Live Streaming #WeVisitEgypt from UNWTO Conference on Media and Tourism in Marsa Alam, Egypt
Greetings from Egypt!
Follow along on our Egyptian Adventure with #WeVisitEgypt
In a few short hours, Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll of Uncornered Market and I will be presenting our ‘Real’ Time Travel Storytelling Demonstration, #WeVisitEgypt, for the UNWTO Conference on Media and Tourism, Partnering with Media in Challenge Times. I am pleased to share that the conference will be streaming this live, so you should be able to watch below.
Our session is at 12:30 pm in Marsa Alam, which will be 6:30 am EST and 3:30 am PST, so I realise that many of you will not be awake. If that is case, you should be able to watch a saved version of this here for you later in the day.
You can also catch more of the conference at Live Streaming the 2nd UNWTO Conference on Tourism and Media.
#WeVisitEgypt ~ A Digital Egyptian Travel Tale
Courtesy of Audrey Scott & Daniel Noll of UnCornered Market
We are Roamancing Egypt (again)!
As some of you may be aware we launched Emme Rogers and Brie Mason into their latest digital, interactive transmedia tale this past summer, Roamancing ~ a travel tale in search of those most elusive of creatures: love and romance. We’ve been having fun with it and for those of you that are familiar with Emme, I am sure you can imagine the silly shenanigans and characters we’ve met along the way, from being presented with a key to City of Yorkton with the fabulous Katrina German to forever bumping into a few delightfully mischievious Blues Men that have wormed their way into our hearts and our stories. With a trip to Egypt this past December to speak at the International Organisation for E-Tourism Conference in Cairo, Lori Yearwood and I decided that like many of the wonderful storytellers that we work with, it was time to weave ourself into our own tales. I am glad we did, as I had a lot of fun telling a tale or two with Lucy Duck and the Roamancing Red Boots in Egypt, and I am proud to say I am the first of our team to have done the Roamancing strut overseas (even if I looked ridiculous in doing so).
Lucy prepares to enter the Mosque
One of the realisations from being in Cairo during demonstrations in Tahrir Square, was the impact of mainstream media images on people back home. I was perfectly safe and having a grand time, yet perceptions from media images in North America were that Egypt was in a state of violence and chaos. The biggest threat to me? Too many marriage proposals. Here are two posts I wrote on the topic, upon returning home:
It struck me that when we’ve seen images of rioting in Canada, no one worries for ones safety in still visiting the country. That is not the case with Egypt, as the culture is so different from our own. Yet I felt welcomed and safe in visiting Egypt and saw how damaging the media images from Tahrir Square have been to Egyptian Tourism, a major player in the Egyptian economy.
Hmm ... Clearly the 'flat' aspect of the bread making was lost of me.
It is for this reason that we have been consulting with the Egyptian Tourism Authority on using digital storytelling to share the wonderful and exciting travel experiences that you can have in Egypt in ‘real’ time. I am also pleased to share that the Egyptian Tourism Authority has similarly been consulting with two of the wonderful digital storytellers and fellow speakers that I recently met in Cairo, Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott. Daniel and Audrey are the husband-and-wife storytelling team behind the award winning travel blog, Uncornered Market. For over five years, they have continuously travelled around the world, inspiring others to create their own life and travel experiences.
Together with Audrey and Dan, I will be heading to Egypt from April 21 – 29, 2012 with Emme Rogers, Lucy Duck, and the Roamancing Red Boots in tow to share our adventures in Egypt in ‘real’ time and demonstrate for the World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) Conference on Media and Tourism: Partnering with the Media in Challenging Times how digital media and travel bloggers can be used to change the conversation about tourist destinations challenged by negative perceptions related to current events. As a part of this, Dan, Audrey and I will be hosting an informal session with the Egyptian Tourism Authority at the beginning of the Conference on Thursday April 26th, 2012 to demonstrate our #WeVisitEgypt digital storytelling campaign.
Audrey Scott & Daniel Noll of Uncornered Market in Cairo
We invite you to join us on our Digital Egyptian Adventure by following along with the hastag #WeVisitEgypt on your social networking feeds, as well as through uncorneredmarket.com, roamancing.com and emmerogers.com. Furthermore, we invite you to join us in demonstrating to Tourism how effective digital media, including social media and blogging can be in sharing a message. Here are some ways that you can become involved in the #WeVisitEgypt Campaign:
- Share what we are doing in Egypt and the #WeVisitEgypt hashtag to your media channels;
- Follow #WeVisitEgypt on your social networking channels and retweet content that appeals to you;
- Interact with us on our adventure at @UMarket, @Roamancing, @EmmeRogers and @EricaHargreave; and
- Share your own photos, video and blog posts from Egypt with the #WeVisitEgypt hashtag (and we will do our best to retweet them).
Thank you in advance for whatever ways you decide to join in the #WeVisitEgypt Adventure.
Best wishes,
Erica Hargreave
Happy 2012!
2011 was a year of challenges, both personally and in business.
In terms of Ahimsa Media, it was a year that saw much growth in the company in a positive way, in which Lori and I really were able to make some informed decisions on the direction we wanted to take the company. It was also a very busy year for the company, in which we:
- Built the social media strategy around a number of television series;
- Managed the digital storytelling, digital audience building and social networking for 6 TV Series and Films;
- Wrote successful funding applications for clients;
- Taught at 3 Post-Secondary Institution across Canada, including a grad school lab;
- Spoke around the World at film festivals and travel conferences on the digital space;
- Launched a new transmedia travel property, Roamancing, with Emme Rogers; and
- Sat on the Advisory Board for Merging Media and the Adhoc Advisory Board for a new Digital Program at a Post-Secondary Institution.
It even ended personally with 2 marriage proposals in 2-days, but then I guess that’s Egypt for you.
As we head into 2012, we look forward to exciting new challenges, growing as speakers around the world, building in the travel industry in addition to the fun we have with the film and television world, and of course, a little Roamancing (before long we shall have this word in everyones vocabulary, as really who doesn’t want to roamance).
Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you a year of love, health, happiness and a whole of fun, wherever your adventures end up taking you.
With love and laughter from,
Erica, Lori and the rest of the Ahimsa Media gang
Meet Ahimsa’s New Summer Interns!
It’s summertime again, that glorious moment when Ahimsa Media gets to pull new talent onto our team. Two new talents, actually, fresh out of the school year and willing to lend us their creative energies for the summer. Meet Ahimsa’s summer interns for 2011, Kelly Lui and Kino Zhao!
Kino and her cat, "Mister"
Kino Zhao is a 3rd-year double major in philosophy and psychology at UBC, with strong interests in social psychology, storytelling and travel. She is an avid blogger and has lived in five cities so far, beginning with Beijing and currently resides – for now – in Vancouver. Restless for new experiences and full of wanderlust, Kino enjoys hopping on the bus in new cities and going where the wind blows her. She tries – without much success, she says – to convince others how important and interesting philosophy really is. Kino’s new companion is her recently acquired car, whom she affectionately calls May.
Kelly Lui
Kelly Lui is an English Literature major at UBC considering a minor in Sociology or Creative Writing. She had her appetite for poetry whetted this year by Milton and Marvell. She loves getting into the psychology of fairy tale characters and superheroes, and re-telling the stories with a psychological twist. She is currently working on a story about superheroes, which she hopes to turn into a graphic novel with a friend. She is a big fan of the Canucks, and anything made with potatoes. She lived in Hong Kong until she was fifteen, has been living in Vancouver since grade 10, and, like Kino, is very well-traveled.
AhimsaMedia is fortunate to have these two creatives on board for the summer. We look forward to featuring their voices on our upcoming projects. A warm welcome to Kino and Kelly!
Some Exciting Opportunities With Paperny Films
Storytelling excites us. We have fun with it! It’s how we get are kicks, and as such we are pretty pleased about our latest client, Paperny Films, as they are all about stories too and are telling some entertaining ones, from foodie adventures with true to life characters like Bob Blumer to the legends of music greats like Ron Sexsmith. No issues with getting out of bed in the morning around here.
Paperny has a couple of exciting opportunities for the filmmaking community coming up, that we wanted to highlight:
Opportunities for Television Writers and Story Editors
The deadline is fast approaching for this posting. If you have experience as a story editor or writer on Doc. Series or Doc Soap genre programs and are available to work in Vancouver, then don’t delay, get your CV and list of references in. All the details on who Paperny is looking for can be found on Media Job Search Canada. The application deadline is Friday February 25th, 2011.
So You Think You Can Make TV? Contest
Paperny has just launched a pretty cool opportunity for young Canadian filmmakers aged 19-30. Basically, they are challenging young filmmakers to have fun showing off their creativity and skill by creating a 2-minute or less trailer for a lifestyle or factual series. The Prize? $3000 and a one month unpaid internship at Paperny Films in Vancouver. For all the details, check out Paperny’s contest page and be sure to get your submission in by the entry deadline on April 15, 2011.
Don’t Forget to Tune into the Dashing Richard Yearwood Tonight on InSecurity
There are so many reasons why we adore and are proud of Richard Yearwood around here, but tonight it’s for his latest role as NISA Agent Benjamin N’udu in the new CBC Series InSecurity. Don’t miss the Premiere tonight (January 4th, 2011) at 8:30 pm on CBC, right after The Rick Mercer Report.
Grace Lynn Kung, Richard Yearwood and the cast of InSecurity up next, after The Rick Mercer Report
For those of you who don’t know Richard personally, he is an incredibly talented man with an even bigger heart. It’s why we love him. He keeps us laughing and on our toes, especially with his repertoire of accents on the phone. My favourite has got to be the time a little old lady called me up looking for her doctor’s office, only to discover it was Richard. This InSecurity File on Richard and N’udu pegs Richard to a T.
Now if that doesn’t make you just love and adore Richard and his alias N’udu, then I’m sure his Bomb Primer will.
Needless to say InSecurity is a comedy and spoof on serious spy and crime drama shows. Best described, in my mind, in the Postmedia News:
if James Bond were Mr. Bean ~ Sheri Levine
You can follow along with the InSecurity antics of Benjamin N’udu and his fellow NISA Agents on their website, facebook or through their twitter feeds:
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