Tickets are not on sale yet but the call for speakers has begun! Make sure to get your application in before June 18th – good luck!

APPLY HERE

Source: http://tekartist.org/2012/05/11/thank-you-mom/

Here are some key points discussed in my presentation:

• Charge for Membership
• Advertising and Affiliate Sales
• Online Focus Groups
• Offline Events
• Job Boards
• Online Training
• Member Areas and Exclusive Content
• Merchandise
• Profitable Niches

Only in Japan does Spiderman fight giant robots and weird monsters!

This talk will be a bit different. I’ll be discussing how to “Build a Community Around your Brand” and best practices to support your customers/members and how to effectively sell your products. This presentation is not about how to monetize your community, it’s not advertising! That’s invasive and usually clogs activity.We’re going to discuss how develop products and services that your audience really wants to buy.

For more information on the meetup check out the official post here.

The Details:

Location:  Opus Hotel (KoKo’s Bar and Lounge)
Date: Tuesday April 24, 2012
Time: 18h00 until whenever you are done (feel free to stay for drinks, I know I will…)
Register: http://www.meetup.com/Affiliate-Summit-Montreal-Meetup/

Recently I’ve been getting back to my roots and doing a lot of public speaking again. Last night I presented at t meex6 and here are the 5 points I covered:

• #killcommunity step 1 Twitter #fails
• #killcommunity step 2 Facebook f**k ups!
• #killcommunity step 3 frigging forums!
• #killcommunity step 4 I got a blog!
• #killcommunity step 5 – follow steps 1-4 and repeat!

The idea is simple – come drink, chat, learn, and think in a casual setting. The structure would be an open forum, kind of like a demo camp or ignite, but no slides – I envision something more like a round table where we discuss and debate openly – we ThinkUp!

If this is something you’re interested in and you live in the Montreal area let me know. I’m in the process of organizing the first ThinkUp in Montreal so all feedback, suggestions, and ideas are welcome.

I’ll use this blog as a way to post information about upcoming ThinkUp’s and to recap each one. I also see this as a shared space where we can ThinkUp (yes I know , stop branding ) anything we want.

So, let’s do this!

official site http://thinkupmontreal.tumblr.com/
twitter @ThinkUpMtl

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, Mega Bloks is keeping me very busy these days – that’s a good thing! However, I’ve been yearning to get back to public speaking and doing some grass roots tech stuff, so my first post in a while is an exciting one! I’ll be speaking at Meex 6 April 17th at 6pm – MEEX is a series of Montreal-based business networking events featuring speakers on Marketing, Social Media, Startups or Entrepreneurship topics!

The topic for the evening: 5 ways to kill your community. (avoid doing all of the above)
The presentation will be about what not to do if you want to build meaningful connections on your online Community. Attendees will hear Brendan talking about several ways to build a strong Social Media Community, as well as best practices for Community Management, avoiding common mistakes !

I’m very excited for this preso, it’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity and this is right up my ally with all the awesome work we’ve been doing at Mega Bloks recent. It’s not a free event, but well worth a couple of bucks to come out and here the digibomb speak, have a few drinks, and network.

I hope to see you all there!

REGISTER FOR MEEX 6 NOW

One of the perks of working for Mega Bloks is that I get to attend some really cool conferences and most recently I just got back from New York Toy Fair which was a first for me. Normally I do consumer conferences like Comic Con or tech like WordCamp, but this time it was really different and quite he eye opener. NYTF is, in its essence, a trade show which means it’s mostly B2B but in New York style it differs from the average trade show show with a much higher number bloggers and social media types that attend.

What I found interesting is that most of the big companies like Matel, Hasbro, Fisher Price, etc. have private booths. People book appointments months in advance to get teh opportunity to walk through the booth to learn more about products and take pictures and Mega Bloks was no exception. Also, attendance is restricted to “buyers”, licensors, media, or anyone who runs a community or blog about toys. It’s a very unique and interesting group of people not your regular cosplaying fans and tech geeks. However, that being said, in the main halls, not on the exhibition floor, the general public would hang out trying to meet celebrities, get some freebies, etc.

My mission for NYTF was to build brand awareness, meet with the community of fans, get the inside scoop for the blog, tweet, facebook, and give some cool stuff away – and I succeeded!

It was really great to meet our fans up close and personal and even more special to meet the fans who I chat with regularly online for the first time. As a way of giving back to the community who have supported us for so many years we hosted a VIP Halo LAN party at a secret location. We hung out playing Halo, talking about the new Mega Bloks Halo stuff, eating pizza, and basically just getting our geek on it was an AWESOME way to kick off Toy Fair I would totally do this again at another show.

We also ran a couple of twitter giveaways with some really sweet prizes, you can find out more in the “Official post” on the Mega Bloks blog.

I got to meet some really cool people as well. I’m a HUGE fan of the Brickshow and I was lucky enough to meet the guys and have them join me for the  “Live with THRALL” videocast.

I also met the guys behind Bleacher Creatures, they make these really awesome kids sports toys – so I had to have one! On the last day they came by with a special friend for me “P.K. Suban”.

Suffice to say I had a great time and learned a ton about my new industry and surprisingly bumped into plenty of guys like me, Cine Geek, Geek Dad from Wired, Nerd News, BlizzPlanet, etc. I’m looking forward to doing all over again next year.

Some more pics …

I don’t usually get involved in Movember, at least not in terms of growing, I will never shave my beard! However, I always give what I can to the cause. This is year is no exception and I’m lucky enough to be working with an AWESOME group of people to help pull it off!

As most of you know by now MEGA Bloks is my new home. I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in and organize a ton of great events, contests, etc, and this is no exception. I’m super stoked that MEGA Bloks and Twist Image have joined forces to do something really cool for Movember to help raise awareness. Check out the official post over on the Mega Bloks blog to find out what crazy mo-ness we’ve been up to over the past few days and what you can expect top still see and get involved in.

Yes, I know, I’ve said very little in this post, you’ll just have to keep reading on ;{)