meshwest Archives - Page 2 of 5

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.

Sep 26

Love0

mesh Edmonton: Ready for Takeoff!

By mesh conference meshwest

In many ways, conferences are a labour of love.

There is an awful lot of work involved, dozens of balls in the air at the same time, speakers to invite, venues to be secured, etc. At the end of the day, it is rewarding to see everything come together, particularly when you’re organizing a first-time event.

This has struck me over the past few weeks as we have put the final touches on mesh Edmonton, which happens on Oct. 4. As the second leg of a three-stop tour in Western Canada (along with Calgary, which happened in June, and Vancouver, which happens Dec. 5), Edmonton is a market with a vibrant digital community that mesh is excited to embrace.

Over the past few months, we’ve reached out to lots of individuals, companies and associations to get a lay of the land, put together programming, identify potential speakers, and establish partnerships. It has taken a lot of time and effort but it is great to see things come together.

While I’m biased, I have to say the speaker line-up for mesh Edmonton looks great. We’ve got Ali Asaria, founder and CEO with Well.ca, kicking things off with a discussion on how Well went from a scrappy startup to Canada’s leading beauty and health e-commerce sites.

There’s a terrific entrepreneurs panel featuring Jevon MacDonald, Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana and Maura Rodgers that will provide real-world insight about how to create, operate, grow and finance a start-up.

For anyone interested in how social media happens tactically on a day-to-day basis, Allyson Simpson (Osum Oil Sands), Scott Walker (HootSuite) and Doug van Spronsen (DDB Canada) will shed light on what happens.

Another panel features Ashley Casovan and Mack Male, who will talk about open data and the impact it is having on how government operates and, as important, how citizens are getting more involved and engaged with government.

There is growing interest in how the real-time digital landscape is affecting crisis communications so there is bound to be great advice from a panel that features Christina Rontynen from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers).

And last – but certainly least – we end the day with a panel about game design featuring Owen Brierley talking with Victor Rubba (Fluik Entertainment), Jason Suriano (Rocketfuel Games) and Patrick Weekes (Bioware)

With a week to go, there are a few things that still need to get done but we’re ready for takeoff!

To purchase tickets for the event, which happens at the Shaw Conference Centre, head on over to our registration site. Early-bird tickets can be purchased for $239.