I’ll be on a panel at SMX Toronto this Friday: Search and Social – Insight and Inspiration. The panel will be moderated by Alexa Clark and feature a cross-section of smart folks – Leona Hobbs from Social Media Group, Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People and Ilya Grigorik from Postrank.

I’ve always been passionate about the intersection of search and social and how the two can intersect to provide a rich, contextual experience for users. With the quality of people on the panel it’s sure to be a lively and informative discussion.

If you plan on attending, make sure to say hello!

This June 8 & 9th the Search Engine Strategies conference will return to Toronto. I had the pleasure of speaking at the event in 2007 and as the landscape continues to evolve, this year looks to have some great sessions on “what’s next” in search, along with the tried and true sessions about SEO & SEM. This year I’m covering SES right here on (3i). I hope to impart some of the goodness I’ll be learning over the two-days and if you have any particular sessions you’d like me to recap, let me know in the comments!

In addition to the keynote by the excellent Miss Rogue, Tara Hunt, author of The Whuffie Factor, the first day has some fantastic sessions, including:

• Is PageRank Broken? The Future of Search
• Universal and Blended Search: Comprehensive Visibility Challenges
• Optimizing for Video Search: Virgin Territory?
• SEO Then & Now: What’s the Same? What’s New? [I'll be featuring an interview with one of the panelists, Anne Kennedy, in the coming weeks on (3i). ]

Day 2 again features some terrific sessions in addition to the keynote by Emanuel Rosen, author of The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited:

• Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile Apps
• Information Architecture, Site Performance Tuning and SEO
• Social Media: Do Big Companies Get It?
• How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Get Things Done

If you are at the conference make sure to find me to say hi, or if you aren’t attending, follow along here and leave me a comment with your perspective on the hot issues being discussed!

Social media is taking people powered organizing to a new level – the relative ease, speed, and agility with which groups of like-minded people can get together and affect change is amazing. The real life examples of this power continue to roll in and while the case studies are intoxicating, from a marketing and brand standpoint, it’s a good idea to separate the insights from the actions and ultimately to manage our expectations as marketers/ communicators.

A recent example of the power of social networks to rapidly mobilize and pull together an amazing “crowdsourced” event is the #hohoto.ca geek holiday party in Toronto which benefits the Daily Bread Food Bank. This event didn’t exist prior to a week ago and so far has raised over $8k for charity based only on Twitter communications (while the event will use other channels – Flickr, YouTube, etc. the organizing and promotion has happened almost exclusively via Twitter networks) by a group of people who got together and decided to throw a party. The money raised from ticket sales is impressive with over 100 folks signed up to attend, but the small business community has stepped up as well and sponsored the event, and the venue (Mod Club) and ticket agent (Eventbrite) have also waived their fees to help with a good cause. All in all this mobilization and the resulting support has been something to behold – check out the twitter search stream for a sampling of how active and generous the community has been!

(Other recent examples are of course the #motrinmoms recent controversy and the #mumbai tragedy, but those have been well covered, and for these purposes I’m going to focus on what brands can learn from the #hohoto example.)

However, the temptation will be to say this is another proof of concept that social media works and use this as a case study for how brands should jump on board and harness this crowdsourcing. Yes and no. While this does prove in the power of the tools to mobilize and activate individuals, it’s not something brands should *expect* to happen for them just by participating in the social web. There is a difference between passion for an IDEA and passion for a BRAND after all.

Here are a few key insights that companies can learn from #hohoto and what makes it different from outreach and participation in SocMed for a brand -

1. This event needed influential catalysts – the Mesh Conference team who are well known and liked influencers on the Toronto scene stepped in at the outset and pledged their support & promoted and “re-tweeted” the details non-stop to their network of “influencers” in the Toronto tech & communications community.
2. It’s the holiday season and geeks like any reason to get out and network in person – throw in a charity angle and you’ve got a winner of an idea.
3. Low commitment on behalf of the attendees – it’s a party after all, not providing intellectual property for the benefit of a company brand.
4. Lowered expectations surrounding the implementation – the website and promotion was a work-in-progress by a loose group of individuals. There were some snafus – the website didn’t actually list the event details when it first went up, the date changed after the launch & tickets were sold, and there were spelling mistakes, etc on the site. No harm, no foul, but if this was a “brand” event I expect the reaction would have been a tad harsh to the “launch & learn” approach.
5. The timeline for the event is tight – it’s being held on December 15th and therefore the constant stream of #hohoto hashtags and promotion is tolerated and embraced. If this were for a brand program I think we may have seen some “cease & desist” snark and comments from the Twitter community when every other tweet is about the event from personal accounts.
6. The tools are powerful and the “cool factor” of tweet streams, on-site video streaming, twitter DJ requests, etc. etc. are important to extending the reach and motivating this particular community, *but* without the two key IDEAS – holiday party networking & charity – they are just that, cool tools.

For a brand venturing or participating in the space it would be dangerous to expect the same type of response for a purely commercial endeavour. Crowdsourcing can be powerful, but it can also backfire if the right insights aren’t there at the outset. Planning matters and a good idea will still rule.

Participating and building a network honestly is the rule of the day, and ensuring that you’re tapping into the passions of individuals for something they care about will motivate people far more than any shiny tool will.

If you don’t receive the same type of response to your brand, don’t be discouraged, it’s a different experience. Your response is probably just fine for your goals… if they were realistically set to begin with.

See you at #hohoto on the 15th? :)

[photo credit: Derektor via Flickr]

This week the City of Toronto held a Summit to discuss how Web 2.0 (or the social web) can “increase civic engagement, reach all communities, and improve City services”. As the event itself was invite only a lot of participation occurred via the live webcast and in back-channels such as Twitter. I have a lot of thoughts about both the way the event worked, and how it didn’t, and will try and balance the two, while being honest & open in my feedback as I think it’s an important first step in a process that concerns all Torontonians. There have been opinions expressed that should be voiced if the City is serious about community engagement & interaction online.

First, it was a great idea – connect the decision makers, industry, internal government employees, and the public together to figure out how the social web can facilitate a better civic experience. Great idea, yes, but it unfortunately it didn’t live up to its promise, and actually the promise of Web 2.0/ social participation, the very topic of discussion.

There were some excellent speakers and panels that sought to provide some anecdotal as well as concrete examples of how government can use the tools to reach out to citizens, including the luncheon keynote by Mark Surman and the interaction with Mayor Miller, but there were also logistical & planning issues that stifled the potential and made many comment that the day was a “FAIL” (in 2.0 parlance). While 300 people tuning in via webcast is a small proof of concept, and there were passionate discussions online, with only 10 people physically in attendance during at least one session and with images of rows of empty city councillor seats seen via the webcast, the importance to the decision makers within the City seemed absent, or at the very least, under-represented (h/t Adam Froman); another misstep was starting the day with a panel on how the public wants to be engaged online without any representatives from the public on it. Great idea; poorly strategized.

What the City could have done:

• Make the day into a blend of panels and workshops with concrete examples of issues from constituents and push for mandatory councillor participation and involvement. Bring together facilitators (our city has a ton!) to moderate and brainstorm actionable solutions to real-life problems – both internal and external; tech, procedural, etc.
• Not make the day invite only. This seems a no-brainer to me, web 2.0 is about collaboration and openness and it feels counter-intuitive to close the gates to true participation at the outset, and it ends up cutting off some of the voices and ideas that are so vital to moving the premise forward.
• Solicit and prioritize issues/ ideas in advance – for the public at large and for the city – transportation? health care? waste management? events? Focus on more than just the abstract. While Google maps mashups with the TTC are great (and I totally dig them and think they’ll be a great step forward), is that the number one priority for the City or best use of resources? Is web-casting every council meeting? Maybe, but maybe not.
• Lay off the heavy moderation of the webcast and citizen participation – I asked two questions, once in the morning and once at the end of the day and neither one was released from moderation by whomever was monitoring the channel. Web 2.0 is as open and transparent as possible, not guarded, except for language and threats.
• Bring in outside voices and expertise from the grassroots level in the city who are already using the social web and to bring together a diverse group of the population to work on local issues and spur action – Toronto has a vibrant community of passionate people to draw on, why not tap into it to shorten some of the learning curve?
• Some kind of “next steps” to keep moving the discussion and planning forward and encourage participation – there are, as we saw at the event, a lot of talented individuals inside the government who could easily be the point persons to manage something like a wiki (which if the two days had included workshops or similar direct participation could have been frameworked) to solicit ideas and keep the citizens who wanted to engage and share informed of what was on the agenda (and recruit organically from their local circles – build momentum). It’s a challenge of course to coordinate in government, but “idea labs” are something that should be on the radar.
• Included members of the public who represent different community organizations and looked to other government agencies and groups using the social channels so far & invite them to participate as part of a “lessons learned so far” discussion – Foodland Ontario, City of Markham, Prince Edward County, Ottawa Public Library, etc. etc.

I don’t believe the event qualifies as a FAIL, and I think a lot of good ideas and interest was spurred during a few sessions and hopefully a lot of food for thought and take-aways for the municipal officials who participated. I truly hope the City is committed to this and will take this first event as a baby step, incorporate and learn from the feedback available to them (blog posts, twitter updates, webcast questions, etc.) and keep moving forward. It can be a big or a small challenge depending on how we all deploy our resources – as a community!

[photo credit: Olivia via Flickr]

My fellow panelists include:

Michael Anton Dila, Partner, Torch Partnership
Lisa Charters, S.V.P Director Digital, Random House of Canada
Christopher Thompson, Associate Vice-President, Online and Interrelated Business, Canadian Tire

And the session will be moderated by the esteemed Jon Lax of Teehan & Lax.

The topic is:

Beyond Gimmicks: Why Behavior-Changing Experiences Will Rule in a Fragmented, Digital Age

Time and attention starved consumers, users and even social media participants are becoming wary of thinly-veiled disguises at getting them to help make something go viral. What’s a marketer to do? Our panel will discuss alternatives to buzz marketing and dig into why it’s so important to provide value in an increasingly fragmented world where people can forget about your brand and why it matters in a nanosecond.

Hope to see you all there!

I’m not one for live blogging, but hopefully we’ll have a few bloggers on hand to provide summaries as we go for those not attending this year.

SES Toronto; Search Engine Strategies Conference

Alas, it has been a while since I got a post up here and for that I apologize. I can only say that it’s been a whirlwind three weeks with TFC (all good of course!) and I’ll be back soon with a couple of posts I have on the backburner.

In the meantime, ICE 2007, the “Interactive Content Exchange” is happening on March 21/22 at the Carlu in Toronto, where I will be the panel: It Had to Be ‘You’ the afternoon of the 22nd.

From the abstract -

There’s no doubt that Social Media is big business – and big business has taken note. News Corp. bought MySpace. Google bought YouTube. Yahoo bought Flickr. Are these the new ‘mainstream media’ of social media? And if so, what’s coming next on the fringes? ‚Ķ or is social media looking for a direction?

That’s one tiny piece of the conference which covers Mobile, Broadband, Games and Social Media. With over 100 top-notch speakers, it should be an informative and enriching two days.

There will also be pre-event podcasts from some speakers, or “ICE Cubes” as Alan has dubbed them :) – details to come.

To round out the social nature of a bunch of people getting together to talk shop, TFC is hosting (per Joe: it is a collaborative effort – see the comments) Third Tuesday as usual on Tuesday the 20th Wed the 21st. Based on the turnout for last month’s it should be a packed house. Check Meetup.com for details on the venue and to RSVP.

See you there!

Tags: ICE 07; Third Tuesday Toronto

I’ll have a few up in the next couple of days.

In the meantime on the event front…

UsabilityCamp is coming to Toronto on Nov. 14th in conjunction with World Usability Day. Mira Jelic is organizing it and it should be a wonderful addition to the ‘camps’ that are bringing together a great network of people. Registration is closed, but keep an eye out for the next one! (Mira, apologies I was so late getting this up!)

Also on Nov. 14th Word Up! Canada’s Word of Mouth conference will be in town, and Shel Holtz is back for Third Tuesday.

Just a thought… we may need to start coordinating the dates of all these events ’cause I most certainly want to attend them all, but… umm… there’s only one of me. :)

I’ve recently attended a few professionally organized events in the city, ranging from the Virgin Music Fest to the Canadian Opera Company’s “Operanation” gala last Friday, and in each case, for various reasons, the event planning was just… off.

They ran out of beer at the Virgin Music Fest and the rainy Saturday didn’t even draw a sold out crowd, which is just inconceivable in Canada, home of people drinking suds. But even worse was the planning surrounding the Operanation event at the brand-spanking new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a fabulous time, but the event itself, and the ambiance of the FSC left a lot to be desired. The truly tragic part was that with a little forsight it could have been a smashing success. Which leads me to the question – what’s wrong with Toronto event planning?

For starters, although beautiful and modern with fantastic views, the venue itself on a fall evening feels cold and cavernous. Walking into the event I was struck immediately that although the building was built to house our two world-class performing arts companies, the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada, there was nothing that felt like art. No history, no pictures of past performances or costumes anywhere in the lobby. Just metal, marble, glass, and wood. Nothing warm and inviting and dripping in culture. But there was a Land Rover. ;)

Which leads me to the event itself. The concept was fantastic – the food and drinks were themed around different opera’s, from bratwurst and beer for the Ring Cycle, to sushi and lychee martini for Madame Butterfly. Each station was housed in a different location, encompassing 3 floors of the lobby. Except… they were in horrible locations for foot traffic flow and ease of access. The sushi bar was at the top of the main staircase right next to the champagne reception area, and a small walkway that led to the tapas and sangria bar. To say the least it was difficult to navigate, and by the end of the evening, after the alcohol was flowing freely, it was difficult to navigate without getting spilled on. Did no one do a dry run with the number of people who would be expected at the event? Or a computer model of natural gathering places and walk space?

Last, but most certainly not least, was the acoustics. Part of the appeal of attending the event was to hear the DJ mixing arias and beats, as well as the three live performances of arias by up and coming opera stars. Well, good luck hearing anything much in that space. The positioning of both the live performance and the speakers was horrible. For the first opera performance we were standing directly above the performers (who were tucked away off to the side in a corner of the lobby) on the walkway of the second floor. We could barely hear them and there was no announcement that the performance was about to begin, or where they were located for the people who didn’t happen to be chatting above them. For the second performance we made it to directly in front of them, one row of people ahead of us. We couldn’t hear them at all. The crowd noise, the terrible acoustics at that location, it was awful. And frustrating. Again, where was the dry run with crowd noise and the noise of food and beverages being served? Why were they in a corner?

What’s wrong with Toronto event planning? Where is the pursuit of excellence that is so evident in events held in other world-class cities around the world? And who’s idea was it to have so few wait staff? Waiting 20 mins for a lychee martini only to have a manager come over and make them eventually didn’t feel “Opera Chic” to me.

Update: I almost forgot that my food options as a vegetarian were limited to bread or pastry at the French Bistro or an eggplant tapa at the Spanish Bar.

[photo credit: Bamcat on Flickr]

Tags: Canadian Opera Company; Four Seasons Centre ; OperaNation

Yesterday marked the second time in a span of 7 days that a Shel has been in Toronto. Not that I’m complaining mind you, it’s been a wonderful week of social media connections and conversations. Last night Shel Israel was in town to speak with 50 of us social media types at the inaugural Third Tuesday hosted by Joseph Thornley & crew of Thornley Fallis Communications. As comments and posts can attest to, the night was a resounding success and an amazing example of how conversations (okay, Naked Conversations) are changing the world. Shel is exactly what his business card says – a Nice Guy. And a fantastic, bright, engaging speaker. Dave Forde & Joe have uploaded photos from the evening to Flickr so far, but I saw a lot of flashes going off last night so I hope to see more pics soon!

The conversation is happening, you can either embrace it or get buried by it.

On that note, Shel Holtz passed around the mike at our recent gaggle of geeks in Toronto to find out what social media meant to the 20 of us at the dinner. Some clips are in the latest edition of FIR, and the full file is available here. It’s quite interesting to hear the different takes from a variety of marketing, advertising, and technology professionals… everyone has their own perspective, yet the common theme is conversations.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make CaseCamp tonight, which at last count had 100 people signed up on the Wiki… too much social and still deadlines looming… There’s always a next time though!

[photo credit: scienceduck on Flickr]

Tags: Third Tuesday Toronto; Shel Israel; Shel Holtz; Joseph Thornley