Posts tagged smdayto

Event planning is a lot of work but the rewards can be well worth it. I took a moment to reflect on the past year and noticed that I keep finding myself at the epicenter of some pretty large scale events. The funny thing is that I never really stopped to think about them and was surprised at how much I got myself into.

I guess it all started with the founding of Tweetgasm (along with Rannie and Casie) before jumping headfirst into Movember when I just got so stoked about the cause that I went all out on making things happen for the Toronto front. It wasn’t too long after that I got involved in Social Media Week, Star Wars Day Toronto and now Mashable Social Media Day. I guess I just love the Toronto community and I like to do things that get people connecting. Getting all the sponsors on board, grabbing the venue, arranging music, speakers, name tags, swag, AV, posters and more are definitely all hands-on tasks and the greatest challenge in organizing any event of this scale is, well, staying organized!

Dan (my co-organizer) and I have been really passionate about making this happen so we both put in the time and effort to make Social Media Day Toronto a great event and we are just beaming with pride about the showing you all made in your attendance. You all made Social Media Day Toronto one of the top 5 most successful Mashable meetups in the WORLD! We even got Mayor Rob Ford to officially recognize Social Media Toronto. You networked, learned, and reveled in the power of community and we salute you. It was great to see some faces I have not seen in a long time. It just goes to show that no matter how big our city gets we all know where to find each other. It was great to hang out with  my dear friend Casie after a long while. She and I have been very busy but as we all orbit the sun eventually we gotta cross paths at some point! Make sure you comment below and say hi to those you’ve met too! If you click the tweet button before you send your comment and tag it with #smdayTO you may just find that missed connection you found at the live event!

You could also check out this page (available for a limited time before the beta test begins) courtesy of Epilogger and see the whole story!

There were some really great moments that night and I’ll never forget:

Rob Kozinets‘ netnography lecture – really, really first rate material. Make sure to get at him on twitter with any questions!

Michael O’Connor Clarke‘s lecture on “The Worst F***ing Idea I’ve Ever Heard!” Remember, social media is like soylent green. It’s made of people!

Casie Stewart‘s journey through the blog biz and her crown as “Lady Blogga.”

Those sweet USB bracelets Toyota Canada was handing out to those who ventured to their booth (you smart cookies you!)

Rogers hooking up a lucky, engaged winner with a brand new Galaxy Tab! Lucky bastard! Rogers has this Social Media thing nailed!

Although Dan has done a commendable job of posting all our thank yous in his blog post I will thank the following people once again anyway!

Thank you:

Thank you from the SMDayTO Organizers

The twitter community for getting excited about Social Media Toronto and showing up in force! We had easily over 350 people at Tattoo Rock Parlour and it was electric!

To Rebecca of Epilogger for making the awesome poster at the top of this page!

To Amanda and Sangita at Tattoo Rock parlour and INK Events for hooking us up with a venue large enough to hold so many people with and AWESOME sound system!

To our gracious sponsors, Rogers, Toyota, Saatchi & Saatchi Canada, Pop Chips, Sticker You, Putting Edge and Epilogger. You all made the wheels turn and without you we could not have done it.

To DJ Jeff Button for laying down sick beats while you all networked, chatted and danced!

To our AMAZING speakers, Robert Kozinets, Michael O’Connor Clarke and Casie Stewart for providing great content and education. Anyone who listened to your talks most likely became at least 20% smarter by virtue of your pearls of wisdom!

We hope to see you all again next year and look forward to seeing you all around town and on top of the world, together!