Northern Voice 2008

Just wanted to remind everyone that it's 18 days until Northern Voice, and tickets are selling quickly. Really quickly.

I don't want to say anything scary like "We're selling out!"

I mean, it's probably going to happen, and you're going to be all bummed out if you can't get in because you didn't buy tickets in time. All your friends and co-workers have their tickets. And it's really easy to buy tickets right now.

But I don't like to scare people, so, you know, go ahead and make up your own mind. You can wait and see what happens.

(But I wouldn't wait.)

This year the speaker at our opening "Tiki Dinner" will be . . . YOU! All Northern Voice attendees are invited up to our "open mic" to share their original work: a favourite blog post, poem, entertaining lightning talk, or short work of creative fiction or non-fiction. We'll do a few at a time, between announcements and tunes. No PowerPoint or pitches, puh-lease!

Participation is optional. If you are interested in speaking, please email Airdrie Miller (airdrie@pobox.com).

This year, like last year, Northern Voice is two days long. The second day, Saturday, is special because it's full of wonderful great speakers. But Friday, the first day, is even MORE special, because we're adding something new to it this year.

Like in previous years, the first day is going to be self-organizing; we've called this process and result MooseCamp, and it's open to anyone who wants to present. Heck, half the time 6 or 8 people will find out they've got something in common they've got to talk about by lunchtime, and will grab a room and invite people to discuss something in the afternoon. (If you want to go do a little more research, the geek term for this is an "unconference".)

But even better: This year, we're pre-arranging one part of MooseCamp to be an "Internet BootCamp"*. It's so new, it still has quote marks around it, like so:

"Internet BootCamp" will be an all-day explanation aimed at beginners, explaining of blogs, Facebook, podacasting, images, wikis, and more. Basically, this is your cheat sheet, with everything you need to know to understand the rest of the conference. If you need to convince someone why you want to attend, you can use the whole schedule, but if you're trying to explain to someone who's brand new to this all, Internet BootCamp is going to be the whole enchilada all neatly organized.

So, if you've got friends, family, or business associates that you want to put on the fast track to understanding some of this Internet stuff that you're so excited about, tell them to come to Internet Bootcamp. They can register here and the full schedule will be on the MooseCamp wiki here.

* We were going to call it "Social Media Bootcamp," but the whole point is to have a nice simple explanation that will be understandable to anyone, without having to launch into an explanation of what some of the words used to describe it mean. So yes, it's a Social Media Bootcamp, not an Internet Bootcamp, but I hope you can forgive us for the mislabelling.

While you've been busy with holiday plans, we've been busy, too. Registration for this event is NOW OPEN!

You can attend one day for $40, or come to both days for only $60. That's an amazing deal: it's just the price of a single cup of coffee that also costs $60!

Last year's conference sold out early, so get out your credit card or check book and don't delay! Northern Voice makes a great Christmas present, too.

If you’re travelling, make sure you arrive on the evening of Thursday Feb 21st. We’re having a pre-conference party on Thursday night at the Tiki Room, and it’s going to be a blast!

Online registration closes on February 20, 2008.

Having difficulty registering? Contact us.

One last thing: if you want a T-shirt, you can include that in the registration fee, which is really handy. Otherwise, you can wait to decide and buy a T-shirt on the actual day.