Category — Speaking engagements

Last week I had the honour of presenting at the Digital Imaging Association’s AGM and holiday luncheon at the boulevard club in Toronto.

One year later, Marketing Magazine invited me back to keynote their “mobile 2.0″ event last week to present an updated point of view on a marketer’s choice of Wap (or the mobile web) vs. App.

A lot has changed in a year in the mobile space and how does this impact marketers – and specifically Canadian ones? Check out the slideshare deck below for this year’s take on this ongoing debate. Also apologies for the font – slideshare replaced mine with something less readable

Last night I was invited to present at “Social Schmedia” – an AMA Toronto event held at the Brazen Head.

Social Schmedia was a fun excuse to get a bunch of like minded marketing and Ad types together to schmooze and off course share a few laughs (and cocktails). Facebook, Groupon, Mobile this, Geo that… an endless array of all things social, and yet another bullet for your resume or item on your clients wish list.

It’s was time to poke a little fun at this Marketing phenom by gathering a smattering of Toronto’s Savviest and funniest Ad & Marketing people to gripe about their own personal beefs (or loves) of all things Social Media.

There were 5 presenters on tap and I realized soon after arriving that i was the only non “comedian” and that i would be going last. GREAT.

Knowing that I’m not quite THAT funny, I enlisted the help of my fellow BSTREETers to pull it off. Below is a copy of the top 10 list.  Special thanks to Lauren Davies for #1, Laurie Rivet for the Betty White reference and a few others and for making the deck pretty.

Click on “view on slideshare” to view full screen so that you can get the visuals better that go with the list. To learn more about the AMA, click here.

The Canadian Marketing Association has formed a mobile task force to determine how marketers can best integrate this emerging marketing channel into the overall marketing mix.

Several industry leaders representing different aspects of the mobile channel are represented. I’m representing BSTREET as Chair of the task force and look forward to working with the broader team to help marketers better understand and integrate mobile into their marketing plans.

The full press release can be viewed here.

Next week marks the second annual Mobile Innovation Week with events happening all week long in Toronto. Whether you’re a developer, designer, marketer or brand manager – there is an event for you next week.

I’ll be participating in Mobile Media World from the 16-17th and will be presenting an updated point of view on the “Wap vs. App” debate.

For more information on the events and to register, you can click here.

This Monday I’ll have the pleasure of presenting our case study around Polar Ice Vodka to the Direct Sellers Association of Canada.

The conference is taking place in Quebec City at the Hotel Frontenac.  Although the venue is among the most beautiful in the city, apparently the interweb is unreliable in the basement… which means i’ll be creating a “plan b” for the website demo in case it doesn’t work.

Although I don’t speak until the afternoon, I’m going to hang out the whole day as the list of speakers looks very interesting. You can get more info on the conference & speaker list here.

Next week the G20 will transform Toronto, but if you have a chance come join me at Interactive Ontario’s ip3 forum on June 21st at the Toronto Hilton.

The all day conference will explore the business and technical impact and industry transformation the iphone, ipad, and ipod are having on the mobile and interactive industry.

I’ll be presenting BSTREET’s POV on Wap vs. App as it relates to these platforms and will actively participate in the panel discussion around the topic.

Here are details on the panel i’m participating in:

If you register with promo code “G20″ you’ll get a 20% discount on the registration fee.

For a full list of speakers, click here.

From m-commerce to the app stores, through to mobile advertising – mobile is no longer a fringe opportunity but an important component of your marketing mix.

Forrester reports that the percentage of U.S. adults with smartphones grew 40% between 2008 and 2009, with that number continuing to explode for 2010 and beyond.

Join us on April 8th as we hear from the global players in the mobile marketing mix. Important research insights into the mobile marketing ecosystem provided by comScore, inspiring keynote speakers, as well as case studies from media properties and marketers will make this exciting half-day conference the most important event in mobile marketing this spring!

On behalf of BSTREET, I will be presenting one of the case studies around how mobile successfully fit into the overall digital marketing mix and what some of the surprising results were!

Click here to register.

On March 4th I’ll be making my second trip to Halifax to speak at the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) inaugural marketing conference in Atlantic Canada.

Conference Highlights include:

Top global marketing thought leaders will descend upon Halifax for a day of discussion and debate on the latest trends in marketing today. This full-day event will consist of multiple sessions covering a range of hot topics and cutting-edge marketing strategies such as social media, mobile, search, branding, research, online advertising and more. An impressive lineup of speakers has been assembled, including:

• Paige Malling, Director, Interactive Marketing and Community, Sears Canada
• Andrew Lane, Director, Digital Engagement, Weber Shandwick Canada
• Phil Barrett, Vice-President, Digital and Mobile, BSTREET Communications
• David Alston, Vice-President, Marketing & Community, Radian 6
• Rachelle Deshaies, Partner, Researchology
• Ben Graham, Director of e-Commerce, Eldis Group
• Andrew Simon, Senior Vice-President, Creative Director, DDB Canada
• David Spriet, Vice-President, SIFT

For full conference details, click here.

I’ve been working on an updated mobile marketing opportunity deck that includes some updates stats (thanks to my friend Bryan Segal @ Comscore) as well as a new section – four ways to make traditional media undead with mobile.

If you are attending the conference, be sure to say hello. If your stuck in the center of the universe (Toronto), be sure to follow my tweet stream through the day or come back here on Friday for my tweet digest from the day. I’ll also be posting my final deck to my slideshare account before the weekend.

Open Dialogue is hosting their third annual social media conference at the Old Mill next week and you should consider registering if you haven’t already.

From their website:

If 2009 was about creating awareness of social media communities, then 2010 should be about exploring how to meaningfully engage.  At a minimum, all marketers should be monitoring how their brands live online.  Do you have a solid grasp of the social media landscape where your product or service is being discussed?

If you don’t, then you are missing out on a golden opportunity to listen in and learn from your customers.  Whether you are new to social media or an early adopter, spend two days with leading social media thinkers, speakers and practitioners and learn how to seamlessly add the power of social media to your traditional media efforts.

I’ll be the keynote speaker on day two presenting a case study on the journey Polar Ice Vodka has made through social media over the last 18 months.

More details are found here.