Merging Media 2011 (as reviewed by @anabellebf)

I (Anabelle) had the chance to attend the first day of the Merging Media conference at SFU Woodwards thanks to an invite to Hummingbird604.com. Armed with my iPad and my favourite stylus app, I was ready for a day of interesting talks and really smart people.

The day started with a keynote from Curt Mavis from Lionsgate. Curt discussed how the entertainment world was changed (and is still changing) by the arrival of social media. I really liked this talk and I was really interested in the effects of of the web on the producer-consumer relationship.

After a panel that discussed the new funding practices for media and artistic projects, we had Scott Dodson from Bobber Interactive tell us about gamification. Yes, it’s a buzzword these days, but he really made the uses and limits of the practice much clearer in my mind. By a clever use of game theory and human behaviour analysis, he clearly explained how games can be used to manipulate human actions.

We were then treated to an amazing presentation of some of the National Film Board‘s most recent prize-winning interactive projects from around the country. If you were following my tweets, you know that I was especially moved by the Welcome to Pine Point project. It actually made me want to start to learn interactive programming to make such beautiful projects…

The last talk I attended was by Brian Glick, who works for YouTube. He discussed strategies and practices to make your Youtube channel more popular and become a way to get more business. He discussed Youtube channels such as Epic Meal Time and How It Should Have Ended and used them as examples on how to use Youtube right. And then I wanted to start a video channel too!

I left this full-packed day with a ton of ideas and inspiration to develop my creative skills on the Web. I couldn’t attend the second day, but I’m sure that the talks were as interesting and useful.

I hope Merging Media comes back next year for more world-class presenters and intelligent discussion!

Disclaimer: Anabelle attended Merging Media on a media pass provided by The Social Agency to Hummingbird604.com. While no post was required nor compensation was provided for posting, it was important for me (Raul) to return the kindness of Merging Media’s invitation by way of a blog post on the event. Thanks for the invite!

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