Onedegree.ca Coverage

A few weeks back I was invited to act as a correspondent for Onedegree.ca - a leading Canadian social media and digital marketing blog. I attended the Canada 3.0 Forum in Stratford Ontario, which was a great event for industry, academics and government to create a dialogue around defining Canada's digital future.

Working with Onedegree.ca was an opportunity to expand my influence in the blogosphere to a site that actually has a readership and a specific focus. Some details about Onedegree.ca:

Established in 2005, One Degree is the central gathering place for Canadian
Online Marketers. We have over 2600 active subscriptions to One Degree via
email as well as RSS feeds. In addition, we reach via the site an average
of 12,500 unique visitors per month. One Degree readers are primarily
Canadian Internet marketing professionals and those in related fields like
web design, PR, analytics, etc. We're one of the largest (if not the
largest) Internet marketing blogs in Canada. One Degree has repeatedly been
labeled a "Must Read" blog by Marketing Magazine. And we typically rank in
the top 100 on Advertising Age's "Power 150" - their global ranking of top
Media and Marketing Blogs.

Covering the Canada 3.0 Forum was a real treat because as "Press", you have a mandate to speak to anyone. It is a great way to start a conversation and gives your interaction purpose. I was able to interview Amanda Holtsrom, of Opentext, and Thomas Purves, a Toronto based technologist, futurist and blogger. Their interviews provided the basis for my article on the importance of marketers in creating conversations between the end-user and the engineers and designers who are creating products. (Part 1 of The Tie That Binds Great Design: Marketers Must Be Conversation Starters, and Part 2)

I was also lucky enough to interview Avi Pollack, Head of Innovation for RBC and we spoke about innovation in the financial services sector and RBC's approach to new technology.

Erin Bury filled me in on Redwire, a startup community for entrepreneurs and startups based in Toronto.

Lastly, Gary Schwartz, President of Impact Mobile gave a very interesting interview on mobile communication and how SMS is still king in terms of user base and creating mobile marketing campaigns that get results. He certainly is a believer in text and is not afraid to speak frankly about the reality of creating apps for new smartphones. In his opinion, LONG LIVE TEXT! Food for thought for me as I continue to explore mobile applications as viable businesses.

All in all, covering events for Onedegree.ca was a great experience. I hope to do more work with them in the future.