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Welcome to meshmarketing ’10!

By mesh news, meshmarketing

Last year, we took a major step forward with the launch of meshmarketing, a one-day event focused on providing engaging, hands-on and stuff-you-can-use sessions about the fast-changing digital marketing landscape. It was a major success with lots of terrific feedback about the workshops and panels.

So, we’re really excited to pull the covers of meshmarketing ’10. meshmarketing is happening on November 17, 2010 in downtown Toronto. (We’ll announce the location soon.) Tickets are $489 (plus HST) before Sept. 17, and $539 afterwards. There are also 50 student tickets for $99 each (plus HST). And, of course, we’ll have a social afterwards. Tickets can be purchased here.

While we’re keeping the same focus and approach, there are some wrinkles that we think are going to make meshmarketing even better.

First, we’ve partnered with Trina Boos, who has been running the successful Ad Lounge events. Trina delivers terrific insight into the advertising and marketing worlds, as well as a huge community that she has nurtured and built over the past nine years. As meshmarketing’s programming director, Trina is the driving force behind the event’s sessions and and speakers, and we’re overjoyed about her key role within meshmarketing.

Second, we’ve tweaked the programming format. Rather than have a single keynote, we will kick off meshmarketing with two keynotes – Michael Slaby and Marian Salzman – along with a super-presentation by Lee LeFever. Part of the change in format was our excitement about several speakers. Rather than pick only one, we decided to go with a three-pack.

Michael Slaby is executive vice-president and global practice chair of Edelman’s digital practice. Before joining Edelman, he was a technology and new media advisor to the Obama administration where he led operational and long-term planning for technology including web strategy and utilization, and data integration opportunities.

Marian Salzman, one of the world’s top five trend spotters, will offer insights into the future of digital marketing and communications. As a leading communications professional, digital marketer and author, Marian will provide her insight on what’s on the horizon and what we need to know now to prepare.

And for those not familar with Lee LeFever, he (along with his partner and wife, Sachi) are the brains behind the popular Common Craft video series that provides user-friendly insight into technology and technology trends that everyone can understand.

As for the rest of the programming, we’ve got a great line-up of speakers, panels and workshops – everything from the ROI of social media customer and trans-media storytelling to how retailers are using location-based services, and future of social TV. For more details, visit the speaker and schedule page.

meshmarketing tickets can be purchased here. Don’t forget to take advantage of the early-bird special until Sept. 17.

mesh 2010 – Day Two Roundup!

By mesh news, mesh10

The second and last day of #mesh10 has come and gone, and only tweets and photos remain! Hope everyone had a great time at Spice Route last night!

Business Keynote – Scott Thompson

Day Two began with a discussion of the future of money with the President of PayPal, Scott Thompson. Formerly a CTO at Visa, Thompson sees the value in having tech businesses actually be run by people who have hands-on experience in technology. Thompson also stresses the importance of consumer and business partner feedback, saying “if you can measure something, you can improve it.” This seems to have paid off – PayPal serving 84 million consumers internationally in 190 countries!

Scott Thompson with Mike McDerment

Photo Credit: Mike McNulty, as uploaded to media.meshconference.com

Marketing/Communications Keynote – Arvind Rajan

{Disclosure: LinkedIn is an Edelman client}

Up next was Arvind Rajan from LinkedIn to talk about making lasting connections in the professional online space. Rajan gave mesh attendees a crash course in LinkedIn job hunting, saying that a filled-out profile, listing interests, and regular updating are the best ways to attract recruiters. Rajan also piqued the crowd’s interest when he said, “It’s fair to say that we’re looking at ways for users to leverage their LinkedIn network further online.” Looks like there’s much more to come from LinkedIn, especially with the opening of a Canadian office!

Top tweet: @erin_bury: Best quote of #mesh10 from @stuartma while interviewing LinkedIn’s @arajan: “I joined LinkedIn on Monday.”

Check out this video of Arvind Rajan speaking with mesh co-founder Stuart MacDonald

What Businesses Should Really Do with Facebook – Janice Diner

Janice Diner took the stage to talk about how businesses should be using Facebook to engage with their communities. Since Canadians spend an average of 429 minutes on Facebook per month, it’s important for brands to optimize their Facebook utilization. Diner suggests following Facebook’s guiding principles: make it social, keep it simple, optimize for speed and be sure to integrate.

Real-Time and How it Forces Marketers to be Real – David Carroll, Salima Valji and Leigh Himel

Next up was a great panel discussion about real-time marketing that included David Carroll, known for his viral smash hit “United Breaks Guitars” YouTube video. Over eight million views later, he believes that companies should implement a holistic and integrated marketing approach; an approach also mirrored by Valji and Himel. The key take away from the panel is that real-time is about authentic relationship building and transparency.

Photo: http://twitpic.com/1p73gg | Photo Credit: Rob Hyndman, as uploaded to twitpic.

More Excitement!

Speaking of David Carroll – he’s playing “United Breaks Guitars” and other songs from his latest album at Edelman’s mesh10 Wrap Party. For those who miss Dave’s performance tonight, he’ll be at the Duke of Westminster tomorrow night and Edelman Digital invites you to join us for a very sociable evening.

See you at meshMarketing and #mesh11!

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Edelman is a founding sponsor of mesh and proud supporter of Canada’s premier web 2.0 conference. Blog posts and Twitter updates are brought to you by @lauraroni and @melissaretty from Toronto’s @edelmandigital team. Edelman is the largest independently-owned communications firm in the world. For more information, check out Edelman.com