ever since. There were interesting people from all walks of life, staff, bloggers, and even a mention of the Thrift Store’s lead mannequin that I thought would be great to have a photo of on their Flickr account.
This UGM provides drop in centres for women, families and youth, as well as programs and outreach for those in Canada’s poorest neighbouhood and around the Lower Mainland. They’ve also helped me with the issue of what to do with the five bags of clothing I was looking to donate, as their Thrift Store would gladly accept it.
While talking to Kevan, who works in communications for the UGM, it was great to see his enthusiasm for using new ways to reach donors, staff, and those who use the services. Sure, flyers in the mail get avoided or discarded and may cause annoyance, but the blog (to which you can subscribe) can provide everyone the information they want, when they want it.
I was up at 5:30 today to prepare for a seminar I was to attend for my “day job”. The theme was “Social Media for Marketing” and was put on by SMEI (Sales and Marketing Executives International). There were many non-members in the room, including myself, and already being well versed in the social media realm I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I already know what a blog is and how it can help build a two way communication between clients, potential clients, and my company so I was hoping this would serve a good purpose and make my early morning worthwhile.
There were many interesting professionals sitting at my table and we talked a bit over a nice hot breakfast supplied by The Butler Did It Catering. Short side story – yesterday I wrote a Twitter about how much I love whiteboards and got reply from J Karen Parker about participating in a survey about whiteboard usage. Well at my table today was a women who works for an A/V company and they’ve just picked up these fancy new whiteboard that use infrared technology to transform your notes, tasks and scribbles into pdfs and documents.
Back to the seminar, the three panelists were James Wells from BCIT, Rob Duncan from BCIT, and Justin Kestelyn from Oracle. The presentation started out very slowly for me, with all the basics being covered including a glossary of terms, “what is RSS?”, although I can imagine it was very helpful (albeit foreign) to those in the room.
Justin Kestelyn – Oracle: Justin’s approach was about the social self-publishing aspects of these forms of new media. He noted that an example of Web 2.0 was such things as unconferences, where anyone and everyone has a voice. He moved on to speak about wikis as well, which I hope the audience can look into further on their own because I find they’re crucial tools for companies. Overall, I really liked the direction Justin was heading in his talk.
Robert Duncan – BCIT: I learned the most about LinkedIn with Robert’s presentation. He directed it very well at the attendees, saying it lacks the “silly” features of MySpace or Facebook but allows for controlled, trustworthy networking within a community that you can grow. Two things I did not know I could do with LinkedIn were Questions & Answers, and “I’m working on”.
You’ll find both of these components already exists with other social sites. With Facebook updates you have “Rebecca is….” and although the “is” has now been dropped, they are still instant ways of letting people know what you’re up to. With LinkedIn’s “I’m working on” you can publicize projects, products, or even that you’re looking for a new job. You can do the very same with microblogging tools like Twitter, Pownce or Jaiku stating: “I’m eating a sandwich” or “Where can I get a sandwich in the West End”, which is where LinkedIn’s Questions and Answers come in. You can ask the community (anyone else on the system) business-related question ie. where to find certain companies or products, or ask for assistance. I admit, I’ve really been neglecting my LinkedIn profile so I’m definitely more inclined now to clean it up and explore some of the new options.
James Wells – BCIT: I tend to get overprotective of my preferred forms of media when others are explaining them to those unfamiliar but James seemed to know his stuff (of course, which is why he was on the panel). He described “blog” and “RSS” the way I was thinking in my head and during his presentation he spoke about the power of professional online communities, using his own company as a case study.
A common thread was ‘trust’ and having a blog, podcast or making a company Facebook page does not take away from your business or its credibility. It creates an open forum to engage your clients and for them clients to become your spokespeople.
I also ran into Mhairi, who sat in on John’s Podcasting 101 session at Northern Voice. She has her own internet marketing firm, out-smarts, and asked some really great questions for the panel.
It was my first time attending an event like this as I’m used to the unconferences where there’s people in jeans with laptops and cameras, there’s beer afterwards, a conch worked in there somehow. The panelists reached some good topics, and it proved to be a rather productive morning.
A recent Twitter from John Biehler about how “FAIL” seems to be one of the most popular words at SXSW reminded me of the following.
When poking around the new Metroblogging Vancouver website, powered by the lovely and capable WordPress MU, I came across a “coming soon” page. Instead of a “whoops! page not found” note, it had an image of a dog with the caption, “FAIL”. Turns out it came from FailDogs, are these pups the new lolcatz?
From:
FailDogs – Original Source Credited on FailDogs
From:
FailDogs – Original Source Credited on FailDogs
From:
FailDogs – Original Source Credited on FailDogs
Sure, they don’t have snappy captions like the lolcatz (I mean geez it’s such an empire they even re-did the bible in lolcatz-speak), but FailDogs say it all with just one word. It’s puppies and silliness, and a great navel-gazer of a website that helps pass the time or put a smile on an otherwise frowny face. So now who’s coming up with the “FTW” site?
