Marc Smith launches his new Adventure 30DayAdventures.ca

For Immediate Release – from Marc Smith @amuse_events

 

30 Day Adventures explores hidden attractions of Lower Mainland and inspires shaking up everyday routines

(Vancouver – May 22, 2012) Social media community builder Marc Smith is embarking on 30 Day Adventures next week, a month-long sampling of the diversity of experience to be found in the Lower Mainland community.  

From June 2nd to July 1st, social media influencer and event guru, Marc Smith, will undertake a new adventure every day to discover a hidden experience of the Vancouver region. Smith will report on his adventures on the 30 Day Adventures blog at http://30dayadventures.ca, and will capture his experiences through photos, video, live-tweets and blogging.

“I’ve lived in Vancouver since 1989 and thought I knew the city pretty well, but when I asked my social media friends for ideas of how to shake up my life with new activities or experiences in town, I was flooded with suggestions for things I had never done,” says Marc Smith, Chief Muse at Amuse Consulting Inc. “I thought this would be a great way to try a lot of new adventures, and document them for my friends and followers to build community and promote some of the amazing adventures to be had in our region.”

Smith is drawing on his ‘friends’ and followers to help choose random adventures, allowing him to see Vancouver through the eyes of the people with whom he engages virtually and hopefully connect on a deeper level with them. He will also be able to showcase some of the amazing adventures to be found in the community. Adventures can range from a cliff walk, volunteering to read books to students at an inner city school, cheering on a little league team at their playoffs, cooking with an award-winning chef, or learning how to fly a kite at Vanier Park.

“I hope people following my adventures online will be inspired to get out and try something new and different,” says Smith. “It’s when we do something out of the ordinary that extra ordinary experiences happen.”

About Marc Smith

Marc Smith is the Chief Muse at Amuse Consulting, Inc. With more than 13 years experience in the event planning industry, Marc continuously strives to have a fresh perspective and the latest marketing tools. He is passionate about social media – connecting people to and at events, as well as educating professionals, students and entrepreneurs about the untapped engagement power of Social Media and events. Building community is everything to Marc. He was a founding board member of the BC Ethics in Action Society a current board member of The Synergy Foundation, and a tireless supporter of community for many years, most recently donating his services to A Loving Spoonful, Qmunity, and Five Hole for Food

- 30 –

Contact:

Marc Smith

marc@amuseconsulting.ca

c : 604-687-6335

Twitter: @amuse_events

Posted in Amuse Consulting, Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Save the Date! It’s time to launch an Adventure with @amuse_events

MAY 22nd! Save the Date 5pm Location To Be Announced

Last week I had a revelation and I’m working hard to bring it to life! It’s gonna be an adventure!!!!

Please leave a comment below with your twitter name & email address and I will put you on the official guest list for when the invite is ready to go out. REVISED RSVP below

I’ve already lined up some cool giveaways for the party Smile

 

Posted in 2012, Social Media | Tagged , , , | 32 Comments

Anderson Cooper 360–Vancouver Tour Cancelled!

Let’s tell Anderson How much we wanted to see him!

Well it’s official the  Anderson Cooper: A 360 Degree View Of the World is no longer coming to Vancouver on April 5th Sad smile

To say I’m massively disappointed is an understatement. I even did a YOUTUBE video to show Anderson Cooper how a story he did in Oct 2010 inspired my to devote a year of volunteering to a great charity QMUNITY.

 

Instead of being sad watch this story and please leave a comment sharing why you were excited to see Mr. Anderson Cooper in Vancouver. I’ll forward this to his PR people and let’s see if we can get a response from Anderson. Let’s go viral baby and inspire action!

Anderson Cooper

Share your inspiration below.

Posted in Amuse Events, Amuse Gives Back, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Amuse Consulting–A Best Community Impact Finalist!

Small Business BC has recognized Amuse as a Top 5 Finalist. Awards Gala on Feb 28th, 2012

Late Friday afternoon we were thrilled to get the call from Small Business BC to let us know we had made it to the final round for the Small Business BC Successful You Awards. A huge honour for us as Community is at the heart of the work we do at Amuse “we bring people together” is not just a tag line for us, it’s a philosophy and a way of working we hold dear.

The big gala is on Feb 28th and we are thrilled to celebrate with all the other amazing nominees the fabulous work that occurs here in BC by small business owners and their teams. If you’d like to join us please contact Marc Smith @ 604-687-6335 by Feb 2nd as I have a block of tickets available at $49 each a $10 savings from the current price of $59. Let’s celebrate!

Successful You Awards

How we got here:

Stage #1 – get nominated

Stage #2 – Collect enough votes from the public to be make it to the Top 10

Stage #3 – Fill out the long form application and include 3 letters of support from your peers/community in support of the nomination.

Stage #4 – A panel of judges review the long form applications and score each one. The 5 nominees with the highest scoring applications move on to…

Stage #5 – in front of the panel of judges we make a 5 to 10 minute presentation followed by a Q&A session

Stage #6 – on Feb 28th the award for Best Community Impact is announced!

Posted in 2012, Amuse Consulting, Amuse Gives Back, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Charities Choose Amuse Consulting For 2012

Amuse Consulting has been chosen as the Event Planner for 2 West Coast Charities

Amuse Consulting is pleased to announce that it has been chosen as the event planner for two amazing charities providing services to residents of BC.

The Canadian Red Cross Western Zone has asked Amuse Consulting to plan it’s new signature Gala to take place in Oct 2012. The Canadian Red Cross supports our community with Disaster Management support, Migrant & Refugee Services & RespectED: Violence Prevention services just to name a few.

QMUNITY

QMUNITY was the 2011 charity of choice for Amuse Consulting and that relationship is continuing into 2012 with Amuse producing a Donor Reception, the International Day Against Homophobia breakfast & the signature event Stack the Rack. A 4th event is also in planning with details soon to follow.

Amuse is please to be working with such amazing organizations and is looking forward to building a stronger community which we can all benefit from.

For more information on these organizations or about Amuse Consulting please don’t hesitate to call us 604-687-6335 email us marc@amuseconsulting.ca or tweet us https://twitter.com/#!/Amuse_events

Posted in 2012, Amuse Consulting, Fundraising | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

And the 2012 Charity is… Five Hole For Food

Amuse Announces the 2012 Charity of the Year

Five Hole For Food – an annual coast to coast tour playing hockey to support food banks across Canada. Uniting fans of all loyalties, FHFF visited St. John’s, Halifax, Charlottetown, Saint John, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, & Vancouver in 2011.

In only 2 short years Five Hole For Food has raised almost 60,000 lbs of food for local food banks & has the support of some Canada’s biggest corporations Molson Canadian, Chevrolet Canada, Canadian Pacific, Boston Pizza, WestJet, TELUS, Marketwire & London Drugs just to name a few.

Mission Statement – Five Hole for Food brings together communities across Canada using hockey as a vehicle for social change and to support Food Banks in this country. Five Hole for Food creates a giving experience that inspires, cultivates change and has a legacy impact.

Will Play Hockey For Food

The Full Story

History – Since starting Amuse in 2005 I’ve contributed many hours personally & professionally to some amazing charities & groups that do great work here in the lower mainland. Traditionally groups have approached me when their need was upon them. In the fall of 2009 I decided to take a different approach.

I took stock of what was happening in Vancouver & researched charities I felt where addressing problems facing the community & chose one where I felt my unique skills & abilities would be needed most. In other words I chose the organization that my support would have the most impact on.

Current – In 2010 that charity was QMUNITY an amazing organization that supports, educates & helps to keep safe the LGBT community from teens to the grave. Definitely check QMUNITY out to learn more about what they do and how we’ve helped.

FHFF Story – Feb 2010 I was asked by my friend Dixon Tam to meet a young guy by the name of Richard Loat who started a charity the year before & who needed a bit of mentor-ship about approaching & managing sponsorship. I was promised that if I gave an hour of my time I would be wowed by what this 22 year old was doing. Of course I said yes & boy was I WOWED!

I spent 2010 helping out via twitter, phone, email & the occasional face to face. I helped plan the wrap up party in my gallery space once the media picked up the story for the final Vancouver game which meant all hands were on deck at the game.

When the dust settled on the 2010 events a core concern came up for Richard & the exec team, organizational sustainability & future growth. While not something I’m usually hired for it is something I’m passionate about. So during Sept to November I spent time with the exec team setting forth a long term strategy & then we met separately with the Ops & Marketing teams. Structure, accountability & work flow documentation were our focus.

Get Involved – So what will I be doing for 2012 with FHFF? All of the above + hosting & connecting major influencers with the team to help facilitate Five Hole For Food becoming the premier National Food Bank Fundraiser in Canada. If you want to get involved please connect with me via Twitter FaceBook Google+ 604-687-6335 or marc@amuseconsulting.ca

Posted in Amuse Gives Back, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

We are a Top 10–Best Community Impact!

Small Business BC Successful You Awards Honours Amuse Consulting

We are thrilled to announce that Amuse Consulting has been recognized in Small Business BC’s Successful You Awards Best Community Impact category. This is the first year for this category and we are honoured to be recognized to be in the Top 10 from a huge list of nominees.

Community is what drives Amuse Consulting founder Marc Smith and there is no recognition that means more to us than one that honours community spirit. In true community fashion we would not have been able to do this on our own so we would like to take a moment and thank all of our friends, colleagues and clients for their unwavering support over the years.

Behind Amuse is a huge village of suppliers, clients, colleagues and of course friends. Inspiration, support and striving to do better each time is what they help us do and without them there would be no Amuse Community.

Here is the list of the other amazing 9 organizations that we are honoured to be nominated with. Please check them out and if you can support them in the future AWESOME!

In no particular order:

  1. Seeds Natural Food Market
  2. Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE)
  3. Lux Jewels
  4. A Little More Good
  5. Dance With Me Studio
  6. Kit n’ Caboodle Quality Children’s Consignment Ltd.
  7. HapiFoods Group Inc. (Holy Crap Cereal)
  8. Academic Advantage Tutoring
  9. Kids Physio Group

 

For a full list of all the nominees in all categories click here http://www.successfulyou.ca/vote.

The next step is a long form application from which 5 finalists are selected and interviewed by a panel of judges. The awards are presented Feb 28, 2012 at a gala event at the Pan Pacific Hotel. Hopefully we will see you there!

Posted in Amuse Consulting, Amuse Gives Back, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Hybrid Events & Social Media

An interview of Marc Smith by Terry Coatta of Associcom.com

At the beginning of Nov I was part of Event Camp Vancouver and was asked to be the  Social Media Concierge for the weekend. At that conference one of the many people I met was Terry Coatta the President of AssociCom, a private social networking solution for associations around the world.

Terry was impressed with my grasp of the role of Social Media Concierge and asked if I was willing to do a Live Stream interview with him about the topic of Hybrid Events, Social Media and the role they can play to help Associations grow. So here are clips from that interview. I apologise in advance for some of the sound levels. Just crank up the volume. These may or may not be in order Smile

1. The Role of Social Media Concierge

2. What is a Hybrid Event

3. Every Event is a Hybrid Event

4. Business Models of Associations

5. Hybrid Events for Associations

6. Price of Hybrid Events

7. How to Handle Event Disasters

8. Cocktail Rules for Social Media

Posted in Social Media, Tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Holiday Decor at the Westin Bayshore

Unique & easy to create holiday centrepieces for your festive table

For the 7th year in a row the Westin Bayshore is holding it’s Christmas Tree Decorating Contest! Watch the trees get decorated live during the Dec 6th taping of Breakfast Television on Citytv. Come by the Westin between Dec 6th-28th & vote for your favourite tree, best of all proceeds will go to the Canadian Red Cross.

Amuse was asked to help out with the launch of this years contest by creating 3 unique & easy centrepieces that could grace any festive holiday table. Here is what we’ve come up with including where we found all items. Please let us know Which is your favourite table centrepiece.

Here’s a snapshot of the segment that aired on Breakfast TV earlier on Dec 6th. Centrepiece pictures with full itemization listed below.

photo courtesy of gusfosarolli.com photo courtesy of gusfosarolli.com

1. Dr. Seuss meets the Nutcracker – this table pays homage to two iconic Christmas tales “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” & “The Nutcracker”. Total cost $129.91

  • Grinch Christmas Tree – Divine Vines$39.99 to $89.99 each
  • Holiday Train Set 24” – Canadian Tire$34.93 each
  • Nutcracker wooden statues – Michaels$7.99 to $8.99 each
  • Fairy ornaments – Michaels$7.99 each
  • Snowflakes – Michaels $5.99 each

Holiday Dinner for Two

Holiday Dinner for Two

2. Holiday Dinner for Two – A perfect setting for smaller dining tables just for the two of you. Total cost $30.97

  • Metal & Glitter gift boxes – Wonderbucks$2.50 to $9.00 each
  • Miniature Poinsettias – Garden Nursery  $3.99 each
  • LED votive candles – Wonderbucks$2.00
  • Holiday Sleigh felt place mat – Michaels $3.49

Viva Glam

Viva Glam

3. Viva Glam – All that glitters isn’t just for Christmas, what about New Years. A black and silver holiday. Glamorous & festive. Total cost $148.27

I hope these inspire you to get creative. We’d love to hear what you think so please drop us a note Smile Happy Holidays.

Posted in Holiday Celebrations, Tips | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Social Media Concierge–Tips, Tricks & Thoughts

Insights from my experience as the Social Media Concierge for Event Camp Vancouver

Nov 4-6, 2011 saw the 7th ever Event Camp hosted in Vancouver at two beautiful venues, the Westin Bayshore & the Vancouver Convention Centre. Over 80 event professionals attended in person from Vancouver, Alberta, Washington, Oregon along with speakers from California, Denver, & Washington DC. We also had over 50 virtual attendees from Sweden, Belgium, Canada, USA & England to name a few. It was for those 50 virtual attendees that I was assigned to the task of Social Media Concierge. Here are my takeaways.

Event Camp Vancouver 2011

DEF: Social Media Concierge – a person dedicated to monitoring the virtual conversations taking place at a conference/meeting/event & to provide assistance to the virtual attendees as well as being the voice for them at the conference. Being the in room representative for the virtual attendees, asking questions & sharing knowledge. A conduit for the show organizers to gauge real time feedback on the event

Here are my 10 Do’s & Don’ts

Do’s:

1. Make sure the Social Media Concierge really understands the social media channels you are using & actually uses them efficiently for their own business/use.

2.Have dedicated hard line internet access. Wi-Fi is good but occasionally I was bumped off and it took me about 10 mins to re-establish myself which meant I was losing some potentially valuable engagement

3. Make sure your laptop or desktop is up to date and fast! if you are going to be multitasking on it all day the last thing you need is for technology to slow down. Invest in the best you can afford.

 

Erica St. Angel

“What I adore about hybrid events is the networking that can happen between people on-site and people online. Event Camp Vancouver was a stellar example of the kind of community that can be created when you have active and visible stewards at the social media helm. With a dedicated concierge, someone who’s sole role is to bring the voice of the online community into the face to face event, not only do the remote attendees feel more engaged and valued, but the overall quality of the learning is enhanced by the dynamic exchange between online and onsite delegates.” – Erica St. Angel, VP Marketing, Sonic Foundry

 

4. Two screens are better than 1. When multitasking between Tweetchat , the Twitter List I was building & the other programs 2 screens would have made it much easier & efficient.

5. Provide the Social Media Concierge with the Key Points from each presenter in advance so that they don’t get missed. Having these in advance would have allowed me to pre type some tweets to coincide with the on stage presentations

6. Have a pre event meeting with the Event Producer/Show Manager & the Host/MC/Moderator. This ensures that all parties are clear on the roles & the Social Media Concierge adds to the event and is not a distraction

7. Treat the Social Media Concierge just like a presenter or co host. To be truly effective a Social Media Concierge is the voice of the Virtual Attendees as well as those in the room that don’t want to stand up. I thought Glenn Thayer & myself made a great team.

8. Understand the Social Media Concierge can in real time be the feedback gauge of the event. He/she can tell you exactly how the attendees are reacting to the venue/programming & speakers. Allow for real time communication with the Event Planner so that adjustments can be made to enhance the attendee experience.

Tahira Endean“In the case of EventCamp Vancouver the social media concierge had a dual role. The designated role was to monitor the Twitter stream for the virtual audience primarily and to share what they had to say with those in the room who may not be following along Twitter. (especially as we did not have a feed running at the front of the room) The secondary role that some would say was of the most value was when we had small group sessions that included technology and people could ask their own specific questions to improve their knowledge of social media. Both invaluable. “ – Tahira Endean, Director, Team Creative & Production Cantrav Services Inc.

Don’ts:

1. Don’t run the show & be the Social Media Concierge at the same time, each is a full time job.

2. Don’t volunteer to be the Social Media Concierge if you were planning to be an attendee as well, you will miss some of the networking & learning opportunities. Better to have clear focus for either role – attendee or Social Media Concierge.

 

ECV11 media site capture #2ECV11 media site capture #1

Posted in Amuse Consulting, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments