Foodapalooza Fundraiser For Inn From The Cold!

  Let's have some fun and use social media to raise some money for Inn From The Cold! 

  Back in 2012, my pal Joey Oberhoffner came up with a pretty cool idea to help with a fundraiser that I was running to help some families that were guests of the Inn From The Cold at Christmas.  Through this event, we were able to raise close to $10,000 in one night, which was amazing!  Since this was such a fun night for everyone involved, we decided that we should run this fundraiser again this holiday season!

  At the last event, we had five brave eaters that reached out to their friends and social media contacts in an attempt to sponsor them for each food item they were able to eat.  While the individual donations were generous, they all added up collectively pretty fast due to the sheer volume of individual donors committed to cheering their favorite gluttonous pals on!  ( For example, Marc Doll was being sponsored for $100/taco once his sponsors were totaled up.) The amount of people that were following along and donating at home just confirmed how amazing social media can be.  

  ** All funds raised will go towards the Inn From The Cold's "Sponsor A Family" initiative this holiday season. 

  How Can You Help? 

 This year, the participants will be chowing down on Perogies and Wings in an attempt to raise money for the Inn From The Cold.  They will need your support (morally and financially) to help make this a success. An easy way to help is to offer your sponsorship of a small amount ( eg. $0.50 per wing or $1.00/perogie etc.) to one of the amazing people that have stepped up to the "plate".  

  This years event will be held at Murdoch's Bar and Grill ( 1935 37 Street SW, Calgary) on Wednesday, November 26 2014 from 7 to 10pm.  Everyone is welcome to attend!  

  So far, we have the following eaters signed up to participate:

•  Marc Doll  ( Team Alberta Party) @dollhouseyyc 

• Joey Oberhoffner ( Team PCAA)  @oberhoffner

• Kyle MacQuarrie  ( Team Twitter!)  @KyleMacQuarrie 

•  Derrick Jacobson  ( Wildrose Party ) @albertaaltruist

• Cory Chapdelaine  ( Team Cory! ) @88styles 

• Vincent St Pierre  ( Team Alberta Liberals) -  @VSP

• Kevin Olenick     ( Team Agree Or Disagree!) @kevole

  

  Donations and pledges to your favourite eater can be made here...

https://www.good.pn/events/foodapalooza

( Pledge an amount per Perogy now and you can follow up with the final totals on Nov 26!  Or, donate a flat amount to your favorite participant at the link above.)

Be sure to watch for updates on this site and on Twitter...  

We hope that everyone can make it down for a beer and some laughs that night!  This will be a great opportunity to meet up with some amazing twitter people in real life.  

Info and RSVP for this FREE event can be found at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/foodapalooza-fundraiser-for-inn-from-the-cold-tickets-14130890875 

Thanks!

Shane

PoliBowl 2014 Charity Bowling Event For BB4CK

Where Else Can You Mix Charity, Bowling and Politics? 

 I am excited to announce that we will be hosting our third annual bowling charity event on August 25, 2014.  The last event was very successful and sold out fairly quickly!  We will be inviting local citizens, politicians, media personalities and the #yyc "Twitterati" to come out and enjoy a fun night of bowling for a great local charity!   

As board chair of Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids ( BB4CK) I am excited that this event will be held again.  The proceeds will go to BB4CK to help provide lunches for needy local school kids and I hope that it will be a huge success.

About BB4CK: 

 BB4CK works in partnership with the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Separate School District to combat increasing numbers of students attending Calgary schools without a lunch. BB4CK is delivering 1,500+ lunches each day to over 60 schools.

  In addition to providing lunches from our main kitchen they are also supporting many community based initiatives.  These include churches, community centres, schools and individuals who want to take action and support the children in their communities.  Each program is unique and built to fit the community it serves.  BB4CK is supporting over 60 community based programs.

Since September 2013, they have provided over 103,000 lunches to needed school kids!  


How To Register?  ( Note: No Tickets Available At The Door...sorry.) 

To Register Online: polibowl2014.eventbrite.ca    ( Note: This event sells out quickly!) 

How Can You Help? 

Please share this event with your friends and family!  If you would like to help or volunteer at this event, please email me. ( calgaryrants ( at) gmail.com ) 

I hope to see everyone there!  

Thanks For Helping To Raise $10,000 for Inn From The Cold Families This Christmas!

  Wow!  What started out as a simple idea  to use social media to try and help some local families this Christmas turned out bigger than any of us could have imagined.  The plan was to raise a few hundred dollars and gather some much needed items to fill a Christmas hamper or two for the Inn From The Cold, but due to everyone's generosity, we exceeded that modest goal by a long shot.

  We had lots of interest in the goods donations and dozens of people on Twitter had contacted me to confirm that they were going to donate hamper and wish list items and many people had dropped off goods directly to me to forward to the Inn From The Cold.  I was amazed at the response and so happy that we could help the Inn in this small way.  Then, thanks to an idea hatched by my pal Joey Oberhoffner, things took off in another amazing direction.

  At the last minute, Joey organized a challenge to some of our contacts on twitter, to raise money from their respective political party members via a food pledge night!  This idea turned out to be a massive success, as we saw people from across the Alberta political spectrum get behind their members and donate money for each wing and taco that they ate!  Some even donated to all of the participants, which was amazing.  Here is how the results shook out...

Vincent St Pierre (Alberta Liberals) - 24 tacos (NOT a typo...!) 

Joey Oberhoffner (Progressive Conservatives) - 15 tacos ( Hold the sour cream....) 

Derrick Jacobson (Wildrose) - 41 chicken wings  ( Yes, there is some symbolism in the "41 Wings..." )   FYI,,,Derrick and the Wildrose raised the most money! 

Marc Doll (Alberta Party) - 13 tacos (at $100/taco!) 

Stephen D. Anderson (NDP) - 10 tacos 

These gents raised over $4700 for their efforts!!  It was hilarious to actually watch them chow down and push themselves to the limit for charity.

The best part?  We had an anonymous donor who agreed to MATCH any money raised!  This brought the total raised to well over $10,000!!!!! ( This donor's generosity had inspired all of us in this initiative)

 I had the chance to deliver the hamper items with our anonymous donor yesterday to the Inn and they were very thankful.  When they received the cheque from our matching donor, they were blown away.  This money will go a long way to helping families this holiday season.     

  Over the past few years, I have had the privilege to meet some amazing people on twitter and they always come out to support good causes.  I am truly blessed to know these good people.  Thanks again to everyone who helped, either through donations, re-tweets and support of the #ablegcares gluttony on Wednesday!





Merry Christmas everyone!  

The Alberta 2012 Election Twitter Echo Chamber

  Most people that know me will confirm that I love to use Twitter and think that is an amazing social media platform.  Over the past three years, I have been engaged on this medium and have met some outstanding Calgarians of all party stripes online.  I have become friends with a diverse group of people on twitter that I probably would never have met in real life.  Over the past few years we have always had a great banter and while we often disagreed, we could have a respectful debate.  This can best be seen through the diverse group of bloggers and media people that often get together for "Politweet" meet-ups, usually generously hosted by Joey Oberhoffner and Derrick Jacobson.  These tweetups take place with people from the entire political spectrum and truth be told, we all get along just fine!  That said, not all of the twitter engagement over the past few weeks with respect to #abvote has been as ideal.

  I have noticed that over the past month the tone from all parties on Twitter has gotten a tad nasty.  Its OK for all parties to disagree, but I am shocked at how personal the attacks against party supporters has become.  A quick scan of the #abvote hashtag will reveal a cesspool of attacks, negative re-tweets and slurs against each PC and WRP supporters.  To be fair, I think that all parties have an equal amount of negativity and I think that the election campaign has increased tensions substantially.  It has gotten so nasty online that I joked that "I hope we can all be friends when this election is over" and I seriously hope the nastiness dies down after April 23.  

  If you think back to the 2010 Calgary Municipal election, the use of Twitter to engage political discussion exploded.  People that were not typically involved or interested in politics used this medium to ask questions and debate issues respectfully.  This healthy debate actually engaged people to get involved and led to an increased turnout on election day and help to inform voters of the issues the city faced.  Fast forward to the Alberta provincial election and the same cannot be said.  The #abvote negativity appears to have driven many average tweeters away from the conversation.  I have heard numerous times that people who try to ask questions or join the debate are "pounced on" from the opposing side, which causes some to just back away from the conversation.

 Since many casual political twitter followers seem to be driven away from the debates, it looks like the only people left screaming are the "usual suspects' ( myself included) and we appear to be just yelling into an endless echo chamber.  If this is true, I often wonder if others think there actually is value in tweeting and trying to debate issues regarding the election?  If PCAA and WRP members just banter back and forth, without outside engagement, what is the point?  (Its not like we are not going to sway each other to vote for the other party!)  It often just comes back to attacks by each side, followed by responses and another attack.  While I have been guilty of this, I have really been getting drained by it all. 

 It will be interesting to see just how bad things get online over the next few weeks.  While its unfortunate that it has gotten so nasty, it is even more shameful that we have driven people away from the conversation. While most of us clearly show which party we support by our avatar "twibbons', we are probably failing to properly and objectively inform the casual twitter user.  Hopefully, we really all can go back to being friends when this is all over and can look toward the example that the Politweet members set in respectful disagreement! 



   

Social Media and the Calgary Secondary Suite Issue

   After a few months of heated debate over the secondary suite issue, Calgary City Council will once again face this issue on March 7, 2011.  No matter what side of the issue you are on, many Calgarians are passionate about this issue and how it will affect their communities.  The issue really is one of the most polarizing debates that I have seen in a long time.

 Without getting into the issue directly, I found it fascinating that many Calgarians are using Social Media to share their views on the issue.  A quick Twitter search under #yycsuite or #suiteyyc shows an amazing level of engagement on this issue by average Calgarians who may not otherwise be as vocal on civic issues.  It would appear that Mayor Nenshi's plea asking for constituents to let their Aldermen know where they stand on the issue has had some effect.  Many groups are quite active on social media sharing their views and engaging some of the Aldermen into the debate online.

 Here is an interesting link from Alderman Diane: ( Secondary Suites Survey)

http://www.aldermandiane.ca/files/Mainpage/SecondarySuitesSurveyResultsFeb22.pdf

Will the Twitter debate actually sway the way that certain Alderman vote?  I doubt it, but I love the fact that citizens can actually let their representatives know how we feel as individuals on certain issues.  I think that smart politicians can use social media to get a sense of where people stand and use this information along with town hall/community meetings to fully engage Calgarians going forward.

Here is a link to a quick interview I did on this issue for the CBC Calgary Eyeopener.

http://www.cbc.ca/eyeopener/episode/2011/02/28/tweeting-texting-and-telephoning/

Barb Higgings For Mayor? Communications Failure! ( aka...Tea Over Twitter)

 Ever since TV Anchor Barb Higgins entered the race for mayor I have lost track of how many times I have heard people say, " She is a great communicator"!  While I am sure she was very popular with many Calgarian's for her skills as a news presenter, I am not sure that being able to read a teleprompter and change the pitch of your voice when instructed qualifies anyone as a "great communicator"?  I was having a brief discussion on Twitter last night about Ms. Higgins lack of actual communication, at least on Twitter, and thought I would share my thoughts.

 Twitter is a pretty unique communications medium.  It allows you the ability to interact with other people on a real time basis, on pretty much any topic you can imagine.  Some candidates in the upcoming Calgary Municipal Election use Twitter quite well, often engaging potential voters in policy discussions and debate.  Other candidates feel that they should use Twitter as a 140 Character Press Release, letting everyone know where they will be and what they had for dinner.  Barb Higgins, the "great communicator" falls into the latter category.  Here is a sample of her Twitter page...

 As you can see, the "great communicator" only follows two people on twitter, yet of the 692 people following her, she does not see the need to interact with them.  It looks like Barb has taken the SOCIAL, out of SOCIAL MEDIA!!

 I am not sure why the "great communicator" does not want to interact with Calgarian's on Twitter, but perhaps some of the following ideas apply?

• Barb does not want to waste time talking with the "dirty, common Twittering Calgarian's". Unless we belong to the Mount Royal/Rideau Park Elite, of course?  Tea over Twitter? 

• Barb still has not got a grasp on the issues facing Calgarian's and what is really going in this city once you leave Signal Hill.  ( Is that City Hall?  I recognize it from the teleprompter view....)

• Barb is not sure of what to do, as there is no Teleprompter app for Twitter. 

• Barb's handlers do not want her to discuss any issues with the public at all and hope to ride her good name recognition into the election night sunset.  ( Barb? I know her...no, no, not from Twitter. From the TV!)

• After repeating that she has both "Respect for Money" and "A Social Heart", there are too many characters left in the 140 maximum for her to complete a tweet on twitter.  What to say....what to say?

• Rod Love told her... "Ralph Didn't need no stinking internets....we didn't even have an internets back in 1980.  We had an old motor home and dimes for the payphone. "

 And it is not a generational issue either.  Paul Hughes and Ric McIver are over the 25-44 age range, and seem to understand twitter and use it well.  Not as well as some of the younger candidates, (Nenshi is a pro at Twitter) but I give the older candidates kudos for trying! 

With two followers ( one being Calgarydemocracy.ca, which is an excellent site headed by fellow CalgaryPolitics.com blogger Grant Nuefeld) and no interaction with the Calgary voters, I give Barb "the great communicator" a failing grade.



** Update**  Here is a link to my post about my follow up coffee with Barb Higgins... http://www.calgaryrants.com/2010/08/coffee-with-calgary-mayoral-candidate.html

Still Just for fun...Mark Dyrholm team closes the "interweb" gap!

In what was supposed to be a lighthearted post on June 14, I jokingly compared the social media following of the two declared WRAP candidates. It set off a funny set of comments, including some from Mr.Dyrholms team.



I thought it would be interesting to see how the numbers stand up now, almost 10 days later....



June 14:

Danielle Smith:

Facebook: 140 Followers.
Twitter: 696 Followers

Mark Dyrholm:

Facebook: 58 followers
Twitter: 90 Followers


June 24:

Danielle Smith:

Facebook: 235 Followers.

Twitter: 911 Followers

Mark Dyrholm:

Facebook: 212 followers

Twitter: 727 Followers

Looks like a big jump for Mr. Dyrholm. I know I have received 3-4 requests to add Dyrholm as a "friend" on facebook from a certain well known member of his campaign team, so they are obviously pushing the social media well.

What does this mean? Absolutely Nothing!

Young Liberal candidate ( Calgary Glenmore) Cory Hogan had 222 friends on facebook....yet he could not sell enough memberships ( 100 people total voted at the glenmore nomination meeting) to win the nomination. Pretty sad.

Moral of the story? Social Media is important in getting your message out...but unless you actually sell memberships and gather supporters, you will find out who your "friends" really are.

Just for Fun...WAP Leadership Race via Social Network Stats!

Just for fun on a lazy Sunday morning...

While two candidates have come forward in the Wildrose Alliance Party leadership race, I am going to save commentary on each until all of the candidates have come forward. That said, I have been following both Danielle Smith's and Mark Dyrholm's web presence with interest. Here are my thoughts...

Websites:

• Danielle's website is clean, bright, crisp and visually appealing. It is easy to navigate and simple but highly effective.
• Mark's website is good, but it has the PGIB/Chandler NASCAR advertising style, which may turn some people off. It is not as easy to read and forces you to read long winded letters of endorsement, with a few website links from those endorsing him. Hmmm...
  

Now, just for fun...( don't read too much into it) lets look at the Social Media following of each leadership hopeful....

Danielle Smith

• Facebook: 140 Followers.
• Twitter: 696 Followers

Mark Dyrholm

• Facebook: 58 followers
• Twitter: 90 Followers

Edge: Danielle Smith by a mile.

Now, It looks like Craig Chandler and his PGIB crew were a little slow getting the Dyrholm website up and twitter account up and running, so this may be the reason for the "gap" here. Perhaps it may also be a demographic issue, as older people generally do not use Facebook or Twitter?

Anyways...I just figured this would add some mindless banter! Time to grab another coffee...