As promised here’s some of the footage Lauren and I took at Podcamp Halifax 2011. Since we don’t have a video camera at East Coast By Choice, we relied on the kindness of my colleague Jonathan (a.k.a. @jderouchie) who let us borrow an iPod Touch. The results were kind of mixed depending on the room we were in so, for the most part these are just clips.

Although we were able to get about half an hour of Giles Crouch’s fantastic session on the State of Social Media in Atlantic Canada, it’s too large a file to share on Vimeo or YouTube. If there are any video gurus out there who know how I might be able to compress the file, please drop me a line and I’ll share the video. Here’s the online version of the report from Media Badger.

Here’s Lauren getting some social media oatmeal from Chris Campbell’s session.

And, finally, one of the best attended sessions was Maria McGowan’s ROI of social media. Here’s the SlideShare.

Lauren & I had an awesome time at Podcamp Halifax 2011 this weekend.

The sessions, as always, were all over the place. We talked about augmented reality (3D dressing room anyone?), oatmeal, the state of social media in Atlantic Canada, and more!

Lauren recaps her day here:

I talk about my biggest takeaway here:

Later this week, we’ll post some videos we captured from the sessions we attended along with related events.

In the meantime, we leave you with this:

Lauren as @KanyeWest

[Here in Halifax and on the East Coast we're in the thick of winter with snow that's here to stay for a while. Next up is a blogger who's no stranger to this site. He interviewed me on Haligonia last year and has the distinction of writing the first East Coast Guest Post a year ago. He's back to talk about a powerful muse here in Nova Scotia. If you have a story to tell about living in the East Coast, drop me a line at kimberly.aliasgrace [at] gmail [dot] com for submission guidelines.]

By Giles Crouch

There’s something about living in a place that juts out into the most notoriously unevenly tempered ocean on our planet. Particularly when you’re not too far north for bitter cold, or too far south for gentle warmth.

We hover somewhere in between. Living on the turbulent edge of seasons and natures fell moods makes for one of those sublime perks that is Nova Scotia—the seasonal symphony of sounds one’s ear can attune to.

Photo credit: Janesdead from Flickr

In winter it is the quick crack of water and syrup freezing under the bark of trees as the temperature plunges downward. The woods snap and pop in a cacophony of chill, a gentle breeze tossing an undercurrent swoosh. When the snow has laid it’s canopy over the land and the air is brittle as you walk, that distinctive crunch underfoot wakes you up carrying you hurriedly forward. At times, when the snow is heavy and falling hard, caught between freezing rain and ice pellets, the sound against the trees is mesmerizing

When spring descends upon the land like a warm face-towel at the end of a long red-eye flight through the night, it awakens you so suddenly. As if the harsh scrubbing of winter had left the land clear to breathe and start anew. Spring rains hypnotize you to sleep, the uncurling leaves bring a sweet undercurrent of happiness in their song. Falling maple seeds spin and if you listen close, they sound of laughter. Different birds take up their songs and familiar tunes are sung of new birth and delights of the rising early worms.

As spring fades and brightens into summer, the lap of the waves on the seashores around the province calm the soul, as if the sea were laying down it’s angry concerto of the winter and spring months. The tempests and squalls will be but interludes to the pervading calm.

Summer rests hot and humid over the land as August gently rolls in. The blanketing of a fog just the soft timpani of a muted drum over the land. Drops of moisture hang like soft bells across the land. Ones heart is restful then, yet chuckling inside.

As autumn rolls in, the colours of the land turn into brilliant cascades of light. Accompanying this Monet’s canvass is the gentle rustle and fall of leaves. In the quiet of a sun-dappled glade as one sits, the falling leaves are gentle in their sound and a sigh escapes them, promising they will return with the turn of the seasons.

Where else in the world is one surrounded by such an ever changing symphony of sounds to inspire and ignite so many emotions? No wonder so many musicians, artists and authors have found such inspiration in this province…

Giles is an ex-pat Brit turned Canadian living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A serial entrepreneur and passionate marketer, he is partner in Social Intelligence firm MediaBadger.

Below is a little bit of web history in the making. Now, I wouldn’t say I have a fear of public speaking (I am a PR gal after all), but where others in my graduating class have gone on to media relations I’ve hidden behind the safety of my computer screen doing the whole online communications thing. That is, until Monday. Here’s my live chat with Giles Crouch (a.k.a. Webconomist) about all things social media.

[By now I'm somewhere in the south of France, far removed from thoughts of snow. The only kind of precipitation here will be of the good old-fashioned vertically descending rain type. For the rest of you left on the East Coast, here's a treat from a Halifax-based blogger on the art and tribulations of shoveling.]

By Giles Crouch

In early November I head down to the basement for the annual check of the weapons cache, to see that all is in order for the coming battles – plow shovel, salt spreader, angled shovel, check and check! This year I vow, yet again, that I will tackle this war with great aplomb as an artiste tackles a masterpiece. Preparation, I argue without much conviction, is half the battle; or perhaps it’s denial. This is the preparation for the inevitable snow storms that will mercilessly pound our coast as we hang precariously out into the most storm-ridden, vitriolic ocean in the world – the Atlantic.

Photo credit: bruceley from Flickr

The first snow falls. A good 20 centimeters and the next morning I awake early, quickly tilting back a hot cup of tea before donning my battle gear; gloves, hat, big boots, thick winter coat. Before I went to sleep the night before, the battle plan was already engaged in my mind. The shovel selected, method of approach and tactics.

I think we all begin the snow-shoveling season this way out here. Determined that all walkways will be barren of snow and the driveway will be immaculate and guarded against ice with liberal doses of salt or sand. So it is, those first few storms. I shovel a little extra back from the walkway edge, giving room for more snow should it dare to storm again! The corners of the driveway at the roadside are pushed back for good exit and entrance room. I feel like a sculptor and gloat over my fine work. Two days later it is a rain-storm and the snow is all but gone. Then the next storm, but I am holding true to my convictions and plans. Even perhaps for the next.

Some say “snow” is a bad four-letter word after New Years. Some may be right. For it seems that by mid-January the convictions have been lost under a series of snow-drifts. News of another snow-storm is met with groans; of the heart and lower back. By now one is stockpiling Ibuprofen and a heating pad has been acquired. The sidewalk gets enough attention to avoid a law suit from the postal carrier and the driveway has a slim patch of reasonable walking width. The rains hold off just long enough now that one still must shovel. I dream that if the snow were regular enough I’d be as buff as Arnold, but as those of us who live in Nova Scotia know, the warming and cooling does better for head colds than abs of steel. So the inevitable battles goes, the best-laid plans are put to waste through storm attrition, the Atlantic grins wickedly in her victory yet again and Jack Frost giggles in the snowbank. Next year I’m buying a snow blower so it won’t snow.

Giles is an ex-pat Brit turned Canadian living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A serial entrepreneur and passionate marketer, he is partner in Social Media agency MediaBadger.