Third Tuesday Toronto postponed to December 4

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CaseCamp Toronto6 has been scheduled on November 20, the same night as this month’s Third Tuesday Toronto.

Third TuesdayWe love CaseCamp as much as we love Third Tuesday. And we don’t want people to have to choose which event to attend.

So, we’ve decided to postpone Third Tuesday Toronto to December 4 so that people don’t have to choose.

And in December, we’ll have a great speaker Richard Binhammer – RichardatDell. We’ll also be moving to a larger venue so that we won’t have to turn anyone away.

I’ll post more info about the December 4 event in the next few days. In the meantime,  mark it in your calendars. You won’t want to miss Richard’s session.

Colin McKay looks behind the curtain of government blogging

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Third Tuesday Ottawa has a speaker this month who’s been there, done that, and is finding ever better ways to do it.

CanuckflackColin McKay has been one of Canada’s blogging pioneers since he started posting to Canuckflack in 2003. Since then, he has built a loyal following of readers who count on Colin’s eclectic interests to take them on a voyage of discovery through the profound, the whimsical and the offbeat. His inventive posts have driven Canuckflack to #65 on the AdAge Power 150 – the highest rated Canadian blog authored by a single person.

Earlier this year, Colin set up a new blog, SoSaidTheOrganization, to provide him with a space where he could post primarily about “how government organizations communicate and integrate social media.”

With all this experience, it’s not surprising that Colin is the moving force behind what is currently the state of the art Canadian government blog for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Colin has demonstrated that a government blog can deal with issues of real consequence and stimulate broader debate in mainstream media as well as the blogosphere in a way that enhances trust in the blogging government institution.

Third TuesdayIf this isn’t enough to make this event a must-attend for you, I’ll give the final word about Colin to Colin himself. The About section of Canuckflack leads off with the following:

Supremely disappointed that he was neither raised by beavers nor moose, Colin McKay never heard his name being called during the closing “mirror” segment of Romper Room. An owner of Generation “X” in first run hardcover, he feels uncomfortable saying things like “for shizzle” and “peeps.” He’s old enough to remember when advertisers only wanted your cold hard cash, and had no aspirations to move in, become friends with your cat and get invited to Thanksgiving dinner.

How can you resist spending an evening with the author of that passage?

If you’re in Ottawa on November 19, plan to attend Third Tuesday. You’ll meet some smart people and have a chance to talk about the latest developments in social media in Canada. Guaranteed.

Third Tuesday Toronto has a nightcap with Giovanni Rodriguez

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Giovanni RodriguezGiovanni Rodriguez, one of the pioneers of social media and public relations, is coming to Toronto and we’ve scheduled a special Third Tuesday Nightcap with him.

Giovanni is a a leading pr blogger, a principal in The Conversation Group social media consultancy and a Research Fellow and Advisory Board member of the Society for New Communications Research. He also is co-author of a thought-provoking paper, Relating to the Public: The Evolving Role of Public Relations in the Age of Social Media, published this past summer by the Council of Public Relations Firms.

Giovanni will be speaking earlier in the evening at a CPRS Toronto Workshop. But because he’s committed to sharing his insight into social media and to help build our community, he’s offered to join us for a special “Third Tuesday Nightcap” after the CPRS Workshop concludes.

So, if you’re interested in meeting a real thought leader in public relations and social media, let us know that you plan to attend the Third Tuesday Nightcap with Giovanni Rodriguez. And, if you’re planning to join us, try to attend the CPRS workshop earlier in the evening to hear Giovanni’s full presentation. It should be a great evening of learning and sharing in Toronto!
UPDATE: I want to extend special thanks to Martin Waxman and his firm Palette PR, who are bringing Giovanni to Toronto. Thank you Martin for making this possible.

Kami Huyse shares the lessons she learned from organizing the PRSA Conference blog

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This year’s PRSA International Conference in Philadelphia was jam packed with sessions on social media topics led by the likes of Phil Gomes, Katie Paine, Josh Hallett, Peter Himler, Rick Murray, and John Bell.

But the social media action wasn’t just in the sessions. It was everywhere in the conference. A special conference blog was set up to host posts on the conference sessions. Eric Schwartzman roamed the halls interviewing speakers and participants for special conference editions of his podcast. The air was thick with Twitter traffic as participants posted their impressions of several simultaneous sessions. And of course there was the requisite bloggers dinner on the first evening of the conference which brought together over two dozen bloggers and podcasters.

The person behind this blogging bonanza was Kami Huyse from San Antonio, Texas. I had a chance to talk with Kami at the end of the conference about the lessons she’d learned from this process (you can never have too many bloggers; integrate Twitter into the blogging feed) and advice she’d offer others who are considering organizing conference blogging efforts (start with Josh Hallett’s conference blogging tips.)

The interview runs just over three minutes and you can watch it here.

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Darren Barefoot, David Jones, Danielle Donders and Joseph Thornley – your Third Tuesday October lineup

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What do Darren Barefoot, David Jones, Danielle Donders and I have in common?

Third TuesdayWe’re speaking at the Third Tuesday social media meetups this week.

If you’re interested in social media and its impact on communication, marketing, community building and society and you’d like to get together with others who share this interest, register to attend Third Tuesday in Toronto, Ottawa or Vancouver. And while you’re at it, why not join the Third Tuesday Facebook group to participate in the discussion before and after the sessions.

Third Tuesdays are community driven free events organized by volunteers with support from CNW Group, who underwrite the cost of presentation equipment and venue fees, and Society for New Communications Research. Thank you to both our sponsors. Your help to make these events is greatly appreciated.

Want to learn more about this month’s Third Tuesdays? Follow these links:

Third Tuesday Ottawa gets Postcards from the Mothership

Darren Barefoot launches Third Tuesday Toronto season

Third Tuesday in bigger and better in Vancouver

CNW Group and SNCR sign on to support Third Tuesdays

Talk is Cheap – a social media conference for communicators

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Talk is CheapGary Shlee, the social media-savvy coordinator of the postgraduate Corporate Communications and Public Relations program at Toronto’s Centennial College has just pulled the wraps off Talk is Cheap – a social media unconference that Centennial will be hosting on November 15.

Visit Gary’s blog post for more info and then hop over to the conference Wiki to sign up as a participant or propose a session.

Congratulations on the initiative Gary. A great opportunity for experienced PR practitioners to share with PR students and the practitioners of tomorrow.

Third Tuesday Ottawa has Postcards from the Mothership

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Danielle DondersThe next Third Tuesday Ottawa has been confirmed for October 15. We’ll hear from Danielle Donders, author of Postcards from the Mothership.

Ian Ketcheson will moderate the session. In his description of Danielle and the session Ian says:

Danielle is an Ottawa communication strategist, social media junkie, and mother of two boys. She’s also a popular “mommy blogger” and has some unique insights into how marketers are approaching the mommy blogging crowd.

Danielle will share with us her perspectives from both sides of the PR pitch. As an influential mommy blogger, she has been aggressively pitched everything from soup to cell phones for kids. But, she also sees the world through a Public Relations lens, as her day job is as a communications and social media strategist with a large government agency. Danielle will discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of how marketers are approaching the influential demographic that some are quick to dismiss as the “dirty diaper diarists.”

Should be an interesting discussion.

As always, Third Tuesday admission is free. But please register at the Third Tuesday Ottawa site so that we know that you’ll be joining us and so that you can see who else will be attending.

A time to say goodbye

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This is a week of change for Thornley Fallis and our family of bloggers.

Chris ClarkeStudent PR’s Chris Clarke is leaving us to see what another organization has to teach him.

When Chris joined us in May 2006, we were still relatively new to blogging and social media. Thornley Fallis had just over a year of experience with Wikis and blogs. Pro PR was still less than a year old. And Chris had been posting for about three months at Student PR.

During his time with us, Chris was one of the founding organizers of Third Tuesday Toronto. He also took up the task of producing Inside PR. And he shared his learning experiences through his blog. His posts were often provocative, sometimes controversial, but always worth reading.

Of course, even if his day job will be on the other side of town, Chris will never be more than a click away from us here at Thornley Fallis. Chris’ Student PR blog will move from Our Community to TF Alumni on the ProPR and Thornley Fallis sidebar. I know I’ll continue to subscribe to his blog and comment on it. And I’m counting on Chris to continue as one of the founding organizers of Third Tuesday Toronto.

I was proud to have Chris Clarke as a member of the Thornley Fallis team. And while he’s leaving us for another day job, he’ll continue to be part of our social media community. And a friend.

So, here’s wishing good luck to you, Chris. It’s been a great experience. I’ve learned a lot by working alongside you. And I’ve enjoyed it from beginning to end. May the future bring you only success and happiness.

UPDATE: Chris has posted about his plans post-Thornley Fallis.

BlogOrlando demonstrates the culture of generosity

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I just returned home from attending BlogOrlando.

It was a great experience. I had a chance to learn from presenters like Shel Israel, Tom Biro, Chris Heuer, Geoff Livingston, Laurie Mayers, Jake McKee, Annie Heckenberger, David Parmet, and David Coustan. It also brought me face to face for the first time with people like Connie Reece and Constantin Basturea.

All in all, BlogOrlando was one of the best sessions on social media I’ve attended this year. And remarkably, the registration fee was zero. Nothing. Nil.

Josh HallettThe conference was organized by Josh Hallett and a team of volunteers. The speakers donated their time and covered their own expenses.

Truly, BlogOrlando embodies the culture of generosity that underlies the pure spirit of social media. The urge to share with others. To connect. To contribute to the common good.

So, a big thank you to Josh Hallett and all the organizers of BlogOrlando and other community driven events like Podcamp, CaseCamp and DemoCamp. You keep the gift economy alive in social media.

For more about what happened at BlogOrlando, check out these posts:

Geoff Livingston on Chris Heuer’s wrap up

Jake McKee’s takaways

Alex Rudloff on BlogOrlando’s social activities

Jessica DaSilva reflects on what she heard

Laurie Mayers’ overview

BlogOrlando photos on Flickr

Geoff Livingston on Josh Hallett’s actions

Learn about social media from the experts

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What do you get when you bring together Microsoft’s Barnaby Jeans, Tucows’ Leona Hobbs, Yahoo’s Hunter Madsen, Dell’s Richard Binhammer, Scotia Bank’s Michael Seaton, Iotum’s Alec Saunders, ReInvent!’s Kate Trgovac, Cognos’ John Blackmore, BMW’s John Cappella, along with over a dozen other top corporate marketers, bloggers and podcasters?

Canadian Institute Conference on Social MediaSimply the best conference on social media that Canada will see this year.

The Canadian Institute asked me to chair this conference and I had the opportunity to offer input on the panelists and sessions. I’m very pleased with the final program and I’m looking forward to attending the conference and hearing and talking with all of these great speakers. You can see the conference agenda online or download a PDF version of the social media conference brochure.

If you’re planning to attend, I’m able to offer a 15% discount off the registration fee to clients, colleagues and Facebook friends. If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, head over to Facebook and send me a message that you’re a subscriber to my blog and that you’d like to attend the conference.