Northern Voice 2008

Ask the Expert Booth on Saturday, sponsored by Voxant

Boris Mann — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:58:59 +0000

It's time to announce the Ask the Expert booth that will be set up on Saturday. (Pardon the wiki dust, we're still scheduling the exact time slots)

We've got a stellar line up of folks both attending the conference in person and dialing in via video conference to answer any questions the attendees may have. We'll be linking questions off the booth page, so all the attendees and watchers from afar can help flesh out answers to any questions people may have.

Whether it's a technical question like "is this CMS right for me?" or something like "Do you have any tips on helping my market my small business?", come by the booth and ask our experts.

Thanks to Voxant for sponsoring this and helping support the Northern Voice conference. They also want to buy you a drink on Friday, so check that link on Upcoming for details.

Welcome Vancouver Film School 'Entertainment Business Management' Students

Kris Krug — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:27:00 +0000

For the past 2 semesters I've been teaching at VFS in the Entertainment Business Management faculty. I teach 'Internet Technologies 101' and 'Internet Technologies 202'.

As a part of our final project for 'Internet Technologies 202' each of the students has been creating and maintaining their own Wordpress.com blog. With Matt coming into town, and so many awesome social media types on hand for Nothern Voice I decided what better way to toss them all into the deep end, than requiring that they all come to Northern Voice to pass my class. *evil grin*

They're a great bunch of film critics, film producers, film and tv agents, network executives, video game producers, tour managers, talent agents, event managers and they've got a bunch of awesome blogs. Check them out, say hi and take their picture at Northern Voice, and /pwease/ send them some linky love. :)

Bus Challenged for Opening Party? Meet me at Blenz at 5:15p.m. at 508 West Hastings and we'll go together

Roland Tanglao — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:36:36 +0000

New to Vancouver or just not into figuring out the bus system? And need to get to the NV08 Opening Party? Then join me at Blenz at 508 West Hastings (at Richards, in front of SFU Harbour Centre).

WHEN: Thursday Feb 21, 2008 at 5:15p.m.
WHERE: Blenz Coffee at 508 West Hastings (map, pictures)
BRING: $2.50 Cash fare (and another $2.50 to get back)
BUS ROUTES: One of Number 10, 20, etc. (many routes lead to the Waldorf)
PRE-REQUISITES - On NV08 Opening Party list
LOST? call or text me, Roland Tanglao (photos of me), cellphone +1 604 729 7924

Add Your Blog to the Northern Voice 2008 Feed

Pete Quily — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:20:49 +0000

Many of us enjoyed reading the aggregated feeds from the participants of Northern Voice 2007. So with Northern Voice 2008 coming up soon I asked some people in a local chat if there was going to be a similar group feed of the 2008 participants so we can easily check out the posts of the bloggers at the conference before, during and after the conference.

Jordan Behan Director of Community Relations of Strutta has generously offered to do this on Jaiku.

There will be one blog per attendee (if you want to participate), so if you're an attendee of Northern Voice or Moosecamp 2008 and want more people to read your blog, please send an email to Jordan with the name and feed of your blog and he'll add you to the Northern Voice Feed.

Just blogs, no twitters, jaikus, or flickr feeds or we'll all drown from infoglut.

If you have more than one blog you get to pick which one.

Here's the Northern Voice 2008 Channel website and here's the RSS feed. Enjoy.

There's no such thing as a free lunch...

Brian Lamb — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:28:27 +0000

...unless you are attending Northern Voice.

Perhaps the single most emphatic piece of feedback we got from last year's event at the Forestry Sciences Centre was that it was too difficult to hike ten minutes or more to reach the best food options. This forced march was especially inconvenient as we were hit with freakish rainstorms, a wintertime event virtually unheard of in Vancouver.

You complained. We listened. Boldly springing into action, we called a caterer. We will provide a midday meal that we hope will be tasty and that will accomodate a wide range of tastes:

Friday: The DIY Sandwich Bar (Salads, assorted rolls, veggie fixins, deli meats, three cheeses, Nanaimo bars, brownies & dessert squares.)

Saturday: Mexican Buffet (bean dip with tortilla chips, corn & black bean salad, flour tortillas, chicken, veggies, monterey jack and cheddar cheeses, sour cream, salsa and guacamole, chocolate brownies.)

If our menu does not please you, you are welcome to favour one of UBC's many other dining options.

Special thanks to our sponsors, who have really stepped up this year, allowing us to serve meals with a minimal increase in attendee fees.

**[The Creative Commons licensed image from hmmlargeart may or may not resemble Saturday's Mexican buffet.]

Some Quick Facts About Northern Voice

Darren Barefoot — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:57:49 +0000

It happens every year. We receive media enquiries after we sell out the conference. This year we didn't even bother writing a media release because, well, we're all busy and we didn't need one.

That said, we've got at least one speaker appearing in the media this week, and other opportunities may arise. James had the bright idea that we should compile some facts about the conference, as a sort of media cheat sheet. Here they are:

This is the fourth year for the conference, which started in February, 2005. You can see the sites for previous years here: 2007, 2006, 2005.
The first two years it was at UBC Robson Square, and last year and this year it's been out at the Forestry building at the UBC main campus.
In the first year we had about 160 people in attendance, which was a sell-out at the time. We've increased capacity each year, and sold out each year. We'll exceed more than 300 attendees
this year.
It's a two day conference, with 'Moose Camp' being Friday's unconference (including an Internet Boot Camp) and Saturday being a more conventional conference.
Saturday starts with a keynote by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress. Then things break into three tracks, for a total of 20 sessions.

What other facts would the media be desperate to hear about?

We Sold Out Again

Darren Barefoot — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:40:42 +0000

Not, uh, like to corporate interests. The conference is sold out, again, for the fourth year in a row. Thanks to everybody who registered.

For the rest of you Johnny-come-latelies, we warned you. We've started a waiting list on the Northern Voice wiki, to which you can add your name and email address.

Update: There are a few slots left for MooseCamp only (i.e. Friday, but not Saturday); register for them while they're still available!

Kids' Room 2008

Lauren Wood — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:11:47 +0000

Just like in previous years, we're making a room available for kids and their parents and caregivers to use, at both MooseCamp (Friday) and NorthernVoice (Saturday). The same rules as other years apply: we can't provide child-minding or babysitting services - we just provide the room and leave it to you to entertain your kids (and maybe someone else's). We suggest you bring appropriate toys/books/other entertainment. There's a wiki page for those interested in bringing their kids to figure out who's coming, what toys to bring, etc. Kids are free as long as you're not bringing a whole horde. If you want to bring more than four kids, please contact us first to make sure we have room!

Tickets Are Selling Fast

Travis Smith — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:41:36 +0000

Just wanted to remind everyone that it's 18 days until Northern Voice, and tickets are selling quickly. Really quickly.

I don't want to say anything scary like "We're selling out!"

I mean, it's probably going to happen, and you're going to be all bummed out if you can't get in because you didn't buy tickets in time. All your friends and co-workers have their tickets. And it's really easy to buy tickets right now.

But I don't like to scare people, so, you know, go ahead and make up your own mind. You can wait and see what happens.

(But I wouldn't wait.)

Northern Voice 2008 Poster by Basco5

Kris Krug — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:02:44 +0000

For the third year in a row Northern Voice sponsor Mt Lehman Credit Union has hired awesome Vancouver street artist Basco5 to do posters for the event. Basco5 just posted this draft of the Northern Voice 2008 poster over at Flickr.

What do you think of this years design? Basco5 is taking feedback and we're not quite done with the final artwork yet so if you have some suggestions now would be a good time. I think we're gonna add some pocast-listening critters to the mix somewhere and add 2008 to the Northern Voice type on the top.

Last year the Northern Voice organizing committee also has a lil bit of extra money in our budget and got Basco5 to design and print some awesome streetart stylee stickers for the event. This year our sponsorships are undersold and we don't have the funds but I thought there might be someone out there who would be interested in seeing this happen again this year and coming to the table with some money. If you're interested pls drop me a line... we still have time to pull it together.

Seeking Tech-Oriented Non-Profits For Expo at Northern Voice

Darren Barefoot — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:21:47 +0000

As we're in Morocco, Julie and I are taking a back seat on organization for Northern Voice this year. I'm helping out where I can remotely, and one of the things I'm doing is organizing a new feature of the conference for 2008. This time around we're adding a little tech non-profits expo

The plan is to provide about a half-dozen tables on the Saturday where tech-oriented organizations can set up a booth and talk to attendees. We'd ask organizations to agree to run their booths from 9:30am to 1:30pm, though they're welcome to stay longer.

We're specifically looking for technology-oriented non-profits. Good examples would be NetSquared, FreeTheNet.ca, Free Geek Vancouver and Web of Change.

It will be free for the organizations, and they'll get a chance to engage with 300-350 social media and blogging types.

I've sent out some invitations, and we've already got a couple of organizations signed up, but I wanted to put the call out for other suggestions. Do you know an organization that fits the bill?

The scoop on this year's Northern Voice party...

Brian Lamb — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:28:29 +0000

Anyone who attended last year's Northern Voice kick-off dinner party knows that we have a tough act to follow. But there's no question we've got a fabulous spot lined up.

I and my fellow of citizens of The Republic of East Van are pleased to welcome Northern Voice attendees for a dinner and party at the Waldorf Hotel's Polynesian Room. This is one of my absolute favorite watering holes, a truly one-of-a-kind place that is available only for special events, and hence is undiscovered even by most of Vancouver's avid cocktail freaks.

The event will kick off at 6:00 PM Thursday, February 21, with food being served about a half-hour or so later. (We may adjust depending on how the evening is flowing.) And as Travis noted earlier, the stageshow will be an open-mic night in which we encourage all of you to share your favorite short piece of work with your fellow Northern Voicers. I've been combing my archives, and there are a couple of entries that might be sufficently perverse for a reading, though I may need a couple of Mai-Tai's for courage...

The venue supports wi-fi, so hopefully people will be able to live-blog and upload Flickr pics if they so desire...

The Waldorf is located a block east of the intersection at Hastings Street & Clark Drive (1489 East Hastings Street - Map)
-- note that the Polynesian room is downstairs, while the more visible main floor Grove Pub is your regular East Van bar.

I for one will enjoy a rare Northern Voice experience, an evening during which "wiki" will refer to "tiki" and not to an openly edited webpage.

Rejoice, For the NV Web Banners are Here

Darren Barefoot — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:13:40 +0000

They're a bit late in coming, but I've finally down my usual hack job to put together some standard-sized web banners and badges.

If you want to include a badge or banner on your site, just grab the code below the image you want.

Opening Night Dinner Speaker

Travis Smith — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 06:49:08 +0000

This year the speaker at our opening "Tiki Dinner" will be . . . YOU! All Northern Voice attendees are invited up to our "open mic" to share their original work: a favourite blog post, poem, entertaining lightning talk, or short work of creative fiction or non-fiction. We'll do a few at a time, between announcements and tunes. No PowerPoint or pitches, puh-lease!

Participation is optional. If you are interested in speaking, please email Airdrie Miller (airdrie@pobox.com).

What's Internet BootCamp?

Travis Smith — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:52:55 +0000

This year, like last year, Northern Voice is two days long. The second day, Saturday, is special because it's full of wonderful great speakers. But Friday, the first day, is even MORE special, because we're adding something new to it this year.

Like in previous years, the first day is going to be self-organizing; we've called this process and result MooseCamp, and it's open to anyone who wants to present. Heck, half the time 6 or 8 people will find out they've got something in common they've got to talk about by lunchtime, and will grab a room and invite people to discuss something in the afternoon. (If you want to go do a little more research, the geek term for this is an "unconference".)

But even better: This year, we're pre-arranging one part of MooseCamp to be an "Internet BootCamp"*. It's so new, it still has quote marks around it, like so:

"Internet BootCamp" will be an all-day explanation aimed at beginners, explaining of blogs, Facebook, podacasting, images, wikis, and more. Basically, this is your cheat sheet, with everything you need to know to understand the rest of the conference. If you need to convince someone why you want to attend, you can use the whole schedule, but if you're trying to explain to someone who's brand new to this all, Internet BootCamp is going to be the whole enchilada all neatly organized.

So, if you've got friends, family, or business associates that you want to put on the fast track to understanding some of this Internet stuff that you're so excited about, tell them to come to Internet Bootcamp. They can register here and the full schedule will be on the MooseCamp wiki here.

* We were going to call it "Social Media Bootcamp," but the whole point is to have a nice simple explanation that will be understandable to anyone, without having to launch into an explanation of what some of the words used to describe it mean. So yes, it's a Social Media Bootcamp, not an Internet Bootcamp, but I hope you can forgive us for the mislabelling.

Boris Mann

Dale McGladdery — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:03:31 +0000

URLs:

Raincity Studios

Image:

boris.jpg

Born to eat, breathe and talk tech, "The Boris" is the consummate true believer in the power of open source and will almost certainly say "Drupal" within 30 seconds of meeting anyone. Growing up in idyllic Bowen Island, Boris left pastoral landscape to grab a B. Sc. in Computer Science (naturally) at U. Vic before trekking east to frosty Ottawa to advance new technologies like VoIP.

Returning to Vancouver, he convinced a rag-tag crew that Drupal is the only true path and thus begat the first-ever Drupal-powered commercial company, Bryght. He is a chronic event organizer/participant, frequently speaks to groups on open standards (no matter what the assigned topic is), and as a noted foodie, only the unwise turn down a dinner invitation. Now, as the marketing czar of the Drupal Association, he is likely to say "Drupal" twice in the first 30 seconds.

Currently, Boris is VP of Product Development at Raincity Studios.

Kris Krug

Dale McGladdery — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:09:45 +0000

Image:

Kris.jpg

Kris Krug is a writer, designer, photographer, and web-aficionado based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kris has been actively publishing online since he started his first personal Web site in 1997. In 1998, he started an online pop-culture 'zine called *spark-online. With an objective of "exploring electronic consciousness," *spark-online attracted a community of 100,000 readers in it prime. Today, *spark-online articles continue to influence research in the subjects of online communities, human computer interaction, digital selves and identity and digital media and visual art.

At present, Kris is president of Raincity Studios a Web 2.0 community development and web design firm.

Kris is sought out by conferences and companies as a speaker on the topic of independent online publishing. He introduces visual artists, musicians and professionals to emerging technologies and explains how the Internet can be used to fast-track their careers.

Registration for Northern Voice Is Now Open

Travis Smith — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:28:40 +0000

While you've been busy with holiday plans, we've been busy, too. Registration for this event is NOW OPEN!

You can attend one day for $40, or come to both days for only $60. That's an amazing deal: it's just the price of a single cup of coffee that also costs $60!

Last year's conference sold out early, so get out your credit card or check book and don't delay! Northern Voice makes a great Christmas present, too.

If you’re travelling, make sure you arrive on the evening of Thursday Feb 21st. We’re having a pre-conference party on Thursday night at the Tiki Room, and it’s going to be a blast!

Online registration closes on February 20, 2008.

Having difficulty registering? Contact us.

One last thing: if you want a T-shirt, you can include that in the registration fee, which is really handy. Otherwise, you can wait to decide and buy a T-shirt on the actual day.

Selecting Talks

Lauren Wood — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:20:33 +0000

Thanks to everyone who submitted talk proposals; as usual we had far more talks proposed than slots available, and so we ended up having to turn down lots of good talks. We did the usual "should we have four tracks" discussion, but decided that the shared experience of going to some of the same talks is really good for this conference, so we stuck to the three tracks that's worked well in the past.

Everyone who submitted should get an email this week, and we'll be putting the schedule up as soon as we can for you to ponder and plan.

Speaker Submission Deadline on Monday

Lauren Wood — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:56:59 +0000

Hope you're getting your submissions ready since the deadline is on Monday December 10th! We'll be meeting later next week to pick the people who are offered slots on the Saturday, so we won't be able to accept late submissions. We may combine people on a panel, i.e. don't worry if you don't have 45 minutes worth to talk about, and if you want to be part of a panel, put that in your submission. Make sure you put enough detail in your submission; you need to show us you've thought about the subject you want to talk about and can come up with something interesting for people to listen to. Corporate sales pitches are right out; the theme of this conference is personal and educational blogging and social media.

If you want some ideas, check out the ideas page. Or the call for submissions page.

Be Like D'arcy and Prepare Your Travel to Northern Voice

Kris Krug — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:49:07 +0000

Just a quick post to send out good wishes and support to Northern Voice Alumni D'arcy Norman who filled out his official "Travel Approval Request Form" today. *nudge nudge* We hope you get approved bud and can come back again this year! :)

Here's what he's got to say about coming to Northern Voice...

"Northern Voice has been like a nonstop, open social learning party for me, where I’ve been lucky enough to get the chance to hang out with several of my personal heroes, and jam with a considerable chunk of my blogroll. It’s pushed me to work well outside of my normal comfort zone, trying new stuff and experimenting with things. If that’s not the goal of a conference, I don’t know what is. I am so absolutely looking forward to hanging out with the folks again this year, and seeing what we come up with for a session at the conference."

Speak at Northern Voice 2008?

Kris Krug — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:01:37 +0000

Speaker submissions for Northern Voice are now open! :) This conference is a great on-ramp for non-geek people who are interested in technology. Don't be afraid to submit a talk on a topic you are passionate about.

Remember, the deadline is December 10th!

Some great presentations from the past to inspire your own submission...

"How To Make Change Happen With Your Blog"
"Blogs and the Bedroom: Blogging and Relationships"
"Making Masks: Blogging as Social Tool and Family Lifestyle"
"Music 2.0: Where It Came From and Where It's Going"

All the details are here. Submissions have started to roll in but we have lots of room so definitely pull something together if you're interested. We'll be making our decisions in the next month or so. Pls don't make me invite you personally... :P

If you have any questions about what might be a good topic for Northern Voice feel free to drop me or one of the other organizers an email. :)

Welcome

Roland Tanglao — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:47:19 +0000

The Moose is Loose in 2008!

Come on out for the 4th year of Northern Voice, Canada's best, first, and most definitely most westerly blogging and social media conference.

Registration will be available soon -- don't worry, there's still lots of room -- so check back if you want to attend.

Here's how you can help now: If you want to speak or lead a discussion, fill out the speaker submission form (you have until Monday, December 10, to get your speaking suggestions in).

Also, for the first time this year, we're actively gathering ideas from the audience for topics or discussions.

If you're not interested in speaking, but you have something you'd like to hear about, just fill in this short Call for Ideas. We've seeded the list with two initial ideas -- microblogging and mobile blogging -- but these are just examples.

add your own idea and rate others' ideas!

We look forward to seeing you all in February!