Mark Evans is a co-founder of mesh conference, which is in its ninth year, and will be held in Toronto on May 27-28.
Roving reporter, Martin Waxman, recently caught up with him.
For the full article and link to audio click here!
He began the conversation by talking about the biggest surprises Mark has seen since the conference started.
And, as a former journalist, Martin wanted to know what’s been the biggest change in media since he was writing, and why pitches from PR professionals are still terrible.
Mark handles the latter question extremely well, while providing some great feedback on the things PR pros should consider, even with the immense amount of pressure we face from clients.
They talk about the media stream at mesh, which is the brain child and passion of Matthew Ingram, about the trend toward the new media companies introducing newswires to capture citizen journalists, and the y talk about the conference.
What’s most interesting (as I listened to the interview) is Mark’s take on Neil Harbisson, Mark Little, and Stewart Butterfield.
You’ll find what he has to say about each of these speakers really interesting. He talks about how Neil’s cyborg activism will help you think differently about how you live your life and how you do your job because it gives you a different perspective. How Mark, with the help of Storyful – the company he founded – is standing in the social “grayness” to help us determine what is actually news and what is not. And how Stewart salvaged a business from complete failure by doing a strategic pivot.
It’s a good episode you don’t want to miss!
Disclosure: Thornley Fallis is helping out on the PR for this year’s mesh conference.
With just under a month before the ninth mesh conference kicks off in Toronto, May 27 and 28, the organizers announced the latest round of outstanding keynotes and presenters at this year’s event:
Neil Harbison redefines wearable tech, literally. Neil is a Catalan contemporary artist, composer and cyborg activist best known for his ability to hear and perceive colours outside of human vision. He was born with achromatopsia, a condition that only allows him to see in grey scale. In 2013, Neil had an antenna surgically implanted that now allows him not only to perceive colour as sound but to connect live to the colours that others can see. He’ll be talking about new communication possibilities that go beyond our traditional senses.
Boris Wertz is one of the top tech early-stage investors in North America and the founding partner of version one ventures. His impressive portfolio includes over 50 successful consumer Internet and enterprise companies, including Clio, Flurry, Frank & Oak, Indiegogo, Top Hat and Wattpad. Boris is also a board partner with Andreessen Horowitz and one of the founders of start-up accelerator GrowLab. He and Jevon MacDonald, co-founder and general manager of GoInstant, will discuss the state of startup funding in Canada and where they believe it should be heading.
“We’re thrilled to have two prominent Canadian entrepreneurs, talents and investors on the stage in Boris Wertz and Jevon MacDonald,” says mesh co-founder Stuart MacDonald.
Darren McColl in conversation with David Bradfield (closing keynote) – Darren (Daz) is co-author of Storyscaping; Stop Creating Ads, Start Creating Worlds (April, 2014) and chief brand strategy officer of SapientNitro, a new breed of agency redefining storytelling for an always-on world. He and David will discuss how to create an intelligent story system rooted in a creative organizing idea, that’s fueled by innovative technology and creates more meaningful brand-consumer connections. This session will help you activate much of what you’ve learned over the course of the conference.
Other presenters include: Erin Bury, 88Creative, Berry Wellman, NetLab, Melissa Shapiro, WattPad, Jean-Luc David, Alertly and more.
See the full line-up of speakers and the schedule.
Stay tuned for more news!