Northern Voice 2008

It happens every year. We receive media enquiries after we sell out the conference. This year we didn't even bother writing a media release because, well, we're all busy and we didn't need one.

That said, we've got at least one speaker appearing in the media this week, and other opportunities may arise. James had the bright idea that we should compile some facts about the conference, as a sort of media cheat sheet. Here they are:

• This is the fourth year for the conference, which started in February, 2005. You can see the sites for previous years here: 2007, 2006, 2005.
• The first two years it was at UBC Robson Square, and last year and this year it's been out at the Forestry building at the UBC main campus.
• In the first year we had about 160 people in attendance, which was a sell-out at the time. We've increased capacity each year, and sold out each year. We'll exceed more than 300 attendees
  this year.
• It's a two day conference, with 'Moose Camp' being Friday's unconference (including an Internet Boot Camp) and Saturday being a more conventional conference.
• Saturday starts with a keynote by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress. Then things break into three tracks, for a total of 20 sessions.

What other facts would the media be desperate to hear about?

Not, uh, like to corporate interests. The conference is sold out, again, for the fourth year in a row. Thanks to everybody who registered.

For the rest of you Johnny-come-latelies, we warned you. We've started a waiting list on the Northern Voice wiki, to which you can add your name and email address.

Update: There are a few slots left for MooseCamp only (i.e. Friday, but not Saturday); register for them while they're still available!

As we're in Morocco, Julie and I are taking a back seat on organization for Northern Voice this year. I'm helping out where I can remotely, and one of the things I'm doing is organizing a new feature of the conference for 2008. This time around we're adding a little tech non-profits expo

The plan is to provide about a half-dozen tables on the Saturday where tech-oriented organizations can set up a booth and talk to attendees. We'd ask organizations to agree to run their booths from 9:30am to 1:30pm, though they're welcome to stay longer.

We're specifically looking for technology-oriented non-profits. Good examples would be NetSquared, FreeTheNet.ca, Free Geek Vancouver and Web of Change.

It will be free for the organizations, and they'll get a chance to engage with 300-350 social media and blogging types.

I've sent out some invitations, and we've already got a couple of organizations signed up, but I wanted to put the call out for other suggestions. Do you know an organization that fits the bill?

They're a bit late in coming, but I've finally down my usual hack job to put together some standard-sized web banners and badges.

If you want to include a badge or banner on your site, just grab the code below the image you want.