nextMEDIA 2009

Despite a snowy start (in June!) to this year’s nextMEDIA 2009 event, the underdressed delegates – from L.A. to Brazil – were still able to enjoy the beautiful locale.

Discussion over the weekend covered the social web from several angles – monetization models, culture and demographics, and search metrics to name a few. Monitors with Tweetdeck rolled along tracking the hashtag #nextMEDIA throughout the venue, keeping conference-goers up to date on the most recent chatter in and around the event. Discussions regularly fell to differentiating between the hype of social media and its more productive uses.

Judging by the current viewer-minute totals for the fusedlogicTV channel, many of you know we were doing our best to broadcast live from that majestic castle in the mountains – the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Most “castles” aren’t known for their blazing fast internet connectivity, and this one was no exception. The one (slow) connection shared between the entire hotel complex was regularly too slow to even check one’s email; something that turned into a common point of contention among attendees. That’s right folks: one of Canada’s premier tourist destinations is essentially an internet “dead zone.”

Is this a relevant or fair criticism? Actually, it highlights a problem somewhat rampant through many of Alberta’s well-used structures. Infrastructure is lagging behind requirements in many cases, and is further held up by venue owners and managers who think things are “good enough.” Conference organizers run the risk of tainting an event for nothing more than failing to provide decent internet access. Spotty connections aside, the fusedlogic team was still able to get some great interviews broadcast live and recorded for the interview-ees to embed on their own websites. By the second day, the amazing staff over at Achilles Media (the event organizers) were able to obtain a better connection and pipe it out to the rest of us. With that taken care of, the event flowed on seamlessly.

Even before these issues were sorted out, we were able to to do some pretty exciting things. With most of our time spent interviewing conference delegates, politicians, keynote speakers and special guests, we got a great look at the culture that surrounds online media and some of the traditional media that have jumped on board. Chats with personalities like Shira Lazar (a prolific content producer from the US) or Nadja and Joshua from B360 Media (who won the award for Hottest Emerging Digital Property for their Cooking, Lifestyle and Culture website) helped renew our faith in the online digital scene and the amazing content that can be produced there.

One of our most interesting interviews of the weekend was with a Canadian photographer and entrepreneur named Kris Krüg (check out his Flickr group). Kris built an online resource to create easily deployable, throw-away websites for groups like sports teams, churches, or other community organizations that needed a quick and simple online presence. After selling that company in 2007, he has gone on to publish his photography in such places as the LA Times and Rolling Stone Magzine and to speak regularly about online creative licensing. Based in Vancouver, but spending much of his time in Shanghai, he was recently asked to speak at the Ted Talks Shanghai event. Walter had a fascinating talk with Kris, which we would invite you to check out below:

 

 

 

 

Author: Paul Ney.
Contributions from Edmontonians article by Walter Schwabe.
Images are used under Creative Commons license from Kris Krüg. View originals here.