In my role on the Board of CPRS Ottawa, I have organized a panel discussion on how social media and online networking are changing the communications landscape for next Tuesday, November 13th (all board members organize professional development events for our members throughout the year).

This event sold out a couple of days ago and unfortunately we’ve had to turn several people away, granted the venue can only accomodate 50 people.  However, we’re always in rooms about this size for our professional development events and this is the first time we’ve sold one out, and well in advance, since I’ve been on the board (2 years).  And its a first for several years according to colleagues that have been on the board longer than I.

This is a testiment to the growing interest in the area amongst PR and communications professionals in the national capital region and also to the great moderator and panellists I was able to line up for this session – thanks again gentlemen for agreeing to participate.

Rob Henderson, President of CNW, will moderate panellists John Blackmore, Joe Thornley and Colin McKay in free-ranging discussion on blogs, podcasts, wikis, Facebook, online communities, etc and the impact they are having on traditional media, public policy and communications with customers and citizens.

John Blackmore is leader of the Internet Marketing and Content team at Cognos, Canada’s largest software company. His team’s responsibilities include content creation and navigation, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, eNewsletters, a regular iTunes podcast Radio Cognos, and a non-media blog outreach.  John and his team have directed the evolution of cognos.com from educational “brochure-ware” to its current role as demand-generation engine that delivers tens of millions of dollars in marketing pipeline.

Joe Thornley is President and CEO of Thornley Fallis & 76design, the company he established in 1995 to provide senior executives with communications counsel and programs aimed at achieving business and organizational objectives.  Mr. Thornley developed the company’s blog strategy to establish thought leadership through active participation in the blogosphere and early adoption of new methodologies and technologies. His blog, ProPR.ca, is dedicated to best business practices, practitioners and building the ideal PR firm.

Colin McKay, aka CanuckFlack, is Director of Public Education and Communications at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. In addition to his two personal blogs, he is responsible for the recently launched Office of the Privacy Commissioner blog. He has been dabbling in social media and online communications for more than four years. 

Today, a few colleagues and I at Thornley Fallis (LeeEllen, Lauren & Joe) participated in a Ragan Communications Webinar Podcasting 101 presented by prominent blogger and podcaster Shel Holtz.

Now, I already know (I would say anyway) more than the average person about podcasting.  Current colleague Terry Fallis and former colleague David Jones have had a podcast for almost a year now.  I listen to it and For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report semi-regularly.

I’ve also participated in a lot of webinars on communications and public relations over the years.  Many of which I didn’t find that useful, didn’t hold my attention/interest and I ended up leaving early.

I have to say that I found Shel’s presentation really good.  For me, it started off a little slow, talking about RSS, only because I’m quite familiar with RSS (it would have been fine for people not that familiar with it).

But then the presentation really got interesting and informative — I took away quite a bit that I hope will be of future use in advising clients.

Shel talked about:

• How to strategize a business podcast
• The tools of podcasting, from recording to hosting
• Integration of your podcast with other online content
• How to build a community of listeners
• How to promote and create a successful podcast

Definitely worth the $329 registration fee.

Thanks for the presentation today Shel.

Terry Fallis, the ‘Fallis’ in Thornley Fallis has written ‘The Best Laid Plans’, a satirical novel of Canadian politics. 

Terry has set up a podcast where he’ll be reading a chapter each week.  A Prologue and Chapter 1 are up now.

TSN is broadcasting all the games they are covering at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Sweden at www.tsn.ca. 

So if you missed Canada’s thrilling, 7 round, shootout win over the US today, you can catch it there — the whole game or just the shootout.

Its great that TSN did this, particularly for the World Juniors that are being played in Europe this year, so the games are on in the morning or early afternoon here in Canada.

TSN also has several podcasts that are worth checking out.