After much deliberation, Sylvain and I have decided to take our time preparing a Podcamp Montreal to ensure that it will be of the quality you’ve come to appreciate from past editions. Podcamp Montreal has known great success since it launched back in 2008, thanks to the participation of many volunteers and the support of excellent sponsors.

The volunteers of Podcamp Montreal will see you in the Spring of 2012. Until then, you can follow us her, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Those who can’t bear the thought of going through autumn without their Podcamp fix should consider attending Podcamp Boston, the birthplace of all podcamps! The event will be held September 24th and 25th 2011.

See you soon!

If you’re loving Montreal so much that you’re thinking you might want to hang around for a bit (or, we’re sure, are dying to come back another time) then you’ll definitely want to check out what our sponsor, Tourisme Montréal, has to offer online. And there are so many ways to do that!

Website

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Flickr

YouTube

MontrealTV

Thanks to our friends at Tourisme Montreal for joining our roster of corporate sponosors. You all make PodCamp Montreal the great event that it is. Merci!

Do you remember last year’s PodCamp Montreal t-shirts? Social Media Rockstar? Montreal’s Evan Prodromou, CEO of Status.net, could have been the poster boy for those t-shirts. Evan worked in San Francisco for companies like Microsoft before settling down in Montreal to found WikiTravel. Since then, he has launched a series of web 2.0 projects, including Identica, Kei.ki, Laconica, Vinismo, certifi.ca and Status.net:

StatusNet is the open source microblogging platform that helps you share and connect in real-time within your own domain. With StatusNet you can encourage collaboration, build and engage your community, and be in command of your brand.

We want to thank Evan for stepping up once again (it’s becoming a habit!) to support PodCamp Montreal.

Evan tells us he (hearts) PodCamp Montreal. Well, we (heart) you too, Evan.

With one day to go before the start of MediaCamp, and two days to PodCamp, we want to extend a special thank you to our Event Partner, HKDP. The Quebec subsidiary of PR multinational Hill & Knowlton, HKDP has offices in Quebec City and Montreal and colleagues in 77 other offices in 44 countries around the world. The agency is part of WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services group.

Daniel Matte, Vice President and General Manager of HKDP’s Montreal office will be on hand throughout the weekend, so please be sure to give him a warm PodCamp welcome. I’ll be on hand as well, pulling double-duty as PodCamp organiser and HKDP Director, Social Media and Digital Communications.

You can also follow HKDP’s communications specialists on Twitter by subscribing to Daniel’s twitter list at http://twitter.com/DanielMatte/hkdp. At least one face should look familiar! If you’re a blogger or podcaster, you may have been approached by one of HKDP’s many communications consultants, who all abide by Hill & Knowlton’s social media principles. You can catch them all on Twitter.

(And shhhh .. don’t tell anyone, but HKDP is going to be making a big reveal in the coming days. Keep your eyes peeled for the agency’s newly revamped, social-media oriented website. It’s going to be a beaut!)

Communauto joins us as PodCamp Montreal sponsor for the first year, and we’re thrilled to have them. Founded in 1994, Communauto is one of the oldest and most important car sharing services in North America. More than 20 000 people in Quebec have already joined Communauto.

Communauto provides its members with exclusive access to its vehicles. By becoming a Communauto subscriber, you gain access to a fleet of cars that you can reserve at low cost for a half-hour, an hour, a day or longer, according to your needs. Located in the heart of your neighbourhood, the cars are available without delay, 24/7.

Communauto pays all the costs related to the normal operation of the service: vehicle purchasing, financing, registration, insurance, repairs and maintenance, as well as all administrative costs… and even gas!

Communauto in on Twitter @communauto and its iPhone application is currently in beta. Communauto 2.0, at your service!

Marketwire, a leading newswire service offering press release distribution, media contact management, multimedia, media monitoring services and other workflow solutions for public relations, investor relations, journalists and other communications professionals, helps companies navigate the social media waters. Companies can easily issue multimedia-enhanced press releases with embedded photos and video thanks to Marketwire’s flexible platform. Marketwire also offers webcasting services with 90-day archives and vanity URL.

Companies interesting in monitoring their online reputation can now access Sysomos through Marketwire. Sysomos’ two platforms, Heartbeat and MAP, provide automated sentiment, key influencer tracking, geo-demographic information, and access to real-time and historical social media conversations.

You can check Marketwire’s Sysomos Hearbeat out here:

Be sure to say hello to Chantal Jura, Media relations coordinator at Marketwire who will be attending PodCamp Montreal 2010.

And thanks, Marketwire. By financially supporting PodCamp Montreal as a Bronze sponsor, you’re making a solid investment in Montreal’s social media community.

Luckily for us, in our third year we had some generous donors come to us before we had time to reach out to them, and Rogers Communications was one of those companies who decided to reach out to us to offer Montreal’s podcasting and social media community some much appreciated support. In fact, Rogers has supported PodCamp Montreal for the last two years, which tells us that maybe we’re doing something right!

Make sure you take time to meet two representatives from Rogers who will be spending PodCamp weekend with us : Miranda Macdonald is a Social Media Specialist, while Elise Ondet is Bilingual Specialist, Monitoring & Engagement – Social Media at Rogers Communications Inc.

Between you and me …. I’d be particularly friendly with Miranda and Elise if I were you, ’cause they’re going to be bringing some pretty sweet Rogers swag with them to PodCamp. The following Rogers items will be featured in a series of special draws that will happen sometime over the course of the PodCamp Montreal weekend :

1. Rocket Mobile hotspot valued at $249.99
2. Acer Liquid E smartphone valued at $424.99
3. Two BlackBerry prize packs filled with lots of goodies

Rogers is one of many companies who have been successfully using social media to improve the customer experience. Here are some of the ways they’re doing that :

• RedBoard – launched in March 2010, this is Rogers’ official corporate blog, and a place to discuss news and ideas as well as industry issues and trends.
• Community Forums – launched at the beginning of August, these forums aim to help customers find answers to their technical questions
• You’ll find Rogers on Twitter too : @RogersBuzz is the Rogers channel for news, contests, and promotions. @RogersHelps is a Rogers customer service channel on Twitter. Some Rogers employees also have their own Twitter accounts so they can engage individually with Twitter users. You can find them @RogersElise, @RogersMiranda, @RogersMary, @RogersKeith (hi Keith!) @RogersRob (thanks for the sponsorship Rob!), among others.

So thanks Rogers! We appreciate the support.

I’m going to sign off with Rogers’ take on the famous Social Media Revolution video, with some local flavour added to the mix – You’ll find some pretty cool social media stats here, so check it out :

UPDATE: Oops! I uploaded the Social Media Revolution video instead of the Rogers Next is Now video. While you’re visiting the RogersCommInc YouTube Channel, check out this most recent video featuring the BlackBerry Torch 9800 with the engaging Miranda Macdonald.

So without further ado (drum roll please!) we’re happy to announce the launch of the PodCamp movement’s first iPhone app … and it’s free! Big thanks go out to Ze Agence / ZeLaurent and his head developer, Thomas Dobranowski, for the pro-bono development of the PodCamp Montreal app.

Developed in record time (3 weeks!) the app allows you to:
• Read about the various sessions and find them on the schedule
• Find presentations by room, and by day
• Consult the speaker list and read their profiles
• iOS 3.1.3 compatible and available on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Dowload the fully bilingual PodCamp Montreal iPhone app today!

Event partner / Gold sponsor : HKDP (the Quebec division of Hill & Knowlton)

Silver sponsors : Rogers, iWeb

Bronze sponsors : Marketwire, ARTV, Île Sans Fil

Media partners : Branchez Vous, MacQuébec

Friends of PodCamp : iTradeLive

…and we’re lucky enough to have other great companies finalizing their sponsorship plans as we speak (more on that later).

On behalf of my colleagues on the PodCamp Montreal organizing committee — Sylvain Grand’Maison, Laurent LaSalle and Laurent Maisonnave — I want to thank everyone who supports us in our endeavours. We’re thrilled to be able to bring PodCamp to Montreal for a third year running, and we’d be utterly lost without you.

Cheers!

Trylon Apartments are located near our venue, Cœur des sciences. Participants of our last two years raved about this place. Just say we sent you, and enjoy the following special rates :

68$

STUDIO with 1 queen-size bed
MAX 2 persons / room

73$

JUNIOR SUITE with 1 queen-size bed and 1 sofa bed
MAX 3 persons / room

88$

PRIVATE ROOM with 2 queen-size beds and 1 sofa bed
MAX 4 persons / room

Enjoy!