In fact, I love it so much that you’ll rarely find me away from my laptop. During American Idol and The Voice season I can be found in front of the television but that’s about it.
Smart man – and futurist – Gerd Leonhard just announced that he’s introducing media-free days: one day a week without internet, TV or any other form of online connection.
Yes, I know this concept isn’t new. Plenty of folks have been unplugging and taking a break from the interwebs. But not me. Until now.
Why Gerd’s post resonated with me, I’ve no idea.
A nice man from UPS arrived at my office this morning with two books I ordered from Amazon. So it looks like I have all the motivation I need to unplug one day a week starting … this Sunday?
Of course, I’m going to have to tell you how it goes.
On May 7 I’ll be in Toronto moderating a panel on how to create, fund and distribute a web series.
Through the National Screen Institute, my colleagues and I have been working with Bite TV to plan this event which takes place at Second City.
The web series panelists include Marcia Martin senior vice president, original content at Blue Ant; Jonas Diamond, executive producer of Smiley Guy Studios and CEO at iThentic; Andra Sheffer, executive director of the Independent Production Fund; and Nathalie Clermont, director of program management for the Canada Media Fund.
After the panel discussion, three finalists from the Bite TV Web Series Competition will pitch their web series ideas. The winner gets a $10,000 development deal.
Pass on the invitation (above) to anyone you think would appreciate this afternoon event. Clicking the image will open a new email message allowing you to RSVP directly to Blue Ant.
In the meantime, if you’re serious about making a web series, check out one of the best free resources I’ve ever seen on building an audience for your web series. The guide was written for the Independent Production Fund by the super-talented Julie Giles of GreenHAT Digital.
Don’t ask what on earth inspired me to do this but here it is.
Me aged 11 and me today.
Last Sunday local photographer Ian McCausland came to NSI’s office (my workplace) to take photos of our current students. Staff were offered the chance to update their mugshot and since mine was three years old I figured I’d better get a new one.
Ian always does a fab job so I’m pretty pleased with the photos.
In a moment of madness I dug through old snaps last night to unearth a school pic from 1985.
I’m sure I’ll regret having done this but for now you get to laugh at the 11 year old me.
I’m very excited to tell you that I’ve been nominated for a Women of Distinction award.
First off, I never thought I’d see the word ‘distinction’ anywhere in a sentence with my name. Those of you who know me well know that I have a potty mouth and like to speak my mind.
Nonetheless I received the wonderful news that I’m officially nominated for these awards which recognise women who have enriched the community and inspired people through their creativity, leadership, compassion and dedication.
I’ve been nominated in the public awareness and communications category for my work at the National Screen Institute – Canada (NSI) where I manage their website and other online spaces and program their online short film festival, and also for the social media marketing stuff I do.
I put off writing this post because it all seems incredibly surreal. But I do recognise its importance. I think there’s a tendency for women to question their skills and abilities sometimes where we should really be celebrating them.
So this post is one step towards saying ‘Yey me!’
Three of my beautiful colleagues are also nominated: Melissa Kajpust, Ursula Lawson and Lisa Meeches (pictured below) are nominated in the circle of inspiration category for their incredible work with and commitment to our NSI New Voices course and students which introduces Aboriginal folks to careers in film and television.
We’re all very flattered to have been nominated.
I’d like to say a very big thank you to my colleague Chris Vajcner for being the driving force behind all this. It’s a wonderful feeling to have someone believe in you so much.
The award’s gala takes place on May 1 where I get to put on a posh frock and feel all special.
I watched a video yesterday of fellow Canadian blogger Elan Morgan (above) giving a presention at TEDx Regina back in May 2012.
I had tears in my eyes during some parts of Elan’s presentation on self-doubt and the power of personal narrative. Clearly I was moved. Not only by what she had to say but also how she said it: sometimes tearing up herself on stage.
So I did what any self-respecting blogger does: I fired off an email to Elan to tell her how brilliant she is.
I’ve known Elan – who uses the moniker Schmutzie – for a few years. I first became aware of her because she runs the wonderful Canadian Weblog Awards. For the past two years I’ve been part of the CWA jury so we’ve done our fair share of emailing back and forth.
I finally got to meet Elan late last year when she came to Winnipeg for MBlog 2012 – the first blogging conference run by New Media Manitoba at which I was moderating two panels. Elan was on one of the panels and also giving her own presentation.
Sometimes I come across as this chatty, confident person and I (appeared to be) in fine form the night before the conference at a networking event. But truth be told I hung out for most of the evening with friend and blogger Erica Glasier. I don’t totally dig the networking thing. So even though Elan was there I didn’t talk to her a whole lot.
The same can be said of the next day when the conference took place. It takes all my energy and more to present or moderate a panel so I didn’t do much ‘networking’ with the other folks at the conference. Again, Elan was there but we didn’t talk much.
Fast forward a couple of months and I decided to spend some time reading through Elan’s blog.
Elan has been able to do something magical with her writing by taking significant and traumatic life events and blogging about them in a way that is inspirational and wise.
Of course, she doesn’t just blog about that stuff. She writes about trillions of different things including design and photography.
To get a taste of how amazing Elan is, please watch this video below of her TEDx Regina presentation. Maybe grab a tissue too.
Elan will be giving the closing keynote at BlogWest next week where I know she’ll be brilliant.
