Montreal Social Media

I went to the Montreal Marketing Association’s happy hour yesterday in order to have some information on the membership. I’m not yet a member but I’m looking to join the association. The annual membership is about 270$ and gives access to different activities all listed on the AMM website. The most valuable activity (according to me) is the possibility to join what they call a Think Tank. It seems to be a weekly discussion and networking meeting regrouping marketing people from non-competitive industries. I like the idea.

I was also pleased to chat with Aurelie Ponton about finding a way to protect our industry to define the internet marketing strategist profession (if there is one…). The discussion was based on the fact that anybody can advertise himself as an internet marketer (think about Wal Mart who is now offering SEO and SEM services !), so according to her, being member of the AMM could be a way to show our qualifications. The only thing is that I’m not sure if the AMM is doing any selection on their membership ?

I was a bit disappointed to refuse the invitation from Mathieu and Michelle to get something to eat after the event, but I wanted to attend Montreal StartUpCamp at La SAT. Startup Camp Montreal is an event dedicated to everything Startup. It is the forum where early stage companies, investors and on-lookers alike can share information and validate pitches live.

When I arrived half of the presentations were done but I’ve managed to catch the last ones, here’s some info on the presenters:

• Streametrics: They are providing a software solution to track and meseaure the behavior of online viewers.
• iGotcha Media: They are offering a new way to advertise via interactive windows video.
• YourTeledoctor: They are testing with 3 doctors a way to offer an interactive medical consultation via webcam.

Forget about the vision
Last speaker was a serial entrepreneur Albert Lai who sold his first internet company, the MyDesktop Network, for 7 digits in cash while still in his teens. The guy is a great entertainer and his speech was mainly about his failures (even if it’s cliché, seems like we learn more from our mistakes). One of his idea is to forget about the vision and go with the market. Bottom line, the market is always right and sometimes your vision isn’t. I’ll think about it.

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