Are you interested in Ottawa’s social media scene? If you are, you’re going to want to clear your calendar for the month of July! There are at least two don’t-miss events happening, and they’re both promising to be fantastic experiences.
First, we have the perennial and amazingly fun Blog Out Loud Ottawa (BOLO) on July 7:
BOLO is one of my favourite social events of the year! Would you like to be one of the 20 bloggers who takes the stage to read a favourite blog post from the past year? Here are the deets from the official BOLO blog:
Here’s the basic idea:
* There’s a due date for declaring you want to read – Friday, June 10. If you’d like to read, I need to know the exact blog post you have in mind – please don’t send me an email saying you want to read, but you don’t know what. It should be something from the past year (or so) and should be able to be read aloud in less than five minutes. Pick something you really love, that represents who you are and what your blog is about – and that will be sure to come across when you’re standing at the microphone.
* All entries received by June 10 will be read and enjoyed by me and a panel of bloggers (who are not submitting a post for reading). Our favourite 10 entries will be selected for reading at BOLO.
* All other entries will go into a random-draw pot and the final 11 readers will be picked at random.
If we have 21 people or fewer interested by June 10, then you’re all in, and that would be fantastic. I’ll definitely announce it when all the spots are gone, so if it’s after June 10 and you haven’t heard anything, and you’d still like to read, we probably have spots left.
If you are interested in being on my judging panel, please let me know. Note that if you are on the jury, you can’t submit a post for reading.
I’ve thrown my hat into the ring, although I’m not sure I could top last year when I exposed my innermost soul and my favourite bra to a packed and sweaty house. 😉
And!! As if that weren’t enough excitement for the Ottawa social media scene, there is a fantastic new social media “learnathon” that will be the other don’t-miss event of the summer: the Social Capital conference, taking place on Saturday July 23:
If you consider yourself a social media ‘buff’, then Social Capital will be the place to be in Ottawa on Saturday July 23rd! Social Capital is your opportunity to learn from and network with Ottawa’s most connected and knowledgeable people! When it comes to social media, this is the conference you won’t want to miss.
Ottawa has an active and passionate social media community. A community that is craving opportunities to learn, continue to grow and to share knowledge. Social Capital is a one-day conference that will fill this need.
Participants will have the opportunity to meet and network with like-minded social media enthusiasts. A combination of panels, roundtables, and single-leader sessions will cover topics of interest for newbie and experts alike.
I really like how they’ve devised three potential streams of sessions, one for fundamentals, one for more experienced users, and one for business. Whether you’re a social media noob or an old hand, whether you’re a dabbler or a business owner, I think you’ll find something useful in the proposed lineup!
I think the organizers have done an amazing job of making this an accessible, affordable event jam-packed with interesting presentations and speakers. And I don’t say that simply because I’ll be one of them! 😉 Come on out to hear me, Lara Wellman and Vivian Cheng talk about choosing the right social media tools for your business.
That’s a lot of excitement to pack into one month. July is going to rock Ottawa’s social media scene!
I can’t wait for July! What a wonderful community we have in Ottawa 🙂