Marketing events in Calgary this fall 2011

It’s been a few days since my last post. It’s just been super busy lately and I haven’t had a chance to put my head together around a valuable posts until now (I hope ;). As many of you, I’m subscribed to a few email lists of organizations that create marketing events in Calgary and area. This time I wanted to share a few upcoming ones as well as provide you with a couple of great resources to track marketing events in Calgary.

Upcoming marketing events in Calgary

The main reason I share these is that I met the most amazing people attending and helping organize marketing events volunteering with various organizations. And if you happen to start in the industry, I highly recommend you both attend and help organize and run events in your area.

Third Tuesday Calgary (TTyyc) is having Linkedin over

Third Tuesday Calgary is one of my favourite organizations run by Doug Lacombe, the social media authority in Calgary and Canada. Doug and his team bring great marketing and social media speakers to Calgary. Their next event will feature people from Linkedin talking about managing your professional brand. Learn more about and RSVP to this marketing event.

Digital Alberta is launching its events season

Digital Alberta is a dynamic industry organization that runs events and helps companies connect across Alberta. Their events are more technology focused but they also get a great marketing crowd. I used to volunteer for Digital Alberta and very proud of it. Check the details of their season launch party.

Calgary Marketing Association talks about DM for Today

Calgary Marketing Association (CMAcalgary) runs a number of high-profile marketing events during their events season. They bring in awesome speakers and often join forces with Digital Alberta. I’ve been to a couple of events while being a part of DA. This time they are bringing Kathy Levinski, Director at OrangeDoor Direct to talk about direct marketing.

The Art of… is bringing … leadership to Calgary

The Art of… is a Canada-wide events management organization. They organize huge events in major cities across the country. Their marketing events are a bit pricey but they showcase best-selling authors and gurus from all over North America. Check their November event details on The Art of Leadership.

Marketing events sites in Calgary

It’s difficult at times to keep up to speed with events in your area but luckily there are those who help us stay up to speed on what’s happening. And without further ado, my favourite site and one of my favourite social media professionals and marketers in Calgary…

Shannon Bowen-Kelsick (sbk), Calgary’s marketing events keymaster

Shannon has been doing an amazing job keeping track of marketing events pulse in Calgary. Her events list is always up to date and I’d highly recommend connecting with her for marketing and social media matters. I’d also like to ask you to link back to Shannon’s list and site from your own blog. This will reward her efforts (link juice!), and this is the minimum we can do to thank her for the great job she’s done. Check Shannon’s list on her marketing events page.

Look out for Marketing Events Calgary .com

It’s a new initiative and at this point way weaker than the resource Shannon is developing. This website was developed to centralize marketing events information in Calgary. Looks like the website is supported by a few organizations with great people and powers to develop this website into a dynamic marketing events calendar for Calgary and area. Time will tell.

I hope this post is useful for those marketing veterans who want to keep track of marketing events in Calgary as well as those who just start in the industry and want to hand out with good people. Leave a comment or two in the reply and, as always, I appreciate shares and likes and +1s, of course, if you liked the article.

Online marketing & municipal elections in Calgary

Last night I presented at Calgary SEO and Online Marketing Meetup hosted by Jimmy of Foundpages and Kath of Lunchbox Theatre. It was a cozy room full of good people looking to learn more about my Barb Higgins campaign story. For those of you who missed it here’s the deck I used to present:

The presentation itself went ok, but the questions that followed were amazing! Thanks to organizers and participants! Wishing all of you a very happy holiday season and plenty of success in 2011!

Christmas@Cannes, advertising event in Calgary

Digital Alberta would love to have you join us as we let loose and celebrate the upcoming holiday season on November 30th. We are proud to partner with CMA Calgary to bring you Calgary’s one and only pre-screening of the Cannes Reel.

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s Official Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival Representative, is hosting this national screening for marketing industry professionals of the 2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival Film winners Reel.

We have a private booking with Flames Central where we will be combining our Christmas shindig and the screening of the Cannes Reel.  The net proceeds of the screening will be donated to Friends of NABS.

Tickets include a stupendous dinner and a private screening of the Cannes Reel and lets not forget the great networking opportunities.  The doors open to this private function at 5pm with food being served from 6pm – 7pm (included).  The screening will commence at 7pm with continuous networking from 9pm onwards.

Visit Christmas@Cannes to secure your ticket or contact Jo-Anne Douthwaite, Executive Administrator for more information.

Role of social media in Calgary Elections

About the event

• What: Election Dissection: The role of social media in Election 2010 Calgary
• When: Monday, December 6, 2010 5:30 PM
• Where: (A location has not been chosen yet.)

There’s no question social media came to life for the first time in a Calgary civic election this fall. The question is, what role did it play in the final outcome? Did tweets and posts elect our new mayor as many claim? Or was it a case of a good mix of strategy and all forms of media?

Four of Calgary’s finest politicos, pundits, and digerati will come together in what is sure to be a lively panel discussion “Election Dissection”. Troy Wason will moderate, joined by panelists Stephen Carter, DJ Kelly, and Alexander Zagoumenov.

Don’t miss this lively discussion on a recent election that, in some ways, may represent a turning point in Canadian politics.

About our panel

Alexander Zagoumenov

Alexander Zagoumenov is a digital marketing and communications professional living in Calgary. He started as a front-end web developer in 2001, fell in love with SEO in 2002 and, as an intern at Critical Mass, got married to the concept of digital marketing in 2006.

Over the years Alex had opportunities to work on great projects varying from luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and Rolex to starting cultural blog networks like RussianHerald.com, to working with local start-ups defining the next steps in digital communications practices. Alex’s strength is in identifying the most suitable combination of digital marketing tactics (SEO, paid search and display, viral marketing, email marketing, etc) to achieve overall business and communications objectives.

Alex is a CSIA Level III ski instructor, performing musician (just released an album) and a strong believer in creating value by sharing his experiences with others. Follow Alex on Twitter @zagoumenov and learn more at zagoumenov.com.

Stephen Carter

Stephen Carter, campaign strategist for The Nenshi for Mayor campaign and president of BBOLD public relations. Follow Stephen on Twitter @carter_bbold.

DJ Kelly

DJ Kelly is a Calgary-based marketing and communications professional. He is a political blogger and a columnist with CBC Radio One and Metro Calgary. Follow DJ on Twitter @djkelly.

Troy Wason

Troy Wason has over 15 years experience developing and driving integrated strategic planning processes that deliver on long-term business objectives, including social media strategies, community engagement and marketing.

Most recently working with Alberta Government Caucus, Troy was responsible for using social media and computing tools to reach, connect, and build communities around their brand. He holds a masters of arts degree in intellectual history from the University of Calgary.

Troy is a founding partner of WMS Communication Inc., specializing in social media strategies & digital communications. Follow Troy on Twitter @imparo.

RSVP to this Meetup:

http://www.meetup.com/third-tuesday-calgary/calendar/15480299/

7 Steps to Marketing Success with John Jantsch

Cost Effective Marketing Strategies for Today’s SME

What will you do to increase sales this year? Join John Jantsch, the founder of Duct Tape Marketing and the"World’s Most Practical Small Business Expert" as he shares 7 practical steps to creating a simple, effective and affordable marketing system for a small to mid size business.
You will learn how to:

• develop a strategy that creates momentum
• create marketing materials that educate
• generate leads from multiple sources, and
• leverage the best of all the online marketing tools available these days.

It’s easy to fall into the chaotic cycle of producing the ‘marketing idea of the week’ and miss an opportunity to product significant and sustainable marketing results. Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to get one of the leading strategic approaches for a marketing system that works.

Register at Calgary CMA Events

About John Jantsch

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of two leading marketing books – “Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine. He has made it his mission to bring the simple, effective and affordable Duct Tape Marketing approach to the millions of struggling SME’s (Small to Midsize Enterprises)all over the world through workshops, the Duct Tape Marketing system and the Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach Network.

His Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site. John will share a savvy and cost-effective approach guaranteed to get results in today’s dynamic marketing environment.

Event Details

Date:
Tuesday October 26th, 2010

Time:
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM Registration & Networking
6:30 PM Dinner & Speaker
8:30 PM Expected Finish

Place:
The Fairmont Palliser, 133 -9th Avenue SW

Cost:

Special Deal : SAVE $60 on Non-Member Early Bird Pricing  (Early Bird Pricing ends October 15th)

Enter Code  ECMAL

Social media monitoring event by Third Tuesday Calgary

Last Wednesday I helped organize a Third Tuesday Calgary event. I wanted to volunteer for an event like this for some time and I’m glad Doug Lacombe asked me if I wanted to participate this time. The idea of the event came from Doug. I was trying my best to execute on it and I think we did well. Here’s a quick summary of what what special about it.

Venue

This time Doug wanted to have a different venue that will allow for more relaxed atmosphere with maybe a few beers flowing around. My search for the venue ended at Metropolitan Grill Mount Royal  Village location.

The private room fit all 50 guests and it was perfect for this type of event. The only problem was that the music in the main area was a bit too loud as the doors into the private room were not closing completely.

Setup

Here’s one of the key things about the event. Only one of 4 presenters was physically in the room. The other three guest speakers joined us over a GoToMeeting setup. We had to ensure the hard-line internet connection to have a stable signal, and it worked out.

Note: if you plan to have a similar setup, make sure you buy a 100-foot Ethernet cable at London Drugs around the corner for that, you’ll be able to return it after you’re done.

We used a Snowball by Blue microphone to talk back at presenters. The venue had a good sound system that got the sound into the room. Video was transferred through an RGB cable, so make sure you either have a Mac with adapter or your PC has RGB input.

We started with a quick intro by Doug (to the Third Tuesday Calgary) and myself (to the idea, agenda and speakers). Then each presenter took 15 mins to do a quick demo of their product. Once each speaker was done I transferred to the next one.

Speakers

We were fortunate that some of the leaders in the industry of social media monitoring were presenting. Among presenters were Radian6, Post Rank and Sysomos. Although these products go the entire social media monitoring circle (Listen, Analyze, Engage, Monitor), we wanted to focus on Listening primarily, so most of the presentations were about ways the product is able to listen.

I was speaker #4 and concluded with a quick review of how one can setup a social media / web monitor using Google Reader. It was definitely a budget solution to monitor social web comparing to the leading products, but I believe that Google Reader is a great place to start you social media monitoring efforts. After my presentation I committed to prepare a visual guide on how to monitor the web, so the guide is coming up into the Online marketing resources section.

Value

The most important thing about such events is if they deliver value to its participants (both speakers and the audience) in balanced way. I hope this one has achieved a certain level of that.

Audience was presented with some of the best social media monitoring products out there. Now they can schedule a personal demo with any or all of these vendors, and hopefully make a better decision on selecting the product.

Presenters, of course, got exposure to 50 potential clients in Calgary. However, I really hope we continue engaging the vendors with our audience even after the event. The first idea offered by Doug is that we encourage the audience to ask questions through the Meetup.com and the vendors will address these questions.

In conclusion

In the end, the preps took us about 1.5 months and I think it was well worth it. I hope I see you at Third Tuesday Calgary events in the future. Here’s the Social media monitoring deck from the event:

Western Sponsorship Congress Oct 26 – 27 Calgary!

The Western Sponsorship Congress™ provides professional development and networking opportunities that have focus on a range of sponsorship related topics from inventory development, prospecting, branding, designing proposals, technology, communications, case studies and insights from properties and corporate sponsors.

This two day conference is one of the largest sponsorship focused events in Canada.

Over 200 delegates and speakers will be in attendance. Attendees represent a cross section of corporations and small businesses that invest in sponsorship, non-profits and charities, sports organizations (professional and amateur), all levels of government and advertising, communications, public relations and sponsorship agencies.

Keynote 1 Presentation – The Decade Unfolds – A Review of 2010 and Look to 2011- Brent Barootes, Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists™

Keynote 2 Presentation – Guerrilla Marketing – How to Activate Sponsors and Drive Traffic for Your Event- Orvel Ray Wilson CSP, The Guerrilla Group Inc.

Interactive Panel Discussion – Five Minute Pitch™

Interactive Panel Discussion – Discovery Session

For more info on the #WSCongress visit: www.sponsorshipcongress.ca