For nine years, the Canadian New Media Awards have recognized and celebrated the accomplishments of the nation’s digital media movers and shakers. We’re happy to announce that CNMA has selected Invoke Media as a finalist in its Best Use of Social Media category. Invoke Media is being recognized for creating the Twitter client Hootsuite, which has been a runaway social media success since its launch in December 2008.

The honour falls closely on the heels of Invoke Media being selected as a finalist for the prestigious Groundswell Awards, in recognition of the social media campaign we ran for the HootSuite 2.0 launch. Hosted by the internationally recognized technology and market research company, Forrester Research Inc, the Groundswell awards recognize the most outstanding social technology applications with a unique focus on business performance. We were in good company and we salute our fellow finalists, including but not limited to the Bank of America, Adobe, and MasterCard.

A big thank you to Forrester Research and the Canadian New Media Awards for recognizing the strides Invoke Media has taken in social media over the past year.

Here at Invoke, we’re growing moustaches. We’re not doing it because we’re Tom Selleck admirers (although we are); we’re doing it for Movember, an annual, month-long event centered around raising awareness and funds for male cancers that occur below the belt.

Invoke has long been a fan of the mo, and we have the pictures to prove it. (In fact, we host a raucous yearly party known as Mustacio.) Thus we’re proud to report that memelabs has been selected to host the official Movember video contest. We’ve been working closely with Adam Garone, CEO and co-founder of the Movember Foundation to bring you a chance to share your mo with the world.

Last year Movember raised $2.4 million, and we hope to raise the bar for 2009. Men worldwide are growing all manners of mo, from handlebars to fu manchus to walruses for a cause. How can you help? Get your friends to sponsor your flavour saver. If you can’t grow one yourself, we urge you to spread the word and help raise funds.

More information about Movember, plus other fun things, are available at www.movember.com

While product manager Nadia Nascimento carries the Invoke spirit to Digifest in Los Angeles next week, our illustrious business strategist, Dario Meli, will be attending ad:tech in New York City, from November 4th through 6th.

Ad:tech is far and away one of the most pivotal conferences for the digital marketing community globally. This year’s event will focus on how digital is impacting all forms of media and will feature heavyweight speakers from a variety of media companies, agencies and brands. Invoke is delighted to have been invited to share in the thought leadership at ad:tech New York.

If you can’t be at ad:tech to hear what the movers and shakers are saying in person, don’t miss the opportunity to follow what they’re saying on Twitter. Follow the condensed and potent twitter stream with the ad:tech speaker Twitter list Dario has compiled.

Next week Invoke product manager Nadia Nascimento descends upon Los Angeles to celebrate DigiFest. The event is hosted by the American Film Institute Digital Content Lab and is intended to showcase developments in interactive media and social TV. Invoke has enjoyed mentoring with AFI in the past and was happy to accept a second invitation to mentor the AFI project, One Economy, which will be presented in next week’s showcase alongside many others, including a social network & proposed marketing plan for director David Lynch’s Interview Project.

Invoke has spent the last year engaged in a slew of leadership and mentoring positions, traveling from the Banff World Television Festival, to Vancouver’s BCAIM Social Media Series to Canadian Film Centre seminars, in its continued quest to facilitate the communication between new and traditional media.

Best wishes and safe travels, Nadia!

Something to brighten up this dreary day! Invoke has been heavily involved with the Vancouver International Film Festival and it just so happens that we have four tickets to the VIFF closing gala that is taking place this Friday October 16th.

The opening gala was awash with complimentary wine, appies from Vancouver’s top restaurants and a mountain of freshly shucked oysters. We thought that we’d issue a challenge — a kind of ‘caption this’ contest, if you will. Everyone who leaves a caption will be entered into the draw. Winner will win all 4 tickets.

Let the captioning commence! Caption this: