To be honest, I was feeling sorry for Tris Hussey, who was schedule to do a Blogging 101 - How and Why workshop at the same time as our kick-ass political panel (Warren Kinsella, Andrew Coyne, Paul Wells and Brad Davis) and our Are Bloggers Journalists? panel (Om Malik, Scott Karp and Michael Tippett). I thought maybe Tris' sessions would be lightly-attended but the room is packed, and the conversation is excellent with lots of back and forth between bloggers and marketers and public relations folks. I also swung by the Are Bloggers Journalists? panel where NowPublic's Michael Tippett announced a financing round involving angels and Brightspark.
  By the way, a special shout-out to our amazing group of volunteers (Pam, Victoria, Kyla, Rhonda, Kathy, Anna) who - along with MCC Planners - are helping make mesh hum along. Special thanks to Sacha Chua, who unofficially set up an unofficial help desk to solve some Wi-Fi problems.
  2:45 p.m. - So how would Rupert Murdoch have to pay to acquire Rocketboom.com? Jian Ghomeshi asked Rocketboom's Andrew Baron if $500-million was enough. Andrew deftly stickhandled around the question but the sense I got was that Andrew and Amanda are a long, long way from even considering a deal because they believe Rocketboom still has plenty of runway left for growth. Andrew also mentioned Rocketboom will be launching a HD version of its service with no ads for $4 a month.
   4:20 p.m. - So do newspapers have a future? Well, there is no doubt they need to adapt as blogs, podcasts, video blogs and RSS feeds become more popular. An interesting issue is whether newspapers needs readers to register or not. The Toronto Star decided not to do it any more, and saw readership climb 50% over the next three months, while the Globe & Mail continues to make people register. Another intriguing and realistic comment came from Tomer Strolight, who said newspapers need to "find other ways to make money" - whether it's hawking Harlequin Romance books or Web sites such as Toronto.com and Workopolis.com. For a post I wrote earlier this month on the future of newspapers, click here.
   With a really good day coming to an end, I'm ready for some socializing here and at The Drake.

Hey it's 6 a.m. - I'm awake, how about you? Didn't get much sleep last night after getting togeter for a drink with a group that included Om Malik, Paul Kedrosky, Todd "Turbo"Carter, Tris Hussey, Jeremy Wright, Stowe Boyd, Tom Williams, David Davies and Gregory Narain. It's going to be a great couple of days, and I can't wait to get started.
   9:00 a.m.: Om Malik kicked off mesh in fine fashion with his take on the future of the media. A big challenge and issue facing new and old world media is what kind of advertising models will emerge. Like many people, Om firmly believes a new advertising paradigm needs to emerge to supplement AdSense, which doesn't work for many people (Who are those people who click on AdSense ads anyway?). It was quasi-funny to hear Om lament the growing reality of RSS, which means people consume content - be it blogs, vblogs and podcats - without seeing any of the advertising that surrounds it. Bottom line from Om's keynote: lots of question, lots of challenges, lots of opportunity.
  10:00 a.m.:  So, if you want to be engaged and educated at a conference, go to any keynote featuring Michael Geist. I spent most of my time writing down the names of the Web sites that Geist mentioned, including Cineclix, kyouradio, Opensource.org, Postsecret.com, Fanfiction.net and Soundclick.com. Geist's focus had much to do with content sharing and how copyright has a role to play on the Web and how it can be managed. Rob Hyndman did a great job having a conversation with Geist, although the idea of having two lawyers talking to each other should always be handled with care....:)
  12:00: 15MOF was...well, interesting. Colin Howe of Pixpo.com announced his media-sharing services company has raised $6.5-million - an amazing feat for a Canadian tech company focused on the consumer. Fantastic stuff, Colin. Ellisa Gjertson of areyoufrank.com had an interesting presentation that was exactly five minutes but left some people what areyoufrank actually does. (I still don't know so I'll have to check it out later today). Craig Fitzpatrick of Devshop.com (a software project management tool) provided a nice overview and gently invited VCs to seek him out. Oh, before I forget, mesh's own Michael Mcderment unveiled the new name for his online invoicing company - FreshBooks. So far, I've been blow away by everyone's enthusiasm and energy. It's so rewarding to hear feedback about how well they liked each sessions - something that's impossible to guage when you are trying to put together a conference panel.

   There's lot of mesh blogging going on: here and Steve Rubel, who described me as "grilling" Om....::

   More later.....probably a new post.