Workshop > Blogging with WordPress to Win Friends, Find Fans and Persuade People to Support Your Nonprofit Organization
Learn to successfully plan, design, launch, maintain and promote a blog for your nonprofit organization on WordPress.com. Attendees will learn how to use Themes, Plugins, Widgets, and basic HTML to design a blog that matches your website and helps recruit new e-newsletter subscribers, online donors, and supporters on Facebook, Twitter and social media networks. From basic to advanced, this workshop explores the WordPress interface and toolset. Attendees learn how to insert select and insert images and videos into blog posts, monitor statistics on visitors and comments, and create an editorial content system that enables you to assign, track and monitor upcoming blog posts from multiple authors. Blogging best practices in terms of post frequency, length, tone, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are also covered in detail. Read more 
Alberta Media Personality > Jill Belland, On-Location Host of CityTV Calgary’s Breakfast Television
Every morning Jill Belland dishes up a serving of Breakfast Television to Citytv audiences from the lively streets of Calgary. As BT Calgary’s On-Location Host, Jill can be seen scaling buildings with firefighters, feeding bats at the Zoo, and pole dancing her way to morning show glory. The excitement of performing, fast deadlines and having the opportunity to tell people’s unique stories, drove Jill towards a career in television. Jill got her start at Citytv by pouring coffee on the morning show after graduating from the University of Calgary in the Faculty of Communications and Culture with a concentration in Media Studies. Her hard working attitude earned her a job as a production assistant for the News Department. Jill has also delivered daily entertainment news segments on MTV Canada and was the host of Wired before returning to Citytv and joining the Breakfast Television gang as their On Location Host. Read more
Calgary’s Corkscrew Media Premiere’s “In This Life: Chantal Kreviazuk” on HBO on April 4, 2012
Corkscrew Media will premier of its latest musical television project, In This Life: Chantal Kreviazuk on Wednesday, April 4th at 7:45 ET/MT. In This Life: Chantal Kreviazuk is a feature-length documentary that combines music and story, taking audiences on a musical journey with Juno Award winner, Chantal Kreviazuk. Commissioned by Astral’s The Movie Network and Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central, In This Life: Chantal Kreviazuk in Concert is a special television event that weaves music and story for an intimate glimpse into the celebrated Canadian singer-songwriter’s life and career. Read more
Alberta Animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Fortis Nominated for 2012 Genie Awards
Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis are an Alberta born animation duo. On January 24, 2012, they received their second Academy Award nomination, for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short film, Wild Life. In addition to writing and directing the film, Forbis and Tilby drew and painted every animation frame in guache, and wrote the lyrics for the film’s final song. They were only able to work on Wild Life part-time, due to commercial obligations, and the film is reported to have taken them from six to over seven years, from concept to completion. On March 8, 2012 they will find out if their herculean efforts on Wild Fire results in a 2012 Genie Award, Canada’s version of the Academy Awards. Read more
Calgary’s City Style and Living Magazine Receives Two National Awards
City Style and Living magazine garnered two prestigious awards for “Best of Show” and “Best Article in a Consumer magazine” from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). The annual Caribbean Tourism Organization Media Awards Luncheon, held on December 8, 2011 at the Novotel Toronto Centre drew a crowd of nearly 100 media, industry members, national tourism organization representatives and Caribbean dignitaries attended the luncheon. This event serves to recognize Canadian-based media that have captured the essence of the Caribbean in their story telling. The prizes for Best Article in a Consumer Magazine, followed by Best in Show, were awarded to Kailash Maharaj and a team from City Style and Living magazine for their article ‘Paradise Found’, which ran in the Fall 2010 issue of City Style and Living. Read more
Alberta Radio Station Spotlight > CFFR | 660 News | Calgary
CFFR began broadcasting in 1984. As of April 3, 2006, it operates in an all-news format, branded 660 News touted as the only local all news radio station in Calgary. The re-branding is similar to that used by Rogers all-news or news-talk stations in Toronto (680 News), Vancouver (News 1130), Ottawa (1310 News), Kitchener (570 News) St John (News 88.9), Moncton (News 91.9) and Halifax (News 95.7). In the Winter 2011 BBM Radio PPM Data, CFFR was reported the number 14 radio station in Calgary. CFFR’s sister stations in Calgary are Sportsnet 960, The Fan (CFAC), Lite 95.9 (CHFM-FM), Jack FM (CJAQ-FM) and, on the TV side CityTV (CKAL-TV), and OMNI TV (CJCO-TV). Read more
Alberta Magazine Spotlight > AlbertaViews: Perspectives on a Province
AlbertaViews is in its fifteenth year of publishing and according to its website description “is the must-read magazine for the people who are shaping the new Alberta. Innovators in politics, education, industry, public service and the arts share and discover fresh perspectives in our in-depth analysis of everything relevant to the public interest of Albertans. Recognized for its editorial excellence, Alberta Views is one of the most respected publications in Canada, and has won Magazine of the Year and both the National and Western Magazine Awards. Right now no other province is as complex, vibrant and creative as Alberta, and no magazine covers it like Alberta Views.” I once had the pleasure of working for a time with their founding editor Jackie Flanagan on promoting the launch of the magazine in Alberta. I agree that no other magazine in covers Alberta the way they do. Readers with an interest in film and movie makers in Alberta will be particularly impressed with their December 2011 issue.
AMPIA Presents Heartland’s Shaun Johnston with the Billington Award in Calgary on November 5
Shaun Johnston from the made-in-Alberta tv series Heartland will be presented with the Billington Award at a luncheon at the Westin Hotel in Calgary on November 5. The award is presented hearch year to an individual who has made an invaluable contribution to Alberta’s production community, and celebrates those individuals who, like him, inspire us all with their vision, passion and dedication. Shaun’s character Jack on Heartland is considered “the rock of Heartland, anchoring the family through all the ups and downs of their increasingly complicated lives.”
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Eight Giller Nominees Attending Calgary’s WordFest October 11 to 16, 2011
Calgary’s WordFest feature eight of the recent nominees for the awards in a variety of events during the 6-day Festival, which runs from October 11-16, 2011. Marina Endicott, Dany Laferrière and Suzette Mayr will share from their nominated titles in the popular evening showcases and Lynn Coady will discuss the blurring of authorship in online media in Social Publishing on October 13. The Festival closes on October 16 with Curtain Call featuring David Bezmozgis Alongside several other artists. Zsuzsi Gartner will be celebrating the Year of the Short Story (YOSS) at Keepin’ it Short on October 14. 2011 Banff Distinguished Author Guy Vanderhaeghe will be reading from his nominated title at The Banff Distinguished Author Series event at The Banff Centre on October 15.
Calgary Filmmaker Tom Radford to Receive U of A Alumni Recognition Award
Tom Radford, ’66 BA is a distinguished documentarian. He has played a pivotal role in Canada’s film industry, inspiring an entire generation of filmmakers. His career as a writer, director and producer has earned him numerous national and international awards and accolades. For more than 40 years, he has had a profound influence on Canada’s television and film industries. In 1980, as an executive producer at the National Film Board (NFB), he founded the NFB Northwest Studio in Edmonton, which launched more than two decades of unparalleled film activity in Alberta and supported the development of many of our country’s filmmakers. He also initiated the National Screen Institute and established one of the first independent production companies in Edmonton. Read more
2011 David Billington Award Luncheon to take place November 5th at the Westin Hotel Calgary
The Board of the Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA) has nominated Shaun Johnston as the recipient of the 2011 David Billington Award. The media release announcing their decision points out that Shaun grew up in Ponoka, Alberta. “Having grown up on the prairies has had a great influence on my work as an actor.” Shaun explains, “I like to believe my approach is open and natural. I guess I’m a product of my environment.” After a few hard working years on the farm and in the oil patch, Shaun decided to return to college and study law. It was at the University of Alberta that a drama elective inspired him to change direction. Shaun was classically trained in theatre at the U of A, and from this beginning, he has built his career in Alberta. Read more
Calgary Filmmakers Ask What’s Your Future? in “The Future is Now” Documentary
If Calgary has anything amounting to cinematic stars, Jim Brown and Gary Burns are sure to take the title. Burns has been responsible for intriguing movies including Waydowntown and The Suburbanators and partnered with Brown for the acclaimed film Radiant City. The two filmmakers are back at it with a new project, The Future is Now, which premieres on Friday, July 15 at The Uptown in Calgary with a Q and A with Burns. The film follows a cynical, but moral man labelled the Man of Today, who is wrangled into going on a search for enlightenment by an eager and optimistic journalist (as if those exist) labelled The Woman of Tomorrow. He chats with an impressive smattering of real-life philosophers and architects, artists and anarchists, in a bid to show him that the world is not doomed and that he should embrace, rather than shun, society. Read more
Marilyn
Jones is a corporate and social media advocate for individuals, small businesses
and nonprofit organizations in Alberta. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada and is the proprietor of RiverCity Productions. You can contact her
by phone at 780-695-5675 or by email at marilyn@mediamag.ca.