Northern Voice 2009 - Personal Blogging and Social Media Conference

If you're in Vancouver this weekend, keep your eyes open for citizen journalists in action - the bloggers are in town!  Northern Voice, Canada's leading Social Media and Personal Blogging Conference, begins tomorrow at UBC.  Now in its fifth year, there was so much excitement this time around that tickets sold out in just three days!  For those of us lucky enough to be attending, it looks like we're in store for an outstanding weekend

Over the next few days, bloggers, social media enthusiasts and other online creative types from around the world will be descending on Vancouver to share their insights, learn from each other and discuss the future of social media.   This year's conference features a wide range of interesting topics, some great keynote speakers (I melt at the sound of Nora Young's voice) and even a few presentations from current and former members of the Raincity Studios Team.

The festivities start tonight with The Northern Voice Kick-Off Party at Federico’s Supper Club.  Good people, great food and decent weather should make for a warm welcome to those visiting Vancouver.

Things really get underway this Friday at Moosecamp, an "un-conference" where scheduled presentations will take place alongside self-organizing discussion groups addressing topics generated by conference attendees.  Check out RCS social media hero Roland Tanglao's Mobile Track presentation Streaming Media Hits the Big Time at 10:15am.

Saturday’s schedule follows a more “traditional” conference style with a full roster of fantastic speakers.  Just after lunch at 1:30pm, Robert Scales, our CEO and founder, as well an intrepid citizen journalist, will be discussing Citizen Media and the Olympics with Dr. Andy Miah of the University of the West of Scotland.   And be sure not to miss Kris Krüg and former RCS community evangelist Dave Olsen who will be presenting with Bev Davies on the topic of Rock & Roll Photography at 4:15pm.

We love the social media community and Raincity Studios has been very proud to be a part of putting this event together.  A big thank you and much love is due to all of the Northern Voice Sponsors for their generous contributions and helping to make this event happen.  And none of this would have been possible without the hard work of the conference organizing committee and the many volunteers from blogging community.  Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm.  

For more information on the conference, visit the 2009 Northern Voice website or connect with other attendees on the Facebook Group.  And if you're not familiar with Vancouver or the UBC campus, here's a map to help you find your way around.  

I'm excited because it's my first time attending Northern Voice and I can't wait to meet all the interesting social media folks attending.  It's also going to be the first event I've attended as part of Raincity Studios team, who have all been very welcoming my first week here in the office.  Vancouver's a wonderful place to be and we're in for a great weekend.  Hope to see you there!