mesh conference

Great news for out-of-town mesh-ers. We now have a Host Hotel, The Delta Chelsea in scenic, downtown Toronto. They have given us a great rate for Premier rooms which are newly renovated, have WiFi available, and the hotel is only about a 10-15 minute walk from MaRS. Plus, on Monday evening, we plan to run a shuttle from MaRS to the after-party at The Drake and back to the Delta Chelsea until 10:30pm – on one of those snappy, freakishly-yellow Expedia.ca airport buses, no less. See? I knew starting that up would come in handy one day 😉

Book the Delta directly here with a form on their mesh-ed out special page, or do so by phone.

For those of you looking for something more hip, The Drake has rooms too, though they don’t have many and aren’t handy the venue. Now, if swish is your thing, MaRS has a deal with the Sutton Place Hotel, which includes a limo transfer from the hotel to the venue. Quote code 111mars when reserving.

General heads-up that there are a lot of big events happening in Toronto that week, so book early. And if you haven’t done so yet, register now.

There. Something for everyone.

Now I can stop being The Travel Guy.

Update: Mathew blogs about it here, and Mark here.

It’s finally done. The mesh schedule is finished. We are more than a little pleased with how it’s shaped up. In fact, looking at it, we’d be surprised if there’s a more impressive array of people to be assembled on this topic anywhere in North America this year.

We have pided the days into two streams per day, with Journalism and Politics & Society on May 15th, and then Business Start-up & Financing, and Marketing & PR on May 16th. We have everybody-attends conversations and seminars to kick off each day and stream, and then we break into concurrent smaller group sessions and workshops. We’ve also tried to give time for meeting each other, getting online etc. And there will be a social on Monday, and we are working on an after-party, too.

But back to the schedule. There’s a lot of content here, folks. Some highlights (and there are many) include:

• A political blogging session featuring Warren Kinsella, Andrew Coyne, Ed Morrisey and Paul Wells.

• A start-up vs. VC throw-down featuring Jason “I don’t need your stinkin’ cash” Fried and Rick “how do we re-invent the VC business?” Segal.

• A discussion around Corporate blogging featuring Jen Evans, Tara Hunt, Debbie Weil and Jeremy Wright. Debbie and Jeremy wrote the books on this stuff. Literally.

• A discussion on the future of the newspaper business, featuring Tomer Strolight, Angus Frame and Jordan Banks.

• A conversation about next-generation brand building with Yours Truly, Jonathan Erlich, Jim Coudal and Bruce Philp.
• A session on creating viable next-generation web businesses, with Leila Boujnane, Albert Lai, Mike McDerment and Malgosia Green.

And the list goes on. Future thinking about PR, How-to’s about Podcasting, What’s it mean for not-for-profit and online activism, Help for Marketing in a Post-Mass Market world…

It’s dense, deep and broad all at the same time. So check it out, and come.

Hey! mesh is mentioned on today’s vlog on rocketboom (hat tip to Amber). But don’t confuse mesh with the pimp rims thing – that’s somebody else :-).