conference

mesh was marvelous

By Mark Evans in Advertising/Marketing, Media, Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , ,

Mesh bean bagsmesh is like a good house party. Afterward, you’re exhausted but happy that everything worked so well. After seven months of preparation, the two days of mesh were over before you knew it, and now we’re on to the next thing – meshwest in Calgary on June 8.

So what were the highlights of mesh ’11? Without going into too much detail, here’s a personal list:

1. The venue – the Allstream Centre – was a major move for mesh because it’s much bigger than MaRS, which hosted the first five mesh events. Like any new home, there were a few kinks but, for the most part, it worked really well. It was great to have more meeting rooms and more space to mingle and eat.

2. The sponsors village – However you want to cut it, sponsors need to be part of the mix for a good conference. They provide the support needed to put on a good show. At the same time, sponsors want to be more than just a logo on the Web site and swag. At mesh, the village was part of the landscape so that they had great exposure that seemed natural and non-obtrusive.

3. The keynotes, particularly Gabe Zichermann’s talk with Stuart MacDonald about gameification. There are speakers who have a gift for entertaining, educating and engaging, and Gabe is a perfect example of someone who delivers all three. It was a keynote that delivered endless pearls of wisdom, and I found myself scribbling lots of notes.

A great example was Gabe’s contention that Web sites need to be simple rather than offer a lot of options, which is something that I constantly advocate when doing Web site projects for clients. Gabe also talked about the importance of rewarding users when they do what they you want. This can even message message such as “You’re amazing” after they register.

4. The porn panel – With a great lineup of speakers that included Pink Visual CEO Alison Vivas, who runs an adult entertainment company, it epitomized a mesh panel at its best. The panelists were engaged with each other, they had different perspectives to offer, they were entertaining and educational, and the audience was into it. Here’s the Huffington Post Canada story on the panel.

5. The bean bag chairs from FatBoy, which were a hit of the conference. Imagine walking into a large conference ballroom to discover there are 20 different coloured bean bag chairs to sit in. Now, a few people may have gone too far when they decided to take a nap but they were one of the small touches that made mesh really work. (Note: The photo above is the mesh gang post-mesh.)

6. The influencer panel with David Armano and Valeria Maltoni – With so much interest in the role of influencers within social media, the room was packed. As some of the leading thinkers about digital marketing, Armano and Maltoni were well-armed to provide perspective. If I had to moderate the panel over again, I would have pressed them into talking more about the tools – PeerIndex, Klout, mPact, etc. – because everyone gets that influence is an important thing but a lot of people are struggling with how to identify and successfully engage with influencers.

7. The TVO panel with host Steve Paikin, Micah Sifry, Jesse Brown, the NDP’s Charlie Angus and Tony Clement, the new Treasury Minister. It was a wonderful panel, highlighted by Angus proclaiming Twitter had little value – something that didn’t go over while in a room in which Twitter has enthusiastic support, including Clement.

There are lots of other highlights but these are some that jumped out. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the other important part of mesh – the people who attended and spoke, and their enthusiasm to network, exchange ideas and engage. It’s something that makes mesh different and wonderful.

Now, it’s on to Calgary for meshwest, and pretty soon, we’ll be getting the programming machine going for meshmarketing in November…and then it’ll be time for mesh ’12 in May 2012!

Links: It was great to see so much coverage of mesh. One of the blog posts that caught my attention was Louise Armstrong’s post on conference etiquette, which captures the essence of mesh. As well, Micah Sifry (aka TechPresident) did a wonderful post about Canada’s Internet landscape.

More: Here are the “official” mesh photos.

The Nuts and Bolts of mesh

By Mark Evans in Social Media No Comments Tags: , ,

Mesh logoWith mesh kicking off tonight with a pre-party the Drake Hotel, it feels like the calm before the storm.

In many ways, mesh feels like a giant party rather than a Web conference. It’s a lot of fun, you get to invite cool people and it’s immensely satisfying to see everyone enjoy themselves. But it’s an awful lot of work that consumes hundreds of hours.

The preparations for mesh start, in earnest, about October (or eight months before the conference) when the six of us (Mike MacDerment, Mathew Ingram, Stuart MacDonald, Rob Hyndman, Sheri Moore and myself) start to brainstorm about potential speakers for the keynotes, panels and workshops.

We get together on Wednesday nights, which usually involves at least 30 minutes of updates, gossip and bad jokes before we get to the serious part of the evening: food, which tends to have a strong carnivore component.

Then, we get into lengthy and often animated discussions about speakers and content. At times, it’s a thing of beauty to see how collectively we can come up with ideas and great speakers.

But it’s not always peaches and cream. We’ve got different interests and agendas that sometimes cause some friction when a great idea is shot down. At the same time, we’ve all got demanding day jobs so there can be times when you don’t have the energy or patience to play nice. But much like brothers and sisters scrap, no one takes it personally because we’ve all got the best of intentions.

In an ideal world, we’ve lined up keynotes by late-January. The process is fascinating because we start with a list of 30 to 40 potential speakers, which is boiled down to 15 or so invitations. After dealing with polite rejections because people don’t want to travel, have conflicts, etc., we eventually arrive at the four keynotes.

At the same time, we’re coming up with ideas for panels. Some panels happen with little effort, some take a lot of time and work to emerge. The advantage of having six people involved in putting mesh together is there are lots of ideas and different perspectives.

That’s the programming side of the house. The event planning is another huge piece of work handled by the super-energetic Sheri Moore and her team at MCC Planners. They’re the ones who secure the venue, deal with the caterers, audio/visual people, accommodations and flights for speakers, social events, and all the small details that collectively add up to a lot of work.

And then you’ve got sponsorships, which is handled by Alicia Kalozdi-MacMillan. Without the support of sponsors, mesh would be difficult to make happen. It may come across as pandering but it’s truth because conference economics only work with sponsors involved – unless you’re willing (and able) to sell expensive tickets.

mesh is a lot of work that happens because a group of people pour a lot of blood, sweat, tear, energy, time and passion into it. To us, mesh is more than just a conference, it’s something we love doing because we think we’re doing something good and right for the community.

It also provides all of us with tremendous personal satisfaction. Personally, the best part is when the lights go out just before the first day of mesh begins when you can feel the excitement in the room – excitement that has been created after months of preparations.

So, let’s bring on mesh ’11!

More: David Crow wrote a really nice blog post, which captures the essence of what we do.

Pulling the Covers Off mesh ’11 (aka mesh 6.0)

By Mark Evans in Advertising/Marketing, Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

After months of work and sushi-powered meetings, we’re finally ready to unveil mesh ’11.

To paraphrase Ed Sullivan, we’ve got a “really big show” with terrific keynotes and a line-up of excellent panels and workshops. Before getting into the details, there a few new wrinkles for mesh ’11. They include:

- More workshops. Given the popularity of workshops, we have decided to offer six per stream. Yup, there will be 24 workshops in total, which will provide lots of opportunities for hands-on, interactive learnings.

- Moving to the Allstream Centre at Exhibition Place. After getting a feet wet by moving meshMarketing to the AllStream Centre last November, we decided to take the plunge with mesh as well. With more room and lots of parking, we think it’s an excellent venue that will make it possible to let more people come.

- A “Sponsors Village” in which the companies that support mesh will be able to strut their stuff.

So what about the programming? For starters, here’s the line-up of keynote speakers.

Society: Ron Deibert of the Citizen Lab will provide insight about state control of the internet, efforts in the Arab world to shut down the internet, and efforts taken to circumvent that.

Marketing: After wowing the crowd at meshMarketing, we felt compelled to bring back Gabe Zichermann, who will talk the online psychology, behaviour and motivation of online users, including the growing role of gamification.

Business: With the Web having a major impact on the work landscape, Mark Surman of the Mozilla Foundation will get into how companies can be social and motivate and keep younger, Web-savvy employees, who are used to moving around and doing things that motivate them intrinsically instead of extrinsically.

Media: Jeff Jarvis, a popular blogger and former journalist, will talk about how the media is changing, the rise of WikiLeaks as a press entity, crowdsourcing, transparency and other factors and where the future of journalism is headed.

As a bonus, we also have a “Super Panel” featuring Mona Seif, an Egyptian activist who will give us some insight into how digital activism played a key role in the political uprising ended the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak.

You can get more information on the mesh Web site about the rest of the speakers who will be appearing on panels and workshops within the media, society, marketing and business streams.

You’re probably wondering about tickets. Until April 20, you can buy early-bird tickets for $539 + HST. (After that, tickets will be $639 + HST). There are also 50 student tickets available for $99 each. You can buy tickets here.

Five Reasons Why You Should Attend meshmarketing ’10

By Mark Evans in Advertising/Marketing 1 Comment Tags: , , , ,

In addition to running ME Consulting, I’m also one of the co-organizers of the mesh, meshU and meshmarketing conferences.

Today, we’re excited to announce that meshmarketing ’10 will be happening on Nov. 17 in Toronto. Here’s the details: tickets are $489 (plus HST) before Sept. 17, and $539 afterwards. There are also 50 student tickets for $99 each (plus HST).

There’s no lack of conferences happening in Toronto but here’s why I think you should come to meshmarketing.

1. meshmarketing is about providing insight and information about how to take advantage of digital marketing. While we have some great keynote speakers, Marian Salzman and Michael Slaby, the real focus on meshmarketing is giving you the opportunity to get involved in interactive, hands-on workshops and panel so you can go back to work armed with new ideas, tips and tools. We want meshmarketing to be an event that jump starts your digital marketing knowledge and activities.

2. Great speakers. Led by our programming director, Trina Boos, meshmarketing features a line-up of top-notch speakers from across Canada and the U.S. Many of our speakers have never appeared in Toronto so we’re excited about the opportunity to feature some fresh and fantastic voices. You can check out our programming here.

3. Terrific keynotes: We’re really excited about having Michael Slaby and Marian Salzman as our keynote speakers. Slaby is EVP and Global Practice Chair for Digital with Edelman. His experience includes serving as technology and new media advisor to the Obama administration. Salzman is one of the leading trendspotters, and the author or co-author of 15 books, including Next Now and The Future of Men. As well, Lee LeFever (who I’m particularly excited about) will give a super-presentation. For anyone not familiar with Lee, he and his wife and partner, Sachi, are the brains behind the popular Common Craft videos.

4. Engaging panels and workshops. For anyone who attended the first meshmarketing last year, you know that the action happens on the stage AND in the seats. As much as our speakers bring their insight to meshmarketing, we want attendees to be engaged and excited too. meshmarketing isn’t an event where speakers speak and attendees politely listen until a Q&A at the end; meshmarketing is about get involved and participating in a discussion.

5. Networking. One of the more interesting aspects of last year’s meshmarketing was the diversity of people who attended – everyone from entrepreneurs and small business owners to public relations and advertising executive, government officials and people from non-profits. An important part of mesh and meshmarketing is the opportunity to meet different kinds of people in a setting that’s comfortable, open and engaging.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at meshmarketing!

Five Reasons to Attend mesh ’10

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Web 2.0 No Comments Tags: , ,

It is hard to believe that mesh ’10 – the fifth addition of mesh – is just around the corner. Every year, it comes as a surprise even though we spend months planning, talking and meeting about it. In many respects, mesh is a labor of love with the big reward coming when the music starts to kick things off on day one.

So, why should you come to mesh’10, which happens May 18 and 19 in downtown Toronto?  Here are five reasons:

1. It is the most vibrant, fun and diversified networking opportunity within Canada’s Web community. There’s really no other place that features entrepreneurs, investors, academics, government officials, marketers, public relations folks, advertisers, developers, designers, people from non-profits and those just interested in how the Web is changing how we work, live and play.

If you haven’t been to mesh before, you’ll discover the breaks between the keynotes and panels are pretty long, and people like it that way because it provides a real opportunity to meet new people and catch up with friends and colleagues.

2. The mesh keynotes. Truth be told, getting the right keynotes is one of the most challenging things about putting on mesh. Every year, we spend hours thinking about the right people who can provide insight about what’s over the online horizon.

So, we’re really excited about our keynote line-up of Chris Thorpe (The Guardian), Joseph Menn (hacker expert and author), Scott Thompson (Paypal) and Arvind Rajan (LinkedIn).

3. The swag. Once again, Right Sleeve is the official mesh partner for all things swag so you can expect Mark Graham and his swag gang to come up with something cool and creative.

4. The workshops and panels. If you could get a sneak-peek of the behind the scenes action, you would discover that we spend countless hours discussing and exploring the programming for mesh. For us, programming is paramount and a pillar.

5. The people who come to mesh. We just organize mesh, it’s the people who attend mesh who really make it happen. They come with enthusiasm, energy, curiosity and optimism. They jump-start the programming by getting engaged with the speakers (and asking lots of questions!), they network like crazy and make everyone feel welcome, and then they socialize in a major way.

So, are you coming to mesh? If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, I suggest you get one soon ’cause they’re going fast. They’re available here.

Espoo (and Nokia), Here I Come

By Mark Evans in Wireless No Comments Tags: , , ,

I don’t travel for business that often, mostly because most of my clients are located in Waterloo, Toronto and Montreal. I also find business travel to be gruelling, which is why I wonder about people who proclaim to enjoy the lifestyle.

My resolve to avoid business travel if at all possible disappeared a couple of weeks ago when Nokia invited me to attend its “The Way We Live Next 3.0″ conference at its global headquarters in Espoo, Finland, which is located just outside Helsinki.

The two-day conference features a number of Nokia senior executives, who will provide insight about the company’s strategic direction and how it’s “connecting and building the communities of the future”.

I’m looking forward to to meeting Oskar Korkman, head of “opportunity identification” for Nokia’s consumer and consumer insights unit. Korkman is responsible for “consumer insights, and supports the business in translating consumer understanding into business decision-making.”

I’m hoping he can provide some insight into what consumers are demanding in terms of hardware and software, including how the fast-growing smartphone market is going to evolve.

To be honest, I’ve had very little experience with Nokia smartphones, which is not that surprising given Nokia’s low profile in North American compared with the iPhone and Blackberry. I played with a Nokia smartphone several months ago that looked really slick but I found the UI and usability to be too complicated and somewhat frustrating.

It will be interesting to learn more about Nokia’s smartphones plans given the market is exploding, and smartphones have higher profit margins for hardware makers and carriers.

I’m also hoping to take in the sights of Helsinki and maybe catch a hockey game.


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