Montreal Social Media

Good question seen on twitter few minutes ago: Where do you get upcoming information about event such as Yulbiz, Webcom, Podcamp and other meet-ups? Of course, there are personnal blogs, Upcoming, Twitter updates, Facebook Groups and Events and other social sites but in order to get a maximal exposure should we have one place to look for all events? Or let me put it this way: should we take for granted that people interested in web related events are already social media users?

A good example of promoting events and keeping the community informed of what’s happening is what Heri at montrealtechwatch does with the right column of his blog: quite simple but a good way to showcase the different venues. As for internet marketing events or other social media meet ups, Nicolas Roberge’s tweet gave me the idea of builing a work in progress list or these types of events, I’ll defenitely take much time later to complete the list but please also feel free to contribute in the comments.

Social Media Events in Montreal

1. Yulblog

Once a month Montréal bloggers get together in a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Usually 1st Wednesday of every month at La Quincaillerie. According to Patrick Tanguay who’s been taking care of the event for the last 3-5 years, ”it’s just an occasion to meet people and grab a beer. There’s talk about pretty much any and all subjects, not that much talk about blogs actually, aside from what’s your URL and what do you write about. There is no agenda and no organized setup, we just go there and meet people.”
[Yulblog site | reportage de yulblog sur Montreal.tv | Pourquoi venir au yulblog en vidéo]

2. Yulbiz

More business oriented than Yulblog, Yulbiz gives a monthly opportunity to network with bloggers on every last Tuesday. Event takes places at Café Méliès. The concept was exported to many international cities such as Bordeaux, Barcelona and Strasbourg. Michelle Blanc explains that she and Philippe Martin have started the meet-up when they both wrote an open invitation on their blog to reunite Montreal business bloggers.
[Yulbiz site | reportage de yulbiz sur Montreal.tv]

3. Yultour

Yultour réunit les gens de l’industrie touristique qui s’intéressent aux technologies et au e-tourisme en général ainsi que les blogueurs d’affaires qui s’intéressent au tourisme. Yultour is directly inspired by Yulbiz and targets the tourism and cultural industry. Yultour started in 2007 and doesn’t take place on a monthly basis. So far, there has been three meetings covering topics such as the use of Facebook in tourism industry and the culture 2.0. The main differnce between Yultour and Yulbiz is that the event always features a 10 to 20 minutes conference while the rest of the evening is mainly about networking.
[YulTour site | reportage sur Yultour par Intruders.tv]

4. 3e mardi | 3rd Tuesday

3e mardi |Third Tuesday Montréal is a monthly meetup to learn about and discuss the practical applications of social media within their industry. PR and marketing professionals interested in the social media phenomenon meet on (or around) the third Tuesday of each month to hear from and speak with guest speakers who are experts in the field of social media. The informal conferences are also a great opportunity to network with peers who are active in the field. The meet up features a presentation from an social media expert covering topics such as social media PR, online video or business cases involving social media marketing. 3rd Tuesday also takes place in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and other Canadian cities.

[3e mardi | 3rd Tuesday blog | sponsors: CNW Telbec, Massy-Forget relations publiques, K3 Media, 76designs]

5. Podmtl

PodMtl (Pod Montreal) is a gathering of podcasters, listeners and anyone that is interested in this new phenomenon that is podcasting. The event is open to everyone and is occuring every months. Event takes usually place at Sergent Recruteur.
[podmtl site]

Interlocking Stones : Decisions, Techniques and Styles to turn daily downloads from 20 to 2000 – Mark Blevis
Podcaster are passionates, not experts
If you are memorable, people will take about you
Interlocking stones, tight together with passion
If you have a partner/spouse in your life who is also passionated about, that really helps

Please Don’t Suck! -Sylvain Grand’Maison
Is Bigger really better or do they just suck on a larger scale ?
How deep is your love, the only way the receive lovee is to give, so please comment first

The New New Music – Fans, Community And What Business Can Learn From An Industry In Peril – M.Joel and D.Usher
We are taking away the core product of the whole music industry: the cd – M.J.
Back in the days, we used to look at the charts and the numbers – D.U.
All I can judge my success now is about how the relationship with my community gos (selling shows) – D.U.
Music is a way to connect with people – D.U.
It’s not about ‘how many’ but about ‘who’ – M.J.
If you don’t get a reaction, you suck – M.J.

David Usher on the New Music

Audience listening at Mitch Joel and David Usher

Sylvain Grand’maison and a photographer

So far, I’ve found these reactions on the blogs, How was your week-end???
- My Saturday at PodCamp Montreal – At home with Kim
- De l’utilisation des bons outils en baladodiffusion par Michel Dumais – biotope.tv
- Podcamp Montreal Day 1: Considering Ourselves – SuzeMuse
- Podcamp Montreal 2008 – Debrief – Mike Kujawski
- PodCamp Montréal : non, je n’ai pas profité du soleil… – Claude Malaison
- PodCamp Montreal : Blogues et relations publiques – Muriel Ide, blogue de l’AMM
- Retour sur PodCampMontreal – inevernu

I’ll be at PodCamp Montreal this week-end, so if you’re going and that we haven’t met in the past, feel free to say hello (just to let you know, I’ll try to wear my new NVI shirt).

Since the event is organized by few of my friends (Laurent, Michelle, Laurent,…) and that some of my friends (including Jerôme, Kim, Michelle, Mitch and more) will also be speaking, the whole week-end quickly became a must. Even if the happening hasn’t started yet, I surely can say that I’m very impressed by what people behind this week-end had already set: great conference line up, nice updated blog + an upcoming live feed through Ustream, what else could we expect… they even have a social media breakfast + an opening ceremony on Friday night. Hopefully I’ll meet a lot of other social media geeks there. See you soon!

Pictures of Podcamp

There are some pictures from PodCamp Montreal on my Flickr

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.

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I’m writing this quick post on last Yultour because I really enjoined the event. If you are not already familiar with Yultour, it can be described as a gathering of people into the tourism industry sharing this common interest on the impacts of the internet on their industry. The initiative comes from Pierre Bellerose of Tourisme Montreal and they describe themselves as a group of ‘blogueurs et gestionnaires adeptes du e-tourisme’. What brings truly a plus to this networking event is that there is a short presentation that comes with the meeting.

What can we learn from museums?

This edition’s presentation (sorry I didn’t catch the speaker’s name) has shown us how a conservative industry (mainly museums) has embraced the spirit of the social media marketing (or at least some of social media tools). For example:

• Podcasting: Museums already have audio-guides for exhibitions, why not making podcast with these tapes? For example, one my favorite museum,the MOMA, also offers recordings especially for teens or kids, what a nice way to reach a younger audience!

• Blogs: e.g.The Metropolitan Museum of Arts (MET) has a popular blog on fashion into arts.
• Tagging: There is even the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, that allows anybody to tag their collection with their own label. They have created an interactive database that contains thousands of zoomable images. Pretty impressive!

For more info on Yultour visit the Facebook Group ! + When I’ll get the chance I’ll try to check what museums in Montreal are doing with these social media tools.