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!

iWeb has been present in the social media space for the last few years and sincerely believes that these new practices allow the company to become close to its clients, no matter where they are in the world. iWeb has an approach that is not only sales-oriented. It wishes to engage in a dialogue that goes well beyond simple tech support.

If you want to talk web hosting with iWeb, you won’t have a problem finding them:
Blog
Facebook page
@iWeb (Main Twitter account)
@iWebStatus (Status of the network and services)
@iWebHR (Job opportunities)

Stéphane Jose (@stefjose), iWeb’s community manager, will be on hand during PodCamp in order to answer your questions.

As a way of thanking you for attending PodCamp Montreal, we’re organising a draw in partnership with iWeb Sunday afternoon. You can win free webhosting on a dedicated server (Core 2 Duo 2.4gHz / 2Go Ram / 320Go), as well as two shared hosting for 10 years.

Finally, I’d invite you to listen to a few iWeb testimonials by members of Montreal’s tech and social media community. This video was shot at Yulblog, a monthly, must-attend event for Montreal bloggers.

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.

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!

It’s official. PodCamp Montreal is a success. We had 384 participants on site, and 731 unique visitors checking out our live stream throughout the weekend. While our American friends were more likely to follow us on the livestream this year, we were thrilled to attract a greater number of locals to this year’s event, given that our mission is to encourage and promote the use of social media by Montrealers. Our schedule was nicely divided between French and English presentations, and the Montreal sun came out to grace us with its presence, which is always nice when you’re sitting on the great terrasse at l’UQAM’s Design School where PodCamp was held for a second consecutive year.

Bob Goyetche by Eva Blue

PodCamp Montreal is a labour of love that doesn’t happen overnight. The organising committee has been working tirelessly since spring on sponsorship, communications and logistics, not to mention climbing into bed together to produce a rockin’ promotional video. The sacrifices we make for social media!

It’s been great to get all your positive feedback and suggestions for next year. Thanks for coming, for supporting the development of social media in Montreal and hope to see you in 2010!

Those of you who are still beating yourselves up over having missed a great presentation might be in luck. Laurent Maisonnave and his band of merry men, Christian Aubry et Guillaume Marin, have made video archives available for your viewing pleasure. Two of the four rooms were documented, so head over to Ustream to relive the PodCamp Montreal 2009 magic.

It should tide you over until next year.

Thanks to a good number of Île sans fil members in attendance (sometimes with their families), PodCamp Montreal attendees benefitted from a free Internet WiFi access in all conference rooms.

We want to give a warm shout out to Île sans fil and its volunteers who supported us for a second consecutive year, and we hope to continue our relationship with this dynamic team for future editions.