WGC does mesh

Mesh Conference Logo
Originally uploaded by bmann

So here I am at the mesh conference in the MaRS Centre. It's pretty crazy.

On top of the number of people at mesh, which is significant (I've already seen a couple of people that I know), there was also a visit by the Guvernator, Arnold Schwarzenegger here this morning. You may hear about the stem cell partnership between California and Ontario on the news later.

It was interesting -- Arnie was quite funny, actually. So was McGuinty. He wished the Guv luck in the upcoming Sens vs Ducks game: "We want to show you that our Canadian hockey players are better than your Canadian hockey players."

Arnie didn't miss a beat, "From my movies, you can tell that I'm not much for dialogue, more about action."

Cute.

Anyway, back to mesh. Due to work interruptions, I only caught a small piece of the morning keynote about the future of media. It was nice to hear someone being realistic about text vs audio/video. TechCrunch founder, Mike Arrinton says that text will still play an important part because it's so easy and quick. Audio and video (GOOD audio/video) takes a long time to produce - that's the reality.

So I don't have to start brushing up on my audio/video skills just yet. Nor do I have to admit that my partner has any edge over me whatsoever. Not that I would do that anyway. Nor does he showcase those skills to me so I could really just decide to believe that he doesn't have any a/v skills.

But I digress.

I didn't get to hear enough of the session about the Web and philanthropy. It started out interestingly, although not surprisingly. I just wonder how it turned out. Perhaps there will be videos posted so I can watch later.

And now, I have to go catch another session that I'm late for: the Web and politics. Not sure that I'll love it (seeing as how I hate politics) but it's better than Blogging 101 (which I think I have down at this point - or should have, or someone should fire me) and probably more useful than "should old media be afraid of new media." (Seriously, these topics have been done to death -- I just attended a CAJ event a month ago or so on the exact same thing and it also presented nothing earth shattering.)