I Have My Own Life to Live

Please join us and help us celebrate our wedding!

Although our wedding February 12th will be a very small family affair, we want to celebrate our marriage with all of our friends who have been such a fabulous and wonderful part of both of our lives!

We hope you can attend our celebration at a Tweetup/Meetup/Bash on Thursday, February 17, at 7PM at The Bard & Banker Pub, 1022 Government Street. We have reserved the entire upper-floor so that we can fit in as many people as possible. (cash bar)

We look forward to seeing you there, to help us celebrate and be able to share our moment with you!

(In lieu of gifts we are accepting donations to The BC Cancer Foundation. All donations of $10 or more will receive a signed copy of this year's Babes Go Bare Calendar. The BC Cancer Foundation is special to us as we were able to raise close to $10,000 dollars for them this past August as part of The Road to Port Hardy charity bike ride.)

See you there on February 17th!

Love,

Frans and Janis

aka @fransjonker and @lacouvee

PS: We're going to be offline from the 12th to the 17th and will be unable to respond to any tweets people send us. We want to be able to acknowledge you all and due to the restrictions of the Twitter API, this may not be possible. Please consider leaving your comments and well wishes here on the blog.

Traditionally December would be a month of planning holiday celebrations! Not for the Victoria social media community. Janine Theobald  came to Social Media Camp and Club, and was inspired to create the #twamper drive   and tweetup  held December 17th at Cabin 12 . Two families were assisted through these efforts.

Earlier in the month Alan Smith organized a Victoria event for Help Portrait, providing free portraits for Victoria families and individuals who might be otherwise unable to have a professional portrait. More than 30 photographers and volunteers provided 148 sessions. Help Portrait 2011 is December 3rd. Become part of the Help Portrait Victoria community here:

On the same day, Herb Lainchbury  rallied over 30 geeks for International Open Data Hachathon Day locally. There are now plans to hold montly hackathons with the first scheduled for January 22nd. Contact Herb for more details. Anyone (not just geeks) interested in open data can attend.

Victoria's inaugural Figgy Pudding Carolling Competition was also December 4th. It all started with a tweet, and soon @JanineAnnT @VIHippieChick @jagamer and @lacouvee were forming a group "The Tweets".    It was so much fun, there are now plans for a much larger "Twitter choir" next year.

TEDxVictoria hosted simulcasts at the University of Victoria for the first TED Women  Congratulations to organizer Sherry Moir for the very first TED event in Victoria.

TEDxJuandeFuca has plans for another TEDx event in April 2011.

The year ended in a flurry of tweetups #victoriatweetup (breakfast, WestShore, High Noon Hump Day, #U30 ladies, ladies, gents) and one final Social Media Club "Holiday Open Mic".  See Mike Vardy's "The Twelve Days of Christmas: Social Media Remix".

Photo: Eventualism.com

 

Words can never convey my huge debt of gratitude to everyone involved in making this a simply amazing year. 2010 will be remembered as the year social media came into its own in Victoria. Each and every one of you played a HUGE part.

I'm sure I've forgotten people and events that need to be remembered - it's not intentional. Please let me know.

Happy New Year! Here's to a fabulous 2011.

There is much to look forward to - #yyjbleeders tweetup January 15th,  Word Camp Victoria January 22nd, Frans Jonker and my wedding tweetup/meetup February 17th (stay tuned for details), IdeaWave February 26th & 27th, Twestival Victoria March 24th, TEDxJuandeFuca in April, Social Media Camp June 3rd and 4th, as well as regular Social Media Club Victoria meetings (3rd Monday of the month at the Victoria Event Centre) and many a #victoriatweetup.

 

 

WestShore coffee tweetups gained momentum in September and have continued since, usually every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. We've been meeting at Mirage Coffee on Goldstream but may need to move soon as the group keeps growing. Search for the words "Westshore coffee #victoriatweetup".

Regulars include: @Growlies @CrisVleck @brandscaping @Chris_Synesael @DrMarkWagner @psbdelegation @westcoast_dave @chiatweet @StyleRunner @Ahkonsu @KPAthleticWear @WestShoreLife @K9HQ @DustypupVI @CalebDelamont @taylorjenn @pearlbriteyyj @WillWinterPhoto @cpudan

Finally, after months of watching the "Gents #Victoriatweetup" from the sidelines, and prompted by tweets from @KirstySheldon @GDGeek @Auryanna, the ladies managed to organize their own tweetup! It looks like this too may become a monthly affair. Keep on eye on http://meetup.com/victoriatweetup for more details.

In early 2010, I introduced Sandy Ibrahmin @hittofit of Victoria to Eleni Kehagiaras @ekehagiaras of Portland via Twitter. Sandy and Eleni went on to arrange a business partnership and @hittofitpdx was born. I finally got to meet Eleni in person in September.

September was a good month for face to face meetings with long distance tweeps. Jamie Gale was moving to Victoria from Vancouver - we'd tweeted back and forth a bit and connected for coffee and more networking. Jamie understands the value of moving online to offline in order to build stronger relationships. He's a great addition to the Victoria community. 

Photos: Debra Brash Times Colonist

Sarah Petrescu  from the Times Colonist often sources models for her articles via Twitter. That's how Melissa McLeod and I came to be featured in "Basic Instincts" an article on fall "must haves". Rumon Carter and Sean Dhillon  were the models for "Fearless Fashion"  in November.

The 3rd Mashable meetup on Sept 23rd for Social Media Good Day  was hosted by Parkside Victoria  and Lina Zussino. Discussions centered on using social media for social good. How can we effect social change using social media?

UVIC's LipDup went viral. But wait - it was UVIC in Spain.

In response, lead by Shawn Slavin, UVic filmed their own lipdub on September 25th. What an amazing experience to be part of a HUGE group of people focused on creating this video.  Chris Ruffell from Aclara Promotions will be presenting at Social Media Club in January.

Photo: tpholmes

September's Social Media Club meeting  "Religion, Spirituality and Social Media" with @Eshusan (Victoria Zen Centre) @NickTheViking (Saanich Baptist) and @DrMarkWagner (Salvation Army) had attendees considering the nature of community, as much as spirituality. Juhli Selby recapped the evening in two parts. 

One of the "ideas" to come out of the Ideas Victoria meetings was "Awesome Shit Club"  where "awesomites" grant money to "awesomers".  The inaugural event saw slam poet Missie Peters  win $600 towards creating the First Victoria Spoken Word Festival (February 23rd-26th). There is an event scheduled for January 2011.

The year began January 2nd with a movie #victoriatweetup . Cindy Stephenson looked down the row of people and said "a year ago I didn't know one of these ppl". It's the power of Twitter. (I met Frans Jonker at that tweetup!).

Although it took until the fall of 2010 for them to become regular, the first WestShore tweetup was January 8th.

Social Media Club Victoria continued to attract powerful international speakers. Julien Smith, co-author with Chris Brogan of "Trust Agents, brought his unique style to Victoria for a presentation on January 20th.  (And returned for Social Media Camp in October - we were lucky!!)

The Blue Bridge counter petition successfully met it's goal. Organizers Ross Crockford, Yule Heibel and Mat Wright used social media extensively to rally supporters, petition signers, and media attention through Johnson Street Bridge.org

Photo by: www.FinancialAidPodcast.com and www.ChristopherSPenn.com. Licensed under the Creative Commons By Attribution, Non Commercial Use Only license.

Recently Walter Schwabe, CEO of Fused Logic, social media strategy firm in Edmonton, attended Open Gov West BC. TThe next morning was our regular #victoriatweetup. It was a pleasure to finally meet Walter after many months of Twitter conversations.

 

It's a busy week in Victoria, BC for tweetups. There are simply too many to mention in a single tweet. 

 

Wednesday August 11th noon join Dan Parks @cpudan and Sean Dhillon @I_lend_Money for the weekly 4Square High Noon Hump Day Tweetup. This week  the group meets at Ric's Grill 910 Government Street. If you are a fan of mobile apps, FourSquare and the rest - this group is for you.

Thursday August 12th 8am join Janis La Couvée @lacouvee and an awesome group of local Victoria twitterers for our semi-monthly am #Victoriatweetup at Cabin 12 Restaurant @Cabin12Victoria 607 Pandora Avenue.  We meet on the 2nd Thursday and 4th Wednesday of the month. Everyone is welcome. Lots of great conversations, and a chance to develop connections with other solopreneurs, business owners, professionals and community members. This tweetup was started in May 2010 as the result of a conversation between Dan Parks, Catherine Novak @Wordspring and Janis La Couvée. Twitter was fairly new in Victoria; it was and continues to be a place for people to take their online connections offline to connect face to face.

Thursday August 12th 1pm #YYJBleeders tweetup. Meet at the Canadian Blood Services 3449 Saanich Road (close to the intersection with Douglas Street). Carlone Leon @VicCityParty recently gave blood and suggested this tweetup. Blood donations are always down in the summer, the need is always up. If you are able to give blood, please consider coming. Check here first for the criteria Can I Donate? and then contact Janis La Couvée @lacouvee to ensure a time is booked for you.

Thursday August 12th 7pm  Bard and Banker Scottish Pub. Join Frans Jonker @fransjonker for The Road to Port Hardy Tweetup. Frans departs August 16th for a 4 day 525 km solo charity bike ride (Victoria to Port Hardy) to raise funds for the BC Cancer Foundation. More information about the ride can be found on his website The Road to Port Hardy or by following his tweets @roadtoporthardy.  Let's send Frans off in style, with our support. Awesome door prizes courtesy of Rocky Mountain Soap (with thanks to Scott McDonald @FootButterGuy), Liquor Plus (thanks Rod Phillips @Rod_Phillips), Trotac Marine, and Janis La Couvée @lacouvee.

Saturday August 14th join Jason Whyte, @jasonwhyte e-film critic, for a movie tweetup to see The Expendables. 1:30pm at Empire Capitol 6

Saturday August 14th TBD join Yukari Peerless @yukarip and other fans of the book Eat Pray Love for the EPLTweetup. See the movie with Julia Roberts, followed by a bite to eat afterwards. Contact Yukari for more details.