Ludovico Clockwork Orange - Michael nus

I’ve said it before: The social media community in Toronto is a really great tight-knit group of folks who, all business aside, just like to hang out when the opportunity presents itself.

You can, however, mix business and pleasure and what usually results is a great event that surpasses just another tweetup.

The Social Network - MichaelNus

Grrr that's my phone in there!

My friends at the newly formed company, The House of Bamboo thought it would be a nice treat for the readers of their XavierPop website to get a chance to win tickets to a prescreening of the new Facebook movie, The Social Network – which hits theaters everywhere today. The movie was excellent and the only two criticisms I have with the overall experience is (1) The theater insists that you check your cell phone before the show – with no liability!! and (2) you leave the theater after the movie thinking, “and what have I done with my life?!”

If you use Facebook or any other social network you’ll want to see this movie for sure. I think it’s also a fairly justified portrayal about the speed at which business runs in our generation Y world. Suits are almost a thing of the past – Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Zuckerberg would attest to that in the comfort of his house slippers – and it’s go big or get left behind now; there’s no room for skeptics and risk aversion – as Eduardo Saverin seemed to have learned. Oh and don’t get caught doing coke.

TheBizMedia MichaelNus

TheBizMedia did a super job

Quick congratulations to my roomie who hosted his first #loserkaraoke all by himself last night! Many of us weren’t able to make it due to TedxTO but I’m sure we’ll all be there the next time.

Speaking of TEDx I gotta say that it was a very well executed event. I didn’t attend the day event in person but I was one of the many people watching the live stream, produced by the talented video team at TheBizMedia. For an event that hasn’t been around in Toronto for long, this thing went very smoothly with few technical problems. The stream was clear and high quality (at least for me, but I have a 20 Megabit connection and an Intel i7) and the speakers were really special. Trey Anthony was particularly inspiring!

The afterparty, put on by Julian and NotableTV was also well executed and was a good place to meet new people and make new connections – and boy did I get to connect with a whole lot of people.  One of note was Chris Aimone from Interaxon, a company that deals in thought-controlled computing! Fear the future! I got put into a chair and fitted with a brain wave-reading headset and raced against Sean to fill a virtual martini glass using only the power of my mind! The perk of winning? A drink ticket for anything at the bar! See the video below for a quick explanation of how it works and check out Sean Ward’s vlog for some footage of our race.

It was also great to meet some of my readers face to face. I think the best thing about blogging is when someone comes up to me, shakes my hand and tells me that a post inspired them or made them smile. I could do this for the rest of my life whenever I hear that from folks. It’s not the praise for me that moves me, it’s the fact that someone really took something away from my blog that made them happy. My blog is about you, not me. I got that same feeling when my music touched people and I am happy that my words are still being heard.

Be sure to check out TEDxToronto.com and NotableTV.com for videos and pictures of this year’s event and afterparty. Thanks to Stella Artois for making it classy once again!