William Mougayar talks about engag.io at Third Tuesday Ottawa

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William Mougayar is a serial entrepreneur, the founder of two social media startups, eqentia and engag.io. William appeared at Third Tuesday Ottawa #3 TYOW last night to share what he has learned in the process of developing these services.

I’ve known William for a couple years. And I’ve always been struck by his focus, optimism and perseverance – essential qualities for any entrepreneur. So, it was a truly nice experience to hear him talk about Engag.io – which I think is the right idea at the right time – a universal inbox for our social media conversations.

I Story-fied the highlights of the Twitter stream during the event. Enjoy.

 
[View the story “An entrepreneur’s journey: William Mougayar and Engag.io at Third Tuesday Ottawa” on Storify]

William Mougayar: Becoming a social media entrepreneur

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Social media has changed the way that we connect with our friends, with news and with organizations. It has opened up possibilities that we hadn’t even dreamed of 10 years ago.

Social media has also proven fertile ground for entrepreneurs with ideas. Canada has spawned some great social media companies – Radian6, HootSuite, PostRank,StumbleUpon, Tungle, and more.

Behind every one of these success stories is an entrepreneur who had an idea and the persistence, energy and sheer determination to make it happen.

William Mougayar is the entrepreneur behind not just one, but two social media startups:Eqentia and Engagio. The first of these two startups, Eqentia, is billed as a “vertical news environment.”   It enables you to curate the content you care about from a variety of sources across the social Web. The newer company, Engagio, enables you to draw together all of your conversations from different social media into one place.

Less than two months after launch, Engagio has earned positive word of mouth and prominent backers such as Fred Wilson thanks to its simple but compelling proposition.

Developing a successful startup isn’t easy. If it were, we’d all be heading up successful companies. It takes a lot of luck and some smart decisions. But in the era of social, we see more and more of the people around us pursuing their dream, trying their hand at starting up a new business, at making their idea become reality.

So how did William Mougayar do it? You can find out at the next Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW meetups. William will share his personal journey from idea to beta to seed funding. He’ll tell us about the dark nights of doubt, the highs of the Eureka moments and the grinding work that goes into that success.

This Third Tuesday will be for you whether you are a budding entrepreneur yourself, know some people involved in startups or just wonder as you use your favourite social app, “How did they do that?”

I hope you be able to join us that evening to hear from one of Canada’s true social media entrepreneurs, William Mougayar.

You can register to attend either on the Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ or Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW websites

 

Thank you to our sponsors

As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like William Mougayar to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.

Want to know more about William Mougayar and Engagio?

Engagio is the 1 Inbox to rule them all, ReadWriteWeb

Engagio goes from the Comment Section to $540K seed investment, Venture Beat

Engagio wants to be your one stop social inbox, Mathew Ingram in GigaOm

Toronto’s Engagio raises $540K and heads to New York, TechVibes

 

 

Third Tuesday participants rave about Jeff Jarvis' Public Parts

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Jeff Jarvis launched his new book, Public Parts, in Canada last week at Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW. Judging from the participant reviews on the third Tuesday websites, Jeff presentation was one of the most popular and well-received presentations in six seasons of third Tuesday.

What people said

Stephen Da Cambra: really enjoyed Jeff’s presentation. It appealed to me directly because of my own struggles with giving up my privacy on the web. Even high-profile guests can ramble on a bit – but Jeff was on point throughout, with enough short divergence to keep it interesting.

Rick Weiss: Jeff Jarvis was great. He’s an engaging speaker and presented a lot of food for thought around privacy in the digital age.

Aggie Fortier: The speaker was very engaging with interesting examples to support his position. More importantly, Jarvis opened the door to discussion on the implications of public versus private. He has raised the bar for future speakers who follow.

Martin Waxman: Jeff Jarvis speaks the way he writes and is entertaining, provocative and insightful. Really enjoyed the talk; looking forward to reading the book.

Dave Fleet: Fascinating subject and a phenomenal speaker. One of the best presentations I’ve been to in a while.

Jim Courtney: Really excellent introduction to and perspective on privacy issues. Loved the stories and historical perspective.

Nigel Newton: Jeff Jarvis is an evangelist for societal change enabled by the net. His generosity of spirit and his belief that we, the users of the net, are capable of respecting the ethics of privacy and public sharing is persuasive. If fear of technology is the primary emotion holding back the natural evolution of the net and its influence on society, then Jeff’s well-crafted perspectives will be a source of courage for the faint-hearted.

Eden Spodek: Jeff Jarvis is a fantastic speaker and I would attend a Third Tuesday anytime he’s invited here – even if he’s not launching a new book. He brings the online privacy discussion to a whole new level and I enjoyed his insights on cultural differences and privacy. I can’t wait to devour Public Parts.

Zach Klein: Great session. Super smart dude.

Mark Blevis: Jeff is an engaging and animated speaker. I really enjoyed this event. It was of high caliber. I could have happily listened for another two hours.

Alfred Coates: I really enjoyed how Mr. Jarvis’s message of openness and sharing felt like a mix of opportunity and challenge to those in attendance. Mr. Jarvis speaks with passion and conviction and a healthy dose of humor. I will be reading public parts this weekend and working my way through Buzzmachine in the foreseeable future.

Karen Runtz: While many speakers may be entertaining at the time, what they say won’t stick with you. That’s not the case with Jeff Jarvis. I have his book for reinforcement! No, seriously, I did find his presentation memorable. It brought me in mind of the excitement I felt at a conference some 15 to 20 years ago hearing and Ithaca U prof talk about the changing nature of communications. She was encouraging us to think of our “products” as workable clay, instead of finished polished pieces sent on their way. That resonated with me, just as Jeff’s words about the Internet did last night.

Read all the reviews

That’s just a selection of the rave reviews for Jeff Jarvis’s Public Parts presentation at third Tuesday. If you want to read the full set of reviews, you can find them at the Third Tuesday Ottawa and Third Tuesday Toronto event sites.

We are hoping that Jeff will be able to come back to Canada for third Tuesday Calgary and third Tuesday Vancouver in either January or February. And if you’re in another city and are looking for a great speaker with thought-provoking content, Jeff Jarvis won’t disappoint.

What others thought

Melanie Coulson, the online editor at the Ottawa Citizen blogged her impressions of Jeff’s presentation.

Don Butler of the Ottawa Citizen also interviewed Jeff for an article which appeared in Saturday’s edition of the newspaper.

Were you there?

If you were at the event and wrote about it, please leave a comment and post the link to your coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attend Third Tuesday with Jeff Jarvis & win admission to MeshMarketing

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Here’s something extra for Third Tuesday participants: Register for Jeff Jarvis‘ Canadian launch of Public Parts at either Third Tuesday Toronto (#3tYYZ) or Third Tuesday Ottawa (#3tYOW) and you could win a free registration to the meshmarketing (#mm11) conference in Toronto.

The organizers of meshmarketing have offered to make two registrations available to the Third Tuesday community. That means that two lucky Third Tuesday attendees will go to one of the best marketing conferences to take place this year – without having to pay the $589 registration fee.

How does it work?

Register to attend Third Tuesday Ottawa or attend Third Tuesday Toronto with Jeff Jarvis by noon on Friday. Then tweet one of the following messages:

If you’re attending Third Tuesday Ottawa, tweet: “I’m attending Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW and I want to attend mesh marketing #mm11 too.”

If you’re attending Third Tuesday Toronto, tweet: “I’m attending Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and I want to attend mesh marketing #mm11 too.”

At noon on Friday, one Tweet containing the hash tag #3TYYZ and one Tweet containing the hash tag #3TYOW will be randomly selected and the author of each tweet will receive a free registration to meshmarketing. You can tweet as often as you’d like, but only people registered to attend Third Tuesday Ottawa or Third Tuesday Toronto will be eligible to win the free registration.

Winners will be notified via twitter shortly after noon on Friday.

So is that a great offer or what? Attend third Tuesday, receive a copy of Jeff Jarvis’s new book Public Parts, have it autographed by the author and also have a chance to win free admission to meshmarketing.

Thank you to the folks behind meshmarketing for making this offer to us.

UPDATE:

We had a great response to the contest and we’ve selected two winners – the people who tweeted the magic phrase closest to 19:39 on November 10. The winners: Tanya Bosman and Hardeep Gosal.

Congratulations to Tanya and Hardeep. You will have a chance to attend Toronto best digital marketing conference. And thank you to everyone who participated.

Jeff Jarvis brings his Public Parts to Third Tuesday

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I’m really excited about this news: Jeff Jarvis is coming to Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW for the Canadian launch of his new book, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live.

Blogger at Buzz Machine. Author of  What Would Google Do? Associate professor and director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism. Co-host of This Week in Google with Leo Laporte and Gina Trapani and Leo’s TWiT netcast network. And now author of a new book, Public Parts.

Jeff will be coming to third Tuesday Toronto on a special day, Thursday, November 17, and to third Tuesday Ottawa on Friday, November 18. Yes, that’s third Tuesday on a Thursday and Friday.

This should be a great event and we’ve booked a larger hall so that we can accommodate as many people as possible. Still, if past experience is any guide, we’ll sell out. So if you’re planning to be in Toronto on November 17 or Ottawa on November 18, click over to the Third Tuesday Toronto or Third Tuesday Ottawa sites and sign up to meet and hear Jeff Jarvis.

And if you’re worried about getting a copy of the book, all attendees who sign up will receive a copy of public parts when they arrive at the event. So you’ll have your copy their to have autographed by the author.

Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW and Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ with Jeff Jarvis. I hope to see you there.

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As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like Jeff Jarvis to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.