Our friendly neighbours have asked us to speak at this not so traditional conference, which is good, because we are not your traditional digital agency.

David Tedman Co-CEO of Invoke will be sitting on a panel discussing new and emerging tools and Corey Dilley, the Marketing and Business Development Manager at Eat St will be giving a talk on on managing and developing mobile apps and television integration. Oh, and food trucks.

Spend the day with us Seattle, along with a handful of game changers in the digital space such as the VP of Global Digital Marketing at Starbucks and Sir Mix-A-Lot (no joke).

The event is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at the Showbox SoDo, Seattle.

Through a series of panels and speakers, attendees will be inspired about new technologies, social media, convergence of music and tech, social TV integration, digital strategies and best practices, and more.

Register today. We can’t wait to see you there.

Charity Swear Box
Do you curse a lot? Do you curse a lot on Twitter? Just like if you had a swear jar at home, Charity Swear box will donate a dollar for each swear word your tweet. This creative social media tool for good was created by James Dow and Jay Gelardi, and is a easy, low involvement way to raise funds for charity. Creating something fun, that users already do, results in an easy to use, exciting campaign for good, for the world. If you know someone or seen someone who swears all the time, show them the Charity Swear box and tell them to put their bad words to good use. Watch the lovely explanatory video here, and sign up now as our friends at Fuck Cancer are the featured charity!

Snoball
Today’s savvy digital audience prefers information tailored to them, based on their preferences. News articles, friends reommendations, local events etc., combine for a more personalized experience online. Snoball sees this and is a way for users to donate to charity in an way that’s easy, social and fun. Based on a users preferred activities, and tied to everyday interests, the user is in control of their giving. Create an event, invite your friends to join, when your friends join, the snowball grows through customizable micro-donations or one-time gifts. The concepts behind snowball, and its personalized features, make fundraising results happen easily. The tool is useful because it is automated, fun and group based around events, all to create a “snoball” effect. Still not sure? Watch their video.

TousDonateurs
A recent comScore report notes television ads work substantially less effectively on Millennials than on older generations. However, the presence of key creative elements in advertising were shown to relate strong to successful advertising. TousDonateurs is French site where the advertisers donate to charity if users watch their ads. Users go to the site and select a charity that means something to them. They then watch several 30-second long ads, answer a quick question (to confirm the ad was watched), and the advertiser donates a euro on behalf of the viewer. We already watch 4 billion online videos each day — why not watch with purpose.

WeTopia
WeTopia is an online social game where players can contribute to real world problems. The Facebook game is all about players having fun while raising money for children’s charities. The game is free to play, and users create villages and help the community. When a player purchases a virtual good, that action results in a donation to a real world cause. With so many people playing social games, WeTopia is a way for players to contribute to a cause in a social way. WeTopia has many partners including Save the Children, Children’s Health Fund and others. Brand partners include Clorox, Mattel and Dippin’ Dots. It’s also great to note that in the past Zynga has donated millions of dollars to causes via Zynga.org group.

For even more creative social for good projects,  check out the 50/50 make or break initiative. The inititave is based around a challenge: to launch 50 projects in 50 days then raise 1million pounds for famine relief in East Africa. Looking for inspiring projects or want to get involved? Click here: 50/50 make or break initiative

National Geographic brings dinosaurs back from the past

National Geographic Channel Comes to Life

Pet a cheetah, splash around with dolphins, get up close and personal with a dinosaur and experience a hurricane storm all from the comforts of … a mall? Appshaker, a digital agency based in the UK has been making big waves with live motion and gesture-based technology, starting with this amazing campaign for National Geographic wherein they gave mall-goers in Hungary the opportunity to interact with the channel’s content.

Cube unfolds to reveal the magic of GE

GE Lighting Exhibition 

At a retail trade show in Dusseldorf called Europshop, Appshaker applied its skills to help GE Lighting stand out amongst other exhibitors. Through the magic of a paper cube with markers on it, Appshaker was able to allow people to experience four different applications of GE products, taking the “show, don’t tell” model to new levels.

Starbucks uses AR to celebrate the holidays

Starbucks Animated Holiday Cups

Starbucks invites its imbibers to bring their red cups to life by using mobile-based augmented reality. Simply download the Starbucks cup magic app and then scan a character on your red holiday cup and it will come to life. Nothing brings about the spirit of the holidays like an animated skating figure or sledding boy and polar bear with your morning coffee.

A real person becomes clickable in real time

Toyota FT-86 Promotion

We can safely say, we’ve never seen a car promotion like this. Toyota created  hype around its new FT-86 model vehicle by transforming busy Shinjyuku station in Tokyo into a live art demo showcasing the Art of Speed. A giant billboard was painted by various artists, while computer engineers transformed the mural into an interactive website, all in real time. The project is now known as the fastest painted website. Check out this video of the process presented in 86 seconds.

1) What steps did you take to develop your brand as a tech, pop culture, PR, fashion and multimedia all-star and when did you realize that you’re officially “tech savvy”?

My entry to the media landscape was as a news-talk producer, which taught me how to find the right story for the right audience from a wide variety of news topics. I got into the tech scene just over two years ago when I produced a technology-based radio and TV show. The tech and mobile space moves just as fast as the news so I’m used to staying on top of trends. I keep up with the latest and greatest because I love technology so my tech-enthusiasm fuels my passion.

Can you tell us about some current trends you think will strike it big?

Augmented reality has been a buzz-word for some time now, however, it will be explored even more in the next year or so, especially in the world of online shopping. There are a growing number of eCommerce sites that offer deals on fashion and home decor like HauteLook, eBay’s fashion store (Fashion Vault), HomeSav, Gilt, and Amazon’s newly launched MyHabit, that need to find innovative ways to attract more shoppers and encourage more spending. This is where augmented reality will make its grand entrance onto the catwalk. A web cam or front-facing camera allows shoppers to virtually “try on” clothing and accessories from the comfort of their own home.

eBay recently rolled out an AR app to help shoppers try on sunglasses before buying. UK retailer Banana Flame’s AR app, the Social Shopper, lets you try on a bunch of outfit virtually by standing 4-5 feet away from your web cam and moving the pieces onto your body. You can share the pictures with your friends. It’s only a matter of time before your Facebook News Feed page will have status updates like: “Does this outfit make me look hot? Plz comment. I’m taking a poll on whether or not I should buy it at 50 per cent off. Good deal, eh?”

Do you have any favourite sources of tech/media news?

I refer to a lot of sites. Off the top of my head: Engadget, TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, LA Times Tech, Vancouver Sun, The Verge (formerly This Is My Next), TrendHunter. Another good source is the MediaBistro newsletter which provides a succinct rundown of the top stories in news, pop culture, and tech. I also enjoy listening to Leo LaPorte’s podcast, The Week in Tech as I appreciate his perspective as well as the strong panel of opinionated guests he invites.

Integrating platforms such as TV, film and the web in order to provide a single, transmedia experience for users seems increasingly important — is there anyone in the digital space who’s doing this particularly well?

One brand that immediately comes to mind is Salomon, the makers of sports-specific clothing, footwear, and equipment. They’ve done an impressive job of taking elements of TV and film and applying it to the web and online audience with the launch of its web-series, Freeski TV. The content in each episode is compelling, interesting and leaves viewers hungry for more. Salomon is reliable and consistent on delivering the content for its growing audience; as a result, they’ve earned respect as a strong yet cool brand in the industry. They’ve innovated the advertising model for ski/snowboard from being a logo slapped on an athlete’s helmet to utilizing content to drive brand awareness and loyalty. It worked on me, as I just bought new gear from them.

If you were to coin a term that communicates today’s current media landscape (that isn’t “new media”) what would that term be?

“Distinctively trending media” The current media landscape is hustling to be bigger, broader, and grander. Media players, brands, companies and personalities are experimenting with ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. There is no clear path in the landscape for anyone, it’s like throwing darts at the board until something sticks or better yet hit a bull’s eye. Essentially, players are experimenting in this media playground with the intention of being distinctive and trending. #Innovation

Thanks to your votes, Food.ee is that much closer to demoing (and even pitching) at the GROW conference in Vancouver.

A huge thank you to the Food.ee community and all you Foxee fans out there for helping Food.ee become one of the top 25 finalists. Your support and votes made it happen; we’re so excited to have such a passionate and strong following so early.

In second round of the video contest, the 25 entries with the most votes are reviewed and ranked by Canada and Silicon Valley’s best judges. They hand select and announce 15 winners Aug. 2.  We certainly think Food.ee is one of the hottest Canadian tech startups and would love the opportunity to demo (but especially to pitch) Food.ee at the event. Fingers crossed!

We’re preparing for our launch so stay tuned! For potential early access leave your email at Food.ee, and be entered in a chance to win a $100 gift certificate from participating restaurants. If you’d like to stay up to date on new restaurants, tasty giveaways, and insight from chefs on their favourite take out dishes, follow Food.ee’s Foxee on the blog, Facebook and Twitter.