Tag: event Posts

Well, here we are, two days away from the start of the Winter Olympics. As everyone knows, the event is massively over budget. The last time I checked, the total cost (thus far) of the Winter Olympics was at 6 billion dollars, the majority of which was paid for by the people of British Columbia. I’ve been on the fence for a while now about whether or not I want to be in town for the Olympics. I didn’t vote for them, but at the same time, here they are, and there’s no going back now. So to that end, I finally decided that I’m going to try to be in Vancouver for at least a week during the games to ultimately see what they are all about, and see if I can help bring exposure to what it’s like to be a tourist in your own city for a […]

I get the odd inquiry about the work involved in organizing a conference, particularly a WordCamp. Rebecca, John and I have organized several WordCamps, but WordCamp Whistler was undoubtedly the hardest of the bunch, mainly because none of us had the opportunity to assess the location until the night before. While the event was really successful in my mind (the speakers were great, the staff at the Fairmont were helpful, and everyone I talked to felt that they got good value from the event), in retrospect I might have organized something a bit more local. The costs associated with the event kept ballooning over time, and it was extremely stressful near the end when we were operating the event in the red, especially since I was basically bankrolling the event myself. We were forced to raise ticket prices at the end higher than I had wanted, simply to recoup some […]

On Tuesday night I had the privilege of attending a private party at the Molson brewery put on by Molson. Molson decided to have a little get together with some of the local social media individuals and bloggers, and while pounding back a few beers. The event was called Brew 2.0, and it took place down on Burrard Street at the big brewery. I’ve actually never been inside a brewery before, and it was a really cool experience. It’s amazing how many beers Canadians are consuming every minute, something you get a sense of as the machines pump out cans of Rickard’s Red and Molson Canadian. I met a lot of great people during the event, including Geoff Molson (the great-great-great-great grandson of the inventor of Molson Canadian) and Gord Rickards, the talent behind Rickard’s Red. I also got to finally meet Meghan, Andy and Tonia, who, coincidentally, all look […]