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Wish I Were in Toronto Next Week

Yeah, I've still got Canada on my mind.  Just learned about CaseCamp, an unconference for marketers.  They are pitching a tent in Toronto next week, and here's the lineup of presenters:

1) Globeandmail.com - Engaging the community: Comments and Beyond
Angus Frame, Editor of Globeandmail.com

2) Mobile Marketing for Levis @ Virgin Fest Toronto
Brady Murphy, Managing Partner at Vortex Mobile

3) Treehugger.com - Growing a global online community
Lloyd Alter, Treehugger.com

4) Building compelling identity in social media spaces
Will Pate, Community Evangelist at ConceptShare and co-host of commandN

So far, the CaseCamp folks have organized events only in Canada and Second Life.   Time to do one here in Silicon Valley, where everyone seems to have an opinion but few have access to real case studies.

 

Why Is Canada So Hot?

I just read an interesting statistic: nearly one in four Canadians has a profile in Facebook.  One in four .... I was very surprised to see that, but it does fit with the impressions I collected this week during my first ever visit to Toronto.  As I wrote earlier, Martin Waxman of Pallete PR invited me to speak with his staff, clients and the CPRS about the role of PR in the age of social media.  As is always the case on these speaking tours, I learned at least as much as I "taught."  Big lesson for me is just how tuned-in Canada is to the social media scene.  In short, Canada is hot, and it's got me thinking why. 

When prepping for the visit, I researched the history of media in Canada and learned that Toronto is not just the academic home of Marshall McLuhan (the sixties media theorist that coined the phrases "the medium is the message" and "the global village") but also Harold Innis, one of Canada's most distinguished public intellectuals who spent his middle years writing some of the most  important books on the role that media has played in helping to shape various civilizations.  Innis spent his adult youth trekking across the Canadian terrain studying how the country evolved around the development of key commercial interests (e.g., fur, cod fishing, the Canadian railroad).  His media studies focused on the different and competing "binding" effects that media have had on complex societies.  Were he around today, no doubt he'd be thinking about how social media is diminishing the tyranny of distance that has long challenged Canada.   The social media scene is vibrant in Toronto, and with the work that some of its leading PR and marketing folks are doing -- in addition to Martin and his crew, I got to meet with Joseph Thornley, Michael O'Connor Clarke, Kyle Reid, Collin Douma (Maggie Fox's wildly talented partner at SocialMediaGroup -- if you haven't met this guy yet, you are missing out), Lee Bansil (P&G), and many others -- that scene is helping to bring Canada closer to other parts of the globe.

I'll be back.  But part of me is still there.