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In 2005, the organizers of Canada's first weblogging social media conference put on an event that was inexpensive, informal, and accessible to techies and newbies alike. From those humble beginnings Northern Voice has been transformed into... well, actually it's still cheap, friendly and open to all. We still emphasize the personal nature of the conference, encouraging people to find their voice and share their experiences online.
Without question, the event has grown since 2005 due to the overwhelming community response. It's added a second day. We've moved to bigger spaces so more people can attend. But the core values remain the same -- we have held the line on costs, we try to make the event family-friendly, and we do the main event on Saturday so non-professionals can attend.
And although it is a weblog social media conference, the range of topics may involve anything that webbie people are interested in... that is, just about anything. Previous years have had plenty of geekery mixed with panels on how blogging interacts with family life, education, travel, photography, community building and establishing professional profiles. Speakers range from the big names to first-time presenters with a passion to share.
And The Moose also throws a pretty kicking party.
It says a lot about how much fun we've had that so many of the organizers keep coming back for more. Some of the organizers behind the 2011 Northern Voice are pictured above: Allyson McGrane (not in the photo), Brian Lamb (also not in the photo), Conner Galway, Duncan McHugh, Jenn Lowther, Jonathan Narvey, Kris Krug (another one not in the photo), Lauren Wood, Shane Birley, and Travis Smith. Northern Voice is a non-profit society, registered in British Columbia.
It has been the community that has made Northern Voice worth attending in the past, and we invite you to help make this year's version the best event yet.
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Yep, but we have a lot of information. If you still don't see what you're looking for, email us.
Of course! This is a blog conference! Expect everything to be blogged, podcasted and videoblogged! The only thing we ask is to check with parents before photographing or videoblogging their children.
Unfortunately we don't know of any good cheap hotels near the UBC campus. Please let us know if you find any and we'll add them to the where to stay page.
We love sponsors! We welcome your participation. Email us at info AT northernvoice.ca for adoration and more information.
The early-bird price (before April 2) is $50 for one day, or $90 for both days, including the party and a t-shirt. On and after April 2, tickets are the same price, but you don't get the party or the t-shirt with the two-day package. This includes lunch, and a reasonable amount of coffee and tea.
Northern Voice is a community-based, non-profit event that can't cover speaker expenses or offer speakers an honorarium, but we will have coffee available whenever you need it.
No, only a small portion of our program is technical, with much of the focus on social and cultural aspects of blogging. There are plenty of sessions suitable for non technical people.
We sold out in advance in 2006 - 2010 and nearly sold out in advance in 2005 so... yeah.
Refund Policy: providing refunds creates headaches and overhead, so we've backed off a bit. If you can't attend, please find someone else to take your ticket. Email us the details before May 2, 2011 to change the name on the badge. No, we won't split up a two-day ticket into two one-day tickets - we did that in 2009 and it was a confusing nightmare. If you figure out after May 1st you can't attend, but you can find someone to take your tickets, we'll give them a pen in the morning to scratch out your name on your ticket and put in their own.
We removed it.
Northern Voice 2011 takes place May 13-14, 2011 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It is being held at the Life Sciences building on the UBC main campus.
Bloggers (including text bloggers, videobloggers, podcasters, and photobloggers and of course people on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) people interested in becoming bloggers and those keen to learn more about personal publishing, social media, the read/write web and Web 2.0.
We're not out to make money, and we're community-minded. The feedback from previous years is that attendees got far more value out of Northern Voice than the price reflects. That's our goal, and that's why we do it.
It's a community-based and non-profit event, and, in an ideal world, the conference would be free. However, there are some basic costs that we need to cover. These include venue rental, audio/video, food and refreshments, printing of schedules and signs, etc. We made a budget and set the price as low as we could while still covering our anticipated costs.
Is the Pope German :-) ? Yes! UBC has a very high quality campus wide WiFi network that you will be able to use for no charge during the conference.
As with previous years, we will be providing a room for kids and their parents and caregivers to use, both on Friday and on Saturday. The same rules as other years apply: we can't provide child-minding or babysitting services - we just provide the room and leave it to you to entertain your kids (and maybe someone else's).
We suggest you bring appropriate toys/books/other entertainment. Kids under the age of 12 are free as long as you're not bringing a whole horde.
The following are some accommodations we recommend in the city. For starters, there are a variety of accomodations out at UBC. To learn more, visit the UBC Accomodations site. There are also guest rooms available at the Vancouver School of Theology (which, despite its name, is on the UBC campus).
One hotel we like is the Hampton Inn & Suites. We're told that all rooms have free Internet access, and there's wifi in the hotel's common areas. The location.
Another popular, inexpensive accommodation choice is the YWCA hotel, just around the corner from the Hampton. Here's a map.
The Blue Horizon Hotel (1225 Robson Street - here's a map). We've stayed there before and liked it. Website says free high-speed internet access in all rooms.
The Plaza 500 is on the corner of Cambie St and 12th Avenue, and we've recommended it in past years. Unfortunately it's closed for renovations right now.
HotelsCombined is a hotel search engine site that has kindly offered a 10% rebate on hotels booked through their web site. For more information on the rebate program visit: http://www.HotelsCombined.com/
Speaker submissions for Northern Voice 2010 are now closed. We'll let everyone know the results in early April. We will have half a day on the Friday for MooseCamp, so if you missed the deadline, that's your opportunity for this year.
| Venue | UBC |
| Session Types | We intend to divide the day between presentations and discussion sessions. The presentations will be traditional seminars, with one or more speakers speaking on a particular aspect of social media and personal publishing/communication. The time will usually be 30 minutes, although we might allocate a bit longer to some topics if we think they need it. |
| Suggested Topics |
These are just suggestions. If your topic doesn't fall within them, don't worry about it. Northern Voice isn't a business-oriented conference, and our audience is not interested in business or corporate topics (at least, while they're at Northern Voice they aren't). This means that we don't take business-oriented talks. Making money off your website incidentally is interesting to this audience, having it as the website goal is a subject better submitted at another conference or venue. |
| Audience |
A broad cross-section of people interested in blogging and social media, from beginner to advanced.
Individual room capacity varies from over 100 to under 50, so let us know whether you think you prefer a big room or a small room. |
| Notification | Submission selections take place in March. All submitters will be notified by email whether or not their session was selected. If you're selected, you get free registration to the conference. If you've already bought a ticket and then are selected, we'll refund your money (but remind us in case we don't connect all the dots for everyone). |
Got questions? Comments? Want to sponsor the conference? We have email addresses for you! Add @northernvoice.ca to all of these names.
General information and queries.
Questions about registration go here, but please wait until we have the registration details sorted out.
Got more questions about speaking? This is the right place to be.
Want to sponsor NorthernVoice? Know somebody who might want to? Let us know!
Northern Voice loves its sponsors. It's their generosity that makes the conference affordable. The conference is entirely volunteer-run, so all sponsorship money goes directly to running the conference.
If you are interested in sponsoring the 2011 event, please email us at:
sponsors |AT| northernvoice |DOT| ca
Headline Sponsors
Rogers. From sponsoring conferences like Northern Voice, literary awards to supporting critical ChildFind services, Rogers believes in connecting with communities in many ways.
Mt Lehman Credit Union. Mount Lehman Credit Union is a financial institution in the middle of the Fraser Valley. With a history of nearly 60 years in business, this financial cooperative has a member-oriented method of providing service which exceeds that of the big banks and big credit unions.
Akismet. You have better things to do with your life than deal with the underbelly of the internet. Automattic Kismet (Akismet for short) is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again.
Sponsors
Travel Smart. Helping raise awareness of smart travel alternatives in the Lower Mainland, helping people to get around quickly and sustainably. You don’t have to change your entire life to be TravelSmart. Find out more about how you can make a change for good.
Chevrolet. With its extensive range (Spark, Aveo, Cruze, Orlando, Captiva), Chevrolet has something for everyone. From a flashy city car to a comfortable family vehicle or an attractive SUV, you will find it all at a budget-friendly price at Chevrolet.
Township 7 Old World inspired. Artisan winemaking. Handcrafted with a minimalist philosophy. BC's only urban and rural winery, Township 7 has two locations -- the charming, south Langley countryside and Okanagan Valley's picturesque Naramata Bench. Enjoy a wine tasting, tour, picnic, or one of our arts and culinary festivals - theatre, music and more!
Northern Voice Canada’s largest Blogging and Social Media conference, now in its 7th year, has opened up our annual call for speakers. If you are unfamiliar with Northern Voice, visit our Saturday Schedule from 2009.
For more information on the audience, venue, session types, and what we're expecting, check out this page: Information for Speakers.
We're now accepting speaker submissions for Northern Voice 2010! Before submitting, please take a few minutes and review the Speakers page, which will give you a sense of what we're looking for. If you haven't attended the conference before, it's also worth checking out last year's schedule, to get a sense of the kind of sessions we've run in the past.
In thinking about your session, remember that Northern Voice isn't a business or marketing conference--there are plenty of those already. We're interested in the personal, the political and cultural when it comes to social media.
The deadline for submissions is noon on March 9, so don't dilly-dally. Or tarry. And definitely don't lollygag.
In case you're wondering, we'll be opening up registration for the conference later on in February--so keep an eye on this site or our Twitter feed for details.
Just a quick reminder that speaker submissions close at (if you want to be precise) 23:59 PST on Tuesday, March 9. That leaves just about 49 and a half hours to submit your awesome talk for Northern Voice.
Also, a reminder that Northern Voice isn't a business or marketing conference--there are plenty of those already. We're interested in the personal, the political and cultural when it comes to social media.
Avoid disappointment! Submit your talk toute de suite.
Once again, Northern Voice is offering six travel scholarships of CAN $500 each. The organizing committee will be awarding these bursaries based on a number of criteria, including:
The deadline for submissions is April 1st, 2010 (no joke), and we will be announcing the recipients shortly afterward. The bursaries will be paid out via cheque mailed out to recipients or picked up at the conference.
To apply, we ask that you write a blog post, or record a podcast or video blog post describing why you want to come to Northern Voice. We suggest you address the criteria above as well. Once you’ve published your post, let us know by pasting the URL in the comments field below.
