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Finished my Age of Conversation chapter.

I finished my chapter for Age of Conversation and submitted it just under the wire last night. Quite a relief. I'm pretty proud of it.

The theme of the book is: Why Don't People Get It?

The book is being edited by Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton and will be released on lulu.com in August. All proceeds will go to Variety.

Thanks to my friends Brent Dixon for giving me the heads up about it, and Ron Shevlin for contributing to the first Age of Conversation, and inspiring me to get involved. He's contributing to this one too.

Here's an excerpt from my chapter:

Because so many marketers are trapped in companies with a strong quarterly-sales focused culture, we have a natural clash of needs and wants. When we keep our eyes crossed, looking at the sales opportunities directly in front of us, we miss other opportunities to develop relationships, extend our brands and take advantage of the newest elements in our marketing toolkit.

And just to continue the Technorati Authority Ranking ponzi scheme that has unintentionally emerged from this book, here is a list of the other 274 authors:

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, R.J. Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, Yves Van Landeghem

Labels: ageofconversation, blogging, social media

posted on Friday, May 16, 2008

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Great time at CUES Experience.

Got home today, and I'm just too tired to write anything even semi-salient right now, but Tim managed to do that, and I think he got even less sleep than I did.

It was great seeing so many amazing friends, and meeting some great new people. Quite a whirlwind.



And thanks to Morriss for snapping this pic of my presentation (with his iPhone no less)!

Labels: conference, CUES, currency marketing, everythingcu

posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008

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See you in Minneapolis.

I'm off to Minneapolis tomorrow for CUES Experience.

I'm excited to see so many of my CU alum there, including Morriss Partee, Tim McAlpine, Robbie Wright, Denise Wymore, Brent Dixon, and am most excited to finally meet Ron Shevlin, Steve Williams and Christopher Stevenson in person after months of being eConnected. I hope I didn't miss anyone - did I?

I'm presenting a Credit Union case study from Vancity, covering who we are, how we show up and how we leverage social media. Should be a good presentation.

It's also been a fantastic way to procrastinate finishing my chapter for the new Age of Conversation. Truth be told, I'm starting to panic, it's due in 3 days.

If you'll be in Minneapolis, please say hi.

Now I gotta figure out how to transport fresh fruit across the US-Canada border, because my son Ivan is expecting tiny apples from a place called Minneapolis (say it aloud).

Labels: changeeverything, conference, credit union, CUES, currency marketing, everythingcu, gonzobanker, shevlin, vancity

posted on Monday, May 12, 2008

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See you at Cossette Convergence.

I'm excited to participate in the upcoming Cossette Convergance 2008 here in Vancouver at the Arts Club Theatre.

I've been asked to speak on a panel entitled Giving Your Brand Away: Brand Communities, and will be a panelist alongside Ben Stringfellow from McDonalds USA, Thierry Hay-Sabourin from Future Shop and William Bakker from Tourism British Columbia. The panel will be moderated by Angele Beausoleil from Fjord, Cossette's online agency.

I'm honoured to be among these amazing people, and it should turn out to be a great event.

I'm very keen to hear from the keynote speaker Grant McCracken the author of Culture and Consumption.

If you'll be there, please let me know. And if you're thinking of attending, you can register here.

Labels: azaroff, changeeverything, conference, social marketing, social media, vancity

posted on Tuesday, May 06, 2008

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Congrats to Flock, hats off to Facebook.

So we gave it all we had, but in the end ChangeEverything.ca didn't take home a Webby.

Truly, it was such a crazy honour just to be nominated. We got all of Vancity behind this, right up to our CEO. It was great and very fun, but it was not meant to be.

The last time I was able to check, we were in second place for the People's Voice Webby Award, but a distant second (7%) to Facebook (78%). Needless to say, Facebook took it.

And the judged award went to the very cool Flock, the social media browser.

Here are the winners in our category of Social Networking

Labels: changeeverything, facebook, flock, social media, vancity, webbys

posted on Tuesday, May 06, 2008

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My Net.Finance results.

I received my scores this week from Net.Finance. These are the accumulated scores I received from the people at my presentation on April 14th.

Highest possible score: 5
Content: 4.4
Presentation: 4.7

Comments:

• Great presentation
• Excellent concept, illustrative presentation, thought provoking
• Very interesting. Would have liked a bit more info on how they built this channel
• Great insight into social marketing
• Great presentation, just a little fast at times

I'm really pleased, because it means people liked both my content and my presentation style (although I was called out for speaking too quickly, to which I plead guilty).

I now have results from three Net.Finance presentations: this year's, last year's and this past January's Online Innovation conference.

Just as a point of reference, my scores from last year's Net.Finance were:
Content rating: 4.72
Presentation style rating: 4.61

My results from Online Innovations were:
Content Rating: 4.5
Presentation Style Rating: 4.67

It's nice that my results are fairly consistent, and people seem to like what I've been serving up. I look forward to the myriad of conferences that lie ahead for me this year.

Labels: azaroff, conference, netfinance

posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008

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The last day to vote in The Webbys.

A great article in the local daily 24 Hours today about ChangeEverything.ca (below). Today is the last day to vote for The Webbys. If you haven't already, please take a moment to do so now.

Thanks!



UPDATE: The writer seems to have spelled Kate's name wrong in the article. For the record, it is Kate Dugas.

Labels: banking, changeeverything, credit union, news, vancity, webbys

posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

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