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Many of the titles we worked on are now with other publishers, but the podcasts still hold up. Enjoy.

Katy Hutchison – Walking After Midnight

Katy’s powerful story inspired Lifetime Network’s 2010 movie “Bond of Silence”. Her 2013 TEDx talk has been viewed over 100,000 times and she was proud to be included in the Simon Fraser University Alumni Appreciation Project in 2015.

She makes her home in Victoria, BC with her husband Michael Hutchison. In addition to the financial management of Michael’s law firm, Katy is an in-school mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters, and has previously sat on the Boards of Glenlyon Norfolk School, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Children’s International Summer Villages and Restorative Practices International. 

 

This podcast with Katy was recorded in November 2006 when the book was first published by Raincoast Books.

Runs 22:56

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Capers Community Market’s own Chef Nathan Hyam kicked off a series of podcasts with Vancovuer chefs.

In this edition, he shows us how to prepare:

• Ginger Baked Rice
• Thai Coconut Curry

(Unfortunately the recipe is no longer available online)

[podcast]http://snitcast.com/capers/20060815_capers_nathan_hyam.mp3[/podcast]

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Notes from the Arts Office sponsored workshop on social networking at the Lynn Valley Library on Wed. June 8 and Sat. June 11.

There’s a PDF of my slides you can download here.

Please feel free to add your comments in the comments section, and if I’ve missed anything let me know and I’ll update.

Key Concepts

Social media

• is a conversation – engage instead of broadcast.
• loves a good story.
• requires a content strategy – mine your organization for content – text, images, video.
• extends your circles – the circles grow over time, not overnight.
• is personal.
• includes e-mail.

June 8th Workshop links:

Case study:
Kneehigh Theatre UK

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr

Publish to various networks:

HootSuite for managing updates to multiple social media accounts. A real time saver, and you can create a variety of tabs to customize it to your taste.  A free version and a premium version.

E-Newsletter software via the web:
ConstantContact
MailChimp
ExactTarget

Donate, fund raising:
Paypal.com
Registered charities can use CanadaHelps.org

Website Content Management Systems:

WordPress is free.  Amazingly extensible and feature rich.  You’ll need web serving and a database.  The WordPress.org site outlines exactly what you need and even recommends some service providers.

On Wed. Rob mentioned SquareSpace.

Barb from the Arts Office mentioned Small Box, a Victoria based company that has their own proprietary website content management system.

On Wed. we talked about a tiny HD video camera – GoPro HeroHD. Check North Vancouver mountain bike shops, they stock them.

Things we didn’t get to but you might want to use:

URL shortening:
we didn’t talk about this but handy when you want to add a link to a Twitter post. Takes a long URL and makes it short.

Bit.ly .  Register for free to get metrics.

Event ticketing/invites:
EventBright

Oh, and the Chocolate Blog:  ChocolateApprentice.com

There’s also an iPhone and Android app to help you find chocolate wherever you are.  And it’s free . Details here.

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Some work hardly seems like work at all.

I’ve been working with Chocomap.com for a few years now and  last fall we started developing a mobile strategy.

Chocomap.com helps people find fine chocolate shops around the world, and displays them on a Google map.  There are almost 2,000 shops in its database (and growing all the time) and putting that information on a smart-phone makes perfect sense.

We launched the iPhone version, Find Chocolate!,  at the app store just before Christmas.  Shortly afterwards, we started work on an Android version, which was released mid-March on the Android Market.

Find Chocolate! on Android or iPhone both use the phone’s location awareness to hone in on chocolate shops near where you are.  Within seconds of launching the app, you get a list of shops nearest you, in order of closest to furthest.  You can also get the same ‘list’ on a map. Tap a listing and you get store details and directions.

The apps share the Chocomap.com database, so shop listings are synced on all platforms.   And both apps allow you to add a shop right from your phone, as well as upload pictures and rate shops you’ve visited.

For the iPhone app, we worked with Vancouver’s Mod7 Communications.  Android development was by Vancouver’s Ikamobile who specialize in apps for Android devices.

Like the web, apps really are global in reach.  To date, the Find Chocolate! app has been downloaded in 27 countries.

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I had the pleasure of being invited to present at the Annual Economic Development Association of British Columbia Conference in Osoyoos on June 7th, 2010.

They asked me to speak to the 140 delegates about social media, so that they could get a better understanding of how social networking fits for an association like EDABC.

The conference was held at Spirit Ridge Vineyard Conference Centre in Osoyoos – the setting couldn’t be more inspiring.  The entire complex is nestled into the landscape – behind it the dramatic craggy cliffs, and in front, vineyards sloping down to the lake.  The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was the sound of crickets, and the cry of eagles soaring above.

For this online version of the presentation, I’ve condensed things quite a bit and removed the video vignettes I use in the live presentation.  It runs about 25 minutes.

[flashvideo filename=”http://bigsnit.com/edabc/EDABC_presentation.flv” /]

Here are some links I spoke about in the presentation:

• NYCEDC on Facebook
• WorldBizChicago on Twitter
• Posting and content management via HootSuite
• Posting from Twitter to a Website
• A branded YouTube channel for DigiBC: VXChannel
• The Whitehouse on LinkedIn
• My Flickr page and my ‘set’ of photos from the conference centre setting in Osoyoos

If you’re interested in having me speak to your organization please email me.

I also do workshops to help jump-start your organization into the world of social networking.

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The tools of the my trade were my 1965 Mustang with a giant Motorola 2-way radio strapped under the dash, a pager, a Sony cassette recorder and a bag full of spare batteries.

Stories were my business – and on a good day I’d cover a couple of press conferences, stop by city hall or the police department (the cop shop), and I’d pick up one or two more stories by doing the rounds.

If the newsroom got hold of a good story they needed me to cover, they’d page me.  My beeper would go off and I’d have to find a pay phone to call back to the station.  I’d write my stories long hand on a steno pad, or if I was close to city hall, would pop in there where we had a desk and a typewriter I could use.

Filing stories meant cracking open a phone headset, and with 2 alligator clips, ‘patching in’ my cassette deck audio output to the phone wiring so I could feed clips back to the station.  Then I’d file my story over the phone while they recorded it at the other end.

It’s no surprise that in those days, we didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the technology of delivering the story.  We spent all of our time talking about ‘the story’ itself.

Flash forward to 2010.

I now have a huge collection of digital tools, both software and hardware, that make my 1976 toolset look ridiculously archaic.

These days, it seems to me we’re always talking about the technology.

And why not, it’s exciting.

Particularly in the social networking sphere where things are developing fast and furious.  But it’s easy to get lost in the conversation about the technology, and forget the point.  What are you there to talk about?  What stories are we actually going to tell with all these new tools?

One of the first things I tell clients is that for business, a social media strategy is actually a content strategy.  It’s about opening up and telling the stories about your product, your company, and your employees – really about anything that someone might be interested in learning about.  Interestingly, often this kind of content isn’t found on the company’s own web site.

The second thing I tell clients?

Stories talk back.  Social media is about engagement. Sure it’s ok to tell people about your products of what you’ve got on sale, but you also have to engage in the conversation.  The analogy I use is that it’s like the customer service desk, not the bulletin board.

I encourage my clients to get involved with social media – but – with a couple of key pieces in place. First, we spend some time thinking and planning the kind of stories they intend to share.  Second, that they understand that social media isn’t   ‘set and forget’; they need to be engaged in a meaningful conversation in order for it to provide meaningful results.

I wouldn’t for a minute go back to the dark ages of 1976. I love my digital studio and suite of distribution tools. I love knowing there’s something new coming at any moment.

I would, however, encourage you to remember that without ‘the story’ none of it means very much.

Oh.

And I would take the Mustang back.

—–

thanks to kk+ for the 2010 photo!

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On February 25th in Vancouver, DigiBC presented a full day of  conversations featuring an international group of thought leaders and innovators, part of the VX Conversations series.

In all there were five sessions presented at the BC Showcase Centre at Robson Square, and I recorded them for DigiBC’s VXperience.com website

This session is titled Wireless Meets Digital, and featured:

• Robert Scoble, author & blogger,  Scobleizer
• Chris Langdon, VP, Network Services, Telus
• Saul Orbach, Founder, COO at Aguru Images, Inc.
• Doug Whatley, CEO of Breakaway
• Gregg Sauter, Director, Global Head of Media Partnerships and Content Publishing at Nokia

The conversation was moderated by DigiBC‘s Michael Bidu, who posed the first question to Robert Scoble…

runs 26:21

Other sessions in the series included:

Collaboration Meets Innnovation
Medicine Meets Mobile
Entertainment Meets VFX/3D
Vancouver Meets the World

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A year and a half ago, Alex Beim was hoping his company, Tangible Interaction, would be involved with the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. He never would have predicted that all together, he and his team would create 16 different installations related to the games.

Tangible Interaction Design creates full-on sensory experiences people can interact with in the everyday physical world. You can see them at Vancouver House, the BC Pavilion, and if you’re an athlete at the Games, inside the athlete’s village.

When I talked to Alex (on Feb 24) he was sworn to secrecy about yet another Olympic related project, Tangible Interaction’s contribution to the closing ceremonies.

“The ultimate achievement for us is to get someone so engaged with something they kind of want to hang out and enjoy their experience there…that’s why we do what we do”

To find out more about Tangible’s unique work, I spoke with Alex by phone from his studio in Vancouver…

If you aren’t able to see any of Tangible Interaction’s work at the various locations in Vancouver during the Olympics, you can see videos and photos of their projects on their website.

You can also see examples of their work in this video tour of the Multimedia Gallery at the BC Pavilion, or in this tour with photographer Kris Krug.

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He’s been contributing photos to DigiBC at VX Showcase events, his photos have been featured in the Los Angeles Times, he shares them with the world on Flickr, and at Staticphotgraphy.com (love the images of the skaters).

He and I got a preview tour of the Multimedia Gallery at the BC Pavilion last week, and I thought it might be fun to turn the camera around on him a bit – and give you a glimpse of kk+ in action…

You can find Kris on Twitter, or contact him through Staticphotography.com

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