Tag: edmonton

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #12

newsHere is my latest update on local media stuff:

  • The St. Albert Gazette has written about the demise of Saint City News. The article states: “The Gazette will take on two of Saint City’s sales people and has added [former editor Glenn] Cook to its newsroom.”
  • ChrisD.ca in Winnipeg reports that political reporter Laura Lowe has accepted a position at CTV Edmonton, and will be leaving CTV Winnipeg by mid-July.
  • Here’s a detailed piece on the SEE-Vue merger. Apparently Vue is “assessing whether it will join the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association.”
  • The Edmonton Journal is seeking a Director of Digital Products “to lead the ongoing growth and development of our wide variety of local digital properties.” You can check out the job posting in PDF here.
  • The latest Edmonton Journal newsletter, available here, says the Journal’s site saw a record 592,000 unique visitors and 11.8 million page views in May. The mobile site saw 1.2 million page views that same month.
  • Check out the Journal’s Living on the Edge map, created by data journalist Lucas Timmons using data from the City of Edmonton’s open data catalogue.
  • Karen’s latest Edmonton New Media Roundup is available here. She notes that Edmonton has a new web comic called Inglorious Hipsters. Follow them on Twitter – @ingloriouship.
  • The final episode of the edmontonian presents (at least its first run) airs on Sunday, July 10 at 9pm on Shaw (Channel 10). Don’t miss it!
  • Have your say on the future of the CBC! The CRTC is hosting a consultation on CBC’s radio and television license renewals.
  • It looks like World FM is all setup in Enterprise Square now that 91.7 The Bounce has joined Sonic 102.9 on the southside:

World FM

Some Edmonton-related notes from the latest Broadcast Dialogue magazine, available in PDF here. I’m not sure how frequently it is published as I just came across it, and some of the items are older:

  • Rawlco Radio Chairman Gord Rawlinson says that up! 99.3 FM received almost 900,000 text messages in a little over a year.
  • Adrienne Pan is the new host of CBC News: Edmonton Late Night. She comes from Winnipeg though she has been here before, as part of A-Channel (this was announced in May).
  • Calgary’s Mix 97.7 relaunched as up! 97.7 in May. The up! brand was developed here in Edmonton, and Rawlco Radio says it “wanted Calgarians to have the same opportunity to feel good every time they turn on the radio.”
  • The first 96.3 Capital FM Edmonton Capital Cares Radiothon for Make-A-Wish Northern Alberta together with the Edmonton Sun raised almost $50,000.

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

Edmonton Notes for 7/3/2011

Happy Canada Day long weekend! Here are my weekly notes:

Millwoods Fireworks
The fireworks in Mill Woods, photo by Brittney.

Sunset Reflections Downtown

Recap: What the Truck?!

Last Friday night we held What the Truck?!, Edmonton’s food truck extravaganza, at Beaver Hills House Park downtown on 105 Street and Jasper Avenue. I think it’s safe to say that the event was a big success! The weather mostly cooperated, hundreds of people were downtown on a Friday evening in a park that is usually empty, and seven of our city’s best food trucks sold lots of food. It was a great feeling to see a relatively simple idea come together to result in a memorable evening.

What The Truck?!
Photo by Devin.

We did the best we could to prepare the food trucks and our volunteers for setup, but it was still a stressful couple of hours. We staggered the arrival times of each truck, but it was still tricky trying to fit them all in the park! We knew the space was small, and we wanted the casual feel that would result, but we didn’t realize how difficult it would be to navigate the poles, trees, and other obstacles in the park. Not to mention the fact that we were on downtown’s busiest street, blocking both cars and pedestrians while we maneuvered the trucks into place! Everyone stayed calm and got the job done, however.

What The Truck?!
Our volunteers – The Fenskes, Thom, and Su.

All of the trucks were situated around the circle with their windows facing inward, except for Funky Pickle. That was not intentional – it was simply a byproduct of the fact that we ran out of space to turn their trailer around! It really highlighted for me that most of our food trucks in Edmonton are actually trailers, which need to be towed by an actual truck or other vehicle. By far the easiest vendor to get setup was The Lingnan – the only one that is a self-contained truck.

What The Truck?! What The Truck?!

When the event officially got underway at 4pm, it was sunny and hot. It wasn’t long though before the sky turned dark and cloudy and the rain threatened. But it didn’t rain very hard or for very long. Not that it would have mattered – it was so neat to see absolutely no one bolt from the lines when it did start raining! Instead, a few umbrellas casually appeared.

What The Truck?!

All of the trucks were popular, but Filistix definitely had the most consistently long line of the evening (due partially to popularity and partially to the fact that they move far fewer units per hour than Funky Pickle does, for example). It was great to read the comments on Twitter after the event. Things like “Filistix was definitely worth the wait” and “Crepes from Fork & Spoon Brigade – Best. Thing. Ever.” It also seemed that long-time fans of Eva Sweet used the event as an opportunity to try a waffle with all the toppings for the first time. That people were feeling adventurous was reinforced by the fact that Carnival Cravings sold far more “OMG! Mini Donuts” than is typical.

What The Truck?!

During our early planning for the event, we briefly considered having live music at the event. We decided against it, to keep things simple and to ensure the focus was on the food trucks. Instead we asked the Urban Monks DJs to provide some music to help liven up the event. They did a great job, and even created a food-inspired playlist!

What The Truck?!

It was great to see so many families at the event, and to see people using the picnic tables and even just sitting on the grass in the park. It’s such a wonderful and generally underutilized space! Mayor Mandel, Councillor Iveson, and Councillor Henderson were among the VIPs that attended, and it was cool to see such a mix of familiar and new faces throughout the evening. One of those new faces was Luca Levesque, who stopped by to shoot a great video of the event:

Sharon and I had some key goals we wanted to achieve before we could call the event a success. At the top of that list was that the vendors were successful. Considering nearly every truck ran out of food before the evening was done, I think we can say we achieved that one! Filistix was so tapped out they couldn’t even make it to the City Market the following morning! The feedback we received from all of the food trucks that participated was really positive.

A few thank-yous are definitely in order. Thank you to everyone who came to the event! Thank you to our volunteers for all your help! Thank you to Thomas and Marc for the great music! Thank you to Gabe for the fun logo! Thank you to our sponsors for your support! Thank you to the vendors for taking a chance and sticking with us! And thank you to everyone else who helped us out and made the event a success.

Sharon & Mack
Sharon & I. Photo by Chris.

Are we going to do What The Truck?! again in the future? Based on how well the first edition went, yes, definitely. We hope to do it again sometime in September and have already started some preliminary planning (and have been in touch with some new food trucks too!). Stay tuned to the website for updates. We’ll also be doing some blogging over the summer about the things we learned along the way with regards to parking lots, permits, bylaws, etc.

what the truck?!

Check out Sharon’s recap of the event here. You can see more photos from the evening here.

Edmonton Transit (ETS) Text Messaging: Statistics & Advertising

About six months ago, Edmonton Transit launched its text messaging service which enables riders to get schedule information via a simple SMS text message to 31100. The service was really well received, even though it was described by ETS as a pilot. I use the service almost every time I need to hop on a bus, and it works great! I’m definitely not the only one using the service either, as the latest statistics show.

usage stats

You can see that the initial growth was quite impressive, with usage doubling from January to March. Nathan Walters, Strategic Marketing Supervisor at ETS, told me that the adoption curve was “slightly steeper than expected” but that it is following projected usage quite closely. Since then usage has plateaued a little, probably due in part to the school year ending. Nathan said that usage of the service is probably going to be somewhat seasonal, just like BusLink.

As of Monday afternoon, just over 1.2 million messages had been sent, which works out to about 7050 messages per day. For comparison, Winnipeg Transit was delivering about 6000 messages per day back in May. Not a bad start at all!

text ads

When the service launched back in January, ETS said it would open up the ability to advertise on the text messages some time in the spring (the last 40 characters of each message are reserved for advertising). That service officially launched on June 17.

Advertising on the ETS Text Messaging Service provides a direct way to reach thousands of commuters riding the transit system every day. As an ETS text messaging advertiser, you have the opportunity to customize your campaign by location, time, bus route and even budget. This opportunity is affordable, tailored and easy to manage.

You can register for an account here and start advertising right away. The price can be as low as a penny per ad, but it is market-driven. Basically you buy credits and then place bids. You can customize your ads by specific bus stops, routes, time, and mobile phone provider. There’s a user guide in PDF here with more information.

demographic stats
(click for a larger version)

I’d encourage you to check out the Text Messaging Ad Media Kit in PDF too, as it contains a ton of useful information about the service. Some of the demographic information is a bit old, but it is still instructive.

You can learn more about the ETS text messaging service here.

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #11

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

Edmonton Bulletin
Visited Fort Edmonton Park on the weekend, and of course I had to stop by the Edmonton Bulletin!

Edmonton Bulletin

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

Edmonton Notes for 6/26/2011

For Edmonton-related stuff throughout the week, check out Edmonton Etc. Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Through the watery arches
Photo by brentus69

The Works
Opening Night at The Works!

Media Monday Edmonton: Introducing YegNews.com

After many months of preparation and hard work, a new online newspaper called YegNews.com is set to launch tomorrow, providing Edmontonians with a new option for local news. Alain Saffel, a former journalist and active member of the local social media scene, and Scott McKeen, former columnist for the Edmonton Journal, are the duo behind the new site, and about a month ago they sat down with me to talk about the new project.

“We want to increase the amount of local reporting,” Scott told me. Both men firmly believe that good journalism is important to communities, so increasing the amount of reporting that takes place in Edmonton is a key goal for the new site. While the focus initially will be on Edmonton, the hope is that the site will be regional in nature, covering the capital region. “We want to do a service for the city,” Scott said.

Noting that Scott used to work for the Journal and that a number of people have either left or been let go from that organization recently, I asked who would be writing for the site. “We want to create a community of journalists, to mentor and train them,” Scott replied. The hope is to attract a mix of experienced and fresh writers. Both Alain and Scott will be contributing regularly to the site, and there are at least nine other people ready to contribute content including Jenn Parks (formerly with the Edmonton Sun), Dave Clark (former editor of the Sherwood Park News), Sarah Hoyles (formerly of CBC), and John Korobanik (formerly with the Edmonton Journal). While the writing style will be “accessible”, it won’t be constrained within some of the boxes of the mainstream. “We’ll focus on print and photos, but we we really want to stress creativity in the styles of presentation,” Alain said, suggesting lists, infographics, and other visual elements will be common. Contributors will be encouraged to learn from one another.

Initial topics that will be covered on YegNews.com include City Hall, local business, and technology, areas that Alain and Scott feel are underserved at the moment. “Technology is what’s going to sustain Alberta over the long-term, and I haven’t seen much coverage of it in the three years I’ve been here,” Alain said. Some crime issues will be covered in columns, but it likely won’t be a focus. There will also be a certain amount of service journalism, perhaps making use of open data provided by the City. “People want to know when their sidewalk is going to be fixed,” Scott told me. While the site won’t be making use of any wire stories, Alain said they would consider using local blogs to augment original content, as long as they are Edmonton-related.

The project has been self-funded thus far. “It’s cheaper than ever to start something,” Alain said. They’re using WordPress to power the new site, and will be making use of Flickr, YouTube, and other free/inexpensive services to host multimedia. Given the small budget, social media will be a key focus for driving interest in and traffic to the site. “There are lots of people on Facebook in Edmonton, so we’re going to try to reach people that way,” Alain said. Readers will be encouraged to participate by submitting tips and story ideas, and the site will feature comments. “We want the comments to rise above,” Alain told me, saying they would be enforcing some accountability. A longer-term ambition is to have an ombudsman for the site.

The revenue model is for the site to be supported by advertising. “This is going to pay the bills,” Scott told me, noting that both he and Alain are committed to making the project work. While the site will feature some Google ads, the goal is to have mostly local advertising. “We want the living local ethic to be a driving philosophy,” Scott said. “There’s a lot of benefits to spending your money at local independents.” Contributors are volunteering initially, but as soon as it is financially possible, they’ll will be part of a profit sharing program. “We want to reinvest the earnings back into journalism,” Alain said.

YegNews.com is an ambitious project. The message on their splash page right now reads: “Edmonton’s online newspaper providing Edmontonians with original, interesting & informative breaking news, politics, opinions & more.”  It’s exactly the kind of experimentation I’d like to see more of. West Edmonton Local is still going strong and I think it has shown that there’s room for more local voices and reporting, at least at the hyperlocal level. And GIG CITY seems to be doing okay focused on arts and entertainment. It’ll be interesting to see how YegNews.com fares with a wider focus.

Congratulations to Alain and Scott on making it this far! I can’t wait to check out the site tomorrow and I look forward to seeing YegNews.com evolve over time.

Edmonton Notes for 6/19/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

City Market in the rain
It has been wet here lately! For the City Market that meant a big drop in the number of visitors, to about 4500.

Africa Connect
Some of the art that was on display at Africa Connect.

Pecha Kucha Night: Edmonton #10 (PKNX)

Last night was Edmonton’s tenth Pecha Kucha Night, a completely sold out event held at the Alberta Aviation Museum. It was the second straight to sell-out in advance of the doors opening, and judging by the number of hands that went up when our hosts asked how many people had never been to a Pecha Kucha Night before, the event’s reach continues to expand. PKNX focused on downtown:

With the redevelopment of the City Centre Airport lands on the horizon, PKNX explores the potential for a Do-It-Yourself Downtown and features presenters exploring the architectural, social, environmental and cultural potential for our urban core in the 20 slides x 20 sec per slide format made popular world-wide by Klein Dytham Architecture.

I saw a few comments on Twitter asking why the event was held on the City Centre Airport lands if the focus was on downtown, but that’s exactly the kind of controversy that Edmonton NextGen was going for. And without question the redevelopment of the ECCA lands will have a big impact on downtown. I just wish NextGen had gone all-in and made Ryan Jespersen’s suggestion a reality – his idea was to setup a stage on the closed runway! How cool would that have been, presenting with the runway lights all around you?!

Being the tenth iteration of Pecha Kucha Night in Edmonton, last night was a bit of a milestone so NextGen setup posters from all the previous events (you can see my previous recaps here). It was probably interesting for people new to PKN to see, and even for someone like myself who has been to every single one, it was good to look back.

PKNXPKNX

In order of appearance, these were the presenters at PKNX:

  1. Michael Strong, Urban Planner
  2. Shafraaz Kaba, Architect
  3. Tom Sutherland, Architect
  4. Myron Belej, Urban Planner
  5. Ron Gilbertson, CEO of EEDC
  6. Chelsea Boos, Designer
  7. Mike Weinmaster, Botanical Artist
  8. Ian O’Donnell, Downtown Community Guy
  9. Doug Carlyle, Landscape Architect
  10. Tai Ziola & Craig Dorward, Intern Architects
  11. Mack Male, Edmonton Blogger
  12. Todd Babiak, Writer, Hustler

Our hosts for the evening were Ryan Stark and Brian Murray, and they embraced the location dressing up as airmen! I thought they did a much better job of just having fun on stage last night. At the break they did a flight attendant routine to direct people to the washrooms and bar, it was pretty funny!

PKNX

I sensed a bit of nervousness among the presenters last night, but having been up on stage myself I can totally understand why. The venue was great, but it was also really daunting to be able to see all 400 people seated in front of you. Some talks had more energy than others, and overall there was a nice flow to the evening.

PKNX

The night got off to a strong start with Mike’s presentation on downtown. He’s the man that really brought Pecha Kucha to Edmonton, so it was cool to see him up on stage. I didn’t care much for Tom’s talk on the Capital City Downtown Plan. It’s important for people to know about, definitely, but I’m not sure it made for the best PKN presentation. Chelsea presented a visual diary of Edmonton’s urban culture, a really thoughtful and beautifully worded talk. Mike joined us all the way from Vancouver to talk about greening Edmonton. He shared some of his experiences covering buildings with vertical greenery. Ian’s concept, that “downtown should be a big patio”, was intriguing though it didn’t translate on stage as well as it could have. He’s right though, who doesn’t love patios and beer? Doug talked about some of the aspects of Paris that make it such a desirable city, and I like that touched on the potential for West Rossdale in here in Edmonton. Tai and Craig had some great concept visuals in their presentation which focused on the potential for urban farming.

I really enjoyed Ron’s talk, and based on the laughter in the audience I think others did as well. He issued a warning that the changes we always talk about for downtown will dramatically change the character of downtown. The 25 cent movies, easy access to parking, and alleys for selling non-prescription drugs will all disappear! He had some excellent visuals too.

Three of us made our third Pecha Kucha appearance last night. Shafraaz talked about the One Planet Living proposal he was a part of for transforming the City Centre Airport. Myron delivered an excellent tongue-in-cheek talk about the history of plans for downtown and how they haven’t panned out (kind of akin to this post I did back in February). And I made my second-straight PKN appearance to talk about the Alley of Light project.

Without a doubt Todd stole the show last night. He was the correct choice to close out the evening, as he delivered a really strong, high energy talk on interventions. I would argue he had the most memorable moments of the evening. One slide showed a before and after of a wall. The before featured some beautiful artwork on the wall, while the after had the wall blank with some inappropriate graffiti scribbled on top: “This wall used to have art, now it has cocks!” He called Edmonton a “magpie town” and implored everyone to say it loudly and proudly! Finally, one statement he made about his interventions project really stuck with me: “I should have asked people to DO something, then email me.”

The most common piece of feedback I heard after the presentations were done was along the lines of “I’m glad you and Todd went last”. I think people appreciated the fact that we talked about actually doing something, as you could argue that the other presentations, while inspirational, were more about ideas and plans than execution.

PKNX

Pecha Kucha is always a hot topic on Twitter, and last night was no different. The #pknx hashtag was busy! Since midnight on June 17, more than 900 tweets have been posted about PKNX. Here are your top ten #pknx tweeters:

  1. britl
  2. gscratch
  3. TamaraStecyk
  4. lancetay
  5. DavidPapp
  6. SavageTiner
  7. EdmNextGen
  8. AvenueEdmonton
  9. CaryWilliams
  10. kevinlovestech

Here’s a word cloud of #pknx tweets from that same time period (with #pknx, #yeg, and RT removed):

As with PKN9, last night’s presentations were live-streamed by the Edmonton Journal – you can watch the archived video here.

Once again, Graphos was responsible for the visual design of PKNX. I really love the red X. Graphos really took it to the next level this time, creating an entire physical installation for the poster (you can watch the making of here). It was setup at the museum last night, so we snagged a photo:

PKNX

The next Pecha Kucha Night in Edmonton, PKN11, is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September 14 at the University of Alberta (in conjunction with Alumni Week). Keep an eye on @EdmNextGen for updates.

I received some really great feedback on my “I ❤ #yegdt” t-shirt. I had it made at Bang-On Edmonton specifically for last night’s event (I can now wear it to any number of downtown-related events). There were some pretty intense prize last night as well, including a Molson beer fridge! Presenting sponsor BT Edmonton gave away an iPod touch that I won (actually it was Sharon’s ticket). I went up and told Ryan to redraw for it – I’m the last person to need yet another electronic device! To make up for it, he plugged both my site and What the Truck?! – thanks Ryan!

Thanks to Edmonton Next Gen for another great event, to all of the volunteers for making it happen, and to everyone who attended or watched online! You can see the rest of my photos from last night here.

Improvaganza 2011: #yegimprov

Do social media and improv go together? We’re going to find out on Monday evening! That’s when Rapid Fire Theatre is holding #yegimprov, a live social media experiment at Improvaganza 2011. This is the 11th year of Improvaganza, Canada’s largest improv festival. Tonight is the opening night gala and the festival, which takes place at the Varscona Theatre in Old Strathcona, runs through June 25.

Last month I got connected with Kory Mathewson and Amy Shostak to chat about social media. They were interested in ways that Improvaganza might be able to utilize new tools and technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. As someone who has been talking about the changing artist/patron relationship, I was more than happy to get involved. I had so much fun just brainstorming ideas with Amy that I can’t wait to see how Monday night unfolds! Knowing that we’d need some funny social media participants on stage, I convinced Jerry and Adam to get on board. Actually they didn’t need much convincing, they were game right from the start!

So what can you expect at #yegimprov? I’m not entirely sure (that’s part of the fun). Definitely some tweeting, and definitely lots of laughter. In addition to the gang from Rapid Fire Theatre (@theatresports) the event will feature:

Even if you can’t actually make it to the event, I hope you’ll participate on Twitter using the #yegimprov hashtag. There should be some fun audience participation! #yegimprov runs from 7:30pm to 9:30pm (get your tickets here), and there will be an after party at The Next Act (@NextActPub).

You can check out the full Improvaganza 2011 schedule here and you can buy tickets for Improvaganza 2011 here. You can also check out the full schedule on ShareEdmonton, where you can download an iCal.

Hope to see you on Monday evening!