10 Things PodCamp Is:

1. not just about podcasting
2. an unconference for new and social media
3. free (in most cities)
4. a great place to learn
5. open to anyone to present – just sign up
6. relaxed in attitude
7. just as exciting in the hallways and at meet-ups
8. wonderful for bringing avatars to life
9. filled with interesting folks
10. inspiring

Rule of Two Feet:

• This rule of PodCamp is that you are free to leave any session at any time if  you are not learning anything from it. Don’t stay in one spot if you’d rather be somewhere else. It’s OK. No one will be offended. Off you go!

5 Essential Things to Bring to Podcamp:

1. Business cards – you’ll be meeting a lot of people
2. Breath mints – see #1
3. An open mind
4. Comfortable shoes
5. A smile

5 Optional Things to Bring to Podcamp:

1. Media creation devices: camera / video camera / audio recorder
2. Laptop / smart phone
3. Water bottle
4. Knowledge to share freely
5. Courage to talk to strangers

More Info:

• My session: Saturday, February 20 @ 3:30 PM in room RCC 201 & brief podcast about it here.
• List of all the sessions at Podcamp Toronto
• Podcamp Toronto 2010 schedule
• Check out podcamp.org for more information about Podcamp, including upcoming and previous cities,
• Check out my video interview about the history of Podcamp with it’s co-founder, Chris Brogan.

See you there!

Twestival Montreal – With only a few weeks to  plan the event, I worked with a great volunteer team to raise more than $5,100 for  charity: water. Our target was $4,000; enough to build one well in Africa. Knowing that we’ve given people the gift of clean water, saving lives in the process and helping a community thrive, was worth all of the stress, my brief illness and serious lack of sleep.

The event wrap up has the full list of sponsors, volunteers and links to photos and video coverage. Thanks to everyone who  supported the event. You should be very proud of what you accomplished.

Collaboration – I’m a solo consultant, so I’m always looking for opportunities to collaborate with others on projects where I can put my skills to good use. I was fortunate to meet Mark Goren of Planting Seeds last year at a dinner in Montreal that I helped to arrange for Valeria Maltoni. Mark and I hit it off and have been collaborating on a few projects. I’m thrilled that we are working on a several new things to offer together in the coming year. Here’s one for team work!

2nd Social Media Marketing conference – I was invited to speak in Toronto about how brands can use Twitter. It was a small but lively group, where many were relatively new to Twitter and very few were tweeting on behalf of a brand.  I love speaking about Twitter and had fun presenting. I guess it showed.

(Thanks Colin!)

PodCamp Toronto – For my second time participating at PodCamp Toronto, I presented with Tracy Apps (@tapps) on video microblogging and communities. It was a blast! Tracy and I talked about the evolution of online communities and the different ways to participate in video.  Despite our faltering Internet connection, we managed to showcase a several services including Seesmic, Phreadz and 12seconds.tv, while giving mentions to Utterli, Tokbox and YouTube. We had great interaction and questions from the participants. You can download the Quicktime file of the stream or view Laurent Lasalle’s Qik of the session.

Congratulations to Sylvain Grand’Maison (who did TWO English presentations), Kim Valee, and the rest of the francophone contingent from Montreal who overcame language to make their mark on PodCamp Toronto. You did far more than most could do!

PodCamps are great for meeting friends that you don’t get to see very often or are meeting in the flesh for the first time. One of the highlights of the weekend for me was having dinner on Friday with Chris Brogan, Amber Nasland, Dave Fleet, Jeremy Wright, Dave Delaney, Merlene Paynter, Randy Matheson and Angela Misri. What a great mix of interesting and fun people that I can count as friends, new and old.

Skating Nut – Nothing could have capped off such a stellar month better than a visit by Laura Fitton (@Pistachio). Laura was on a mission to skate the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, and stayed at my home in Montreal on her way from Boston. We were up far too late catching up, but still managed to be happy and excited about our road trip the next morning.

Laura’s plans to skate the Rideau that day fell through when the Canal was closed due to poor ice conditions. Considering she’d driven 7.5 hours to be there and had the goal to skate the Canal for at least 5 years, did she fret about the timing? No way! Instead, she gamely accompanied my family to the Children’s Museum and called an impromptu Ottawa Tweet-up. Fortunately, the weather gods produced some very cold temperatures and the next day, Laura finally got her skate.

Seizing Opportunties – In retrospect, this action-packed February was about seizing opportunities and making the absolute best of things, despite obstacles. It was about taking a chance to get involved, making a difference, trying something new, working hard, sharing knowledge, meeting people face-to-face, collaborating and fostering friendship.

It was a blur.

It was wonderful.

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• Tweetube: TwitPic for Video? (tsurch.com)

• 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s 1 in 6 of us.
• Dirty water causes 80% of all sickness and disease in the world and kills more people than ALL forms of violence, including war.
• 30% of all freshwater people use comes from underground lakes and aquifers. To access this water, people need wells. This costs money
• $20 donation = 20 years of clean, safe drinking water to a person in Africa (among other places)
• 100% of all money raised by charity:water towards building wells, providing access to safe, clean drinking water.

charity: water for Twestival from charity: water on Vimeo.

Using Twitter as the primary means of spreading the word, the movement has picked up tremendous support with over 175 cities around the world signing up to host a fundraising event. From Christchurch, NZ to Hololulu, HI, the event hits almost every time zone on the planet. Want to follow the action around the world? Watch the video stream. Want to drink in the excitement from the Twitterstream? Then check out Twistori. They’ve generously surrendered their entire site to Twestival.

Closer to home, Twestival Montreal is going to be a blast! DJ Luv and DJ Maus will be sharing music duties, radio personality Winston McQuade is our MC, and we’ll have a photobooth set up for you to take home a souveninr of a great night. We also have a raffle with the grand prize of a trip to Vancouver courtesy of Air Canada and Opus Hotels.

I’d like to personally thank our sponsors for helping us put on a great event with special thanks to Aquabrass, Opus Hotels, Air Canada, Molson and Aquaovo. And my sincerest thanks to the volunteer team who have worked so hard and with such passion to make Twestival Montreal a success. It’s been a pleasure working alongside you.

If you’ve got a Twestival happening in your city tonight, I encourage you to go. If you are in Montreal, we’d love to see you:

Location: Suco Lounge in the Opus Hotel
(2108 boul. Saint-Laurent, enter through the hotel on Sherbrooke)
Time: 18:00 to 23:00
Tickets: $10 in advance (until 4 pm today) or $15 at the door

Working from inspiration for a shared tech holiday party in Montreal, the Toronto technology, marketing and PR community used Twitter to build momentum for their landmark HoHoTO event.

From the first tweets on November 27th to the event on December 15th, Twitter was used to build consensus, assemble an organizing team, find sponsors, sell tickets, solicit donations and build buzz that helped the event exceed all expectations.

At the first meeting held on December 2nd, a small group agreed on a name (early name suggestions:  EggNogCamp, MistletoeCamp and SantaCamp, JingleCamp didn’t stand a chance against HoHoTO – T.O. being the abbreviation for Toronto, Ontario),  a non-profit group to support (The Daily Bread Food Bank was selected due to recent news about a 13% increase in demand), and a fundraising goal ($10,000). They had 13 days to make it happen.

The results were astounding:

More than 600 tickets were sold – a sell out in only 9 days. Using an incentive system, tickets started at $10, and as of December 9th, the price rose by $5 per day, pushing the event to sell out quickly. By December 10th, their news release announced that $12,000 had been raised.

Funds were also raised from a raffle, direct cash donations, p#hohotobooth, a CafePress store and the event venue The Mod Club agreed to sell drinks at cost, donating the mark-up to the food bank.

In the end, $25,000 was collected and over two tons of canned goods were brought to the event. There was so much food, the army was called in to pick it up the next day.

More than 60 corporate sponsors pitched in and over 100 prizes were donated.

An event for “geeks, phreaks, webheads, twitterfiends, techies, media, marketing, and PR types” wouldn’t be complete without a strong interactive component. So, giant screens displayed the Twitter stream of #hohoto tweets and party goers could make a DJ song request by tweeting #hohotodj.

On the big screen, video greetings were submitted from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone , Cluetrain Manifesto authors Dave Weinberger and Rick Levine, Boing Boing co-founder and Toronto native Cory Doctorow, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, Whuffie Factor author Tara Hunt, Toronto Mayor David Miller and others. In fact, anyone could add their video beforehand to the HoHoTO YouTube Group and possibly see it show up on the big screen during the event.

And of course, there was a Flickr Group and the event was streamed live on Justin.tv.

Mark McKay gives us a great snap shot of the party and how Twitter played a central role:

Co-organizers Rob Hyndman gives a wrap-up of the event and Michael O’Connor Clarke sums his post-event afterglow.

If ever there was an example of how Twitter can work very quickly on a local level to raise funds, build community and have fun, this is it. Congratulations to the organizers and everyone who supported HoHoTO. Through your efforts you helped a lot people this season and that is the essence of community.

What about a place that sees the migration of tens of thousands of wildebeest every year, where lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants and zebra roam? In a remote corner of Kenya, on the border of Tanzania, in a place with spotty cellular service and little technology infrastructure, social media tools are helping to protect the African wilderness for future generations.

Joseph Kimojino is the Assistant Warden of Anti-Poaching at Ngiro-are Outpost in the Mara Triangle located in the Masai Mara game reserve. I discovered him last May on Twitter  tweeting as @MaraTriangle when I saw this message:

Thankfully, it’s not everyday that you see details of a shooting on Twitter. Despite the grim event, I was immediately drawn in by the way @MaraTriangle communicated the daily life of people as far removed from my city life one can get, while using the same tools that I do.

The wildlife conservancy at the Mara Triangle does many things including arresting poachers, removing wire snares and ensuring that the animals aren’t harassed. There is a team of about 50 rangers, a road team of 10 and support staff operating in the vast reserve. In their work, great things are happening. The lion population is up, they’ve arrested more than 1,100 poachers, they collect hundreds of wire snares weekly, they’ve instituted transparent fee collections and are they working together with the local people. It’s dangerous work that sees them travel into the most remote parts of the reserve and keeps them away from their families for extended periods.

Recently, I rediscovered the Mara Triangle blog and was so impressed with their multimedia approach that I asked Joseph some questions about how he and his team make social media work for them, especially in the face of an unstable political climate and a very limited technology infrastructure. Here is what he had to say:
1. Can you briefly describe your funding crisis?

Our funding crisis started in February when the post-election violence in Kenya scared away large number of tourists – which we are dependent upon for the upkeep of the Mara Triangle. Sadly it looks like the global economic crisis is now the next thing to keep tourists away so it looks like our funding crisis may continue for many months to come.

Here was the appeal we put out in February.

We do like to think that people will support us because we are doing good work, not because we are in a crisis, and so we have also provided this page on our website.

2. Why did you start the blog and social media outreach, and who’s on your communications team?

I first heard about blogging when William Deed helped set up our blog at the end of last year. My CEO told me about the work that he did in Congo to help raise awareness and funds for the rangers protecting the Mountain Gorillas and that he could also help us here in the Mara. He then came to work for the Mara Conservancy full-time in February and since then has been teaching us about blogs and other websites.

3. What is the technology infrastructure where you are based at Iseyia Station?

When I was at Iseiya Station I was able to blog more regularly because we have a satellite connection there which works very well in good weather. I am now based at Ngiro-are on the Tanzanian border where there is no internet and often no phone network. This means that I am unable to go online as often as I used to.

4. How did you come to use Twitter as one of your communication tools, how long have you been using it and what challenges or successes have you had with it?

I have been using Twitter for a few months after William introduced us to the site and explained what it can do. One of the biggest problems we have with Twitter is that we often don’t have phone network where we patrol. Most of the time we don’t have radio contact either, but when we do we use the radio to send updates to Iseiya Station which are then put online.

It is a shame we cannot use Twitter more as I do enjoy being able to be in contact with so many people, and also to read what all these people are doing in all places of the world, but for my job I have to spend as much as time as possible out in the field.

5. Your blog has many contributors. Have your other team members embraced or resisted blogging?

It was not understood for a long time what a blog is or can do, but we now have an old computer in our radio room where rangers read the blog daily. It is since then, and since my move to Ngiro-are, that more of the rangers want to also blog and help out.

6. Explain how you are using video in your communications?

We record video using our digital cameras and then upload to a website called Vimeo. We have tried using YouTube but it doesn’t seem to work on our connection. Sadly, Vimeo has also stopped working so well which is a shame as almost every day we have videos to upload. If anyone has any tips or suggestions to make this work better we would appreciate it if they got in touch. We think that videos help people from all around the world understand our work better, and would like this to appear more regularly on our website.

7. You have a Facebook Cause page. How is that working for you?

The Facebook Cause has helped us raise over $1,500 and it seems that a large number of people are interested in what we do.

8. You are using many social media tools in addition to your blog – Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, FriendFeed – which one has been the most powerful in terms of achieving your communications goals?

I think that they have all worked together in helping spread our message. I can’t say that I understand Facebook and FriendFeed, but I do like using Flickr.

9. What are your plans for future digital communications or social media outreach?

We would like it if our website became more useful to people in terms of information for those interested in the Mara, or potential visitors to the area. We also hope people will just keep visiting our site because they like to read our updates.

10. Aside from cash donations, do you have other needs to help you continue your work? Do you have any technical/gear needs that would enhance your digital communications efforts?

The list is endless, but the most useful thing to our work both online and in the real world, is digital cameras. Many people from around the world have donated their second hand cameras which we use for photographic evidence of incidences in and outside the park. This helps us spread our message through the website, but is also very important as tour drivers can no longer deny breaking park rules as the incidents are captured. This has completely changed the behaviour of tour drivers for the better, and we see a greater respect now for our animals and to not offroad in delicate areas.

Digital cameras do not always survive going out on patrol, or sometimes are so old they just give up, so any extras are always welcomed and we would like it if every one of our teams had a camera.

4 ways to help the Mara Triangle Rangers:

1. Cash. Contribute using the ChipIn widget or through the Facebook Cause page. Help them to reach their goal of raising $5000 by November 30th.

2. Equipment. Donate your old digital camera. Better yet, donate a NEW digital camera.

3. Expertise. Help Joseph & William de-bug their Vimeo and YouTube problems.

4. Tweet/Blog. Spread the word and talk about the work that Joseph and his team are doing in the Mara Triangle.

To make a non-cash donation, or help in other ways, please contact Joseph Kimojino.

Have Joseph and the Mara Triangle team altered your perceptions of how, and where, social media can be used?  Let me know what you think.