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July 16, 2008my upcoming conferences
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about me
Hi, I'm William. I'm the Director, Online Banking & Engagement at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union.
My opinions and views are just that, and don't reflect the views of my employer (or, perhaps, anyone else).
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Communicating Social Responsibility in Vancouver.
For the past year and a half or so I've been fortunate enough to speak at several conferences across North America. Mostly these gigs have focused on either financial services or marketing, and sometimes both.My topics have evolved, and now have quite a focus on corporate social responsibility. It was not totally intentional, but came out of explaining the context of who Vancity is to my audiences.
A few months back, when I was practising my Net.Finance presentation for my peers, a co-worker Tonya told me about the upcoming International Association of Business Communicators' Communicating Social Responsibility Conference coming to Vancouver in October.
Long story short, after a brief conversation with the conference organizers, I was honoured to be invited to speak at this conference about triple bottom line marketing. I work at Vancity for very specific reasons, due to its ethical nature, and triple bottom line approach where it focuses on economic, environmental and social factors when determining its success.
My topic is called Corporate social responsibility as a key differentiator. I am excited to see some of the other sessions, including the one by my co-worker Tonya, which is called Does anyone care? Communicating out on Vancity’s accountability report. I am also interested in hearing from James Hoggan and see the session called A new International Standard for Social Responsibility: Global learnings for communicators.
One of the great side benefits of speaking at all of these conferences is getting to attend and having my mind opened by all these world-class presenters. This is one conference that I'm super-excited about.
Labels: conference, corporate responsibility, vancity, vancouver
posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008
My new guitar.
I've been wanting to treat myself to something nice for a little while now, but couldn't think of exactly what. I knew it had to be something special and lasting, not a piece of electronics or a little Apple gizmo, as much as I love them.Recently, because of my 3 year son Ivan's keen interest in music, I've been playing a lot more guitar. I've always said that I don't really play the guitar, I play with a guitar. But it's become clear that I've simply outgrown my nine year cheap cheap cheap Hohner.
So I started looking around for a suitable, and not terribly expensive upgrade.
I consulted my good friend Bil Repenning, who knows more about guitars than anyone else I know. He also knows what a terrible guitar player I am. His expert advice was invaluable.
So I looked at a few places down in Seattle when we were there on vacation last week, and at a few places back here in Vancouver. And then yesterday I went into my little local music shop, Bone Rattle. I felt so comfortable in there trying out guitars, asking dumb questions, getting advice. They just want to help people find the right guitar.
And that's where I fell in love with Seagull Guitars. In addition to being a Canadian company that makes all its guitars by hand, they have some incredible reviews out there of their work.
So, I bought the Seagull Guitar S6 Original today. I am very excited. So nice to have a real guitar I can grow with, and the process of buying it - a Canadian product from a local music store a block and a half away from my house - simply added to the excitement and meaning.
And now I'm blogging about it instead of playing it so I won't wake Ivan from his nap, but we'll play it together as soon as he wakes up.
PS: Thanks Bil!
Labels: azaroff
posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008
What if there were no Stop Signs?
Having worked on both sides of the client-agency relationship, I had to laugh at this...posted on Monday, July 21, 2008
My friend Gene.
I'm a big fan of GonzoBanker.When I first started working at Vancity, I was brand new to financial services and started looking at industry websites to help orient and ground me in my new job.
I quickly came across GonzoBanker, and it is now one of the only leftovers from those early days of bookmarking. Their irreverent coverage of how IT issues can aid and hinder financial institutions is both useful and entertaining.
So today, I was thrilled to see that they named my friend Gene Blishen as their GonzoBanker of the Month.
Gene is my hero. He is a philosopher, humanitarian, technologist, futurist, banker and a decent, decent man. I look forward to reading his blog whenever he updates it, and his name always comes up when the people I respect the most name the people they respect the most.
It is an honour to be his direct BC credit union peer, be able to access his sage advice and plan BarCampBankBC with him.
So congrats Gene. Well deserved!
Labels: barcampbankbc, credit union, gonzobanker, tinfoiling, vancouver
posted on Friday, July 18, 2008
Canada leads the world in use of Online Banking.
Well, it's always nice to be number one (well, maybe not).Yesterday comScore released their study which shows that "Of the 37 global markets individually-reported by comScore, Canada ranked number one in adoption of online banking, with 67.1 of Canadian Internet users banking online in April 2008."
It also shows...
RBC Financial group led the category with 4.6 million visitors, followed by TD Bank Financial Group with 4.5 million visitors and Bank of Montreal Sites with 3 million visitors. Among those banks in the top 10, Bank of Montreal Sites experienced the greatest increase in visitation during the past year, growing 22 percent.I wonder if my friends at BMO are surprised by this.
The study also showed that the heaviest users of online banking are 45-54 year olds. At first this may seem surprising, but in fact, they are also likely the heaviest bankers: "The segment shows both high penetration (73 percent) and the heaviest frequency in usage (12 visits and 157 pages per visitor per month)."
So can we just admit that online banking is just banking. If your financial institution still talks a lot about online but still has its heart firmly in the branch, here's some ammunition to change the conversation.
Read the press release here.
Labels: banking, credit union, web
posted on Friday, July 11, 2008
Seven questions with me on Buzz Canuck.
When I was in Toronto last month speaking on a panel at the CMA Word of Mouth Marketing Conference, I had a chance to reconnect with my friend and trusted advisor, Sean Moffitt.Sean is simply one of the smartest guys I know when it comes to viral marketing, social media and word of mouth. He is the guru.
So I was very flattered when he asked to do seven questions with me for his blog. He published it today, iPhone Day here in Canada.
Take a read.
Labels: buzzcanuck, marketing, social media, vancity
posted on Friday, July 11, 2008
In Vancouver? Check out the Internet Marketing Conference.
I'm very excited about the Internet Marketing Conference coming to Vancouver September 11th and 12th of this year at the Coast Plaza Hotel.This is a big international conference, which has occurred in Barcelona, New York, Bulgaria, Montreal, Helsinki, Stockholm, Berlin, Las Vegas and Copenhagen over the last few years. It was held in Vancouver back in 2002 and now it's returning.
The list of speakers is crazy-good. They include Jeremiah Owyang (Forrester), Gary Angel (Semphonic), Darin Sarlabous (Aeroplan), Adam Audette (AudetteMedia), Anil Batra (Zero Dash 1), Geno Prussakov (AM Navigator), June Dershewitz (Semphonic), Andre Charland (Nitobi), Eric T. Peterson (Web Analytics Demystified), Tom Leung (Google), Bob Page (Yahoo!), Jason Burby (ZAAZ), Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo (Capulet Communications), Robbin Steif (Lunametrics), Xavier Casanova (Liveclicker), and Jonghee Jo (Victoria's Secret).
I'm incredibly honoured to be among them, presenting about Vancity's online efforts, engaging people in our values and socially responsible brand.
Vancouver doesn't bring this kind of A-list together all that often, so it'll be great to get them all here at the same time to discuss what's happening in the world of online marketing.
On a personal note, after several presentations in several different cities over the last few months, it's nice to have the summer away from conferences, and then have the opportunity to speak in my home town.
Oh, and by the way, for those of you who wonder about the efficacy of LinkedIn, the conference organizers, who are based in Sweden, found me via LinkedIn and after a few emails back and forth asked me to present.
Labels: conference, marketing, vancouver, web
posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2008
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