It’s hard to believe, but mesh 2008 — our third year — is just around the corner, and (I just can’t resist a plug) we are really close to selling out, so you’d better get in there and get a ticket if you’ve been procrastinating for some reason (meshU tickets are here). We’re pretty pumped about the content we have, which you can see by checking out the schedule of speakers and panels and workshops. But I wanted to update everyone on a couple of things:
— CBC Radio live taping: Up until a week or so ago, we had a spot in the schedule with CBC Radio host Nora Young’s name on it, because we knew that we wanted the former Definitely Not The Opera host to do a panel discussion about something for the society stream and tape it live for her new show Spark, but we weren’t quite sure what it would be. As you can see from the updated schedule, Nora’s going to be talking to Bill Buxton — the legendary user-interface expert and visionary from Microsoft — about whether physical location matters any more in these social-networking, virtual world, Twitter-type days we’re living in. Nora is also hoping to bring a second guest for the debate, which in the sports world would be referred to as “a player to be named later.”
— Social events: As my fellow organizer Mark Evans has noted on the mesh blog, we have a couple of great events planned this year: the first is a party after meshU finishes up, which will be taking place May 20th at The Drake, one of Toronto’s favourite funky watering holes. Everyone with a meshU ticket will get a complimentary drink, but others are also welcome to come and mesh. And the following night, after the first day of mesh 2008, we have a party at the Rockwood CLub on Mercer Street, just south of King and east of Wayne Gretzky’s. That one is sponsored by our friends at Social Media Group and all are welcome. We’re also having a kind of mesh wrap-up party after the second day, which our friends at Edelman are putting on at the Bar Mercurio.
That’s it for now, although there could be more updates to come. Stay tuned to the mesh blog or @meshconference on Twitter, or follow me (@mathewi) or Rob Hyndman (@rhh) for updates. Mesh on!