I say this with great sadness: the SFU New Media workshop is cancelled for this summer.
The ultimate challenge was that not enough participants were registered before the cut-off date. Sad but true.
I’m disappointed the program is not going ahead because the participants registered seemed very keen on the program and the content available. That said, I’m sure SFU will plan for another new media workshop, or that the awesome speakers will ultimately self-organize and offer something even better than what was planned for this summer.
If you were interested in the SFU new media workshop then stay tuned to the speakers’ blogs. Most of the speakers blog regularly and post about the conferences they’re attending and when they’re speaking. I also suggest watching www.upcoming.org for event listings.
In the meantime, let me brag about those wonderful speakers. In alphabetical order:
Haig Armen was a key force behind concept, strategic and design development for CBC Radio 3. He earned 13 international awards. His new-media company, HaigMedia has developed logos, ads, promotional items, and CD covers for clients that include Warner Music, BMW, and Chanel.
Monique says: talking to Haig about design and social media is definitely worthwhile. Watch for his future speaking gigs at SFU.
Darren Barefoot has spent the last decade working for software companies in Canada and Europe. As head geek at Capulet, he manages online marketing and technical writing projects. He applies his background as a technologist and technical communicator to provide accurate technical collateral and online presence for Capuletís clients. Before starting Capulet, he spent two years in Dublin, Ireland, as a technology evangelist for Cape Clear Software. Previously, Barefoot was manager of technical communication at MPS, and has consulted for EA Sports, Radical Entertainment, and sundry start-ups in Canada and Ireland. He maintains a personal weblog at www.darrenbarefoot.com.
Monique says: Darren is also the guy behind the Northern Voice blogging conference. Aside from James, Darren’s blog was the first I ever read.
Alexandre Brabant is the founder of Vancouver eMarketing 101, www.emarketing101.net. Before starting Vancouver eMarketing 101, he worked as an eBusiness Marketing Manager for Resort Reservations Network (part of the Intrawest Group). He was able to test his eMarketing ìrecipeî with sites such as www.whistler-blackcomb.com, www.tremblant.com, www.vancouver.com, and twelve other sites in the travel industry.
Monique says: Alex is the most enthusiastic person I know, his lectures on search keep me captivated and then desperate to log into my Adwords account.
Avi Bryant is the co-founder of Smallthought Systems Inc., a Vancouver startup focused on web-based collaboration tools. He is best known in the open source Squeak Smalltalk community, where he devotes himself to making it faster and easier for developers to build web applications. With Smallthought, he hopes to enable less technical users to do the same thing. Avi is one of the principal developers of DabbleDB, a revolutionary web-based data management application.
Monique says: DabbleDB is revolutionary. I had a beta password and loved creating databases on the fly. A definite must-try for 2006.
Susannah Gardner is the co-founder and creative director of Hop Studios Internet Consultants, a web design company specializing in custom web solutions for content publishers. She is also a freelance writer and author; her latest books include Buzz Marketing With Blogs for Dummies and BitTorrent for Dummies. From 1997 to 2003, she was an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California School for Communication. She can be found at www.buzzmarketingwithblogs.com and www.hopstudios.com. She keeps a personal blog at www.unfavorablepink.com.
Monique says: Susie’s design work on the Candy Blog had me wishing for gum drops, and Buzz Marketing with Blogs is a fantastic resource.
Steve Kellas is a Vancouver web writer and creative consultant. His varied background in music, psychology, marketing, and multimedia gives him a natural writing style and a unique creative approach. Kellas is currently working for a local technology company and hopes to one day finish the next great Canadian novel.
Monique says: He also teaches a course out at UBC Continuing Studies.
Kris Krug has been publishing online since 1998.
Monique says: He is prolific and an amazing photographer, although he always gets my bad side. I think KK is known by everyone in the Lower Mainland–in fact there’s a conspiracy theory that he has a twin, no man can be in so many places. Krug is most often found at www.KrisKrug.com and with the folks at Bryght.
Robert Ouimet has been a professional broadcaster since 1971 when, at the age of 15, he started work as a disc jockey at CKDM Dauphin Manitoba. He’s an award winning journalist, with a professional career that spans 30 years, four provinces and 3 continents. While working at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the early-90’s, Robert saw the possibilities of what we now call convergence. He was a pioneer in melding broadcasting with audience interactivity on the Internet. His involvement with the Internet in the early 90’s lead to pioneering work both within the CBC and in Internet broadcasting. His show RealTime made Internet history when it became the first interactive program heard live around the world. He later went on to create CBC Radio 3, CBC first converged media group, and winner of over 30 international awards, including 3 Webby awards, the Oscar’s of the Internet.
Monique says: Robert is also the voice on the Raincoast podcasts and the producer. I think he does a fine job. Have a listen. Robert also organized last year’s SFU new media program with his business partner Emma, check out the presentations they posted on their company site, At Large Media.
Robert Scales founded Raincity Studios, a more than superb new media firm (my words) that is focused on web marketing, web 2.0 development, and web design in 2003. Robert can be found also at www.robertscales.org.
Monique says: Robert co-produced a series of workshops on blogs and social networking tools at the Banff New Media Institute, and I was the winner of the Blogs n Dogs contest, which meant I got to attend the December workshop. Raincity has a special place in my heart.
James Sherrett’s first internet job was as a writer for a financial information website. That cued his interest (and sometimes infatuation) in the web. Since that first job James has played a number of different roles at companies involved in travel, social networking, finance, software and e-commerce, all focusing on the intersection of culture, commerce, people and technology. In the fall of 2003 Turnstone published James’ first novel, Up in Ontario. He built a blog to support that novel, www.upinontario.com. In 2006, James started his own company Work Industries, www.iworkindustries.com.
Monique says: James is my partner in crime, chaos and life in general. I think he’s more than great.
Travis F. Smith is the owner of Hop Studios, a web design and development company. He has been building content-rich, elegant websites since 1994, when he was deputy editorial director and one of the creators of the Los Angeles Times website. Heís also a professional speaker on such topics as blogging, subscription-based revenue models, and online journalism. He has been the editor of variety.com and a lecturer at the University of Southern California.
Monique says: Travis was also instrumental in setting up this blog–I owe him and Susie many, many thanks.
Paul Sullivan was the western editor of the Globe and Mail, and managing editor of The Vancouver Sun before launching Sullivan Media in 1998. He has also been a senior TV network news producer, the host of CBC-Vancouverís morning radio show, founding editor of West Magazine and an executive for Telemedia, one of Canadaís largest magazine companies. Still a working journalist, he writes a weekly column on business in the west for Globe Investorgold. Sullivan Media works with a wide array of corporate and organizational clients across North America to create effective communications plans and products.
Monique says: Paul’s regular course on Getting the Money to Flow will be held in early 2007 at SFU.
Weston Triemstra has been landscaping new media since 1993. Currently, he is a software developer at Sxip Identity where he builds the user interface of sxore, an identity and reputation system for blog authors, readers, and commentators. Previously, he has worked with Ericsson, GTE, IBM, Microsoft, Real Networks, Blast Radius, Adbusters, Adcritic, and the CBC. Career highlights include two Gemini nominations, a Science and Technology Emmy nomination, coding the launch of the bcyellowpages.com, building a streaming video kiosk in Amsterdam, and co-creating CBCís late-night, cross-platform venture ZeD.
Monique says: I was really looking forward to Weston’s talk on digital identity. I can’t stand remembering all my current passwords. I need to sxip through that garbage.
My heartfelt thanks to the speakers. I look forward to working with them again in the future.
Heather Menzies, author of No Time: Stress and the Crisis of Modern Life, wrote a very positive review of Giles Slades’ book Made to Break in Saturday’s Globe and Mail. She starts by saying “Giles Slade has produced a riveting piece of cultural history to explain the veritable mushroom cloud of electronic waste threatening our planet, while hinting suggestively at why the public seems so detached from the crisis and even its role in creating it.”
If you were interested in the SFU New Media workshop, which