Kingston’s First New Media Meetup: Sept 24th, 7:00pm

So shortly after this morning’s post I sent an email to the local new media folk I know, and am now making details available publicly.
Kingston, home to the Podcasters Across Borders conference, is long overdue for a smaller-scale meetup. And that’s changing on September 24th. I’m going to be at the Kingston Brewing Company (34 [...]

So shortly after this morning’s post I sent an email to the local new media folk I know, and am now making details available publicly.

Kingston, home to the Podcasters Across Borders conference, is long overdue for a smaller-scale meetup. And that’s changing on September 24th. I’m going to be at the Kingston Brewing Company (34 Clarance St) from 7:00 until at least 8:00 that night, wearing the bright shirt visible in the sidebar of my blog. I’d love to get a handful (or more) local folk who are interested, or knowledgable, in this new media space together to form some connections between us and begin building the local conversation.

Francis Wooby has already commented that he’s going to attempt to make it, and i’m hoping he can bring tales of Podcamp Philly.

So come down, bring your business cards, ideas, stories and some friends if they’re interested and participate in the first of what will hopefully become regular events in Kingston!

[RSVPs not required, comments welcome]

Going Local At Last

So I have never hidden the fact that I’m from Kingston, Ontario. Been here all my life, in fact. And while I adore Toronto, and love Ottawa… I’m likely going to stick around Kingston for quite some time. Now, Kingston’s not a small town, we’re up around 115,000 according to the last census, but we’re [...]

So I have never hidden the fact that I’m from Kingston, Ontario. Been here all my life, in fact. And while I adore Toronto, and love Ottawa… I’m likely going to stick around Kingston for quite some time. Now, Kingston’s not a small town, we’re up around 115,000 according to the last census, but we’re not overly huge, either.

When I found out about PAB 06, in July of that year, I couldn’t believe I had missed the event. Worse yet, I don’t believe there was even a Kingstonian present (Someone correct me on this? Was Don Edwards there last year? Someone else?). I was floored. An event like PAB 06, happened in Kingston, and nobody, at least that I could tell, local there.

I, amongst others, fixed that this time around, but I’ve felt very … lonely in social media since then. Being that I don’t drive, it’s hard to get together at the various meetups or geek dinners in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto or London… I have mastered playing the at home game though and made the trip down to the Podcamp that took place in Pittsburgh in August

For the longest time, searches for new media folk in Kingston returned one person - me. Then I found (and met) Don. And then I learned of Francis Wooby. And now David Bailey (Who was, go figure, at PAB 07 too).

I think it’s finally time that I reach out locally and work to bridge connections between us. Kingston may be small on a world scale, sure, and I’m sure some folk fear competition locally, but there’s no reason we can’t all get along. After all, we’re working in the social media space.

Folks in Kingston’s new media space - expect emails soon. And put forward the word… Kingston’s first new media meetup is in the works.

Attending PAB. And the repercussions of that.

First, the next of my portable office series is being pushed to Saturday of this week. So I skipped a week. It was worth it, and you’ll read all about why … later.
For the readers of mine who have been living under a rock and missed this, I’m attending the Podcasters Across Borders event this [...]

First, the next of my portable office series is being pushed to Saturday of this week. So I skipped a week. It was worth it, and you’ll read all about why … later.

For the readers of mine who have been living under a rock and missed this, I’m attending the Podcasters Across Borders event this weekend in Kingston, Ontario. Hooray for low travel costs.

I’ve got a lot of notes for a lot of posts that will trickle out over the next couple of weeks, but I wanted to take this time to get something up right now.

This event, for me at least, has been the best new media type event I’ve attended. Not necessarily from an information point of view, not that the information (And the dense schedule of sessions) isn’t great, but from a people and community point of view. Being that I have mostly attended American events, and simply listened to shows from the Canadian community, I often felt more like an American podcasting community member, and not so much like a Canadian or global member.

This weekend, for me, has changed that. And it’s been awesome.

As promised, details to follow once it wraps and I return to the “real world”.