sacha chua living an awesome life

I’ve been nominated as one of Canada’s Most Influential Women in Social Media in a poll run by Dave Forde, whom I know from the Toronto technology scene. It’s a little odd thinking about that, because I’m nowhere near the likes of Amber MacArthur (popular geek television / videocasting personality), Leesa Barnes (who made it onto a worldwide list of female social media luminaries), and Sandy Kemsley (prolific Enterprise 2.0 blogger well-known for her comprehensive live-blogged conference notes). Me? I’m a recent hire figuring things out and posting notes along the way. =)

I’ve stumbled across influence by being in the right place at the right time, maybe. My story is now woven into IBM’s story about social media, and we’re helping other large companies figure things out as well. I’ve given numerous presentations helping people figure out what Web 2.0 means for them and for their company, facilitated workshops for generating, developing and prioritizing initiatives, and done a fair bit of hand-holding to get people over their concerns. All of that is pretty cool, come to think of it, but what I’d like to do is make it possible for other people to do even cooler things.

Thinking about this poll on Canada’s most influential women in social media, I realized that I didn’t consider myself any way equal to all these role models I have here and around the world. =) I also realized that I had a pretty good idea of a future me that would feel perhaps at home in that list. So here’s what I think “influential” looks like for me:

• I would organize regular events that brought together interesting people and helped people connect. These events would include workshops on social networking, storytelling and presentations, quarter-life crises, lifehacking and productivity, happiness, geek growth, personal finance, and other topics I’m interested in or passionate about.
• I would also build a bit of infrastructure that would help transform the networking aspects of these events: sign-up pages with more details, aggregators to bring together people’s blog posts, business card prints and other in-person networking aids, active matchmaking both online and offline, and so on.
• I would be one of those people that people mention their projects and ideas to in the off chance that I could recommend people to talk to, books to read, and sites to check out–because I would. =) In order to do this, I’d find ways to more effectively capture information to support a somewhat fuzzy associative memory. (It’s _so_ frustrating to know that you’ve seen something before that people will like, but not be able to find it again!)
• I would help lots of people to figure out what their passion is, deepen their skills, and share the results with lots of people through presentations, new and existing businesses, and other good things. I’d do that by asking people, helping them connect and make things happen, and helping them find a forum or opportunity where they can talk to other people.
• I would have a big archive of things I’ve thought about and shared with others so that I can pull useful resources out and give them to people.
• I would build systems to make it possible for other people to do this kind of awesomeness as well. =)

So that’s what “influential” looks like to me. I’m not there yet, but I think I can get there. =) I can learn how to hold external events, and gradually get into the swing of it. I can keep blogging and summarizing interesting resources, gradually refining my collection of resources. I can keep tweaking my addressbook, and someday I’ll build systems to help other people try this out. =)

Stay tuned.

A colleague asked me about Web 2.0 and social networking conferences in Canada, so I figured I’d post it here too. Here are the big ones I know about:

• Mesh Conference (http://meshconference.com) is an annual Web 2.0 conference held in May here in Toronto. They get a good line-up of speakers, and they’re always sold out.
• DemoCamp (http://democamp.info/) is my favorite Web 2.0 / small business community event series. You’ll reach Web 2.0 thought leaders in Toronto, small businesses and entrepreneurs, people looking for jobs involving Web 2.0 and social networking, and students with great skills. Sponsorship (http://democamp.eventbrite.com/) is capped at $200 / sponsor / event. Events run every month or so, and there’s one next week.
• Northern Voice (http://northernvoice.ca) is a Vancouver conference about personal blogging and social media. I’ve never been there, but I know people who like it.

Any really cool ones I missed?

Okay, I have officially settled in now. ;)

I used 437:08 local minutes and sent 579 text messages from July 12 to
August 11. See, that’s why I *had* to find an unlimited incoming and
way-too-many-text-messages plan… 579 text messages! That’s because I
organize get-togethers with broadcast text messages. I find it so much
nicer than push-to-talk, also. I wish text messaging service was more
reliable, though; sometimes messages get delayed for hours or even
days.

It’s all about the mobile swarm.

On Technorati: phone, canada

Finally sorted out a Canada-based credit card. Yay! I no longer have
to course credit card purchases through the Philippines, getting
dinged on the exchange rate. Too bad I didn’t get it in time to pay
for my flight.

The credit card representative handling my activation call was really
hard-selling me on credit balance insurance. I wasn’t too sure I
needed it because I plan to pay the balance off in full each month,
which is the proper way to use credit cards anyway. He was really
pushing me to go for the 30-day review, but I was, like, ehh…
Something about hard sells raises my hackles, and I was rather
suspicious of the fact that I couldn’t go without and just opt in
afterwards.

So I Googled for “do I need balance protection insurance” and found the Government of Canada’s helpful factsheet on credit balance insurance, which led me to the totally awesome list of consumer publications from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.

Hey, governments can rock after all. =)

On Technorati: money, finance, canada, credit

I thought I had escaped typhoons and bad weather. Turns out Toronto’s
got them too. Without the ever-so-convenient jeepneys that ply
Manila’s streets, I had to walk that soggy distance home. Good thing
I’d brought a large plastic bag for my lunch and my binder. The bag
kept my binder mostly dry. My computer was also safe and sound. Water
leaked through my rain cloak, though, and my clothes were slightly
damp by the end of the trip. Still, I couldn’t help but feel happy

As soon as I got home, I dropped my clothes in the laundry, combed my
hair, and settled into a warm, fuzzy, pink bathrobe. Hooray for
bathrobes!

I found out that the rain cloak I _so_ love using isn’t rated for
typhoons. Should I get an umbrella as well? A foldable umbrella would
fit into my black-and-orange bag, but I’m not sure how sturdy it could
be. A full umbrella would be too inconvenient for me, so I guess I’ll
have to find a decent foldable umbrella. Someone sent me a link to
lifetime-guaranteed umbrellas before. I should check them out.

My black stretch pants turned out to be a little too long, and they
got stretched even further by the weight of the rain and the stress of
being stepped on every so often. I am going to have to buy another,
sturdier pair of stretch pants. This pair will not do. As I have given
up on them, I may as well try hemming them to match my length. If I
mess up, I wouldn’t have lost much. If I manage to sew it, I’ll have
gained a new skill! (Thanks again to St. Scholastica’s College!)

The sun has just come out. Maybe I should’ve just waited for the rain
to end. Hmph.

On Technorati: canada

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On Technorati: canada

I actually woke up early today: 7:30. (Okay, 7:35, really. And 7:40.
Yeah, 7:40.) I had a quick bowl of oatmeal, heaping far more sugar on
it than is probably nutritionally advisable. And then I waited for
people to come online. Waah! Look! I was up on a Saturday morning! And
people were missing!

Naturally, people started coming online maybe twenty, ten minutes
before I had to leave. Still, it was really nice being able to briefly
chat with Dominique and my mom. =)

Then I was off to the Science Centre (see blog post before this one),
and then to a whole day of fun. =) Calum was really nice. Over salmon
sashimi and California maki, we chatted about Japan. He’s planning to
go there in September, so I told him about things he must not miss:
okonomiyaki, street food, that nifty deep-fry place Dave Brown told me
about, rush hour in the train system, the hordes of photographers in
Meiji Temple on major festivals… He told me hilarious stories about
lay-off season at Nortel. Heh. Crazy.

Then he showed me what suburbian entertainment is like: basically,
shopping at big box stores like Sam’s Club and Future Shop. ;) I told
him that we had warehouse supermarkets in the Philippines too
(Pricesmart, Shopwise), but yeah, Sam’s Club is _way_ bigger than
Pricesmart. Mom would have a lot of fun going through that place. =)

He showed me Lake Ontario, too, bemoaning his lack of a real camera
that day. I told him about Papa shooting stock shots while on
vacation, Kathy’s instinctive protection of camera equipment when she
slipped… See, I grew up around photographers. ;) I might not know
all the jargon, but I can relate.

Lake Ontario is pretty! And it has geese! =) Nifty…

We topped a fun day off with soft-serve ice cream. (I told him about
the time I did Linux support for ice cream, and Peppy and I ate ice
cream until the world turned funny colors… ;) ) It was great!

Much better than trekking around and figuring things out on my own. =)
Excellent day!

On Technorati: friends, canada, fun