Rick Rake

Websters: Very best in B.C. journalism.

 

Alison Yesilcimen, Kelowna publisher turned entrepreneur, looks at her copy of a simple script and asks me: "Who is going to present the Webster? Who is going to say . . . and the winner is?"

Without flipping a coin, we decide Alison, my co-juror, will read the magical words for our category in front of a lively Hyatt Regency ballroom audience of 1,000. They've come to see who is the best in B.C. journalism for the 24th annual Jack Webster Awards.

I will present the glass hardware.

Webster is a legend in journalism. He died in 1999, but saw what the foundation named in his honour was doing to inspire quality journalism through recognition and professional development.

 

Today's blog is not about the winners, the compelling speech by Bruce Hutchison lifetime achievement recipient Jim Taylor or the wonderful words by guest CBC broadcaster Adrienne Arsenault (with her mischievous look and green dress on the big Webster screen).

 
No, this is a pictorial stroll  through the awards night with some light commentary along the way.  Awards nights are often about the food, the people, and the anticipation.

 
Yes, chicken was on the menu, but before that we shared a few special refreshments with the Webster Foundation trustees on the hotel's 34th floor.

 
 
We met some top students who represent the future of journalism.

 
We bumped into lead juror Helen Slinger (centre - recently named among the Top 100 influential women in B.C. by the Vancouver Sun) and  fellow juror Jerry Thompson.

 
And then the flood of familiar faces rushed in . . . Mike Harcourt and Moura Quayle.

  
Guest speaker Vaughn Palmer (with Mike Smyth) and his colleagues.

 
I shared a few sailing stories with journalist and Gulf Yacht Club member Nick Palmer (left, below) and  talked about social media with old friend and Vancouver Sun deputy online managing editor Paul Bucci.

 
We bumped into Simon Fraser University public affairs and communications boss Don MacLachlan.  His wife Barbara has a keen eye for photography.

 
Renowned musician Dal Richards was back at the Webster Awards.

 
It was time to move into the Hyatt ballroom where my wife, Kathleen, met former Conservative politician and senator Pat Carney.

 
Jack Webster Foundation executive director (and awards miracle worker) Nora Newlands took the time to pose with juror Iona Campagnolo.

 
Then the screens on either side of the Hyatt stage came to life as our hosts Tamara Taggart and Perry Solkowski approached the podium.

 
Co-juror Alison Yesilcimen and her guest, Bob Wilson, account executive with Rogers, were ready to be our table mates.

 
 
More meal courses were served and people started visiting again.  Our table was graced with the presence of Crystal Orchison of the Mission Record and her friend David Hoff, a Webster Foundation trustee.

  
When it was time to leave we ran into Greg Johnson (centre below) of Pace Group which years ago arranged Harmony Airways fam trips for us to New York City and Maui.  He was with a radio buddy and Paula Amos of the Aboriginal Association of BC.

 

One last embrace was left for Marlyn Graziano, editorial director for Postmedia Community Publishing.  She is one of the most upbeat journalism executives we know. 

 

Will you be at the Websters in 2011?  Cheers.

We can all participate: Twitter News Network (TNN)

  

Listen to this: "Once abundant privacy is now scarce.  Once-scarce publicness is abundant."

  

No wonder traditional media is experiencing a little trouble.  Everyone can participate in the public relations, news-gathering and publishing processes now. I like to call it TNN, the Twitter News Network.

  

Anyone with a Blackberry or iPhone can take a picture, add it to a tweet with a hashtag and send it to a high-traffic site to beat the media at its own game.

 

Just the other day, social media and business futurist Owen Greaves of Abbotsford showed me his Fraser Valley Daily www.Paper.li newspaper created from the tweets of some 300 people on a local Twitter list.

 

 

 

Photos, blogs, websites and other information was automatically aggregated by a computer to create a current snapshot of what was going on in the Valley.  Its accuracy and range of coverage is amazing.  And it includes content the mainstream media does not seem to have space or an appetite for anymore. 

Beautiful.

 

Last weekend I was among the 13 speakers at Fresh! Fraser Valley, the brainchild of two very active and interactive social media gals who showcased some 50 local businesses at the Ramada Plaza and Conference Centre.

 

 

I talked about my transition from traditional media to new media and pulled out some old gems like my Model 100 Radio Shack computer (the precursor to the laptop) and its acoustic cups (to attach to the telephone to communicate with newspaper office computer mainframes).

 

You should have seen the smiles when I pulled out a contact sheet and a page of photo negatives that have gone the way of the dinosaur with the proliferation of digital photography

 

I told the audience that journalism is not dead.  No way.It will just find a new platform.  How that service will pay for itself is another discussion.

 

When I read the prose of experts who say content is not a product, I believe it. Advertisers have always been the ones footing most of the bill, because they want to be in the warm environment of where the eyeballs are.

 

And when I see a quote like this one: "The business of media is about connecting people.  It's about building relationships," I can see right away where the profit-driven media is falling down.

 

Content is a tool to build relationships, not to be hidden behind a wall. 

Paywalls only diminish the value of news, since journalism is supposed to be delivered in a timely manner to the "widest" audience.

 

 

By reducing newsrooms to only a handful of people, time for meaningful networking with the community dies, and the poor souls left behind in many cases have no idea who they are writing about or even know what their titles or links to others are.  That's sad.

 

I also relayed the fact that blogs gave people the power of the media.

 

On the big screen at the Ramada, I showed a surfer and a huge wave.  I pointed to the surfer and indicated that it was traditional media.  The wave is social media.  Whether the surfer sinks or swims, depends on his skill.  A true test of the media's social media abilities is to ask it a question online and see if you get an answer.

 

Tweeting, for example, is about building relationships, not constant broadcasting.  So if no one seems to be home, you know what's going on.

 

One other thing . . . long-time friend and photojournalist John Morrow showed up at the Fresh! Fraser Valley speaker series to take photographs.  It doesn't mean any of the images he snapped will be published since traditional media space is the final and scarcest frontier, but I was thankful for his presence.

 

 

Morrow is a media ambassador who connects with people.  He knows communications, like any important business, is based on sound and trusting networks and relationships.  Even though he is not involved in social media yet, he gets my prize for knowing that people matter.

 

Do you know anyone like John Morrow in your media organization?  They will save your bacon.

 

Cheers.

Turning a Cadillac into a twitter-mobile

 

Ever use a 14-passenger Cadillac Escalade SUV limousine as a twitter-mobile?

 

I did.  It's a crazy experience.

 

My mission was to photograph and tweet the media invitation blitz by Naked Boxer Brief, dubbed Canada's newest and sexiest high fashion men's underwear line.

 

Hey,  company founder Joel Primus and his business partner got "NAKED" on the first episode of the CBC reality program Dragon's Den, and the company, with help from Enerjet's Ross Brown, just convinced WestJet co-founder Tim Morgan to invest in the underwear.  Why not spend a day in an Ultimate Limousine stretch limo?

 

When you wear "NAKED" you are supposed to feel like "you are wearing nothing at all."

I'll admit I have a pair still in the stylish black box embossed with silver lettering highlighting the word NAKED.  Guess I am waiting for a special occasion.

On Thursday I recorded our entourage after our driver, Raj, navigated Vancouver traffic to get us to major media offices in the city.  In the hand of our NAKED models would be the stylish black NAKED boxes. Inside were the invitations to the Sept. 23 product launch at Boys Co. on Robson Street.  The event also supports the Vancouver Fire Fighters Burn Fund charity.  NAKEDs will apparently be worn by some of their firefighter calendar models.

 

Our "NAKED" models included actor Steve Belford of Degrassi.

 

In the limo we had fully clothed publicist Summer Dhillon, Vancouver firefighter Patrick McKeown, strategist Rishi Sharma, Joel's brother ONeil, myself and media freelancer Cyndi Hunter.  Company principals Brown and Primus were steadfast at their Abbotsford office, directing our moves by phone, email and texts.

 

At The Beat 94.5 radio station, our limo pulled up on a side street.  A funny thing happened. Popular disc jockey Kid Carson at the same moment stepped out of the building's side door for a smoke break.

 

Bam!  We had my first set of photos on my Blackberry and my quality digital camera.  The invitation was in Carson's hand, he had a look at the silky product, and my job began. What to do next?

 

As I sat in my yogic position on the floor in the back of the limo, I looked at my laptop, peered at my Blackberry and made a decision.  For the next 12 hours I was going to broadcast tweets and photos from my Blackberry alone. No way was I going to pull out a burly laptop, play musical ports with my digital camera card and try to type while the limo braked, hit potholes and took tight corners.

 

This worked fine as we met Province newspaper editor-in-chief Wayne Moriarty, some CBC and Global television personnel, and West Ender style editor Steven Schelling.

 

But Blackberry battery power quickly dwindles with high usage.

 

This is where strategist Rishi showed his value.  He stuck his hand into the electronics console in the limo ceiling.  Miraculously, out came a four-foot USB cable.  Houston, we had blackberry charging power!

 

Good thing, since our next adventure was to ride the Skytrain, where security told our NAKED models they had to wear shirts. By then my Blackberry started to sputter again.  And the head of transit police just happened to be in our Skytrain car.

 

Back at the limo again, we attached our USB umbilical cord, powered up and tweeted our amusing sidewalk CTV visit where Marke Driesschen was about to broadcast the weather.

 

It was a great day for being NAKED.  A selection of the "good-camera" photos can be found here http://bit.ly/dhp9BY.

 

For the NAKED tweets, check my @RickRake or Ross Brown's @NakedBoxerBrief timelines from Sept. 9.

 

Are you ready to get NAKED?

 

 
Cheers from Rick Rake.