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Oct 19

meshwest Vancouver: The Standup Panel

By mesh conference meshwest

For all the talk about startups and how to establish, finance and grow them, what about companies that have moved to the next stage – something we describe as a “standup” because after establishing themselves as businesses, they are ready to go to the next stage.

To dig into the standup and what’s required to take it to the next level, we’ve put together a panel of entrepreneurs how have been there done that, or have been and are doing that.

The panel, moderated by Stuart MacDonald, includes Erik Blachford from Technology Crossover Ventures, who was a key player in the growth of Expedia. Since 1995, Erik has been active within the startup world as an advisor, investor and entrepreneur.

Carl Schmidt from Unbounce will provide key insight into what’s involved in running a fast-growing business. For people not familiar with Vancouver-based Unbounce, it is a self-served hosted product that lets marketers build, publish and test landing pages without IT or software.

Our third speaker is Jason Bailey, who bootstrapped Super Rewards from no revenue to a $100-million run rate before it was acquired by Adknowledge, one of the largest online ad marketplaces. A founder and principal with GrowLab, Jason has invested in and is mentoring many local companies including DES Games, Compass Engine, PayPhone App, CrowdFanatic, and OverInteractive Media.

Early-bird tickets for meshwest can be purchased now for $239, while student tickets are available for $49.

Oct 17

Love0

mesh Vancouver keynote: Stewart Butterfield

By mesh conference meshwest

Has it really been nearly seven years since Flickr was acquired by Yahoo!? At the time, it was one of the largest acquisitions of a Canadian online company, thrusting the spotlight on its co-founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake

Butterfield, who stayed with Flickr until 2009, has been working on a number of projects, as well as speaking about design and technology. He also co-founded Tiny Speck, a startup that is “building something enormous…that will blow your minds”. Tiny Speck’s first product, a multi-player online game called Glitch, launched last month. (see the video below.)

“”We wanted to make something very specific that hadn’t been made before,” Butterfield told the Guardian after Glitch made its debut. “Because it’s played in the browser, people superficially think of social games and expect a particular dynamic both in terms of how it makes money, and the experience of playing it. But people are playing live and synchronously with each other, and the monetization mechanics aren’t based around speeding up the gameplay in exchange for real-world currency.”

Given Butterfield’s involvement with Flickr, which was based in Vancouver, and how games are becoming increasingly more popular online, having Butterfield as mesh Vancouver’s keynote speaker seemed like a natural choice.

We’ll be interested in getting his view on online games, design, social media and how the world of online photography has changed over the past few years given the rise of new players such as Instagram.

Here’s where you can see the schedule and speakers for mesh Vancouver. Early-bird tickets for the one-day event are $239 until Nov. 4.

Oct 14

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meshmarketing keynote: Greg Hounslow

By mesh conference meshmarketing

When we were looking at keynote speakers for meshmarketing, Greg Hounslow from WestJet jumped into the spotlight based on how the Calgary-based airline has used social media to build a vibrant and engaged community and extend its strong customer service reputation.

WestJet’s pro-active use of social media was illustrated in the wake of a deadly swamp gas explosion at a Mexican resort.

To communicate with customers in Mexico, WestJet used its Facebook Page and Twitter to provide information, updates and contact information. What was interesting was that WestJet didn’t issue any press releases.

Here’s where to purchase tickets to meshmarketing, which happens on Nov. 15 at the Allstream Centre in Toronto. Early-bird tickets are $489, a $100 discount.

Links:

– WestJet’s Web czar has customers a-Twitter (Globe & Mail)

– How to Win with an Airline Twitter Strategy (TNooz)

– Greg Hounslow (Twitter), (LinkedIn)