Tag Archives: digital media

Episode #108: PyeongChang 2018 preview with Georgia Sapounas

Georgia Sapounas is the Digital Team Lead for Team Canada. Georgia joined me in studio before she left for PyeongChang, South Korea to give me the scoop on this year’s Winter Olympic digital program.

Recorded live at Girth Radio.

Listen below:

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You can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS Feed if you’re so inclined.

Facebook F8 and BCON

Recently, two very important conferences have taken place. One was in Toronto: BCON. The other in San Francisco: Facebook F8. I attended BCON here in Toronto and followed the F8 conference via updates from Facebook.

I also happened to write about these two events.

I wrote about my 5 takeaways from BCON on the Active International blog. BCON is a conference focusing on how brands and publishers can continue to use and iterate on Branded Content.

Active’s blog also hosted a very short piece on some marketing highlights from Facebook’s F8 conference.

Lastly, I finally submitted another piece to itbusiness.ca. I’ve been a regular contributor to itbusiness but recent work commitments have seen my contributions dwindle. Hopefully this will increase again over time.  I wrote about the 4 things that mattered at the Facebook F8 conference.

I hope you enjoy the articles!

The Legitimization of Social Platforms as Performance Channels

This week Toronto is playing host to Advertising Week – Canada. And I’m excited that our company, Catalyst Canada, is producing 5 original articles this week. Here’s the one that I was tasked with writing:

“Over the past 10+ years we have witnessed the rise of social media and social networking. What once was the domain of individuals quickly became a hybrid of brand marketing and personal posts. Today we have come to expect zero organic reach for brands on Facebook. And while brands continue to see reach on Twitter, many have opined that Twitter may follow Facebook’s lead as it continues to monetize their platform.”

Read the entire article, The Legitimization of Social Platforms as Performance Channels.

A look back at Syncapse

Just over 3 years ago I was the Toronto Community Manager for Techvibes.com. During that time I was fortunate to interview the (then new) COO of Syncapse, Kerry Munroe. He was one of hundreds of people I interviewed during my time with Techvibes. Some I captured on camera. Others became part of articles I wrote.

Syncapse was in the news yesterday as it announced a massive wave of layoffs in the midst of a restructuring move aimed at improving their financial state. With this in mind let’s take a look back as Kerry discusses the future of Syncapse.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFn3v8toXFI&w=560&h=315]

Note: Syncapse builds and delivers social media marketing software for enterprises.

3 Music Streaming Services To Discover New Tunes

I love listening to music at home, in the car, in my ear buds, at home and even at live concerts. And of course I love social media. Which is why I helped organize MusicConnectTO a few years back:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/16837473 w=500&h=281]

Today, let me share with you my 3 favourite music streaming services and why I like them. In no particular order:

Mediazoic

Mediazoic was founded by my friend and cousin-in-law, Greg Nisbet. Mediazoic’s internet radio system allows individuals and organizations to create, customize and deejay their own internet radio stations as they create playlists, have complete control over the look and content of their station(s), and distribute a graphic “tuner” pointing to their station(s) anywhere on the web. The best thing about these stations is that tend to change every week and almost every time I have no clue who I’m going to listen to. It’s one of the best music discovery sites out there.

My favourite Mediazoic station is New Canadian Music (click on link for a link to the player)

New Canadian Music

Songza

Songza is my station of choice if I’m with a group of people with different music tastes. There are professional curated playlists and even one’s put together by fand and friends. My favourite feature is picking music based on the day of the week, time of day and what I’m doing. Hat tip to Karim Awad from big time design for pointing out this website out to me.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark is my old-faithful. I’ve been using this service to listen to my favourite new and old music since as long as I can remember. I have the ability to search for music, create my own personal playlists and listen four hours without hearing the same song. Grooveshark is the only place online where I have found that I can listen to all my favourite Neil Young songs for a whole day without ever hearing the same song twice!

What are your favourite music streaming services?

Why I donated to Wikipedia

I donated a few bucks to Wikipedia last night. The thought had never crossed my mind to do so previously.  However, I have recently been thinking about how valuable the internet and digital media is to my life. So, when I was looking for information on Wikipedia, I came across a simple request asking if I would like to donate. So I did.

If you use the internet, Wikipedia and other digital tools, I hope you donate.

Here’s a sample of the thank you note I received from Wikipedia soon after I donated. It will clarify for you – as it did me – how important resources like Wikipedia are to our lives.

It’s easy to ignore our fundraising banners, and I’m really glad you didn’t. This is how Wikipedia pays its bills — people like you giving us money, so we can keep the site freely available for everyone around the world.

People tell me they donate to Wikipedia because they find it useful, and they trust it because even though it’s not perfect, they know it’s written for them. Wikipedia isn’t meant to advance somebody’s PR agenda or push a particular ideology, or to persuade you to believe something that’s not true. We aim to tell the truth, and we can do that because of you. The fact that you fund the site keeps us independent and able to deliver what you need and want from Wikipedia. Exactly as it should be.

You should know: your donation isn’t just covering your own costs. The average donor is paying for his or her own use of Wikipedia, plus the costs of hundreds of other people. Your donation keeps Wikipedia available for an ambitious kid in Bangalore who’s teaching herself computer programming. A middle-aged homemaker in Vienna who’s just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. A novelist researching 1850s Britain. A 10-year-old in San Salvador who’s just discovered Carl Sagan.

On behalf of those people, and the half-billion other readers of Wikipedia and its sister sites and projects, I thank you for joining us in our effort to make the sum of all human knowledge available for everyone. Your donation makes the world a better place. Thank you.

Most people don’t know Wikipedia’s run by a non-profit. Please consider sharing this e-mail with a few of your friends to encourage them to donate too. And if you’re interested, you should try adding some new information to Wikipedia. If you see a typo or other small mistake, please fix it, and if you find something missing, please add it. There are resources here that can help you get started. Don’t worry about making a mistake: that’s normal when people first start editing and if it happens, other Wikipedians will be happy to fix it for you.

I appreciate your trust in us, and I promise you we’ll use your money well.

Dx3 Canada – Canada’s Digital Trade Show

Over the holidays I had the pleasure of meeting one of the team members of Canada’s newest trade show: Dx3 Canada.  What got me really excited is that Dx3 Canada is focusing on Canada’s digital industry – which is the space that I work in as a founder and partner of thirdocean.  After finding out more information about Dx3 Canada and being personally invited, I promised to help promote them.

Dx3 Canada takes place at Toronto’s Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building) on January 25 and 26.  (There’s still a few tickets left with some amazing speakers and sessions.)

Some of you may be really interested in going but maybe the $199 ticket price is too much for you.  No problem.  You can still attend and visit the Expo Floor for FREE! (Yeah, that’s my favourite 4-letter word also.)

Companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Visa, American Express will be there.  As will local favourites such as BNOTIONS.

In fact, here’s a link to all the FREE stuff that you can consume at this month’s ONLY Canadian conference dedicated to the digital life: http://www.dx3canada.com/Content/FEATURES-INFO/17/.

If you’re there, hit me up at @karimkanji and let’s hook up!

UFC uses Social and Digital to rule Sporting Universe

Earlier today an article I wrote was published on the website Web Not War.

On the weekend of December 10th Dana White’s UFC settled in Toronto with Sunday’s UFC 140 anchoring their activities. Over the past 10 years, Dana White, his partners the Ferenzzo brothers and their MMA athletes have created one of the most popular and fastest growing sporting and entertainment brands in the world. The reasons are manifold: the demise of the boxing industry and the need for fresh and new programming for this 200+ channel universe being just two of them.

To read the rest please visit http://www.webnotwar.ca/ufc-uses-social-and-digital-to-rule-sporting-universe/