Northern Exposure

Yesterday was my first exposure to Northern Voice, Vancouver’s premiere social media and blogging conference held on the gorgeous UBC campus. Welcomed by the radiant blue sky and smiling sunshine, Northern Voice was a truly open forum for super tweeps, mega bloggers, and social media nubs alike.

As a Communicator (and once studying scholar), Northern Voice is (and this is a technical term, I assure you) a vente, triple shot, extra hot, low fat, soy latte with a sprinkle of chocolate on top – event. Yes, it was perhaps the most epic of any past Northern Voice conference, with 550 participants!

I like the little mouse that I am, was pleasantly surprised at how “hypperreal” the experience really was. By this, I mean, that 9 out of 10 attendees likely live their lives mediated by social technologies and have it, like a bionic arm, intrinsically integrated into their being. It was completely comforting to whip out my iPhone and iPad (in both hands) and begin tweeting to my neighbour after saying hello.

Yes, I’m a geek and so are you. Right, we’re good.

And so with the comfort of knowing that I was amongst friends, I donned on my social cap, both in person and on line, and ventured forth. First up, was a keynote by Bryan Alexander, prolific writer, blogger, philosopher, and social media educator. Highlights of the talk (though I unfortunately caught very little of it) was “Facebook causes syphilis?! The sci fi obscurity of social media?” and the wizardry skills of Bryan Alexander who artfully answered tweets from audience members while giving his lively un-powerpointed presentation. Now that’s ninja story telling skills, if there ever was a ninja that told stories.

Which swiftly brings me to my second talk on government politics, policies and social media. Andrea Reimer, Raul Pacheco-Vega, Ian Capstick, Tanya Twynstra and David Eaves brought to life the federal, provincial, and municipal woes, wonders, and achievements of government and social media. Federally it appears that social media is yet another political tool used dishonestly for partisan broadcasting, but provincially and locally, the efforts appear more promising. Apps for climate action are being developed by the BC provincial government for example, and locally, the Vancouver Open 3 project aims to model our city as the web – interconnected, interactive, and open. For more information on the Vancouver initiative on open data, check out data.vancouver.ca.

From government to video games! Yes the transition seems unlikely, but in the social media world, connectedness bridges every divide, topic, culture, and work. Philip Jeffery gave a great talk on Alternate Reality Games, showcasing two social games, The Lost Ring and Urgent Evoke. Alternate Reality Games (ARG) are interactive narratives that use the real world as a platform. Through the use of various social media, global citizenry are engaged to participate, interact, and play the game in the real world. Alternate reality games blurs line of reality and real life. Game becomes life and life becomes game. More poignant and instructive is Urgent Evoke’s challenge for players to seek out answers and knowledge on global issues in order “win” or complete the game. Check out argn.com for info on ARGs.

Next up, was one of my favorite sessions by Monica Hamburg and Dave Olsen on Finding Your Voice. Monica’s witty presentation left me with the confidence to know that although I may suck at blogging right now, writing more, reading more, and writing more will make me better (I hope!). Oh and having good grammar and hygiene helps too! And don’t forget to spellcheck!

Dave Olsen, aka @UncleWeed came to us via satellite (ok, it was pre-recorded) from his mansion on the hills (North Vancouver). Somehow Uncle Weed seemed to be channelling Mr. Rogers and the resemblance was uncanny. His wisdom was perhaps no less instructive than the late Mr. Rogers. Blogging is about storytelling. Regardless of the medium, voice can only be found when we find the stories within and learn to tell them. And in the wise words of Uncle Weed, it’s 80% meditation, 10% execution, and 10% inebriation.

Now that we’ve learned to tell a story, I was off to Alexandre Brabant’s Nuts and Bolts of SEO. The short and sweet of Search Engine Optimization is to “Target the tail of search queries”. The 140 character summary is simply that in a keyword search of your topic, compete in the tail end of your keywords, not the top contenders! Check out The Long Tail.

And finally, why blogging is ultimately a personal endeavour fraught with possibility and friendship. Kimli’s presentation on Overcoming Social Anxiety, or “How to Win Friends and Influence People (in 140 characters or less) was an honest, heart felt and inspiring talk on how social media is a non-discriminating source for personal expression and communal support. Start off small, reply to a tweet, comment on a blog, and if you can muster the courage to put on a pair of pants, venture out to a social media event and say hi. People are really not that scary, online or off. The key is that we step out, say something, and we all will be heard.

A final note on the day. As someone freshly exposed to Northern Voice, I am left with an overwhelming sense of community and hope. If 550 social media enthusiasts can come together because we’re so stark crazy about reaching out to say something, I beg to wonder what great friendships, communities, and alliances can be created out of the millions of interactions we all have each day online. There’s too many voices that need to be heard. We ought to listen.