My final ChangeEverything.ca guest column.

My final Guest Column on ChangeEverything.ca has been published. It’s called Reflections on Bologna – It’s all about the Social, and attempts to sum up my main takeaways from my amazingly inspiring adventure in Bologna. (check out parts 1 and 2 of my journey, or all my blog posts about it).

It also gives me a chance to explore the term social. Something I’ve been wanting to do for a while.

What I know is, it was all about the social. The connections we developed among the group of participants are strong and deep, and will serve a great purpose as we all struggle to make full sense of, and take action on, what we learned. The personal social connections made the greatest impact on me; but I also come back with a greater sense of the social fabric of our society and how it can be both fragile and incredibly enduring and forceful.

So, it’s led me to think a lot about what social is.

So check it out, and please leave me a comment there with your thoughts.

The last thing I want to do is upload a boatload of photos from the trip. All in good time…

Register now for BarCampBankBC2.


Yesterday, my friend Tim McAlpine who is helping to plan BarCampBankBC2 with myself and Gene Blishen, blogged that BarCampBankBC2 is less than 60 days away. So true!

Things have been so busy, I haven’t written much about BCBBC2 recently, but I am very excited about this banking innovation event.

It’ll take place on Saturday, September 26th from 9am to 5pm at Vancity’s head office at 183 Terminal Avenue in Vancouver (map below). I especially want people at local banks and credit unions to attend and join the conversation.


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We’re charging $10 (CDN) to cover a pizza lunch and to ensure people will actually show up if they say they will. You can register for the event now.

If you’re coming, please add your name to the wiki.

Internet Marketing Conference coming back to Vancouver in September.

Internet Marketing Conference - Vancouver, Canada - September 16-18, 2009I have taken 2009 off from presenting at conferences, and it’s been a good decision. I’ve really enjoyed being able to focus on work and family here in Vancouver.

But I am making one exception.

The Internet Marketing Conference is coming back to Vancouver September 16-18, 2009 at the Four Seasons Hotel. Last year’s was a great event, and this year I’m speaking on a panel entitled Social Media for Business.

The panel is described as so:

Social media is the new hot thing. It’s a great way for consumers to share their opinions and interact with leading brands. But how does social media fit in the B2B/B2C environment? Panelists will discuss how they use social media for their clients as well as their own businesses.

A couple of my fellow panelists are the same as my fellow panelists from last year (which is good thing).

The panel includes:
JP Holecka, Powershifter Media
Christopher Berry, Critical Mass
Patrick Schwerdtfeger, Tactical Execution
Warren Sukernek, Radian6 ( who will be moderator)

You can register now.