Can I return to Vancouver when there are NO Games? I hope so....
While I was in Vancouver for the Olympic Games, I discovered something very special—The True North Media House.
Through this digital initiative, I met people who were passionate about blogging and social media. For the three days that I was involved in this incredible community-building endeavor, I felt like I was apart of something large and incredible. I was participating in the first social media Olympic Games.
The timing could not have been perfect. I was at the pinnacle of my digital rebirth. I had started tweeting, and blogging and flickering (does that word exist) again just a year and a half ago. But I wasn’t doing it for myself. I was doing it for the company I worked for. I launched a travel blog just two months ago, right before the beginning of the Olympic Games.
Just one month ago I attended the SXSW Interactive Festival. I was a digital newbie at the conference so my experience was mixed. I think the North Voice conference will perfect for me, given my interest in blogging and social media.
My brief experience with people like @kk and @scales gave me a taste of the Vancouver social media community and now I want more–without the Games. I would like to use the $500 grant to not only learn how to blog better, but to also to learn how to create community around blogging and social media in Chicago, and at the various Sports festivals around the world.
During the conference, I would also like to learn how to create a similar digital community for the South Africa World Cup. I really hope that the leaders of the Vancouver digital and social media community will make contact with similar people in South Africa. I would like to attend the World Cup in South Africa and I hope there will be a similar digital community like that in Vancouver.
