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Oct 19

meshmarketing speaker spotlight: David Usher

By mesh conference meshmarketing

meshmarketing David Usher is not only a popular musician but an entrepreneur and savvy user of social media. We’re excited David will be our closing keynote speaker at meshmarketing. With a hectic schedule in the wake of his album, Last Day on Earth, I got a chance to speak with David about his keynote.

What’s the theme of your presentation?

It really talks how to re-engage creativity. A lot of it is about the ideas as we go through life, and how curiosity tends to get worn down. The beginning point is remembering you’re a curious being. It goes through the basic elements of the creative process. What are the steps? Creativity is a learnable, repeatable and transferrable process. Anyone can learn to be more creative. Once you learn the process of creativity, you can use the process over and over in many different areas and disciplines in your life.

How does this reflect your personal experiences?

Right now, what I have found in my own life and everyone surrounding me is the world is in transition and personal cycles and business cycles are so much faster. It not just about being more creative to make better products and services, but being creative because you have to adopt an attitude of change. You are in a constant state of motion and change, and that’s the new normal for everyone whereas before we could be the best locally and that was fine. Now, we are competing on a global scale so we need to open up and branch out.

What’s new in your world these days?

The newest thing is I have finished building and launching is Artists for Amnesty. Artists give us songs and we ask their fans to help spread the world about social justice. We are in the beta phase. We launched a couple weeks ago. I’m also writing for the Huffington Post and working on a TV show.

Tickets for meshmarketing are on sale for $299, while student tickets are $49.

Oct 16

Love0

Keynote Spotlight: Lee Odden

By mesh conference meshmarketing

Once in awhile, you come across a blogger that resonates because their posts consistently deliver valuable insight. A great example is Lee Odden, who writes about content marketing, search and social media on the Top Rank Marketing blog.

Lee, the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing agency in Minneapolis, is also the author of “Optimize“, which is a must-read for anyone working in the digital marketing space.

When we were looking for speakers for meshmarketing, Lee was an obvious choice given the growing interest in the intersection between search, social and content. So, it goes without saying we’re delighted he’ll be kicking off meshmarketing on Nov. 7.

A key part of Lee’s approach is the importance of integration so all parts of a business – customer service, marketing and sales – are collaborating and sharing ideas to help audiences discover information, consume it, and take action.

Lee’s not only one of the leading digital marketing voices but his presentations are engaging, informative and bound to give you plenty of food for thought.

Tickets for meshmarketing, which takes place at the Toronto Reference Library, are still available for $299 ($70 off the regular price). Student tickets are $49. Here’s the schedule.

Oct 15

Love0

We’ll Miss You, Michael O’Connor Clarke

By mesh conference mesh12

As much as mesh is a conference, it’s also a community that has been nurtured over the past six years.

While we organize things behind the scenes, mesh has thrived because of the people who speak, attend and support it. Without people committing themselves to mesh, it probably wouldn’t exist.

Sadly, we lost a member of the mesh community as Michael O’Connor Clarke passed away yesterday, losing his battle with the esophagael cancer.

Michael was one of those people who made mesh mesh. With his charm, wit, knowledge and savviness, Michael was one of our go-to people when we needed someone to moderate a panel or make a presentation.

At last year’s mesh, Michael’s presentation on social media was one of the biggest hits. I tried to get into his presentation a few minutes late but the room was already stand-room-only.

So I stood in the back for a few minutes, and watched Michael have the entire audience in the palm of his hand with not only the slides on the screen but his style, panache and the fact this guy really, really knew he stuff.

Michael was one of those speakers who had “it”, and made anyone else who made presentations wonder how they could strive to be better. In many ways, Michael was one of a kind who happily jumped on every chance to get on stage.

I’ve known Michael for more than a decade when he was in PR and I was a reporter. Most recently, I got a chance to work with Michael when he was head of digital and social media for Media Profile. When I got to see Michael in action, I got a real appreciate for his enthusiasm, expertise, insight and hunger to keep learning and contributing.

Toronto’s PR, digital and social media communities have suffered a huge and tragic loss. It already doesn’t seem the same already.

Our thoughts are with Michael’s family.