Presentation list
- Social Media Circle Jerking 101
- Community Saved The Radio Star
- Marketing: It’s About Visibility, See?
- Consumers becoming Creators: The Future Of Music is Interactive
- UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. Social media and viral marketing
- At the Heart of It: Struggling to Connect in a Virtual World
- WordPress: Zero to Hero – Workshop
- Architects of Community
- Mozilla Drumbeat: Leading The Way To A Better Internet
- How to Promote Yourself Online like a Rock Star – Workshop
- Time To Abolish The Hourly
- Dot Com Boom. Web 2.0. Mobile Web. What’s Next?
- Making Ideas Happen: Key Insights on Creative Execution
- NFB: Create. Connect. Interact.
- Work Anywhere
- The Lost Art of Storytelling
- Open Source: the killer business
- Web, Life and a Better World
- Yes, I DO Mind the Gap
- The Creative Method and Systems
- Vanished
- Death Of The Critic
- Copyright: past, present and future
- Thank you for being a friend: Tips, traits and tactics of successful women in tech and social media
- Design for Change: It Makes Cents
- Web 2.0 Suicide
- Can Social Games Do Social Good?
- Design the Ordinary like this Fixie
- The Intersection of Interaction, Play, Humor and Design
- Thought-Controlled Everything
- User Generated Content: The Audience Delivers
- Kickstarter – crowd-funding for your creative projects
- Hyperlocal Conversations with Google Buzz for Mobile
- Save Lives With 140 Characters or Less
Social Media Circle Jerking 101
Your time, money, and energy are too precious to waste on low-impact, no-return activities – but unfortunately, much of the social media work this way. Lots of action, little payoff. Find out what the trap looks like so you can avoid falling in!
Community Saved The Radio Star
We have witnessed the recent collapse of the music industry: CD sales dried up, radio listeners disappeared, and the “visionaries” who had been living off the backs of artists panicked and started suing kids and grannies for downloading MP3s. As we head into a new decade things are starting to change. See how online communities are keeping music viable for musicians, how artists are getting their content into the world and in front of the right audience, and how the web is re-structuring the music business from the ground up.
Marketing: It’s About Visibility, See?
Video games, digital albums, videos or web apps: whichever it is, getting your next great release into people’s hands requires a marketing plan that stresses visibility. You’ll also need to understand the different opportunities available in this new universe of digital distribution and social media – so you can divide and conquer each one. Learn what it takes to market your next digital project, from panelists involved in a number of different industries.
Official NXNE Interactive Round Table
Consumers becoming Creators: The Future Of Music is Interactive
Churchill said, “Never has there been so much music enjoyed by so many people” – or words to that effect. He must have foreseen the interactive future of music, with free content, digital mash-ups, and armies of pre-teen guitar heroes playing rock band, all while the “business” of music declines at a dizzying pace. What’s changed, and how can artists survive in this new and uncertain marketplace? We’ll dissect the new reality and explore the opportunities for artists to interactively engage their fans – and the possibilities for those fans to become artists themselves. Through analyzing technologies that embrace the social media, online communities, mobile devices and Moore’s law (and the artists best exploiting these ideas), this panel will uncover fresh ways to create, interact, and build new experiences.
UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. Social media and viral marketing
Does ROI – return on investment – actually exist using social media? Can you actually “make” something go viral? The marketing landscape has changed drastically in the past five years, to the point that you can now connect with your market without breaking your bank account. But with so many options and so little free time, what is a person to do? This session will allow you to navigate the online options to make effective, efficient choices immediately.
At the Heart of It: Struggling to Connect in a Virtual World
Drawing from the past ten years of his career, Ze will talk about his
quest to find and cultivate emotional content in technology spaces.
WordPress: Zero to Hero – Workshop
A full-day workshop designed to introduce participants to WordPress and guide them from download and installation through to the development of a fully-featured, interactive, multimedia content publishing and management platform. Learn how to manage site users, expand the core WordPress functionality through plugins, and encourage site interaction and user feedback.
The workshop will also dive into integrating your WordPress platform with other social media tools (such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube), as well as timely strategies for making your content mobile friendly, and keeping an eye on search engine considerations.
Requirements
Participants should have a Web Hosting package with access to a Linux server running PHP and MySQL. Programs required for this workshop:
Architects of Community
Media leaders from a diverse cross-section of online communities share ideas about building communities through social media. Learn how to grow an online community with a small team, a smaller budget, and very little time. Discover some of the unspoken rules of social media. Find out how trusted micro-communities of curators – both human and machine – have triggered the re-emergence of edited lists to help people sort through the infinite amount of content on the Internet.
Mozilla Drumbeat: Leading the Way to a Better Internet
Mozilla Drumbeat is a global community of Mozillians who use web technology in new ways to understand, participate and take control of their online lives. At a practical level, Drumbeat community members use web technology to make things that improve and protect the open internet. They run local events where people propose and work on these practical projects. They encourage others to get involved. Mozilla helps find contributors, funds and advice for the most promising Drumbeat projects.
Matthew Thompson will give you a high-level overview on Drumbeat, from its importance, to the future of the web, to how you can get involved in creating an open, participatory, decentralized future online.
How to Promote Yourself Online like a Rock Star – Workshop
No matter whether you’re a “rock star” designer, a “rock star” small business owner, or an actual rock star – you need to promote your work effectively on the web. This workshop will highlight techniques to market websites, promote services, and attract ideal users, partners, and endorsements. We’ll get familiar with all the tools available to launch dynamic social media campaigns; we’ll discuss the best ways to manage an online marketing campaign; and we’ll even put together our own marketing plans to help get things going in the right direction.
This workshop is presented by The Rich Media Institute ALSO: To keep prices this low, this workshop is bring-your-own-laptop.
Time To Abolish The Hourly
Traditional business practice dictates that the way to bill your clients is to first figure out your costs. You take salaries + overhead + profit, figure out a billable rate, and multiply that by an estimate of the number of hours to complete a project.
What if this model is wrong? What if basing your rates on the number of available labour hours isn’t an accurate representation of the way you work? Industry leaders gather to discuss alternative options in an attempt to abolish the hourly and find a better way to business success.
Dot Com Boom. Web 2.0. Mobile Web. What’s Next?
Close inspection of the smaller cycles of web innovations, from the online shopping carts of the first big businesses to today’s social media and geo-location services, reveals interesting trends to put these developments in perspective and help anticipate the future.
With the shifting landscapes of media in particular, we can begin to predict where newspapers, music and TV may be headed. By stepping outside of these silo industries to view them in context of broader cultural movements involving time and speed specifically, we can often better anticipate future innovation cycles.
Making Ideas Happen: Key Insights on Creative Execution
Drawing on the research in his new book, “Making Ideas Happen,” Behance Founder & CEO Scott Belsky will give an overview of key tips and insights for pushing ideas forward. He will touch on the three crucial components of creative execution – organization, communal forces, and leadership capability – and review a series of best practices shown to be effective across industries.
Many of us believe that great ideas inevitably lead to success. Nothing could be further from the truth. Whether it is the perfect solution for an everyday problem or a bold new concept for a creative masterpiece, you must transform vision into reality for an idea to have value.
“Making Ideas Happen” chronicles the methods of exceptionally productive creative leaders and teams – companies like Google, IDEO, and Disney, and individuals like author Chris Anderson and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh – that make their ideas happen, time and time again.
NFB: Create. Connect. Interact.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is the nation’s public producer of artistic, inventive and socially relevant audiovisual content. For over 70 years its mandate has been to engage Canadians and the world through the production of stories and media that reflect our country and Canadian points of view.
As a unique creative and cultural laboratory, The NFB is eager to explore what it means to ‘create’ and ‘connect’ with Canadians in the age of the Internet. Interactive Documentaries, mobile and locative media, interactive animations and video, data visualizations, photographic art and essays. This session will launch several new productions from both English and French programs at the NFB and outline the opportunities at the Board for today’s artists and media makers interested in exploring the creative application of digital technologies as they relate to story, expression, interactivity and community.
Work Anywhere
New modes of working, innovative technologies and changing concepts of the workplace are all enabling a new generation of worker. From the home office to the corner café to the coworking facility, new environments are being formed for today’s digital workers. For some the comforts of a home office provide maximum productivity and freedom while others find the distractions and lack of human interaction drive them to find alternative spaces. Share trials, tribulations and tips with panelists that have tried joining this new generation of employee.
The Lost Art of Storytelling
Humans have been telling stories for thousands of years, but the earliest mode of communication was oral, supported by hand gestures and expressions. Over time visual mediums were introduced to help tell stories as well. While the art of the storyteller has persisted over generations, the interactive world is often quick to re-invent the wheel, or loses site of the fundamentals in the quest to develop new ways to make the consumer an active part of the story.
What can we learn from the people who carry on the basics of oral storytelling, be they radio hosts, comedians or anyone else who still relies on their words, sounds and movements to tell a tale? A mix of old and new will aim to take you back to the basics in an attempt to inform your visions for new narrative forms.
Open Source: the killer business
Open Source is just for communists and hippies, right? Wrong! Recent success of companies like Red Hat, MySQL, and SpringSource has focused the spotlight on Open Source’s disruptive role in software markets. In this panel, Open Source entrepreneurs from across Canada will discuss business models, revenue streams, and the power of giving software away to make money.
Web, Life and a Better World
The Web has been around for about 20 years now. Despite all that’s going on, we’re actually not that impressed. In this talk, I take a step back to look how the potential for human connectivity has never been so ripe and to look at examples of folks harnessing the Web to make the world a better place. Examples include a mash-up of some personal anecdotes and insights garnished from interviews with inspiring leaders of incredible projects like Treehugger.com, SETI@home, Grameen Foundation, Plastiki, HearMeHub, etc.
Any geek or wannabe who needs a little inspiration (i.e., kick in the butt) to start creating stuff that actually makes a difference should come to this presentation.
Yes, I DO Mind the Gap
What a revolution the internet has brought to our social lives! Geography is no longer an issue for making connections and finding people we have things in common with.
It’s an exciting time. But while this positive change is taking place in our personal lives, the professional world seems more than a bit confused. Like a bull in a china shop, companies that come lumbering into online communities trying to ‘make friends’ and grow an audience mostly end up being all kinds of annoying. Most people aren’t joining Facebook or Twitter to get more ads, but 89% say they do want to be able to interact with brands.
So what is the issue? The issue is there is a big value gap between what the human beings interacting on social networks espouse and what businesses are approaching us with. This talk discusses those values and highlights the companies who don’t need or care about the number of fans they are gathering on their Facebook pages because they do it right: they align with human values.
The Creative Method and Systems
What is Creativity made of? Where do ideas come from, and how can you get more of them? How can you make them better? What happens when there is no box to think outside of? Jason Theodor, a long-standing Creative Director in the digital advertising world, has asked himself these questions for years. These are his observations from the field, and his tools for ideation.
This presentation breaks down the creative method and explores the fundamental elements of creativity. It describes multiple systems for idea generation, problem solving, and originality. It emphasizes the importance of routines, explains appropriate brainstorming techniques, and much more: all with unexpected examples and takeaways.
If you want to live a more creative life, or give yourself an edge in the Age of Ideas, this presentation is a must see.
Vanished
Last year, for a series of stories in Wired magazine, Evan Ratliff tried to disappear for a month with thousands of people chasing him — and a cash bounty on his head. Evan discusses what he learned about privacy in the digital age, the art of personal re-invention and joys and pitfalls of fully interactive journalism.
Death Of The Critic
Music, wine, food, movies – the Internet has democratized everything. Online, everyone has an equal voice and with a little web research, anyone can become an expert. So what do we need critics for? The age of Ebert, Christgau and Parker is over. What’s next?
Copyright: past, present and future
The past decade has taken us on a rollercoaster ride through the realm of copyright, from moving beyond the simple sample to complete mash-ups of all things audible and visual. We’ve also been through the rise and fall of music sharing, peer-to-peer filesharing and bittorrent. All the while ill-conceived DRM schemes and new copyright laws continue to plagued digital distribution. What have we learned, where have we gone wrong and what does the future hold in the world of copyright.
Thank you for being a friend: Tips, traits and tactics of successful women in tech and social media
This ain’t no weepy-eyed kumbaya gab-fest. Join Toronto’s top practitioners in marketing, start-up counsel, entrepreneurship, website development, social media strategies, e-advocacy and digital communications, who just happen to be female, in a frank discussion about the workplace and gender. You’ll leave with new insights, strategies and ideas about communication, mentorship, and office politics.
Design for Change: It Makes Cents
Everyone knows that bad design sucks. But did you know that good design can change the world? With a little help from design, we can all make a difference by earning the trust of our users and helping them to get involved with our cause, purchase our product and still make the world a better place.
Web 2.0 Suicide
As the various social media platforms forge ahead in their attempt to make everything we do trackable, shareable and open people are starting to become uneasy with just how much about themselves is floating around the web. On the extreme end of responses we have the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine making itself available to wipe clean all traces of yourself from your social media past. Will the threat of Facebook/Twitter/Linked In/Foursquare Suicide actually translate into better Terms of Service for users or will it simply leave everyone wondering where the party is next weekend?
Can Social Games Do Social Good?
Social games such as Farmville and World of Warcraft are powerful commercial forces, commanding millions of players and hundreds of millions of dollars. These games are designed for social play but don’t encourage social action. Enter a new breed of “serious” game that encourages players to reconsider their civic responsibilities, motivate activism, and facilitate interaction with all levels of government–even on the global stage. Inspired by the design of commercial hits, but with a wholly different agenda, collaborative serious games have the potential to enact real social change. Our panel explores the opportunities afforded by games for good, and the challenges faced by creators and players across multiple social platforms.
Design the Ordinary like this Fixie
This presentation is a study in the simplest of objects, their usefulness, and how they become part of our culture. It relates to web design and our tendency to overcomplicate, to play drum solos when a tight and crisp backbeat will do. Learn how to find inspiration in the ordinary and pause before adding that flair to your next project.
The Intersection of Interaction, Play, Humor and Design
Theo Watson and Zach Lieberman are artists whose work looks at the intersection of interaction, play, humor and design. This talk will present recent and on-going works developed collectively and separately in the last year, including an eye tracker for a paralyzed graffiti writer who has ALS, a performance on the facade of a building, interactive landscapes for children, tools for new forms of magic, interactive magazine covers, 3d sketching software, and the openframeworks toolkit, a framework for creative coding in c++.
Thought-Controlled Everything
Imagine a bedroom that knew you were falling asleep and dimmed the lights for you. Or a computer that could sense you were frustrated and offered help. What if you could control everything in your home without the touch of a button?
Advances in thought-controlled technology are bringing these scenarios out of science fiction and into everyday life and as Canada’s leading thought controlled computing company InteraXon is leading the way. In this talk, InteraXon COO Trevor Coleman will give you a tour through the latest advances in brain-computer interfaces, discuss some of the projects that the company is working on and talk about the unique promise and challenge that thought-controlled computing represents.
User Generated Content: The Audience Delivers
Users creating and sharing their creative content, is an extremely popular activity. While ‘User Generated Content’ or UGC has been with us since the days of home movies, thanks to Youtube and Facebook it easier than ever to get involved. Almost everyone is snapping pictures, recording videos and sharing them online. Find out how you can engage your audience and tap into the UGC pipeline. This discussion will include real experience from the trenches, including UGC best practises, how to maximize submissions, how to increase site traffic and time spent on site, methods to curate and get the most from UGC and more. We will also explore some case studies of top UGC programs that show the diversity of options and potential of this powerful channel.
Kickstarter – crowd-funding for your creative projects.
Ever had an idea for a project but weren’t ready to commit to eating mac and cheese for months in case no one cared? Kickstarter helps people fund their films, albums, tech and a wide range of other creative projects from the crowd.
The recent success story of Diaspora is a clear example of how powerful this platform can be.
Join Perry Chen as he gives you insight into what Kickstarter is, what makes a successful project and highlights some more notable projects.
Hyperlocal Conversations with Google Buzz for Mobile
A conversation with members of the Google Buzz for mobile team. Hear about how the use of geolocation and the Google place database in “nearby view” provides a unique platform for hyperlocal conversations. Find out how the recently-announced Buzz API can be used by you right now to develop social, place-aware, mobile applications.
Save Lives With 140 Characters or Less
Beyond the common uses of social media platforms to market a product there are other organizations using these tools with great success to help people in need. Alyson Rowe from War Child and Kristy Woudstra from World Vision share their experiences running a variety of campaigns using Twitter, Facebook and more to reach out to a whole new audience of supporters.
by Ze Frank
