Excitement of Olympic proportions

I usually try to keep personal news out of the blog, but there’s just too much goodness to share to avoid it this time. Later today, in the culmination of about 5 years of planning and anticipation, I’ll be boarding a train to travel across Canada with the final destination of the Vancouver Olympics!  In addition to an unforgettable trip across the country (something I’ve never done before) and having tickets to multiple Olympic events, my travel buddy Zed and I pitched our adventure to the CBC and they’re letting us blog about it!  We’ve...

Talkin’ New Years, NXNE, and needing your support

I’m a little late to the game on this but Happy New Year Decade everyone! I’ve been busy updating all things nitch* lately to give it a fresh new look and hope that everyone likes what they see.  But in the meantime, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ve applied to present a panel at the upcoming North by Northeast Interactive conference (#NXNEi).  My panel is called “Content, Storytelling and the future of digital brand engagement”.  Those who’ve read the blog before shouldn’t be strangers to my strong views...

If content is “king”, then what’s wrong with paying for it?

I’ll be heading to nextMEDIA Toronto this week to take in the broader discussion and also moderate a panel with some incredible producers talking about bringing traditional media content into the digital space, and most of all, methods to monetize that content.  I’m always excited to speak on these sorts of subjects because, for all the valuable content we consume on a daily basis – between the news, the weather, research, slideshare presentations, tabloids, sports reports, games, television series, web videos, iPhone apps and more – people tend...

It’s time for the magazine industry to realize digital is an asset, not an adversary

When the news came down the pipes this week that Conde Nast was shutting down four of its magazine publications, I’m not sure that “shock” was a word many people associated with the announcement.  Sure, Conde Nast is a huge company and would theoretically be able to weather the storm longer than most, but the reality is this is just another example of how magazine, as a medium, is now almost completely unsustainable in its current form. Looks like it's back to Kraft Dinner for me.... However, as was pointed out in a great article in Mashable this...

The SXSWi Panelpicker and the opportunity for Toronto to prove community works

Anyone in the Toronto digital/social media scene likely noticed that Monday was the official opening to voting for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival’s annual “Panelpicker”.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, SXSW (an annual music, film and interactive conference in Austin, Texas) opened up the opportunity to present at their event to the world.  After thousands of submissions were administered, they’ve now launched the Panelpicker, essentially a Digg-like crowdsourcing application where the organizers are the only ones...

The Spoke Theory: To drive an audience, every marketing wheel needs a “hub”

A lot of the time, I’m a pretty big nerd.  I’m also, at times, a relentless critic.  One of my favourite past times that unites both of these truths about my personality is wandering around and critiquing the marketing tactics of the many thousands of businesses that advertise in one form or another around downtown Toronto.  From bands that flyer telephone poles all the way through to the monstrous concoctions erected in Dundas Square – I’m not picky.  I just really like to try and get into the marketer’s head. That said, in my aimless...

Social networking and scoring a ‘date’ in the world of digital business

While some people out there may think of social networking as a fad, or even an annoyance, I think it may be the best thing since, well…  networking.  Sorry if you were hoping for something profound there…  And while I can’t seem to join enough networks myself, I find myself running into more and more of these: Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I understand that on a platform as massive as facebook, there are security concerns for people who are high school teachers or may have had an over-zealous admirer of two in the past.  But...

Digital content brings out our creative best – why can’t digital content business models?

I’ve been frustrated lately.  Over the last month I’ve sat on 3 panels filled with incredibly creative professionals.  I’ve traveled back and forth across the country meeting with some of the biggest players in digital in Canada and some of the coolest niche brands you may never have heard of.  I’ve worked as an industry analyst for two different industry funds, reviewing project concepts from some of the top digital concept producers in Canada.  Still, in the midst of all this incredible inspiration, at times, it’s been a frustrating...

Branded Entertainment, Bell Fund and mixing business with pleasure at nextMEDIA

As I publish this post, I’m sitting in the Rocky Mountains preparing to attend the 2009 edition of the nextMEDIA conference.   Leaders in the spaces of digital content, production, advertising, marketing and media are converging on Banff this weekend to mix and mingle (as we always do quite successfully) and to try solve the problems of the digital world (as we seem to do with more limited success). While the odds are that we won’t revolutionize the digital space this weekend, I’m looking forward to some exciting discussion and to meeting and...

To boldly go where no niche has gone before…

Ok, maybe not “no niche”, but I couldn’t resist the chance to quote William Shatner. If you hadn’t yet caught on, this post is being put up today as a tribute to the release of “Star Trek“, the motion picture (not be confused with “Star Trek: The Motion Picutre“).  The Trek movie franchise has come along way since the slightly overweight and greying crew was dusted off back in 1980 for its big screen debut.  Today, as the internet is a-buzz about the 11th installment of the series it makes for a particularly timely...