New Media

Vancouver’s finest creative startup moguls, tech wunderkind, marketing geniuses high-profile bloggers and various cool creative types united in the historic Lamplighter Pub in Gastown for an incredible meet and greet: Launch Party Vancouver. Instead of the usual Powerpoint demonstrations and demos in between socializing, presenters showed up with a laptop and business cards and got up close with the people. Great concept for a unique networking event. A few highlights:

A photo shoot of the Techvibes Vancouver Tech Women to Watch in 2008 (blogged about by Raincity Studios’ Kris Krug). As usual, Miss604 is one of the top candidates. Go, Surrey! Also, TransitCamp Organizer Karen Fung gets a well-deserved spot in the distinguished group.Despite hanging on the periphery of Vancouver’s tech sphere for years, I never actually met the (in?)famous Kris Krug until this event. The Bryght president/fashion photographer/blogger/tech is a really down to earth guy. He’s an inspiration to us all. Check out this amusing little snippet from Mr. Krug on the evolution of online communities: “There’s been a huge shift in the people using the tools. You’ve got so-called “normal” people adopting technology tools and coming online in big numbers now, and not only that, but then they are turning around and talking about it with their friends. They’re starting to question the tools too, asking all the right questions about privacy, etc, so there’s been a huge increase in consciousness around this.”

Hop Studios webhead and super-cool workaholic Travis Smith provides the following sound advice for people attending such events: OK, let’s just skip the I’m busy with work, you’re really busy with work, that’s awesome, that’s great… Let’s talk about what else you’ve been doing besides work. So, what else have you been doing?” Also, the horizontal scrolling on Unvarnished is INTENTIONAL, people.

Writer and social media maven Monica Hamburg added her own usual intelligence and wit to the mix. She’s probably assimilated the equivalent of a Ph.D worth of info about social marketing by now. Some of her latest finds are explained with her usual eloquence in Monica’s latest blog post, Behold the Power of Facebook for Business.

Marketing Ruined My Life blog author/marketing master Jeremy Lim was also on the scene. Check out his cool new Facebook App, Mixx Maker, which lets you make mix tapes with your friends, quick and easy. 

Creative and award-winning fashion designer Kim Cathers lit up the scene with a sparkling presence. Her killer Discollection line of funky fashions is definitely worth checking out. Spread the love! Excellent event. Keep ‘em coming, Launch Party Vancouver!

In case anyone was wondering as to the result of the Vancouver Blogger SEO experiment, here they are:

Before I blogged this post at 11:38 pm on January 24, Currents wasn’t even on the first six pages when searching for the phrase “Vancouver blogger” (I just stopped looking after page six, since I was somewhat depressed that after three years of blogging, my site just wasn’t making the cut).

As of 10:15 pm on January 25, Currents (well, Jonathon Narvey, anyway – I’m not sure why my blog title isn’t getting picked up) is ranked number 5 on page 1 for Yahoo searches for “Vancouver blogger”. I’m just behind Urban Vancouver (#1, good for you!), the Vancouver blogger meetup group, Pacific IT’s interview with Alphablogs expert blogging consultant Isabella Mori, and uberblogger/marketing guru Darren Barefoot (who really ought to be disqualified, since he spends most of his time jet-setting in Europe. Ah, well, he’s here in spirit).

Following close behind Currents at #6 is superstar entrepreneur and all around nice guy John Chow’s post about meeting with the rest of the Vancouver blogger gang. Take that, John! You may make more money in a month from blogging than some people make in a year, but… um, hmmmm, where was I going with this? Oh, right, if you want to learn how to make serious money from blogging while being an all around nice guy, check out johnchow.com

But in regard to the SEO experiment, it appears good old keywords really do the trick. Who knew?

In any case, it’s nice to be on the first page for a day. It probably won’t last, but at least I can now say I’ve been there. Cheers, loyal Currents readers.

Beyond Robson Vancouver blogger Sean Orr and I aren’t exactly best buds. We’ve certainly had our, um, differences of opinion.

But I was sorry to see a fair number of Vancouver blogosphere blogger trolls kicking him in the nuts this week in the comments section. I’m coming a little late to the discussion, since I was so busy with work stuff that the Vancouver blogosphere and Vancouver bloggers haven’t gotten a whole lot of time from me lately. But the whole “ESL students may or may not be cool and therefore I must be a xenophobe” thing is such a red herring. Take issue with Orr’s negative vibes if you like, Vancouver bloggers (keeping in mind that he’s hardly the first Vancouver blogger pessimist to publish online), but let’s not throw out spurious aspersions.

By the way, to any Vancouver blogger who visit this site today, please note that as an SEO experiment, I have inserted the phrase, Vancouver blogger, a whole shwack of times just to see if a single post can draw in significant Google ranking for search terms to a blog that is otherwise not always entirely dedicated to the comings and goings of Vancouver bloggers. Feel free to post comments or links to this post including “Vancouver blogger” and we’ll see in the next 48 hours just how effective good old keywords are; by that, I mean the keywords inserted knowingly by a Vancouver blogger.

The Manley Panel has delivered its verdict on what Canada should do in Afghanistan, but reporters are already having trouble interpreting its main recommendations. Either that, or certain reporters are pushing their own opinions and cherry-picking clauses in the report to support their own agendas.

According to Reuters, Canada Should Consider End to Afghan Mission.

But the Associated Foreign Press says Canada Calls for Extending Mission in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Associated Press writes that Canadian Report Presses Afghan Mission.

Well, that’s two out of three, anyway. I’ll have to have a look at the actual text of the report, but the overall theme of reportage shows the Manley Report’s guiding ideas seem to largely follow along the lines of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee’s own call to action:

The Committee’s position on Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan, in sum, is this: We must stay. Human rights are universal. The United Nations calls for and expects Canada to remain dedicated to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and to the battle against terrorism there. We recognize that a robust military engagement, with the UN’s sanction and the consent of the Government of Afghanistan, is vital and necessary.

Exactly.

Two men are dead after a shooting in a downtown Vancouver restaurant. I was with friends just a few blocks away when the incident happened and was less than pleased to learn after I got home that my life could have been put at risk by morons carrying lethal weapons. Stray bullets have already claimed innocent lives in this city. Most of these thugs with guns are simply bad shots, which makes them a threat to more than their criminal rivals.

Gun control may not be a viable option for preventing these kinds of crimes when our country is right next door to one of the biggest arms markets in the world. But minimum sentencing of 10 years or more for crimes involving firearms, regardless of whether anyone is hurt or killed, might just keep a few idiots from carrying these weapons. It might even help keep these menaces behind bars longer, which is always a benefit to the public.