Archive for the 'Digital Media' Category

Recap: Social Media Week 2012

Published at February 22, 2012 in Digital Media, Social Media and Toronto. 0 Comments

Last week was Social Media Week in cities around the world, most notably New York, Toronto, Tokyo, London, Paris and San Francisco. It is a celebration of all things Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and much more. This year the festivities in Toronto included over 50 events with 1000 plus attendees.

The launch event for SMW Toronto, included a Valentine’s edition of Tweetgasm complete with Dirty Bingo and secret valentines. Talks, panels, and networking events were held all over Toronto at locations diverse as the AGO, CSI Annex, and The Office Pub.

I had the pleasure of being on co-presenting and being apart of panel at The Remix Project. The discussion centered around ways in which non-profits can use social media to grow exposure, reach and increase capital fundraising. We had a lively discussion around this topic with panelists bringing experience from both the non-profit and commercial worlds. The twitter hashtag #SMWTORemix was a trending topic in Toronto during the course of the discussion.

One of the best events was held at the CSI Annex and hosted by My City Lives. Twitter Teatime as it was called had demos of some new apps using the Twitter API and even skyped in developers from Twitter. Another great talk was at the Spoke Club and was presented by Strategic Storytellers. This talk focused on how by telling your clients stories you can create meaningful content for your brand.

All in all it was a great week. Definitely, a chance for people to learn about Social Media and for Digital and Social Media Professionals to get out and learn from each other.

See pictures from Tweetgasm on the Gladstone Hotel’s Facebook Page

Just Beautiful

Published at February 20, 2012 in Digital Media. 0 Comments

One of my favorite blogs, that of the Free People brand. Posted beautiful photos from Dan Mountford. These are taken in camera using a double exposure technic and a truly impressive.

Please check them out on Free People.

**Photos can only appear with Mountford’s permission. Maybe he will give it to me so I can share the wonderful images here.

Projects I like: Prison Dancer

Published at January 17, 2012 in Digital Media, Projects and Toronto. 0 Comments

Inspired by the viral video of Filipino prisoners dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Prison Dancer is a new web series due out this May. Dubbed an ‘The Interactive Web Musical’ it is a 12-part series with plans to land on the stage. According to the Huffington Post article, the team which includes Toronto-based director and writer Romeo Candido, Carmen Dejesus, and Ana Serrano, has hopes for the series to be fully participatory with fans learning the songs and dances and posting their own videos.

We are going to see more and more projects like this that move between the web and live events, encourage active participation from fans, and in general exist outside of the traditional broadcast channels.

Projects I like: The Ballhawk

Published at October 5, 2011 in Digital Media, NYC-Events and Projects. 1 Comment

So I wanted to share this excellent project by Avinash Dabir aka ‘Ballhawk Dabir’. He had the privilege of being selected as a U.S. Open ball boy this year and decided to blog and tweet for his fans.

US Open Ballhawk

He even raffled off his ballhawk polo via twitter this past weekend. Can’t wait to see what he plans for next year. Unless of course he goes into retirement.

NYC: The U.S. Open goes Interactive

Published at September 19, 2011 in Digital Media and NYC-Events. 0 Comments

Made my (usually) yearly trek to the U.S. Open, which I can say is probably one of my favorite sporting events. This year, I attended on the second afternoon of the grand slam.

Inside Arthur Ashe for Ana Ivanovic’s first round match.

I had my iPad in tow and was definitely able to make use of U.S. Open iPad app.  Actually, my dad probably made more use of it then I did. He really appreciated being able to check the scores and see who was playing next. I think he just wanted to play with my iPad. I was a little worried I wasn’t going to get it back!

However, one friend and U.S. Open ballhawk (more on that in the next post) noted that it would be nice if the app told you which in-progress matches were close. Then fans at the tournament could know which courts to make a made dash for!

There were also some great interactive elements at the tournament. American Express had a whole interactive experience that allowed you to follow your favorite players and keep track of how they were doing. Each day you could update your player cards at the American Express area.

My Interactive Player card.

Its nice to see more and more interactive and experiential advertising. I’m in favor of how it brings interactive technology and ideas to mainstream audiences. Although, I would say that they could be even more innovative and take more risks, again more on that in my next post.