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May 13

Five Reasons to Attend mesh ’12

By mesh conference mesh12

With mesh just around the corner – May 23/24 to be exact – it’s an interesting time to take a deep breath and look back at how things came together this year.

As you may have noticed, we changed the format this year based on the idea a refresh would give us a chance to experiment with some new things and offer attendees different wrinkles. At the same time, we’ve kept much of what has made mesh so good – the networking, the opportunity to engage and participate in inspiring conversations, and opportunities to talk with speakers.

Here are five reasons why we think people should attend mesh ’12.

1. As one of Canada’s leading digital conferences, it is a great opportunity to not only see engaged and thought provoking speakers but gather with peers from a wide variety of industries to catch up, compare notes and meet new people. mesh has always been about giving people exposure to new ideas, trends and people, and it’s one of the things that makes mesh work so well.

2. We’ve got another slate of great speakers from around the world. People such as Dave Winer, David Weinberger, Rebecca MacKinnon, Clay Johnson, Dr. Mike Evans, Bruno Morency, Brian Halligan, Max Shron, Suresh Doss, D.J. Patil, Jon Lax and Zane Kaplansky provide mesh with a broad and, we think, unique group of speakers offering different slants on how the Web continues to have a huge impact on how we live, work and play.

3. The new format features a day and a half of single-stream programming in which all attendees gather in the main auditorium. At the same time, we’re offering a variety of formats: there are the fireside chats that have worked so well in the past, there are small panels (e.g. education), and we’ve introduced a new vehicle – the vignette – which are 20-minute mini-presentations focused on topics such as medicine, robotics and books. In the afternoon of May 24, there are workshops that have been a staple of mesh.

4. A return to our roots is a new hosted scholarship program for startups that lets 25 entrepreneurs attend mesh for free. All they have to do in return is have a few short meetings with our partners, Ernst & Young and Microsoft. We’re delighted to have received such an enthusiastic reception from startups. Meanwhile, we have a startup round-table happening on May 24 that will feature entrepreneurs providing real-world insight into what it’s like to launch, operate and grow a startup.

5. Finally, there’s the opportunity for attendees to open themselves up to new ideas. In our multi-tasking, time-strapped world, there aren’t as many windows as there should be to reflect, think, digest new thoughts, engage in conversation and be inspired to embrace new approaches professionally and personally. mesh gives you all that and more. While two days can seem like a big commitment, it’s a great investment…and for those of you who still need to work, there’s tons of free Wi-Fi.

So, join us on May 23 and 24 at the Allstream Centre in Toronto. Tickets can be purchased here.

May 09

Love0

Speaker spotlight: David Weinberger

By mesh conference Uncategorized

If there was a seminal moment when the principles of the consumer-focused, crowdsourced Web 2.0 all came together, it was probably the publication of a book called The Cluetrain Manifesto in 2000. One of the book’s co-authors was David Weinberger, a senior researcher with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and a visionary thinker about the web and how it is changing our lives. We’re really pleased to have him as a keynote speaker at mesh 2012.

In addition to co-writing The Cluetrain Manifesto, David has also written several other books about the impact of the web and digital networks, including Everything Is Miscellaneous and Small Pieces, Loosely Joined. His latest book, Too Big To Know, is a thoughtful examination of how human knowledge is being fundamentally altered by the web — mostly for the better.

One interesting footnote: while he may be attached to Harvard now, David also has some strong ties to Toronto — it’s where he got his doctorate in philosophy, from the University of Toronto (his dissertation was on Heidegger, in case you were wondering) And we are delighted to welcome him back to the city to join us in a discussion of open science and the future of human knowledge at mesh 2012.

Tickets for mesh, which happens on May 23 and 24 at the Allstream Centre, can be purchased here – regular tickets are $679, while student tickets are $99.

May 01

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Speaker Spotlight: Heather Leson, Ushahidi

By mesh conference mesh12

The Web has become an increasingly powerful tool for political, community and social activism, driving national movements such as the Arab Spring movement, and grassroots activity.

One of the most interesting organizations involved in supporting, encouraging and enabling political and community activism is Ushahidi, a non-profit tech company that specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping.

Ushahidi was originally launched as a Web site that helped to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. The Website, which now has more than 45,000 users in Kenya, made it clear there was a need for a platform that could help other people around the world.

At mesh on May 23, we’re excited to have Heather Leson, Ushahidi’s Director of Community Engagement, doing a presentation on how mapping stories is an important tool to connect citizen data and open data to create maps for election monitoring, crisis/emergency response, civil society actions and social protest. Heather will talk about how mapping stories should be also be embraced in Canada.

Tickets for mesh, which happens on May 23 and 24 at the Allstream Centre, can be purchased here – regular tickets are $679, while student tickets are $99.