We are working towards mesh08 and are asking for your input. What do you want to see? Who would you want to hear from?

See the full post on the mesh blog, and leave a comment with your thoughts there.

 

At long last, mesh 07 is Go for take-off. And what an event it is looking to be. When Mike, Mathew, Rob, Mark and I decided to do this for the first time last year, our sincerest wish was to create a venue that would cast some light on "What's next online?" Well, It looks like we are getting that done.

Our keynotes are stellar: Richard Edelman, Jim Buckmaster, Michael Arrington, Tom Williams and Austin Hill each bring their own viewpoints and experience to "What's next online."

Our Presenting Sponsors are stellar: Windows Live, Edelman, Yahoo! and JLA Venture Partners have humbled us with their support, and we are very thankful.

Our Supporting Sponsors are also an illustrious group: eBay, ITAC, Expedia.ca, Canada News Wire, gwp brandengineering, Cisco, Chapters-Indigo.ca, MaRS and MCC Planners have all said that this is an event that matters. Thank you.

We are still working on the rest of our content and schedule, but we are really excited about how it's shaping up. Mark, Mathew, Rob and Mike have more, as does Mathew on the mesh blog.

All that's missing is you.

Register now.

In the past two weeks (or so) I've done interviews with PROFIT Magazine, Canadian Business and VISA's Small Business Resource website. Topic? Broadly speaking, Web 2.0 or elements of it and what the heck it's all about. That's right. It's November 2006, and leading Canadian publications (or more specifically, their Editors) are just now starting to ask "Soooo, what's this Web 2.0 thing?" To which some might say "Where've you been the past 4 years?" But, if you believe this stat from Zoomerang reported by BusinessWeek that 79% of marketers have never even heard the term Web 2.0, you'd be getting closer to the truth.

All of the "is Web 2.0 over and done with?" chattering is simply completely right. If the Regular Folk are now tweaking to it, Web 2.0 as The Next Big Thing simply has to be close to having run it's course, and the bleeding edgers had better get on with figuring out the NEXT Next Big Thing. For the rest of us? Well, let's get ready for the party to...start.

What, you say? But Stuie, you just said it's over. Yup. As New Shiny Orb, it is close to done. But, as Real Thing it might be just starting. And zowie that could be big.

I mean, c'mon, remember when people used to talk about "e-commerce" as a special thing? I used to chuckle then - it's not like people ever called having a call centre "phone commerce" or a store "brick commerce" - it was just new and the leading edgers got there first. Eventually, most people understood that these were all just part of "commerce" and got over it. Bank machines, DVD players, mobile phones, digital cameras. Categories mature and eventually go mass. And maybe we are seeing the start of that happening here, too. If so, that means that the real innovation (and at scale, maybe, too) and real money are still ahead of us.

Web 2.0 won't be a New Shiny Orb indefinitely, just like nothing ever is. Elements of it will just become part of how stuff is done. Big companies and governments will start to use parts of it (like mashups, web services, blogs and wikis), folks who never joined the computer club will find themselves using elements of it without realizing (like adding a comment, reading a user generated review or sharing a photo), and yet another wave of technological change will have washed over us.

Future users will likely never know that there ever was something called Web 2.0, but their lives will be better for it anyway. And that's just fine, I think. It's not like it's anything new.

 

For any of you who may have been keeping track, it took us about 6 months to get our communal acts together and get the keynote podcasts from mesh06 up for public consumption (despite enormous effort by Rob, Mathew and Mike). So this time, just as bad? Not a chance, because we called in a hired gun by the name of Leesa Barnes, the podcasting Queen from Caprica Interactive Marketing who not only did a great job interviewing people at the event, but managed to get them to us barely a few days later. And now, you can listen to what some of the people at the Irish Embassy had to say over on the mesh blog.

Thanks to Mathew for actually doing the post.

 

As Rob Hyndman and Austin Hill mentioned yesterday, they, together with David Crow and myself are spinning up StartUp Camp here in Toronto. The concept is to apply the unconference concept to the business side of the startup world, as the StartUp Camp folks in the US have done so successfully.

It's all TBD at this point, but the place to keep tabs on developments is the wiki. If you have startup aspirations, plan to be a part of it.

Also, a reminder that the mesh meetup goes off next Wednesday, November 15th, at the Irish Embassy pub in Toronto. Let's us know you are coming via the event page on Upcoming and plan to be there for a general mix and mingle starting at around 6pm.

The Embassy is located at the northeast corner of Yonge and Wellington, in downtown Toronto. Google map here.

Hope to see you there next week.

Tags: mesh07, startup camp

It's not often that you can say "back by popular demand" and mean it, but in this case that's absolutely true. Your feedback (and our enjoyment, frankly) was so all positive that we are doing it again. mesh is coming back, next Spring, here in Toronto.

More details are to come, but in the meantime please save the dates and plan to join us. Registration (which we are working hard at keeping affordable) and keynotes will be announced soon.

In the mesh spirit, we are also hosting a meet-up after 6pm on November 15th at the Irish Embassy Pub in Toronto, for anyone involved in the online technology, media, financing or any other vaguely connected web-type. Or if you like Guinness :) It's just a chance to get together and share some web-by conversation.

Check out the mesh blog for more, including links to the podcasts of last year's keynotes (finally...I know, I know) and more from Rob, Mike, Mark and Mathew.

And see you at mesh07.

Tags: mesh, mesh07

I'm on with Leo and Amber doing "Inside the Net" tonight. It was great. Thanks, you two.

Tags: mesh06

I'm still both tired and buzzed from mesh, but I wanted to put some cogent thoughts out there, while they're still fresh, before coming with a bigger, deeper thing.

I think that the key take away for me is in those four words inside the logo up there. When we sat down and came up with the idea for this thing, and then went through the whole process of deciding what we wanted to "be," those four words best summed it up: mesh, connect, share and inspire. Help shine a light towards the future, and begin to create a platform to showcase the best ideas.And here in Canada, Toronto specifically.

Take a look at that logo and let the words rattle around inside you a bit. Then,  imagine what an event represented by that would look like. Got that picture?

Well, I think if you were there on Monday and Tuesday of this week, you'd say that's what we did. It feels damn good.

Tags: mesh06

Posting via 'berry, but just had a Queen's student, Alexandra Skey, say "thanks" for the fact that we did a student deal. She is having a wonderful time and getting a lot out of it.

That really means a lot.

Maybe next time, we can offer more student tix (heyyyyy, sponsors :-)).

It's today. Rock 'n' roll :-)

Thanks for your continued interest in snagging a ducat, but we are really, really done. No spots remain, no tickets at the door, no, uh, nothing.

Thanks to all for your incredible support. See those of you who are registered tomorrow.

Tags: mesh06tags, web2.0, conference, toronto

We are done, as of a few minutes ago. Thanks to all - sponsors, speakers, suppliers and participants.

I just posted a whack of niggly details about mesh, this coming Monday and Tuesday at MaRS in Toronto. Check it out, and if you haven't done so, register now.

The old "book early to avoid disappointment" adage actually applies here. It's selling very quickly, with just a handful of spots remaining - don't miss out.

Tags: mesh06tags, web2.0, conference, toronto

For the past 50 or more years, advertising has been based on one basic concept: yelling at people via the television, works. You could get enough of them in one place, nice and passive, and if you delivered the right message enough times you could create awareness. From that (and I simplify) awareness led to trial, trial led to preference, preference led to loyalty. At the heart of this process were the assumptions that (a) you could get enough people in one place to allow for scale and (b) the message was for the marketer to control.

Fast forward to 2006, and that past starts to feel like a trip to Never-never Land. Companies are spending 50% or more of their ad dollars on things like paid search, the money that's left is being cast across extremely fragmented markets, PVRs and Tivo are at long last making commercial-skipping "Me TV" a reality in a way that VCRs never really did.

Clearly, for marketers with a job to do and agencies and networks who would like to keep their jobs, this is a challenge of the first order. So what is the answer?

As we sit here today, I don't think anybody knows. People talk about micro-tactics and multiple small efforts, but how does that work when you need to reach tens-of-millions of people? This is not clear. You hear about "conversations" being important, but how do you control your message in that environment? Feels to me that you just don't. And on top of that, you have an agency and broadcast community that seems to want to wish these changes away and keep doing what they have always done. I've seen *that* movie: travel industry in around 1998, anyone?

At mesh we are tackling these topics with some of the smartest people in the field, and today Mathew, Rob, Mark are joining the discussion, too. I have a bit of a different take on the mesh blog, and Mike has a good post about how we are putting these principles to work promoting the conference.

If you care about this topic, you can't afford not to be at mesh. Register today.

Tags: marketing, media, mesh06tags, web2.0

I spent the afternoon with a few hundred other Canadian digi-types at the first-ever  Sympatico-msn Digital Ad Summit. First off, props to those mesh-sponsoring msn kids for pulling off a very strong event (nice work, Patrick - and thanks for the invite) and for attracting a very tech-savvy crowd. As a co-founder of mesh, and other big events in past lives, I have a deep appreciation of the, um, challenges of event production and this one came off very well.

Also kudos for presenting a very strong line-up, though I must say that Bob Garfield was a disappointment. I was actually really looking forward to hearing the whole Chaos Theory he espouses (and I subscribe to) regarding the implications of the turmoil in mass media, broadcasting and advertising. Unfortunately, he likely should have been stopped at the border. His talk, while rich in good stuff, was overshadowed by a condescending tone, out-of-touch Canada vs. US quips and punch lines which fell tortilla-flat. He seemed tremendously out of touch with the fact that his audience were among the most tech with-it folks in Canada. As opposed to those in, oh I don't know, North Korea, who might have been more likely to marvel at his digi-smart pronouncements. Shame.

That said, Steve Rubel kicked it (he's back in 2 weeks at mesh) as did Jeff Cole (whom my wife and I will have the pleasure of dining with tomorrow night. Oh boy, talking 'net future with the man presiding over all that data, while enjoying a nice bottle of Rioja? I'm like a kid with candy :-)). The gentleman from France who discussed mobile and media was fascinating, and while they are clearly miles ahead over there, I still can't get past thinking that we are at least three years away from it really taking off here.

Mark was there with me and shares his thoughts on Cole's talk. In all,  it was a great and thought-provoking event.

Tags: msn, sympatico, steverubel, jeffcole, bobgarfield, mesh06tags

One of the things we will be exploring at mesh is the impact that social media and the interaction that web 2.0 is enabling is having on politics and society.

In the US, for instance, political blogs have almost become mainstream, with some sporting weekly reach and unique visitors numbers which exceed all but a handful of major newspapers. The Huffington Post, Captain's Quarters...the list goes on and on, and the influence grows.

Not to mention the role that the web has played in political party politics Stateside. Dean for America, (now Democracy for America) Howard Dean's site during his last, ill-fated run for the Democratic nomination, has become viewed as the model for how to use the web efficiently for engagement and fund-raising. At it's peak, people were *paying*  to watch Dean eat a hotdog. Yup, really.

Canada is far away from that. In fact, you could say that there is huge evidence that Canadian political parties, steeped in senior back-room leadership who still might well have people print their emails for heaven's sake, are far out of that loop, despite superficial attempts to look like they aren't. Personally, I think unless that changes, they will have their communal butts handed to them online within two years.

In any event, politics and society is up for discussion at mesh. I have a post up on the mesh blog, and Rob Hyndman who is running that stream has some thoughts here. Mark and Mathew  also chime in. Mike just added a nice post about how his Dad is prime for taking his political thoughts online.

Hope to continue the conversation with you at mesh.

Tags: mesh06tags, politics, web2.0, blogging

Well, maybe not. But certainly worth aiming for, no? At least that's the hope we have for mesh, the little shin-dig me'n the boys are pulling together for mid May here in Toronto. I am frankly pleased to see some pushback from Euan Semple on the whole unconference meme that has been floating around of late. Not to say that an unconference is a bad idea, but rather that saying it is the only way is as bad as saying *anything* is the only way.

Mathew seems to be of the same view, and Mark has a nice laundry list of what he's like to see. We are trying for a lot of that. My comment on the mesh blog here. Also, seems that mesh-er to-be Stowe Boyd is in the Euan camp (or should that be "Camp" as in "XxxxCamp"?).

Us? Well, we are trying for balance and thoughtfulness, being structured enough for newbies to be able to "get it" while being flexible and conversational enough to be engaging.

Will it be a spectacular train wreck? Hope not.

Technorati tags: mesh06links, web2.0, conference

I just wrote the following over on the mesh blog. I sort of liked it, so I thought I'd add it here, too:

Lots of talk today about whether money can be made from blogging, with the WSJ publishing a story on it (just the type of story to get the often-inward-looking blogosphere fired into a navel gazing frenzy. But I digress :-)).

I guess it sort of depends on who and how you ask, right? I mean, if you were to ask many of the folks coming to speak at mesh, who happen to blog, whether "blogging makes money" many of them would likely say "Not directly, but indirectly? You better believe it."

I mean, think of the untold millions spent on traditional advertising and PR to create just the type of profile and voice that some people have built for themselves and their businesses via blogging and social media. How can you tally the value of creating your own soapbox? In traditional media, I guess overall marketing efficiency metrics are viewed as the most important gauge of the effectveness of spend, but can one really say, categorically, that traditional PR "makes money"? It's tough. But when put in that context? Wow, blogging "makes money" in spades.

Does it do so directly? Not often. Just like only PR practicitioners, by a tight definition, are the only ones who directly "make money" from PR. But indirectly? Bloggers, their organizations and PR firms Clients, without question.

That's the way to look at it, I think.

Dave Winer comments here, mesh speaker Paul Kedrosky here, and mesh speaker Scott Karp here. Mark thinks aloud here, Mathew has some great points here.

Certainly food for discussion in the marketing and PR streams at mesh.

Technorati tags: blogging, wsj, web2.0, mesh06links

From the look of most blog trackers today, you'd think that Larry and Sergei had finally developed the ability to walk on water and part the seas. Um, no, though they have launched an online Calendar tool which Om says is "quite capable." But, as my friend John Battelle says, the real deal here is that Calendar is further evidence of the portal-ization of Da GOOG. It's all coming together: The Pack, Base, Earth, Local, Google Finance, Google Real Estate. And, dare I say that my take on the aol deal is further evidence, too. Google needs to diversify revenue streams, and be in a position to hoover up more of the ad dollars that are heading their way as mass media continues to falter.

So I doubt that Calendar is The Answer, but it is part of the puzzle being solved before our eyes.

Mark Evans' thoughts ("part of a bigger picture") here, Steve Rubel's ("it's great") here.

Amen and hallelujah, I say.

Update: Paul Kedrosky has a good highlight/lowlight roundup here.

Updated Gratuitous plug: Om and Steve and Paul are all keynoting at mesh, Canada's next-generation web conference, of which I am a co-founder.

Technorati tags: google, calendar, mesh06links

Just blogged about this cool thing we are doing at mesh. Each day, we will have three people take to the stage for five minutes each, to talk about the cool thing they are doing, pitch for VC money - whatever. All the details here.

Mathew blogs it here, Mike here, Mark here.

You don't want to miss this. If you haven't done so, register today.

Technorati tags: mesh06links, web 2.0, conference, toronto

I just blogged about us selecting The Delta Chelsea as Host Hotel for mesh. Renovated rooms, WiFi available, great location near MaRS. All details here. Mathew blogs it here and Mark here. Let's mesh...

Technorati tags: mesh06links

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