WebTweet is a parallel conference to the 8th edition of WebCom Montreal. Both events will be held on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at the ICAO head office in Montreal. Last year, I was an official blogger for WebCom. This time, I am glad to participate as a panelist on a subject that is dear to my heart: Twitter for Women (Twitter au féminin). Note that the panel will be in French.

Reporter, blogger and animator Dominic Arpin will be our moderator. The panel is composed by Émilie Ogez, Tamy Emma Pepin, Kim Vallée , Cindy Laverdière. I hope to see you at 1:30 P.M. in room E04.

Other topics covered at webTweet will be Twitter & Politics, Twitter & Business, Twitter, nanolitterature & Cultural Institutions and finally, Twitter & Medias. Plus, the keynote speaker is Jeff Pulver who created the 140 Characters Conferences. It costs $95 to attend webTweet, which includes one meal and the closing cocktail. If you register to WebCom you have access to everything, including the webTweet.

+ WebCom Montreal

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I  wish to point out the session that my husband Jerome Paradis gave to PodCamp Toronto. Jerome talked about his vision of the future of ecommerce. He has an innovative concept of what is next for ecommerce. Jonathan Kennedy wrote a recap on the blog of NVI.

Jerome Paradis named his concept Semantic Commerce. It offers advantages for both the consumers and good merchants. Consumers will regain control of their data. It will simplify the way we purchase online.

Jerome founded with Tara Hunt and Cassandra Girard a startup called Shwowp that will put the wow into shopping. They are not ready yet to reveal what Shwowp will do.

+ PodCamp Toronto: Jérome Paradis on Ecommerce 3.0

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I thought about writing a recap of my session but after reading the coverage on the blog of NVI, I will simply invite you to go read theirs. Thanks Wes Walls, you captured the main message and highlighted the key points I made during my presentation.

I worked hard over the last months at exploring how I could expand my brand. I decided to add a community site to my At Home in order to grow my traffic. I see the limitations of the blog and wish to provide more useful tools for my readers. Every blogger faces a more vivid competition not only from other bloggers but mostly from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. For all of us, it is getting harder to grow our traffic.

I showed best practices and must-have features from a series of niche community sites. I think that you should look at the heart of what you do, your strength, and the culture of your brand to determine what features and tools to implement.

If this interested you can download the slides.

+ PodCamp Toronto: Kim Vallee Talks Community

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You can start planning your agenda for PodCamp Toronto now that the schedule is out. The 2010 edition is huge. They have over 1,000 persons who registered to attend. In the tradition of the unconference, the presenters selected their time spot. I will be presenting this Saturday, February 20th, 2010.

+ First, at 11:15 a.m. at room RCC 361: At Work with Kim Vallee: The Why, What and How of Community Building

+ Then, at 2 p.m. at room RCC 204, I sit on the panel with the well-known Erica Ehm of Yummy Mummy Club where we will discuss The Business of Online Communities for Women. The panel will be moderated by Eden Spodek of Bargainista.

I will continue the self-promotion by inviting you to attend at 10:30 a.m. at room RCC 359, a session presented by my husband, Jerome Paradis. Jerome will share his vision of Semantic Commerce: Understanding what’s in store for the future of e-commerce.

+ PodCamp Toronto 2010 Schedule

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I hope you plan to come to PodCamp Toronto 2010. I already told you about my individual session. To pursuit further the discussion on niche communities, I will sit on a panel with the popular Erica Ehm of Yummy Mummy Club.  We will exchange on the business of online communities for women. A savvy girl on social media will moderate the talk. It is Eden Spodek who is the editor of Barganista.ca and the Digital Strategist at High Road Communications.

I hope to see you there. Discover the other sessions at PodCamp Toronto 2010. And do not forget to register if you wish to attend this free unconference.

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A quick note to tell you that I will be giving a session at the next PodCamp Toronto that will happen on the weekend of February 20 and 21st, 2010.

I started working on adding a community site to the KimVallee.com brand. I analyzed many angles to make sure I get the right ingredients. My session will explore what you need to consider before building your own community site. I will tell you why, what, and how I will expand my blog with my upcoming community site.  I will deliver food for thought, practical tips and a toolkit. I would be honored if you put it on the agenda. The exact time and date will be revealed later.

+ Register to attend PodCamp Toronto 2010

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I had a great time at the second edition of PodCamp Montreal. I am happy with all the sessions I went to. The exchanges provide great food for thought both from the presenters and the participants. People discussed several ways to stay authentic and transparent in CT Moore‘s talk about transparency and personal brand. It was fun that it used Donald Drape as a reference character.

My two own sessions went well. I believe that you should review your blog 3 to 4 times a year and make adjustments. Preparing my Top Tips for Better Blogging session gave me the opportunity to review what I am doing. To answer Julien Smith’s question: doing it helps them and me.

I am also thrilled that our “Top Blogueur” panel was about design bloggers. Social media unconferences are not only for the earlier adopters of social media. Everyone is welcome. But people outside the social media crowd seem hesitant to participate and even more to submit a presentation. Having speakers that are not part of the usual circle is showing that things are changing. If you speak French, you can watch the panel here.

Video of Top Tips for Better Blogging

The sessions were recorded on live streaming, which is not always reliable. A little bit more than half of my presentation was recorded. Since it is the first half, you will not be lost.

PHOTO CREDITS:
+ Eva Blue and Jerome Paradis

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I will be a speaker at PodCamp Montreal that will happen this weekend. In fact, I will be in two sessions.

Top Tips for Better Blogging

First, I will share my Top Tips for Better Blogging at 10 am Saturday, September 19th in room DE-3230. The blog universe has evolved and we have to adapt to the new reality. Based on my experience running At Home with Kim Vallee, my talk will focus on what it takes to create great content. I will tell you what works today to grow your traffic and free ways to monitor the social conversations.

I designed this session for all levels of bloggers. I made it so that recent bloggers can learn and seasoned bloggers can brush up their knowledge. I guarantee that you will learn a few new tricks or that attending will put things in perspective to address to current trends and challenges of the blogosphere.

If you cannot make it, my presentation will be live streamed. See you at 10 am this Saturday.

Top Bloggeur Panel

Right after lunch Saturday, I will be a panelist with the talented Éric Bolduc, Gabrielle Chalifoux and Cindy Laverdière. The talk will be in the language of Moliere (French). Michelle Sullivan will be the host of our Montreal-based design panel.

I am thrilled that lifestyle, fashion and art bloggers are represented at PodCamp Montreal. I said many times that design bloggers should mingle more often with geeks. We will exchange on our approach to blogging, the importance of networking, our strategy to build trust and awareness, plus our views on monetarizing our blog.

Panel ‘Top blogueur’ will start at 13:30 in room DE-3240 Saturday, September 19th. If you live out of town or are unable to go, our panel presentation will be live streamed.

It costs nothing to attend PodCamp Montreal.  You simply need to register online first. Check out the schedule to discover the other awesome presenters; it’s should be great! If you wish to tweet about PodCamp Montreal, the official hashtag is #pcmtl.

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If you follow the social media crowd, you probably have noticed the current campaign against the lack of women speakers and presenters at big Tech conferences. Allyson Kapin summed it up on Fast Company when she wrote Where are Women in Tech and Social Media? yesterday.

There was an improvised discussion on that topic at PodCamp Boston 4. There were good comments. I agree that we are missing the input of women at conferences. Now that women are very active on social media, it makes sense that things change. It is also up to us to take our place. The heart of the problem does not necessarily start at the big events.

Participation Outside the Usual Crowd

I always try to encourage women, for most part women bloggers that are not social media consultants, to attend tech and social media conferences and unconferences. Sadly, many women do not attend conferences that are work related. I guess it is either by lack of time or because they are unsure that they fit in.

Last year, I spoke at PodCamp Toronto and PodCamp Montreal about how women are shaping the Web. I felt it was important to show how the non-tech women blogging universe is diverse, creative and bring innovative ideas. At WordCamp Montreal last June, we were only three women speakers. I wonder why no more women – in fact, I could say the same about the design crowd – spoke at WordCamp Montreal.

One Step at a Time

Before we get invited to speak at big events, we have to learn public speaking. More women should take the opportunity to be known and get public speaking experience by attending and presenting at smaller conferences. It is one simple way to invade the boys’ club.

Therefore, I invite women, and men, to come to the upcoming PodCamp Montreal on September 19-20, 2009. I already selected my topic. I will be sending my conference proposal shortly. If you want to, this is your chance to present. Take it!

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This is the follow-up interview realized by my friend Christian Aubry with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. In this second segment – a third is coming – Matt Mullenweg talked about how he started WordPress and how the open source community swelled the popularity of WordPress. It is a case where the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts.

Over and over at WordCamp Montreal last weekend, people talked about the fact that WordPress, WordPress MU and BuddyPress are platforms, an infrastructure of which you can build upon. The added values emerged from what you can do with it. WordPress is used to achieve different objectives, to suit an infinite number of markets and is applied in many creative ways. You benefit from not reinventing the wheel. Instead, you concentrate on how you can serve your community. In fact, this is the main reason why I migrated At Home to WordPress.

Matt also talked about the importance of helping each others. If you think about the unconference movement and about blogging, it is mostly people sharing their expertise for the good of others. At the end of the day, it makes a better world where we feel empowered. Be prepared to be inspired.

You see in the background, a group of partcipants at WordCamp Montreal. A third part of this interview is coming soon. If you are looking for a guy to hire for your video reportage, put Christian Aubry on your short list. He has many years of experience.

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I had a great time this weekend at WordCamp Montreal. The conversation with the founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg was inspiring and calming. Matt was really zen while he answered questions from the crowd. In the after-talk, many people pointed out to me his soothing voice. Amongst other things, Matt shares the core value of his company. To give you an idea, check out this short interviewed realized by my friend Christian Aubry.

About Our Presentation

I like going to this type of conference because you always get back from them with some ideas. Several talks gave me food for thought. Plus there is the fact that being a speaker forced me to reflect on my blog design and features. Jerome Paradis and I talked about my migration from subText to WordPress.

We devised the presentation to highlight the perspective of the blogger and the preoccupations of the developer. I am happy because people seemed to appreciate that duality. I made the envy of a few bloggers to have free access to such a talented developer. Without Jerome, I would have never been able to have made this transition as perfectly as he did.

Now that I migrated to WordPress, I can envision the future. What to do next? I started by increasing the width of the pictures on posts. A lot is more to come. And I think it will be exciting for you.

I cannot recall the name of the caterer but the food was excellent. It is the best food I ate in an inconference in Montreal. Thank you to the organizators and the participants for making it a success.

PHOTO CREDITS:
Except for the laptop image, all the images were taken by the extremely talented Eva Blue. I invite you to see her WordCamp Montreal 2009 photo set, you will not regret it.

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• Adding BackType Connect to Your WordPress Blogs

If you are a blogger living in Los Angeles, make time to attend the first Blog Out Loud event on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at Patio Culture. This is a concept by Megan Arquette and Rebecca Orlov to encourage and inspire creative people to start blogging. From what I heard about the event, it is something you put on your agenda.

Megan and Rebecca planned an evening where you will be able to chat with 5 design bloggers who have learned the ropes of creating an online presence through blogging. They want to gather creative people around a glass of wine. Few goodies will be given for the first attendees. Beside the panel and great conversations, they are giving away 2 amazing door prizes: a design consultation with designer Kelly Van Patter and a vintage print donated by Vanessa De Vargas. I read on loving. living. small. that they have 50 goody bags to give away at the door that include gifts from ferm living, Urbanic and Patio Culture. I am sorry that I live so far away.

The panel of 5 bloggers will composed by:

1. Rebecca Orlov of loving. living. small.
2. Megan Arquette of Beach Bungalow 8
3. Audrey Woolen of Parcel Post
4. Jonathan Lo of Happy Mundane
5. Richelle Silva of Richie Design

Read on the Blog Out Loud blog how this idea is born.

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