I was invited to speak yesterday evening to a local group of Edmonton area business people who primarily belong to the same online network. The Edmonton Linkedin Business Network, a group started by Stephen Lau, a self-described workaholic professional in the commercial real estate industry, specifically with "Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd. | ONCOR International" Stephen is also a director with the Hong Kong - Canada Business Association, and if that wasn't enough, he's also an Executive Recruiter with Summit Placement Services.
Anyway, the primary rule to the group is that in order to join you must have a Linkedin profile so that others can connect with you online, thereby growing our networks. I was part of a three speaker event with the others being Evita McConnell, owner of Evita McConnell Graphics and Joe MacKay of Revo Video.
Each of my co-presenters provided a unique perspective and human touch to their message which I really appreciated.
Almost all of the meetings take place at Lau's family restaurant, the Golden Rice Bowl and the food is ridiculously amazing. I had a wonderful sesame lemon chicken last night that I'm still dreaming of. Getting something with sesame seeds on it these days due to allergies is rare so for me it brought me back to sesame seed bunwiches as a kid...
Anyway, if you want to grow you network offline as a result of your online activities this is a great model to follow. You need to have the energy to commit to organizing it, which Stephen has shown a clear talent for as it's hard work to be sure...
By the way if you look "right", you'll see a button to my linkedin profile, feel free to look me up...
Also here are some pictures from the event...notice the great gift the speakers received from Mari-lyn Hudson of Heart @ Work, a local artist and marketer.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Edmonton Linkedin Business Event
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Twitter Raises $15 Million in VC Cash
The timing couldn't be better to raise this round of VC financing as Twitter needs tweaking. You can find out more about the cash specifics here at Gigaom.
There is currently a cascading effect happening on this site. The uptime isn't of late, so...."up" as it is "down". This means that people who require the need to update the world on the bagel type they're having at this very moment (I use twitter but not for bagel updates), are quickly looking for other solutions to their need for micro-blogging.
So what is that solution, well Jeremiah Owyang (and a few others) has been mentioning the fact that there is a bit of an exodus to a new social media aggregation service called Friendfeed.com. This is a site where you can keep up to date on almost all of your social networking habits (er channels) and that of your friends and colleagues. What this means for twitter, a company that despite the new cash is scrambling to save itself from the lack of apparent scalability capability is that they are in serious damage control mode...this may all be the fact that they're a victim of their own success and the technology is breaking down. This also means that the "pre-money" valuation of $80 million for twitter may not stay there for long if they continue to lose twitter enthusiasts in the droves they currently are...Everytime someone like Jeremiah says Friendfeed another group takes off. This is an "early-adopter" technology to say the least and the early-adopter crowd is fickle (like everyone else online I guess), keep em happy and perform or they're "outta here" and in many cases gone for good...
Oh the pressures of a near $100 million dollar tech company eh???
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
DemoCamp Edmonton 2
Well, DemoCamp Edmonton was a great success. Excellent turnout and some great companies and presentations, more on that later. Not having been at the first one I was at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of knowing a lot of the crowd. That said I was able to chat with a number of folks who I'll no doubt have on going conversations with over the coming days...
That said, I'm going to spend some time with someone who's still willing to call herself my wife even though she hasn't seen more than a few minutes of me over the last while...then I'll post more details about tonights event. Oh and watch for new youtube vids from tonight at the fusedlogic channel of all the presentations going up soon. Also a couple of interviews, one with a local blogger, here's Mack's twitter profile and here is Mack's blog post about tonight that focuses on the presentations (notice yours truly in the picture:) Also, had a great interview and chat with John Bristowe, a brand evangelist from Microsoft...
Just a reminder, come out to listen to Martin Bryne of Yahoo! Canada over lunch. RSVP. I tried to get John at Microsoft to come out but it was way too short notice for him...maybe next time...
Edmonton Realtor Kerri-lyn Holland
Kerri-lyn Holland is a new client and we're very proud to be working on her web 2.0 campaign. She is a top Edmonton Realtor and her tagline is "Redefining Real Estate". Below is one of her new videos, we're working hard also on her blog. When we're all done setting up channels for Kerri-lyn Holland, she'll start to dominate the Edmonton Real Estate market in terms of general recognition, traffic to her web site and listings. What I really like about working with Kerri-lyn is that it's very evident that she cares about her clients. They're job number one, she lives and breathes their real estate needs and works tirelessly to see that her real estate customers are always happy. You'll see from the video that unlike many other Realtors, Kerri-lyn Holland's style can be described as a quite confidence. Enjoy the video and watch for more posts on client projects in the future...
Monday, May 19, 2008
DemoCamp Edmonton
Well I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening. In the late afternoon I'm doing a short presentation at the Business Link and then I'm off to DemoCamp Edmonton at the Billiard Club.
Here's the list of attendees, some I know, most I don't and I'm excited to meet and see everyone...There's quite a nice sized group of local tech enthusiasts showing up by the looks of it. Now showing up means that I'll miss story time with my daughter and that's tough to take but hopefully she and her co-pilot Mickey Mouse still learn to fly without me...
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Here Comes The Pain!
Growing pains that is. For many who know me the fact that I've decided to "grow" fusedlogic will come as a bit of a surprise. Why? Because for nearly a decade now I've stuck to my business plan which has been to keep my company small. Seems weird doesn't it? A corporation who uses the term "accelerate business leaders" in its tag line to represent the "growth" that we enable our clients to experience has itself been focused on staying small. This for me has always been a life-balance and harmony issue.
This has also been an internal struggle of mine, again those who know me well also know I'm aggressive and business growth is in my DNA. I've been fortunate to come across great projects that have afforded fusedlogic the ability to stay a boutique firm. That said, now that my daughter is 3 and we're on to bigger and better things like training wheels and still the odd potty training episode...I'm ready in my heart and so is my wife, it's time to turn up the heat on fusedlogic. I'm feeling frisky these days, actually "amazingly excited" is a more accurate term. The opportunities for fusedlogic to grow like crazy are EVERYWHERE and have been calling out to me for a year now...
REINVENT ITSELF: That's exactly what I've done. The NEW PLAN is in place and really since early 2005 I've been researching, studying and experimenting with Web 2.0, social media and all the widgets and online apps I could possibly stand, researching traffic generation etc...I've been watching Google, Yahoo, MSN, and watching for gaps that my clients could exploit...Well I've found more than just one. I continue to search for key people around the world from whom fusedlogic and I can learn from, align and work with. That list is ever growing and it's very cool as it sits today. This reinvention has been in the works for years now...
GAPS: We have and will continue to take our knowledge, our growing global team and bring it to bear on our client's dreams. Applying Web 2.0 strategies and online marketing tactics that work for them, positioning them ahead and away from their competition. fusedlogic is now solely focused on Web 2.0 work moving forward, even though we have sparked growth for many companies doing what many people have tried to describe as the traditional management consulting approach, that's all changed now. We were never really traditional in anything we did...we were always renegades.
STILL RENEGADES: As more projects come in and I expand my team of collaborators with smart, capable and creative minds, our culture will be that of never say die ground breakers...I'll set the tone by pushing hard to keep us brave and mobile, slippery and sleek. There have in fusedlogic's past been some hard times, when I was in a car accident and couldn't work, when my daughter was born, my wife had to spend three months basically in the hospital with hypertension...but we've come through those difficulties and we're stronger than ever...2007 was a record year and 2008 well there's lots of real estate left in this year but so far..."we happy."
OUR CLIENTS: Our clients are awesome human beings and have always been willing participants in new directions, open to suggestions, change and challenges that push their limits of bravery. Growth will come for all of us because in our hearts we're ready, we're ready for the road ahead and even though there will be some bumps, sharp curves and construction zones, we're ready. The growing pains will be something we can and will handle...
So I say, "bring it on boys and girls...let's rock!"
By the way, don't forget to come out to our Yahoo! Canada luncheon on May 21st. RSVP here
You can also register with the Edmonton LinkedIn network as well...
See you there...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Fusedlogic Teams Up With Yahoo! Canada
Yahoo! Canada
Media release – For immediate release
Sherwood Park, AB – May 14, 2008 - how can you connect and generate business leads from 84 million searches a day in
One of the easiest and most powerful online tools out there today to help businesses market themselves virtually is through Search Engine Marketing . “fusedlogic’s Walter Schwabe, Chief Evolution Officer is extremely proud to present this rare opportunity to learn strategies related to online marketing and Search Engines in particular.from Martin Byrne, Head of Yahoo! Search Marketing Canada.
“We get more than 4 million searches a day from Canadians, it’s a high volume business and very interesting.” said Martin Byrne, Head of Yahoo! Search Marketing,
Consider that there are over 84 million searches performed each day in
The presentation will focus on how you can use Yahoo! and search engine marketing to increase your brand recognition, credibility and business leads. You will come away from the event with new insight on how to effectively leverage search engines
When: Wednesday May 21st, 2008
Time: 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM
Where: Golden Rice Bowl Restaurant,
Investment: $25.00 per attendee pre-registered, dim sum lunch included.
For more information and to pre-register, please contact:
Walter Schwabe 780-909-9787
About FusedLogic
Fusedlogic inc. is one of
About Martin Byrne
Martin has spent the last 15 years of his career building online business for a wide variety of Canadian and international organizations.
Initially Martin worked for several Canadian internet presence agencies building websites for TD Bank, BMW Canada, Bank of New York, Deutchbank and more. Martin eventually moved from building online businesses’ to managing them as Director of The National Post’s online news business, Director of media sales operations for Sympatico/MSN Canada and most recently taking on the role as National Director for Yahoo’s Canada’s Search Marketing operations. Martin also holds an executive MBA from the Rotman School of Business.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Net Neutrality
Well, low and behold Mr. Rogers has had a great year. Why? Well, in part because Rogers along with Bell are restricting the flow of bandwidth. Picking and choosing which content, sites and in effect businesses get bandwidth priority. If Rogers doesn't like you, your content or access to your content moves "slowly"...same goes for Bell. The end result is that you and I are dictated to by these telecom "dinosaurs". There's nothing hip about being a billionaire dictator Mr. Rogers.
Want to know what Net Neutrality is? Here's a cool video by Amber Mac.
TAKE ACTION: Time to mobilize the mob...send these guys a message or better yet a million messages. In fact, if you're a Rogers or Bell shareholder you may want to sell those shares. I've been a Rogers cellular client and now I'm on the lookout for a package elsewhere...good-bye Rogers...go to Bell and chat with them online...
By the way, nice work Amber.
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