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It’s time for a place holder post to let you know you can find me at http://janislacouvee.com. I’ve migrated all the content and thank you for following my posts!

Quadra Village Day 2011

Quadra Village Day Poster 2011 final

I’ve been involved in the Quadra Village Day planning committee since shortly after moving to my new neighbourhood. What a dynamic group of individuals representing the community, business, the city and local not for profits.

In these times of budgetary restraint, it’s wonderful to see a community pull together to produce an entirely FREE family friendly event.

Join us on Kings Road (between Quadra and Dowler) Saturday May 7th from 9:30 am to 1pm for breakfast, community displays, activities for kids and teens, music and dance demonstrations.

More information on our website.

The musicians performing include:

Mike Edel, Paul Black, and Coco Jafro

There will be dance performances by:

Chinese Seniors Dance Troupe, the Sons of Norway Folk Dancers, the UVic Cuban Salsa Club and the Vic City Breakers & Friends.

With grateful thanks to our sponsors and media partners.

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Social Media Year in Review – December 2010 Victoria BC

Traditionally December would be a month of planning holiday celebrations! Not for the Victoria social media community. Janine Theobald  came to Social Media Camp and Club, and was inspired to create the #twamper drive   and tweetup  held December 17th at Cabin 12 . Two families were assisted through these efforts.

Earlier in the month Alan Smith organized a Victoria event for Help Portrait, providing free portraits for Victoria families and individuals who might be otherwise unable to have a professional portrait. More than 30 photographers and volunteers provided 148 sessions. Help Portrait 2011 is December 3rd. Become part of the Help Portrait Victoria community here:

On the same day, Herb Lainchbury  rallied over 30 geeks for International Open Data Hachathon Day locally. There are now plans to hold montly hackathons with the first scheduled for January 22nd. Contact Herb for more details. Anyone (not just geeks) interested in open data can attend.

Victoria’s inaugural Figgy Pudding Carolling Competition was also December 4th. It all started with a tweet, and soon @JanineAnnT @VIHippieChick @jagamer and @lacouvee were forming a group “The Tweets”.    It was so much fun, there are now plans for a much larger “Twitter choir” next year.

TEDxVictoria hosted simulcasts at the University of Victoria for the first TED Women  Congratulations to organizer Sherry Moir for the very first TED event in Victoria.

TEDxJuandeFuca has plans for another TEDx event in April 2011.

The year ended in a flurry of tweetups #victoriatweetup (breakfast, WestShore, High Noon Hump Day, #U30 ladies, ladies, gents) and one final Social Media Club “Holiday Open Mic”.  See Mike Vardy’s “The Twelve Days of Christmas: Social Media Remix”.
Photo: Eventualism.com

Words can never convey my huge debt of gratitude to everyone involved in making this a simply amazing year. 2010 will be remembered as the year social media came into its own in Victoria. Each and every one of you played a HUGE part.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten people and events that need to be remembered – it’s not intentional. Please let me know.

Happy New Year! Here’s to a fabulous 2011.

There is much to look forward to – Word Camp Victoria January 22nd, Frans Jonker and my wedding tweetup/meetup February 17th, IdeaWave February 26th & 27th, Twestival Victoria March 24th, TEDxJuandeFuca in April, Social Media Camp June 3rd and 4th, as well as regular Social Media Club Victoria meetings (3rd Monday of the month at the Victoria Event Centre) and many a #victoriatweetup.

 

 

Social Media Year in Review – November 2010 Victoria BC

It’s no secret that I enjoy fine craft beer, in particular Hermann’s from Vancouver Island Brewery. It was a pleasant surprise to be invited to the Hermannator launch November 1st.

Doug Brown, agency manager of Copeland Communications, brought Jay Baer, author (with Amber Naslund) of the well respected blog “Convince and Convert”  to Victoria to speak. Then he graciously arranged for Jay to be the guest at a tweetup November 3rd at the Delta Ocean Pointe Resort and Spa . Jay returns (with Amber) as keynote speaker to Social Media Camp  in June 2011. Jay and Amber’s book, “The Now Revolution” is scheduled for release in February 2011.

Trish Caddy launched the Babes Go Bare 2011 Calendar in early November.
 
Open Gov West BC  brought together over 150 delegates- government employees, non profits, concerned citizens, and businesses- who work with any level of government.  I was a panelist with Chris Moore (City of Edmonton), Tara Ney (Oak Bay), and Ian Graeme (Prov of BC).

Most of the day was spent live tweeting the conference. The #ogwbc hashtag trended nationally!   Feeling a little out of my element, I had originally posted this:   but later learned that one of the participants (with a hearing impairment) was able to follow more closely because of my tweets.

Walter Schwabe @fusedlogic from Edmonton attended Open Gov West BC and met with the local Twitter community at our morning #victoriatweetup November 11th. Another long distance Twitter friendship culminating in a face-to-face meeting.

Both the “gents” and “ladies” managed to meet for tweetups in November.

Glenn Letham,  editor and founder of GIS User,presented to Social Media Club on “Geo-location technology and apps”. Glenn is recently back in Victoria after many years in the States, most recently in Fort Collins CO. He has great insight! Glenn is also a very talented photographer.

The Johnson Street Bridge referendum vote was held November 20th. http://johnsonstreetbridge.org/.

After meeting initially in early 2010 and discussing it, Jaryd Zinkewich  and I presented on “Generational Knowledge Transfer”   at Pecha Kucha Night 4

Social Media Year in Review – October 2010 Victoria BC

Social Media Year in Review – August 2010 Victoria BC

For three years Frans Jonker reclaimed his fitness by biking. His introduction to most of the Victoria twitter community in July 2009 was through tweets about his rides. Originally he planned to cycle to Port Hardy as a personal challenge but people encouraged him to use it as an opportunity to raise funds for charity.

Thus, The Road to Port Hardy charity bike ride for the BC Cancer Foundation became reality. After a tweetup Aug 12th, Frans launched his ride August 16th, cycling 525km in 4 days and raising almost $10,000!

Photo:  Veloweb

Pecha Kucha Volume 3 August 12th focused on food.

Social Media Club’s August meeting featured Social Video  with Don Power , Daniel Barton and Cris Vleck.

photo by tpholmes

Carl Leone @VicCityParty who most of us met at Social Media Day, went to give blood in early August. That sparked the beginning of the #yyjbleeders tweetups (August 12th and October 23rd).

The next #yyjbleeders is Saturday January 15th. If you’ve never given blood before – why not make this a resolution for 2011? Please read the meetup description carefully.

Social Media Year in Review – July 2010 Victoria BC

Ideas Victoria was founded in 2007 by Kris Constable as a place for critical thinkers to meet and discuss their ideas. IdeaWave Conference July 10 & 11th was an offshoot of these meetings. 50 speakers for 10 minutes each over 2 days. Here’s my presentation “Set Theory and Human Relationships – The Importance of One”.  The next IdeaWave is scheduled for February 22 and 23rd I’ll be speaking on “Building Resilient Networks, Online and Off, in the 21st Century”

If you like ideas, don’t miss this conference!

In July Dan Parks and Sean Dhillon started the “High Noon Hump Day Tweetups” focussing on apps like Foursquare and others for iPhone and Android. Lunches take place at different restaurants in the Capital Region. Check http://www.meetup.com/lunchtweetups for more details. The first meetup of 2011 is January 12th at AURA Restaurant

North Studio, Stikky Media, Vancouver Island Outdoor Adventure Expo and Birds of a Feather Bed and Breakfast hosted the 2nd Mashable Meetup July 29th. It was a lovely evening on Esquimalt Lagoon shared with friends old and new.   Thanks to FatDaddys BBQ for the fabulous eats too!
Photo: Stikky Media

The Social Media Club meeting July 27th was an “Un-Meeting” with great discussions facilitated by Melanie Wood of ACD Systems.

Social Media Year in Review – June 2010 Victoria BC