What Happened At Cross Media Toronto 2013: Part One

What a day! Before we begin, we must say that this was one of the best conferences we’ve had the pleasure of attending. The best part? Being able to hear from so many different speakers, thanks to the 7 minute time cap on each person.

We arrived at 8:30AM and picked up our name tag. Interesting fact: any name tags that had a blue circle on them indicated that the person/company was hiring.

FYI:

All my social media peeps – Adobe is hiring (to the tune of 200ppl) in Canada! Check them out! #cmto13

— Cory Stewart (@coryjstewart) February 21, 2013

We were then treated to a lovely breakfast: complete with fair-trade coffee, bagels, fruit and croissants – followed by a prompting by super-host Gavin McGarry to get seated. It must be said that this isn’t Gavin’s first time at the hosting rodeo, and he did a superb job honing in the audience and keeping the pace of the conference (all while injecting selections of his quick wit and sarcastic humour).

We felt it necessary to call out the wifi password – as it definitely set the tone for the duration of the day:

Ha! Check out the wifi password for #cmto13 pic.twitter.com/Frp3YyBnJ8

— Cory Stewart (@coryjstewart) February 21, 2013

Up first was Roel Vertegaal, Director of the Human Media Lab, Queen’s University to talk about paper tablet technology. We snapped a quick video for your viewing pleasure (apologies for the shaky hands – too much fair-trade coffee!)

Here you can see Roel holding the tablet in his hand:

Corey Vidal (from YouTube fame) came soon after – offering up some sound advice for getting your brand out there in the Youtube space. Corey stressed many amazing points, a couple of them being:

Measure of success on @YouTube isn't necessarily view count, says @coreyvidal. Track + value audience engagement + your influence #cmto13

— Tessa Sproule (@TessaSproule) February 21, 2013

#CMTO13 Corey Vidal quote of the day "youtube is not really a job it's a lifestyle" I didn't even know it was a job.

— Frank Falcone (@frankfalcone) February 21, 2013

Soon after came Deborah Hall, Head of Mobile, Torstar Digital (one of our favourite clients). Deb spoke about the future of mobile, and how important it is to remain disruptive in the space.

Mobile marketiing should have some emotional connection – 70% of social marketing is mobile! #cmto13

— Cory Stewart (@coryjstewart) February 21, 2013

It became quite clear that DISRUPTION was the theme of the event, and you can imagine our delight!

Loving the overwhelming theme of #disruption at today's #cmto13 – our brand name is no coincidence

— EmbraceDisruption PR (@EmbraceDisrupt) February 21, 2013

Then came the entrepreneur lunch with the folks at Torstar Digital where we were treated to a spread of sandwiches, drinks and sweet treats! We got to meet some pretty innovative people, and fingers crossed we’ll be speaking with some of them in the near future!

About to start our #entrepreneur lunch at #cmto13 pic.twitter.com/yhADPq8R83

— TorstarDigital (@TorstarDigital) February 21, 2013

All in all, it was a fantastic morning of technology, innovation and disruption. By 1:30PM we were salivating at the thought of the afternoon’s speakers (inclusive of companies like Ribbon, Bit.ly and SavvyMom Media), and we can’t wait to share what they had in store!

Stay tuned as part two is coming your way tomorrow afternoon!

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