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 – 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 – June 2010 Victoria BC

Social Media Year in Review – May 2010 Victoria BC

Paul Holmes organized a second WordCamp May15th.  Attendance at both has been over 100 each time.

Don’t miss the third WordCamp Saturday January 22nd. Registration costs are modest, and the speaker line-up  includes options for beginners, advanced and technical users. I’ll be moderating a blogger panel with Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss 604), Mike Vardy (Eventualism) and Lorraine Murphy (Raincoaster) and speaking on “Promoting Through Blogging”.

Pecha Kucha Night volume 2 was held on May 27th. Speakers included Ben Ziegler and Karen Rivers.

from The Vancouverite

May 25th @RealReporter Salim Jiwa spoke to Social Media Club on “Trends In Journalism Today & The Impact of Social Media”. Here’s some thoughts from one of the attendees, Yule Heibel.

photo from youcookca

Kudos to the Fairmont Empress and Inn at Laurel Point for innovative marketing. May 12th saw the inaugural #poutineoff on the lawns of the Empress Hotel. Judges, sourced via Twitter, were @cqwww @toots11 @flygirlWS @seedtocup @lacouvee @EATmagazine @TravelWithTaste @youcookca. Mayor Dean Fortin was the MC. Fairmont Empress Chef Ito’s “Tiger Poutine” was narrowly declared the winner.

photo from youcookca

Social Media Year in Review – April 2010 Victoria BC

Rod Cooper organized BC Social Media Summit April 7th as a fundraiser for his participation in The Ride To Conquer Cancer . Speakers included Chris Burdge, Rod Phillips, Tracy McAllister, Paul Holmes, Terri Davies, Rob Cooper, Ross Dunn, Janis La Couvée. My presentation “Building a Brand, Lessons Learned from Twestival Victoria” is here.

from BCSocialMediaSummit.com

 

Evening tweetups continued sporadically. We met at the Bard and Banker on April 17th for a great evening out.  

April 14th also marked the beginning of the very successful “gents #victoriatweetup” organized by Frans Jonker. These continue on a regular monthly basis. Contact Frans for more details.

April’s Social Media Club meeting topic was “Traditional Media Meets Social Media” with participation from Deborah Wilson (CBC), Dana Hutchings (CHEK News), Bryan Capistrano (the Q! and the Zone), Amanda Farrell (Monday Magazine) and Sarah Petrescu (Times Colonist). The discussion and debate were lively! Here are Yule Heibel’s original and follow up posts. Did you attend? What did you think?

Social Media Year in Review, January 2010 Victoria BC

The year began January 2nd with a movie #victoriatweetup . Cindy Stephenson looked down the row of people and said “a year ago I didn’t know one of these ppl”. It’s the power of Twitter. (I met Frans Jonker at that tweetup!).

Although it took until the fall of 2010 for them to become regular, the first WestShore tweetup was January 8th.

Social Media Club Victoria continued to attract powerful international speakers. Julien Smith, co-author with Chris Brogan of “Trust Agents, brought his unique style to Victoria for a presentation on January 20th.  (And returned for Social Media Camp in October – we were lucky!!)

The Blue Bridge counter petition successfully met it’s goal. Organizers Ross Crockford, Yule Heibel and Mat Wright used social media extensively to rally supporters, petition signers, and media attention through Johnson Street Bridge.org

Photo by: www.FinancialAidPodcast.com and www.ChristopherSPenn.com. Licensed under the Creative Commons By Attribution, Non Commercial Use Only license.

Social Media Year in Review – Victoria BC 2010

At the end of 2009, Social Media Club Victoria was 9 months old, most traditional media in Victoria did not yet have a social media presence, and the only regularly scheduled tweetup was the am #Victoriatweetup held the 2nd Thursday and 4th Wednesday of the month at Cabin 12. 

Social media successes for 2009 included Twestival Victoria (September), WordCamp (November), Johnson Street Bridge.org and presentations by Raul Pacheco, Lorraine Murphy and Joe Solomon @engagejoe  at Social Media Club.

2010 saw incredible growth, not only in the numbers of active users of social media, but in the offline events, groups, and meetings. The online to offline community blossomed!

Here’s a Social Media Review for Victoria BC in 2010. It’s highly subjective. Please let me know what needs to be included (and what I have forgotten) and I will revise the posts.

January February March April May June July August September October November December

 

#Victoriatweetup

Today is my sixth month Twitter anniversary! Appropriately, it was also the morning of our regular #victoriatweetup.

I remember being introduced to Twitter and thinking “this isn’t for me, it’s just another time waster”. Then, I went to a business breakfast where we discussed  social media. One of the participants @Susan_Low mentioned that twitterers in Victoria were actually meeting face to face at spontaneous tweetups.

Something went “Click! – I can use this tool to increase my network  in Victoria.”

From that very humble beginning in April 2009, I have found a new community in Victoria. Together we meet for business networking sessions and for fun. We’ve organized a Twitter fundraising festival – Twestival Victoria @yyjtwestival – and raised $5000 for Power To Be Adventure Therapy Society.

We teach and mentor people who are new to Twitter, we do business with one another; some of us are members of Social Media Club Victoria @smcvictoria an organization dedicated to social media literacy, knowledge and standards.

Projects initiated through Twitter, #victoriatweetup and Social Media Club Victoria include @yyjWordCamp, #vicChangeCamp and a Twitter based winter food drive (more details coming soon).

This morning’s breakfast included:

@Babes Go Bare –  a fundraising calendar for the BC Cancer Agency initiated by Trish Caddy

Christopher Loran –  the Q’s roadie #1 son to @lacouvee

@Rod_Phillips – buyer for Liquor Plus stores – the cork dork

@FootButterGuy – Scott McDonald, Rocky Mountain Soap Mayfair

@Ahkonsu – John Overall, Fire Dragon Hosting

@matvic – Mat Wright, the Wright Result, Web & Graphic Design

@ScottGarman – Scott Garman, realtor with Sutton Group

@_hipples – Jeremy from @HempandCo, Hemp and Company

@oceanrivervic Brian Henry , Ocean River Sports

@gapowell – Graham Powell , Ocean River Sportss

@sosaut – Bill Broughton, SOS Automotive

@CWCDVan – Dan Dobbie, City Wide Coupon Directory

@jodie_nodes – Jodie Gastel, In Jodie’s Brain

@josealbis – José Albis, marketing manager, Morriss Printing

Stan Gielewski – photographer & website development

@DustypupVI – Cathy O’Connor, volunteer extraordinaire

@LawlessBrown – Krista Lawless, mortgage broker

@B_West – Chris Burdge, BWEST Interactive

Randy Waldie – employment counsellor, Worklink and musician

@ArtofCocktail – Kathy Kay, general manager the Victoria Film Festival

@mikevardy – Mike Vardy, Eventualism (and operations manager the Victoria Film Festival)

@CJStephenson – Cindy Stephenson, communications professional

@hedyhear – Hedy Senz, director of meetings & events at Carlson Marketing

@NancyFraser – Nancy Fraser, Nota Bene Consulting

@margarethanson – Margaret Hanson, graphic designer

@lacouvee – Janis La Couvée, financial services professional (me!)

Thanks to everybody who has been a mentor and collaborator in the past six months on this fantastic journey of community building in Victoria, BC.  There is definitely more to come.