business.creativity.life.

Sprouter is yet another addition to the world of social media and online communities, except this time it’s targeted to one primary domain: entrepreneurs. The website is geared towards global networking and collaboration between entrepreneurs. Better yet, founder and CEO, Sarah Prevette, is a fellow Canadian! 

Sprouter is definitely a great initiative that enables valuable connections and information for anyone interested in entrepreneurship. But before you get too excited, unfortunately it’s still in private-testing and is issuing members by invite only. But there may be a silver lining for the eager entrepreneurs of Ottawa.Erin Bury, of RedWire, has taken liberties to create a ‘Sprout Up Ottawa‘ Meetup group for all of us Sprouter enthusiasts to get connected. Their first meetup is coming up fast: September 16 at The Velvet Room (see details below). So don’t wait, get involved and let your entrepreneurial ambitions sprout!

Sprout Up Ottawa Meetup Details

When: September 16 (6-9 pm)

Where: The Velvet Room

62 York Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A1
(613)241-6810 

Details: Sprout Up Ottawa Meetup Group

After a recent meetup with fellow Ottawa web enthusiasts it seemed apparent that the newcomers of social media were finding it a little overwhelming to actively participate in multiple forms of social media both on the giving and receiving ends. So here are a few tips on how to manage your time and get the most out of your social media channels.

Social Media Time Slot(s)

We are all busy and pressed for time, but sometimes an initial 2 minute twitter break can turn into an hour-long distraction. Similar to most time management strategies, you should allocate a time for your social media engagements like blogging and checking rss feeds and make sure you stick to it. This way you’ll be more efficient with your time.

Don’t Suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out)

With so much information being broadcast worldwide every second, it can be a bit daunting to grasp all of the information, this is why skimming information will be your best time management tactic. Browse over titles and select the ones that really interest you, even when reading the article browsing over it so that you get the ‘jist’ of it is enough. Especially when you have 5 other articles you want to read and you only have half an hour left in your ‘social media time slot’, skimming will reap the most benefits.

Use Applications and Tools

There are so many applications and tools that tech savvy social media users have developed to battle the same issues you’re dealing with, so use them! Below are just a few of the helpful resources available for the social media enthusiast:

TweetDeck – a great tool for getting fast results for twitter searches, and monitoring multiple twitter accounts

Google Reader – awesome tool for RSS feeds, complete with tagging, notes, friends to share feeds with and more

Twuffer – a helpful tool for the time-pressed tweeter. This tool helps you to schedule your tweets, so you can queue them up and have them broadcast at a specified date and time

More social media tools to make your life easier – check out this great link: http://freelancefolder.com/35-social-media-tools-make-life-easier/

To get real-time updates of the BIT Blog and what’s happening with the BIT Degree itself, follow @BITDegree on Twitter!

For the capital of a nation such as Canada, Ottawa brings ‘big city’ caliber with a small-town, homely feel. Amongst its eclectic mix of high-tech, politics and Government driven population, business and innovation are domains that have a large following but are often not recognized or even associated with Ottawa. So how do we bring these hidden gems to the forefront? The Ottawa Innovation Challenge is just one of the ways in which we can expose and highlight the emerging talent in business and innovation.

OIC is an event dear to my heart as I had the privilege to work with Steve Robins, Will Armstrong and Manu Sharma on this initiative from the day the idea was brought up in a casual TalentBridge Friday conversation. I’ve organized events before but working on the OIC was a unique learning experience in itself.  We had many discussions, debates and focus groups to make sure we were creating something of purpose and value to both students and companies.

Bringing an idea like this to fruition in just a matter of weeks clearly illustrates how much we believe in its purpose and what opportunities it can bring to the young entrepreneurial innovators of Ottawa. We are actively taking an initiative to establish a new name for Ottawa. One that connotates originality, creativity, forward-thinking, and opportunity. Please join us for the weekend-long event, that is sure to be filled with fun, learning and opportunity. If you are unable to attend but still want to be in on the action, feel free to follow the event via twitter (@innovateottawa) to have a live feed of the weekend’s happenings and please stay tuned for the next OIC!

What:      The Ottawa Innovation Challenge (OIC)

A 48-hour competition to find creative, entrepreneurial solutions for real business problems presented from Ottawa-based companies: Benbria and ThinkSM.

When:    Friday, August 21 @5pm to Sunday, August 23, 2009

Where:   Carleton University, Ottawa

Who:        Registered students from a recognized post secondary institution with an interest or background in entrepreneurship and business development are eligible to register. Applicants must be highly motivated, comfortable with working in a diverse team, as teams will be assembled by the OIC committee, and must have a keen interest in entrepreneurship

How:        Contact Steve Robins at steve@innovationottawa.com or Manu Sharma msharma@ocri.ca to register now! Find additional information at  www.innovationottawa.com

Why:

• Showcase your talents where it matters: in application to real-world problems 
• Become exposed to the realities of the business world, with the presented problems, developing teamwork strategies and working through a problem-solving pipeline
• Network with top Ottawa company executives and bright, young talent of Ottawa

For fellow BIT students, alumni or people just interested in IT the Bachelor of Information Technology Degree at Carleton University has just launched its official blog: BIT Blog. It will act as a central hub for news, tips, trends and articles relating to BIT and its two halves: networking and interactive multimedia. Stay informed with these emerging technologies and subscribe to BIT Blog!

Most of us, when we watch movies, pay little attention to the underlying message or psychology that a movie preview holds. We’re usually dumb-founded by the spectacular graphics or are in hysterics from the comedic relief that the upcoming film has to offer. But lately I saw a preview that sparked my interest on a deeper level. The movie is titled ‘Gamer‘ (in theaters September 4, 2009) from the trailer, the movie explores a possible future where the real and gaming worlds intertwine. Where humans play a video game that controls characters who themselves are real people. In the video game industry there is constant effort to break barriers between the virtual and real worlds and this movie, makes its own unique effort to break the barrier or at least examine a ‘what if’ scenario if it was. It will be interesting to see how the movie unfolds, hopefully it doesn’t disappoint! (Fingers crossed, the visual effects will compensate if the story line doesn’t deliver)

With all this buzz about Twitter and Facebook more and more savvy entrepreneurs and business affiliates are seeing the wide range of opportunities that social media presents for marketing and advertising. 

Just so that we’re all on the same page, social media is media designed to disperse as a result of social interactions. Social media supports the marriage between technology and the human need to interact on a social level, some popular examples include: Technorati, Flickr, LinkedIn, Youtube, Wikipedia and more.  Social media supports: making a democracy of information and knowledge, of transforming one-to-many media dialogues into many-to-many social media dialogues, and converting people from content consumers to producers. So what does all of this have to do with marketing?

At the heart of marketing and advertising is to engage people such that they go from being interested in what is being offered to being a loyal consumer.  The problems with traditional advertising, ie: print posters, radio and television commercials, etc is that they rarely engage viewers and have become less personal, therefore leaving a detachment between a potential customer and the advertised company. Many viewers are left with the notion of ‘what will it do for me?’ This is where social media breaks barriers. Once you have joined and actively participated in online communities with valuable information, mere network connections start to build trust and recognize your output as valuable. This is exactly what brands and companies want to establish with their current and potential customers: trust. With the help of the Internet and social media these same companies can connect with people from all types of demographics, a task not easily carried out with traditional advertising and marketing campaigns. The reality of these online social communities is that they contain millions of people worldwide who have the potential, from a business perspective, to be converted into your next customers.

Yes, social media is the current trend and none of us can accurately predict how long it will last or where it will go. But one of the key factors to good marketing is staying with the trends, also known as ‘keeping up with the Jones’’; it’s where the leaders are and where most people want to be. Look at how marketing on the Internet has flourished. In the early 90s when the Internet first started, the average person didn’t really understand what it was or what purpose it could serve to them. The smart business and marketing people saw an opportunity, jumped on the bandwagon and are now veterans of advertising on the most used information platform in the world. For all we know, social media could be the tiny wave that is supposed to forewarn us of the Tsunami waiting to happen, so don’t let the wave pass you by.

This was a little treasure I stumbled upon today: Bumptop, a fresh new approach to your computer’s desktop. This amazing solution melds my worlds of 3D and innovative technology, and the best part of all is that Bumptop is Canadian!!! With its office in downtown Toronto, it has still made waves with BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal and more. Check out the video below, enjoy!