Voting opened Jan. 5 and goes to Jan. 31, 2012. Register an account at http://memelabs.com/eat-st/ then vote daily for your favourite video. So far, Hamilton, Ontario’s Gorilla Cheese is leading the charge with 1,164 votes and counting. Which video gets your vote?

Click this image to download the Eat St. iPhone app and discover street eats near you.

Here’s a quick look at all the food trucks who submitted a video to the contest:

CANADA

Gorilla Cheese – Hamilton, ONT, Canada - @Gorilla_Cheese

Guanaco – Vancouver, BC, Canada - @guanacotruck

Soho Road – Vancouver, BC, Canada - @SohoRoad

Twirlees- Chatham, ON, Canada- @twirlees

Puerto Vallarta Amigos – Victoria, BC, Canada - @pvamigos

Fiasco Gelato – Calgary, AB, Canada - @fiascogelato

Westcott Country Kitchen – Didsbury, AB, Canada - Facebook Page

Hot Diggity Dog – Erieau Beach, ON, Canada

Wandering Bean – Toronto, ON, Canada

WASHINGTON

Streat Food – Ferndale, WA - @streatfood

OREGON

Blues City Biscuits  - Portland, OR - @BCBiscuits

CALIFORNIA

Chunk n Chip – All over, CA - @chunknchip

Dusty Buns Bistro – Central Valley, CA - @dustybunsbistro

Red Oven Pizza – Carlsbad, CA - @RedOvenPizza

Bill’s Hotdogs – San Jose, CA - Bill’s Hotdogs Facebook

Sweiner’s Swiss style hot dogs – San Diego, CA – @swienersswiss

Smitten Ice Cream – San Francisco, CA - @Smittenicecream

Bacon Bacon – San Francisco, CA - @baconbaconsf

Soho Taco – Orange Country, CA - @SOHOTACO

Gourmet Rockstars -Palo Alto, CA - @GourmetRockstar

MOEggrolls – Los Angeles, CA - @moeggrolls

ARIZONA

Luncha Libre – Phoenix, AZ - @LunchaLibre

NEW MEXICO

Oz Patisserie - Albuquerque, NM – @ozpatisserie

TEXAS

Mad dog Underground Cafe – TX

Colibri Cuisine – Austin, TX - @ColibriCuisine

Dogellos – Austin, TX - @DOGellos

Way South Philly – Austin, TX - @waysouthphilly

Create Burger – El Paso, TX - @CreateGoEats

49er Kitchen – El Paso, TX

So-Cal Tacos – Dallas, FW, TX - @socaltacos

Ruthie’s Rolling Café – Dallas, FW, TX - @Ruthiesrolling

Jo Dawgs – Dallas, FW, TX - @eatjodawgs

Red Jett Sweets – Dallas, FW, TX - @redjettsweetsFW

The Bacon Wagon – Dallas, FW, TX - @baconwagon

Nammi Truck – Dallas, FW, TX - @nammitruck

The Butcher’s Son – Dallas, FW, TX – @thebutchersson

Crepe Nation, LLC – San Antonio, TX - @crepenationllc

Rickshaw Stop – San Antonio, TX - @rickshawstopsa

Wing Xpress – Houston, TX - @WingXpress

Bernie’s Burger Bus – Houston, TX- @BerniesBurgers

EatsieBoys – Houston, TX - @eatsieboys

MINNESOTA

Messy Giuseppe – St. Paul, MN - @MessyGTruck

Chef Shack – Minneapolis, MN - @chefshack1

TENNESSEE

Memphis Munchies – Memphis, TN - @Memphismunchies

GEORGIA

Hail Caesar – Atlanta, GA - @CaesarTruck

SOUTH CAROLINA

Alfresco Mobilista – SC - @AlfMob

Hello My Name is BBQ – Charleston, SC - @hellobbq

FLORIDA

Aphrodisiac Ice Cream – Miami, FL - @aphorodisiacice

Papas Tapas MIA – Miami, FL - @PapasTapasMIA

PENNSYLVANIA

Fat Boys House of BBQ - Bethlehem, PA - @fbhouseofbbq

Guapos Tacos – Philadelphia, PA - @guapostacos

NEW YORK/ NEW JERSEY

Chef Johnson’s Johnson - Westchester, NY - @johnsontruck

El Diablo Tacos – Brooklyn, NY - @eldiablotacos

The Cinnamon Snail – Hoboken, NJ - @veganlunchtruck

Mamma Marci’s – Hoboken, NJ - @mammamarci

MASSACHUSETTS

Momogoose – Boston, MA - @Momogoose

Go Fish Food Truck, from Brother Trucker – Boston, MA - @BrotherTrucker

“Invoke has grown substantially this year,” said David Tedman, the co-CEO of Invoke. “Acquiring Thirdi reinforces our growth strategy both in US markets as well as here in Vancouver.”

Invoke has rapidly been adding staff in the past 12 months to handle a growing client list, which includes brands like VH1, 7-Eleven Canada, Los Angeles Newspaper Group, AG Hair, F-Cancer and Men’s Health. Invoke’s services — including social media and digital strategy, web and mobile app development, Facebook development and website design and development — position it to smoothly take over Thirdi’s services which include social apps and online tools. Invoke is now handling all of Thirdi’s existing accounts and providing ongoing support for clients and their apps. Web, mobile development and social media support will be done out of Invoke’s Vancouver office.

“Our team is thrilled to bring our award winning strategy and products to a host of exciting new clients,” Tedman said.

“This is a great move for everyone involved, and I’m excited it’s Invoke taking over,” said Matt Friesen, Thirdi’s founder. “There’s no doubt our clients will love their new agency. I spent the past five years growing Thirdi to what it is today and I’m proud to pass the ball to Invoke.”

Invoke’s in house products include HootSuite, memelabs, Eat St. and Food.ee.

During the next 90 days, Invoke will be transitioning Thirdi’s social media channels and redirecting business inquiries to Invoke.

Thirdi clients with questions about their accounts can contact Invoke at 604-398-6030 or by emailing info@invokemedia.com.

Please direct press inquiries to Allison Vail at allison.vail@invokemedia.com.

Ashish Gurung teaches an undergraduate social media course at SFU Beedie School of Business. He is also involved with a bunch of other stuff ‚ some startups, some consulting and lots of non-profits. Find him @ashishgurung and http://www.ashishgurung.ca

Tell us a bit about the social media course you created. What motivated you to create an entire course about social media at SFU’s Beedie School of Business?

Jan Kietzmann, a SFU professor, had the idea to bring social media to the business school. We noticed students were entering the work force with little or no formal education in social media. So, we paired up to teach this course. This is the first course dedicated to social media at the SFU Beedie School of Business. It just makes sense — students need to be educated about social media, especially from a business-driven context. It’s a natural and needed extension to our undergraduate program. Plus our class reached the waiting list within a few days of registration.

Why do you think it’s important for students to learn about and familiarize themselves with social media?

It’s important for our students to not only learn about current trends in social media, but to understand social media as a whole – from learning about behavioural economics, to virality and building communities. We’re bringing the gap between the classroom and industry. We’re skyping in awesome startups like Summify and Launchrock, and the students get a chance to meet leaders from Invoke, HootSuite and EA. It’s a great balance between theory and practical applications. Students will be leaving our class with a greater understanding of social media and its impact on both society and businesses.

Why do you think it’s important to incorporate social media in universities and lecture halls?

I think it’s very important to incorporate social media in our classrooms. I know many instructors who still don’t believe in the power of social media and refuse to integrate it in their classrooms. It’s how the students communicate with each other — it’s how they hear the news. There’s a high probability that students are browsing Facebook while in class. It’s important to now use these tools to enhance the learning experience.

Invoke: Where do you see the future of social media in the classroom?

Our class uses a Facebook group and Twitter chat (#bus495) to communicate with each other and it’s awesome. Students are posting articles, comments and having discussions everyday on our Facebook group and Twitter chat. I’m surprised by how much the students have embraced it — they’re communicating with each other, getting to know each other and are having intelligent conversations over these channels. As the instructors, we’re using Facebook to post online notes, presentations and class updates. I’m hoping to see more classrooms embrace social media. The goal is to create a culture in the classroom where students are learning from each other and from the instructors. I believe we’ll start to see educators adopt web apps that encourage a social learning environment.

What are your top five industry sites that you check out on a regular basis?

Hacker News,  Summify, 
Hootsuite , Social Media Examiner and TechCrunch.

A full list of the winners can be found on the Forrester blog, which is also a great place to flip through some fantastic digital campaigns. We’re also impressed by the other finalists, especially since they are practically neighbours (Blast Radius, DDB Canada, Banyan Branch).

Invoke submitted one of our most successful social campaigns to date on the memelabs platform.

Built for the launch of VH1’s TV show Single and Liking it, a photo contest on Facebook resulted in fans chatting about the show and interacting with the brand’s Facebook page and online entities. We’re so proud of the campaign and believed it was a good fit for Forrester. You can read over Invoke’s submission here.

This Friday, at the Woodwards building in Gastown, Invoke is demonstrating our projects as a part of the VEDC Innovation Gallery. Along with five other Vancouver companies, we have been selected to display and chat about how the digital space and the TV/film space are intersecting more than ever, how our experience has been and what we think the future holds.

Our experience in transmedia lies in creating digital strategies, using the memelabs platform, and building mobile applications.

The memelabs platform has been used for some outstanding transmedia projects in past, including VH1’s hit television show Single Ladies. TV viewers now have social networks to chat, share and comment on their favourite shows. For Single Ladies, we built a memelabs contest in Facebook people could submit entries too based around theme tied to the show. When the TV pilot first aired, the photo contest had a surge of photo entries. In the span of 65 day-campaign, there were 5,731 photos submitted.

Another path TV and film producers should consider are mobile apps. Paperny films, Food Network Canada, and Invoke came together to build a mobile application to be used alongside the TV show Eat St. The Eat St. mobile app is a utility app for finding food trucks in your area. The app is a tool and plays an important role in the real world and the TV show played a huge role in the app’s marketing.

It’s really no surprise that Invoke will be at the mix and mingler, networking reception of Friday’s event. We’re excited to chat with and help out the TV/film folks cross over to the interactive space.

From the website:
Merging + Media Conference is Canada’s premier cross-media conference. M+M’s current focus is to help promote the understanding of cross-media production in the media industry. Initiatives created aim at providing industry awareness and opportunities for partnerships to develop between media sectors. More info on Facebook and Twitter.