I was the “fourth panelist” with Erica Hargreave, Richard Gustin, Peter Raymont, and Gresham Bradley on stage. I led the interactive side of things with Lee Robertson and Karen Brownlee helping me spread the word. What was amazing was how the audience outside the room got involved in the discussion. So much so that Erica and I believe that we made the top twitter trends for a short period of time. To my knowledge I believe that’s the first time a conference and session was pushed to the top mostly by the people outside of it instead of the people attending. Pretty damn amazing.

Saturday Erica and I spent most of the afternoon, could have gone on longer if not for the amazing awards gala, helping people get on Twitter. The broadcast community are like social media sponges, they just want to learn more and more about how to reach out to their fans and the community.

Erica and I didn’t pick Twitter over blogs or Flickr or YouTube because it’s the “in thing” we picked it because it’s easy to get started with. We know that there is a lot of hype around Twitter, but given that we could get someone an account, put up a profile pic, and start using the tool in a few minutes, well it makes for teachable moments.

Like sending pictures through Twitter of a woman winning two awards (including the big festival prize) to her sister. Instantly. Before the awards had been warmed by her hands, a sister 1000s of miles away who couldn’t be there, was there.

Tris Hussey, Richard Gustin, Gresham Bradley by Erica Hargreave

Showing producers and writers how their characters could come alive online. Showing filmmakers how building an audience during production can build enthusiasm for their works down the road.

Powerful stuff.

I’ve said many times lately that Social Media is at a great point in time right now. We’re at a plateau that allows us to be creative and take the new tools and put them together in creative ways.

After launching the Urban Peasant, and meeting with the broadcast people in Canada, I’m more excited than ever to be here at M2O.

Better watch out, the next big thing might be right under our noses.

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First, I must give my humble thanks to Erica Hargreave and Richard Gustin for their efforts to get me to the conference. It is a huge opportunity to really talk with people in film and TV about what they’d like from social media, what is social media…well you get the idea.

Interactive storytelling, huh? What’s the deal? Here is the workshop description:

1.30 pm – 4 pm: Interactive Storytelling: The Rise of Multi-platform Productions and Social Media, Ramada Yorkton. Presented by SaskFilm. This panel will explore the rapidly changing media landscape with the intention of providing some insights for filmmakers, producers and anyone else trying to navigate into the digital futures. Subjects to be explored will include: Is television really dead? And is there life after television? What is social media? And what does it mean to filmmakers? The rise of Community or community’s media. And everyone’s favourite – where is the money? (But it’s not just about the money!) The panel will feature members with different perspectives and experience and is intended to provide some insights and reference points for people in the film and television production industry who hope to continue to work in the brave new digital reality. Audience members will also be asked to share insights and experience as the subject matter being dealt with is so broad and rapidly evolving that it would be impossible to find a panel who knows all the answers or even all the questions.

link: Workshops — The Official Web Site of The Yorkton Film Festival

While this might seem pretty out there, honestly we’ve always been storytellers. It is something that makes use human. We share our lives and tales with each other. We value people who do this well and honour them.

Storytelling is at a really interesting place right now. We can do it in myriad ways, and it almost seems that some ways (books and magazines especially) are threatened, but Erica, myself, and the rest of the panel would say the contrary.

Storytelling has been become both richer and easier. You can have a moving blog post, with images, audio, or even video. There isn’t even an real barrier to entry any longer. Free blogs, free video posting, free image hosting all available to anyone online. Yes, being online is probably the last barrier and I would hope that this remaining barrier will soon be gone as well.

From the Media2O side of things, since we just re-launched The Urban Peasant website, we see real potential in both putting high quality programing online, but also monetizing it as well. I’m sure that will be of great interest at that festival as well.

Now to plan and strategize what’s going to come next…

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