Promises, Promises

marriedtothesea.com

Yep, that’s the way this scam works.

Every downturn in the economy causes several things. Maybe even more than several. But the one that annoys me because it shows that not even people who are paid to write and get printed on actual physical paper have anything even approaching an institutional or professional memory:

The fact that every frakking newspaper on the planet comes out with the same faux-callow retread: OMG, Post-Secondary Schools Are Like Totally Ripping Off the Unemployed.

Yes.

Of course.

It’s what they’re for.

Far too many of them anyway, and if you doubt that, you can take a quick browse through Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.

Which doesn’t make my decision to apply to grad school any smarter or dumber than before, for lo, I am a terrible snob, and I wouldn’t go to some podunk Potemkin College. There are only three schools in the world who seem to be offering the opportunity I’m looking for: one in the UK whose name I can’t remember, Stanford, and Simon Fraser University, which happens to have the new school of Communication, Arts and Technology just about a ten minute walk from my apartment.

And of these, SFU is the greatest, because it’s the most wide-open, the most affordable, and smack-dab in the middle of a community to which I am connected up the proverbial wazoo. I’m not connected to them literally up the wazoo because I don’t like them that way, okay? Okay.

I’ve been told that Stanford has a program for deserving people from out of the country with whom they want to work, and I’d like to think I’m one of those people, they just don’t know it yet. And the UK would be nice, and I’m pretty sure I could use BoJo’s webguru as a reference, and I can easily get an EU passport, what with having been born in France and so on. And god knows, I haven’t got enough paperwork in my life, so here goes a round of rooting through online prospecticusses and presumably interviewing, because when you’re the scholarship applicant, they’re not gonna take a shot in the dark: they want to look in your actual eyes and see if the retinas match with anyone on the Ten Most Wanted list.

Especially if you’ve indicated a preference for distance learning, a desire to collect professors’ home addresses, and you’ve listed a cabin in Montana as your address.

As if that weren’t enough, I’ve also taken on a major role with the Social Media Club of Vancouver, and I’m applying for more paid blogging gigs, as well as upping my post frequency on True/Slant.

Which is basically all my posts tagged WorkLife Balance are ALSO tagged Speculative Comedic Fiction.

Next up, figuring out how to apprentice myself to this guy. I spent a significant part of last year trying to convince local hotels this would be a good idea in advance of the Olympics, to no avail. Obviously, the man has mad hotel-persuasion skillz.

Promises: hmmm, isn’t that the name of a rehab center?

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Social Media Club of Vancouver presents: Olympic Lessons

VMC Olympic Weekend Coverage!!
Image by nofutureface via Flickr

VANCOUVER OLYMPICS DEMONSTRATE BOTH GOOD AND BAD IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Local leaders in traditional and social media gather to discuss impact of social media on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

VANCOUVER, BC – In the afterglow of the 2010 Vancouver Games, top BC media leaders will come together on March 18, 2010 to discuss the positive and negative impacts of both social and traditional media on the Games. The panel discussion will be held from 7-9pm at the BOB Coworking Space in Vancouver’s Gastown District, 163 E. Pender Street.

In its first official event, Social Media Club Vancouver, a trade association dedicated to business uses of social media, and the Vancouver Blogger Meetup will bring together a panel of established media experts to discuss expectations versus realities in media coverage of the Games—a large, high-profile, complex and geographically dispersed event.

The panel will include Kirk LaPointe, Managing Editor of the Vancouver Sun; John Biehler, citizen journalist and blogger; flashmob specialist Laurent Piche; Colin Horgan, columnist at the Guardian; freelance journalist/bloggers Jonathan Narvey and Shane Birley; and moderator Colleen Coplick, founder of Type-A PR and the MissManifesto network.

“The 2010 Winter Olympic Games were perhaps the most ‘social’ Games ever,” said Eric Weaver, president of Social Media Club Vancouver. “VANOC, the City of Vancouver, individual teams, news outlets and private companies were all utilizing social media at the Games. Many of these groups found innovative and unusual ways to integrate social media into their communication efforts. We saw some really fascinating uses, and some cautionary tales. This panel discussion will point the way toward more integrated and effective uses of both types of media in the future.”

Discussion will cover key learnings on social media at the Games, how traditional and social media impacted the event, where media shone and where it failed.

The event is free, and interested parties can register at http://smcyvrolympiclessons.eventbrite.com/

Social Media Club of Vancouver

Social Media Club of Vancouver

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ABOUT THE PANELISTS

MICHAEL ALLISON

Michael is a consultant at The Wilcox Group and provides communications support to clients including General Motors of Canada, KFC and Lesley Stowe.

Michael advises clients on approaches to social media that complement existing PR goals and strategies. He plays an integral role in creating employee social media policies, writing for the web, engaging online influencers, training clients how to use social media tools and building meaningful relationships. For General Motors of Canada, the official vehicle supplier of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Michael led an integrated social media strategy involving the Chevrolet brand for the duration of the 106-day torch relay.

Michael holds a master’s degree in professional communication from Royal Roads University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Victoria.

JOHN BIEHLER

John is a Vancouver-based e-business analyst for a large corporation, a technologist, a consultant, conference speaker, trainer, photographer and gamer. Through True North Media House he became one of the most prominent bloggers and photographers covering the Olympics.

SHANE BIRLEY

Shane Birley is a blogger, author, web developer, poet, and creative writer based in Vancouver, BC. He is a partner in Left Right Minds, a web development, arts management, business blogging and on line marketing content consultant company. He also writes Nerd Sense, a blog for non-nerds about technology and a collection blog titled Why The Internet Is Cool where he writes about random things found out on the Internet. He is the co-host of the Vancouver Blogger Meetup.

COLLEEN COPLICK

Colleen Coplick is a PR professional and popular Vancouver-area blogger. A self-described writer, photographer, instigator and connector, Colleen specializes in social media strategy & marketing, feature writing, and blog writing, teaches seminars, and is a regular conference speaker.

COLIN HORGAN

Colin Horgan is a freelance journalist and blogger. Born and raised in Calgary, Colin Horgan earned his Bachelor’s degree in history from Carleton University in Ottawa. After moving to London, England, Colin returned to Canada and became a blogger and contributor for the Calgary Herald. Recently, Colin has been a contributor to the Guardian, where his writing focuses on Canadian politics and culture. Colin currently blogs at TrueSlant.com, and his work has also appeared in the Globe and Mail and online at Maclean’s.

KIRK LAPOINTE

Kirk LaPointe has been the Managing Editor of The Vancouver Sun since 2003, and is responsible for the day-to-day online and newspaper operations of Western Canada’s largest newsroom. He is also the executive in residence and an adjunct professor at the graduate school of journalism at University of British Columbia. Kirk blogs on media change at themediamanager.com and is an avid social networker on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, among others.

Kirk has held several senior news positions in Canadian media, including Senior Vice President responsible for all of CTV News, the founding Executive Editor of National Post, the associate publisher and editor in chief of The Hamilton Spectator, the editor in chief and general manager of Southam News, the Ottawa bureau chief and general news editor of The Canadian Press, and a host for CBC Newsworld.

JONATHON NARVEY

Jonathon Narvey is a Vancouver-based communications specialist, freelance journalist and copywriter. He is the founder of WRITEIMAGE, a corporate copywriting services company.

A native of Winnipeg, Jonathon moved to the west coast of Canada soon after beginning a career as a writer. He writes primarily about politics, current events, and life in Vancouver, along with other interests such as environmental sustainability, business and technology. He has contributed articles and columns to print and online media publications such as the National Post, Vancouver Sun, Granville Magazine, Business in Vancouver, Sounding Board, Winnipeg Sun, the Vancouver Courier, and the North Shore News.

LAURENT PICHE

Laurent Piche is a “flashmobber” and co-founder of Improv Everywhere Vancouver. Laurent and his team cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving thousands of undercover agents.

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ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB VANCOUVER

Social Media Club Vancouver is a local chapter of the Social Media Club, a worldwide trade organization dedicated to the advancement of social media. The Vancouver chapter is a business-focused social media association aimed at generating learning, friendships and opportunities for all of its members. Composed of marketers, media professionals, advertisers, bloggers and business owners, SMC Vancouver holds monthly meetings around the business uses of social media.

# # #

For more information about Social Media Club Vancouver, please contact Guacira Naves at smc.naves at gmail.com, or visit http://smcyvr.com.

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Olympic Lessons from Social Media Club Vancouver

Social Media Club Vancouver SMCYVR

You’re hereby invited to the inaugural meeting of the Social Media Club of Vancouver. Gurus, Rockstars, Fanboys, Bloggers, Twitter addicts, and those who are wondering what all the social media fuss is about are all welcome.

Lessons of the Olympics: what social media taught us

Who: The Social Media Club of Vancouver in partnership with the Vancouver Blogger’s Meetup

What: Olympic Lessons: a panel discussion of social and antisocial media lessons from the Olympics

When: 7pm Thursday, March 18th

Where: BOB Coworking Space, 163 East Pender Street, ground floor

Why: To review expectations vs outcomes in the context of social and traditional media coverage of a large, high-profile, complex, and geographically dispersed event.

Everyone, from beginners to bystanders, gurus to rockstars, is welcome. Our panel includes participants from mainstream media as well as social media, flashmobbers, bloggers, photographers, columnists, analysts, and corporate PRistes. Stand by for more details; we’ll have the full story as it develops!

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Welcome to the post that tells you to be somewhere else

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…namely over at my newest blog, The Celebrity Industrial Complex, over at True/Slant. Today’s celebrity-based blog topic? Pondering the purchasing power of prominent posteriors. And Irish saints. Because we’re all eclectic an shizz.

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This Too Shall Pass

Kris Krug and Johnny Weir Cute Couple Gold Medal Winners

OK Go wasn’t talking about my hangover, but they SHOULD have been. Yay, Canada! We won the hockey! We won the most gold medals of any nation ever in the winter Olympics! We owned the podium! And Kris nearly got a date with Johnny Weir!

Yay us! And pass the aspirin.

Until my liver has recovered and the marching band in my head has packed up and left, here’s a cute video to entertain yourselves with:

Also? That looks SOMETHING like my living room, right down to the wrecked police car.

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