My role was to offer insights (aka presentations) on common social media tools, business models (yeah, right ), and the nature of instant feedback! What was really interesting was how intimidated many of these senior women, primarily from the broadcasting world, were about these new “digital” options and distribution channels. However, after a week of learning, there were many great take-aways that highlighted the incredible success and need for such programs. A few of the key take-aways included:

• developing a real appreciation for social media tools and the value they can bring to a company or brand
• realizing that the digital world is very similar to the real world (and the traditional media world), with differences occurring primarily in what we “called” things, i.e. jargon and acronyms.
  (At the end of the week, we had a huge whiteboard covered with glossary terms and important websites and applications!)
• understanding that it’s all about the audience; the platform or medium is merely a conduit to conversing with them
• recognizing that games are often about the relationships created within them
• learning about the “attention economy”, the “device revolution”, and what “locative media” is
• reviewing some amazing case studies, such as ZeD TV, Regenesis, Fallen, CurrenTV, and many more
• recognizing the tremendous work associated with creating a successful blog and blog presence
• evaluating the pros and cons of HD programming and production
• realizing that storytelling needs to be taken to a new level
• establishing our own personal brands, even within large organizations
• appreciating that we all face similar challenges!

I’m sure there are many I’ve missed and over the next couple of days, I will sift through my notes and perhaps write other posts. However, I did want to sincerely thank the Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) (the organizer), CWC & Corus (the sponsors), and the phenomenal participants and my co-peer advisors for a spectacular week of dialog, conversations, insight and laughter! It was magnificent to expand my social network and to have connected with so many accomplished and inspiring women!

One cool take-away for me was the fact that I can now officially call myself an “Artist”… at least that’s what it says on my Banff Centre ID card ! The Banff Centre and this program definitely inspired creativity in me this week!

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