This past week I attended AIM (Atlantic Internet Marketing) conference in Moncton. Organized by Rob Swick and Peter Sickles of alpha search.

We started off with some networking events on Sunday. Several of us joined in for a game of foam ball (paint ball with foam balls instead). We donned our helmets and airguns and snuck in behind bunkers as we got to know each other by pelting each other with foam balls. My first hit was Peter Sickles and that’s how I got to know him. The bruise on his arm evidence in the coming days;)

As usual with conferences, we can never attend all the talks and have to narrow down to a choice for each time slot. Some of my favourite talks from this year were:

Actionable Analytics/Writing for the Web by Stephanie Lummis of ISL

Website Usability and Conversion by Rob Swick of alphasearch.ca

The Authentic Web also by Rob Swick and Jeff White of Brightwhite Design

Marketing yourself as a free-agent on the Internet by Harold Jarche of Jarche Consulting

Location Marketing by Malcolm Fraser of ISL

The panel critiquing websites was very popular with everyone. Those who offered the sites up for examining have got courage.

There were a few of us twittering the events. A quick tweetscan picked up these;

brightwhite :

watching peter sickles review a aim conference attendees website

2008-05-06 07:07:10

jbignell :

Great day at the AIM Conference, now off to play rubber ball!

2008-05-05 17:12:48

walkinggal :

listening to Rob Swick from alpha talk about Gary Vaynerchuk’s how to cut through the noise, http://garyvaynerchuk.com/

2008-05-05 15:22:04

Some suggestions for next year’s conference:

1. offer more advanced talks/seminars

2. topic suggestions - monitoring your personal/company brand online, social media measurement, e-commerce conversion, advanced web copy (writing for personas)

3. more case studies

4. more booths? with more swag;) Note to the Yahoo table, we were so disappointed the yahoo swag didn’t make it in time;)

I have to say that the atmosphere of the conference was fabulous. I made lots of new friends and contacts. We’re connecting up through twitter, linkedin and facebook and I hope to meet up with everyone at next year’s conference.

I’ve noticed lately that we’ve had a great shift towards information collaboration in the IT industry in NB.  It’s something this province really needed because of our geographical spread. Twitter has definitely played a role in that. I’d like to bring attention to a couple of great new or relaunched blogs that have cropped up. And I’m sure they’ll be posting more regularly than I do;)

Moncton IT Alliance (follow John on twitter at http://twitter.com/johnsgunn)

“We believe that Moncton has among the best and brightest IT talent in eastern Canada. Education, entrepeneurs, and innovators are among the power behind our IT community. Even Apple Computers co-founder Steve Wozniak compared us to Silicon Valley during the ’70s while touring Moncton and Sackville last year!”

From My Eyes to Yours (follow Philippe on twitter at http://twitter.com/lpgauthier)

“I love business and technology and this is my little corner off the Internet where I experiment and share the things that I find interesting.

I pass it on, from my eyes to yours.”

I’ll have an update on AIM (Atlantic Internet Marketing conference) later today.

Last week, Third Tuesday held it’s third meeting in Moncton. Dan Martell and crew did an amazing job with promoting the event and we had a whopping attendance of approx. 120 attendees. The crowd was diverse with people from IT, marketing, business, tourism, health, and entrepreneurs. I would have to say that studio 700 was a fabulous venue.

We were fortunate to have a couple of mentions in the TJ and T&T over the last couple of weeks. Although I have to admit, that I find the mix of cybersocials and Third Tuesday in one article a little odd. However, it’s good news for everyone in the IT industry that there is more involvement and participation from all fronts. I’d also like to make sure that David Alston from radian6 is credited as the co-founder of the Third Tuesday NB group.  And I feel a need to qualify my old boy’s club statement from the article;) I was referring to how social media breaks down barriers like those that exist in the “old boy’s club”. That we can communicate with everyone on the same field from IT to business leaders to media moguls. Those of you participating understand how rich the collaboration is within social media.

You can read comments about the events and join Third Tuesday NB meetup if you haven’t already;

http://publicrelations.meetup.com/99/

This ensures that you’re on the mailing list for new events as they happen. We’re preparing out next meetup for Fredericton in April.

Lisa, Dan and Chris

And yes, we’re holding a Mac Air, courtesy of Dan. It truly is as thin and light as they say.

Just picked this up from propelSJ.

Impact of New-Era Technologies on Society & Business presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 4:00 - 6:00 pm.
Saint John Trade & Convention Centre, One Market Square, Saint John NB

Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 4:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.
Delta Halifax, 1990 Barrington St., Halifax, NS

The topic of area that interests me is:

ampliflection* a new type of Internet-based marketing; adaptive mashups

It’s free, but registration is required.

For more info, see propelSJ

I confess I haven’t had a lot of time to formulate my thoughts on this. I certainly would not call myself an expert in IT by any stretch of the imagination. However, today a series of articles came through my feeds that culminated after reading a guest post by Will Pate at StartUp North.

The first news item was:

Industry feels pinch as numbers of IT grads plummet (Globe Investor).

The synopsis? Canada’s University and college enrollment in IT and computer related fields have dropped from 36% - 64% depending on the province.

At ThinkNB this year, I spoke with recruiters from UNB and the NB Community Colleges. They confirmed that enrollment was down. UNB was addressing this with a new program that will combine business with computer technology in a Bachelor of Information Systems program.

Next news feed article today:

N.B. IT doing well: software exec (Telegraph Journal)

According to the quote in the Telegraph Journal:

“I would say the knowledge industry in New Brunswick is healthy,” says Paul McSpurren, former president and chief executive officer of Moncton-based Whitehill Technologies Inc.

“And will be healthy and vibrant in the future.” 

NB also recently held the Rising Stars awards where 10 ITC winners will be able to participate in a year long mentorship and networking program.

Now I want to send you the last article that I mentioned by Will Pate. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking of starting your own business, read his post.  Let’s make sure that NB is in the race. 

Will’s right. This is a race and as Canadians we do tend to just plod through until the work is done. But when you’re following the industry and you see how fast it changes and how someone is always coming out with something new or different. We have to be able to keep pace. I have met many people in NB in the ITC sector and they all have a passion for what they’re doing.  As Paul McSpurren said in today’s Telegraph article, I think the knowledge industry in NB is healthy.

We have innovation happening here in NB. We have groups like catalict whose tagline says “Start your engines. The race is on.” We have the Wallace McCain Institute that helps entrepreneurs grow their business.

There are other organizations I could mention as well but the point is that I think we recognize in NB that there’s a need for speed, experience and skills to get ahead in this industry. And maybe because NB is always playing catchup with the rest of the provinces, we’re already used to racing.

What do you think? Is NB in the race?