In many ways, conferences are a labour of love.
There is an awful lot of work involved, dozens of balls in the air at the same time, speakers to invite, venues to be secured, etc. At the end of the day, it is rewarding to see everything come together, particularly when you’re organizing a first-time event.
This has struck me over the past few weeks as we have put the final touches on mesh Edmonton, which happens on Oct. 4. As the second leg of a three-stop tour in Western Canada (along with Calgary, which happened in June, and Vancouver, which happens Dec. 5), Edmonton is a market with a vibrant digital community that mesh is excited to embrace.
Over the past few months, we’ve reached out to lots of individuals, companies and associations to get a lay of the land, put together programming, identify potential speakers, and establish partnerships. It has taken a lot of time and effort but it is great to see things come together.
While I’m biased, I have to say the speaker line-up for mesh Edmonton looks great. We’ve got Ali Asaria, founder and CEO with Well.ca, kicking things off with a discussion on how Well went from a scrappy startup to Canada’s leading beauty and health e-commerce sites.
There’s a terrific entrepreneurs panel featuring Jevon MacDonald, Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana and Maura Rodgers that will provide real-world insight about how to create, operate, grow and finance a start-up.
For anyone interested in how social media happens tactically on a day-to-day basis, Allyson Simpson (Osum Oil Sands), Scott Walker (HootSuite) and Doug van Spronsen (DDB Canada) will shed light on what happens.
Another panel features Ashley Casovan and Mack Male, who will talk about open data and the impact it is having on how government operates and, as important, how citizens are getting more involved and engaged with government.
There is growing interest in how the real-time digital landscape is affecting crisis communications so there is bound to be great advice from a panel that features Christina Rontynen from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers).
And last – but certainly least – we end the day with a panel about game design featuring Owen Brierley talking with Victor Rubba (Fluik Entertainment), Jason Suriano (Rocketfuel Games) and Patrick Weekes (Bioware)
With a week to go, there are a few things that still need to get done but we’re ready for takeoff!
To purchase tickets for the event, which happens at the Shaw Conference Centre, head on over to our registration site. Early-bird tickets can be purchased for $239.
