Over the past few months the outpouring of support from friends, family, and colleagues has been amazing. I have reached both my personal fundraising goal, and am part [...]]]> This weekend is the weekend that I have been training for for a very long time. Tomorrow I’ll be starting my 200km ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls.

Over the past few months the outpouring of support from friends, family, and colleagues has been amazing. I have reached both my personal fundraising goal, and am part of a fabulous team that has collectively raised over $275,000 for Cancer research.

Tomorrow as I set out on the ride I’m hoping to provide both real time view of where I am (visit http://barnabyjeans.ca/ride-tracker) as well as update twitter (http://twitter.com/bjeans) and foursquare as I make my way along the route.

If you want to follow my progress, either visit http://barnabyjeans.ca/ride-tracker or http://www.instamapper.com/ext?key=9222694677197659368  ( or from your mobile device – http://mobile.instamapper.com/ext?key=9222694677197659368 )

Thanks again for all your support and I’ll see you on the route!

As you may have read in my previous post, I have been involved in cancer fundraising for many years, however, just over a year ago [...]]]> In a little over a month I’ll be hitting the road for a two day epic adventure cycling 200km from Toronto to Niagara Falls to help raise funds for cancer research.

As you may have read in my previous post, I have been involved in cancer fundraising for many years, however, just over a year ago I was shocked at the rapid pace that cancer took the life of my mother-in-law and decided that I needed to do more to help find an end to  cancer.

I have committed to raise at least $2,500 before the ride, and with just over a month to go I still need to raise $1,000.  To put this into perspective, I have over 800 followers on twitter, 500+ connections on LinkedIn, and over 350 friends on Facebook.  Assuming that there is some overlap, if each of you only donates $20 we would blow away the fundraising goal and together we would add a significant amount of funding to cancer research.

Any amount will help me achieve my fundraising goals and move us one step closer to conquering cancer and for any donations of $20 or more you will also receive a tax receipt.  Please take 5 minutes right now to donate by visiting http://conquercancer.ca/goto/Barnaby.

(this graphic is updated in real-time so as you donate the amount raised will increase)

If you want to keep an eye on my training you can check out http://connect.garmin.com/explore?owner=bjeans and if you ever want to get together to go for a ride send me an email at barnaby.jeans@hotmail.com.

If you are reading this blog post then chances are we have met at some point in the past. You’re either a friend, family member, colleague, classmate, business acquaintance, or someone I have met as I have travelled across Canada and around the world.

As you may or may not know, my wife (Michelle) and I [...]]]>

If you are reading this blog post then chances are we have met at some point in the past. You’re either a friend, family member, colleague, classmate, business acquaintance, or someone I have met as I have travelled across Canada and around the world.

As you may or may not know, my wife (Michelle) and I have been involved with fundraising events for cancer research since 2003 when Michelle’s aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer and the weekend to end cancer walk first came to Toronto.

Since that time we have either walked or crewed in 7 more events in Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and London (UK).

We have been away from these events for the past few years while raising our family, however, in January 2009 Michelle’s mom was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of lung cancer, and within 3 weeks of the diagnosis, had passed away. You can read the full story at http://snipr.com/bernice_white. The speed and aggressiveness of cancer made us realize we needed to get back into fundraising to fight cancer and in June 2010, I’ll be on the bike to ride the 200km from Toronto to Niagara Falls. It will be a challenge in a number of ways, but with my bike, my helmet, and your generosity, I know we can make an impact.

Please contribute to this history-making event with a donation. Funds raised in The Ride to Conquer Cancer will support breakthrough research, exemplary teaching, and compassionate care at The Princess Margaret, one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world.

To give you a sense of perspective, according to the National Cancer Institute of Canada, over 153,100 new cases of cancer and 70,400 deaths from cancer were estimated to occur in 2006. Men outnumber women for new cases by 5% and mortality by 11%. That's why I'm riding. To do something BIG about cancer. I hope that you'll share this incredible adventure with me by supporting me in my fundraising efforts.

To donate, please visit http://www.conquercancer.ca/goto/Barnaby

Thank you in advance for your support.

Barnaby

With two weeks to go until we kick off TechDays in Toronto, the team is doing the final preparations to deliver an amazing experience to everyone who attends.

One of the things that I’ll be taking care of during the events is photography.  I’ve already got the Nikon D200 and D300 ready to go, and with [...]]]>

With two weeks to go until we kick off TechDays in Toronto, the team is doing the final preparations to deliver an amazing experience to everyone who attends.

One of the things that I’ll be taking care of during the events is photography.  I’ve already got the Nikon D200 and D300 ready to go, and with any luck I’ll have Nikon D90 in time for the conference as well.  The guys at Nikon are absolutely amazing and make sure that my team have access to the latest gear to capture and share the experience at the event for those of you who aren’t able to attend.   Of course I’ll be posting the photos to my flickr page as well as to the TechDays group on flickr.  I’ll also be tagging everything with TechDays_CA.

One thing I have learned from previous events is that sometimes you need to be in more than one place at once.  Normally as a photographer that is hard to do, however, with the help of a little technology life just got easier.  I have been using PocketWizard Plus IIs for a while now to trigger remote flashes, but after reading the PocketWizard blog and Vincent LaForet’s blog post on remote cameras at the Olympics, I realized I had only been using my PocketWizards for half of what they could do.  A quick search turned up FlashZebra.com and the cables that I was looking for – the ones that allow me to remotely trigger a camera.  I have placed my order so I just need to wait for the package to arrive and I’m one step closer to being in two places at once.

If you are attending TechDays and want to chat about cameras, I’ll be the guy with all the Nikon stuff hanging off me.  If you haven’t already bought your ticket there is still time to get your ticket before the early bird pricing ends on October 15th – visit http://techdays.ca for all the details.

I’ve just arrived in Ottawa to spend a couple of days at the Social Media for Government conference.  I will be speaking at this conference on Wednesday afternoon.  I spoke at a similar ALI conference earlier this year and blogged about that experience. 

While it’s too early in the day to comment on the conference you [...]]]>  

I’ve just arrived in Ottawa to spend a couple of days at the Social Media for Government conference.  I will be speaking at this conference on Wednesday afternoon.  I spoke at a similar ALI conference earlier this year and blogged about that experience. 

While it’s too early in the day to comment on the conference you can follow along on twitter, the posts are being tagged with #ALI.

If you are attending the conference and want to connect you can find me at the following:

• Twitter: bjeans
• Facebook: Barnaby Jeans
• Flickr: Barnaby_Jeans

The most recent one is a Paul Tracy photo that I took  with my Nikon D200 in Toronto on July 6, 2007.  The photo is included in [...]]]> I’m pretty open about people using the photos I post to flickr as I have them under a Creative Commons license.  I always enjoy seeing where they land. 

The most recent one is a Paul Tracy photo that I took  with my Nikon D200 in Toronto on July 6, 2007.  The photo is included in a post about Paul Tracy making his return at the Edmonton Indy this weekend – The 'Thrill From West Hill' Is Back! | Element of Speed

Here is the original photo and link back to the set on Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157600689404182/

Today I spent the day volunteering with the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride (SNKCR) during their [...]]]> One of the things I love about working for Microsoft (and I think I have mentioned before) is the fact that I get to take days off to volunteer my time in the community.  Today was one of those days.

Today I spent the day volunteering with the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride (SNKCR) during their stop in Toronto.  It's a ride from coast to coast to raise money to help children live with and beyond cancer.  My portion of the day was spent at Trinity Square as well as Sick Kids Hospital for various parts of the event.

Not only did I have the chance to photograph all the cyclists that have been riding from Vancouver, but also the local riders who are riding on this stage of the route.

At Sick Kids there were speeches from Dr. Blanchette from Sick Kids as well as the President of Sears Canada.  While down at Trinity Square there were speeches from Toronto Mayor David Miller as well as the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, David Onley.  I have met David Onley a couple of times in the past during his time at CP24, so it was a pleasure to say hello to him again today.

I'll be posting all my photos to flickr over the next few days, so keep checking the following address: http://flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157605602589479/

While the summit is a 4 day affair (full agenda), I was the lead off speaker for [...]]]> I spent most of my day today at the Advanced Learning Institute's Social Media Summit Canada where I was both a case study speaker, and had the opportunity to listen to some great presentations and meet some great people.

While the summit is a 4 day affair (full agenda), I was the lead off speaker for the first of the two main summit days.  Being the first speaker in the morning usually means people wandering in late, and still getting their first cup of coffee into them.  The group this morning were ready to go right at the start and had some great questions for both my session and the sessions that followed.

Right after my session the organizers did a quick speed networking session, which basically meant going around the room and having the 50+ attendees identify who they were, what they did, and what they hoped to get out the conference.  This not only helped to set the tone and the conversation for the rest of the day, but also helped identify people you may want to connect with.

As I mentioned, part of the value of these events is in the people that you meet and get to chat to.  There were a couple that I found particularly interesting today:

Carmine Porco, GM & VP at Prescient Digital Media was the chair for the day and kept everyone on track, as well as jumping in a few times to help out speakers with technical issues.

Eli Singer, Director of Social Media with Segal Communications.  I've had the chance to chat with Eli at a couple of these types of conferences and he is definitely a resource to connect with if you have the chance.

The team from Region of Waterloo.  As I live within the region of Waterloo, I was particularly interested to hear that there was a group at the conference from my part of the Southern Ontario.  I had the chance to chat with them over lunch and I think they have some great ideas to take back to the office.  As a resident, I can't wait to see what they come up with.

Preston Lewis, Director of Talent & Partnerships at Bonfire Communications.  As Preston is based in San Francisco we had great conversation about one of my past employers and one of his current customers.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to stick around to hear how my colleague David Crow did on the panel that Eli was hosting.  I'll keep an eye out for a blog post on that.

Overall, a fun day, and a great learning opportunity for those people looking to get a better understanding of social media and how they can start to incorporate it into their plans.

One of the things that is keeping me busy right now is the upcoming Heroes Happen {Here} launch wave that kicks off in Toronto on February 27th at the Direct Energy Centre.

My team and I are heads down putting the finishing touches on both the Community Connection Events and the main Launch and Technical Readiness [...]]]>  

One of the things that is keeping me busy right now is the upcoming Heroes Happen {Here} launch wave that kicks off in Toronto on February 27th at the Direct Energy Centre.

My team and I are heads down putting the finishing touches on both the Community Connection Events and the main Launch and Technical Readiness events.

However, as these events are for you, the audience, we wanted to provide a consistent way for you to participate and share your thoughts and experiences.  If you are planning on blogging about the events, if you are taking photos, or if you are uploading videos to YouTube or SoapBox, there is one standard tag that we are using to aggregate all this content: HHH_CA.  We will be launching a community site in the next few days that will aggregate anything we can find that is tagged with HHH_CA.  Additionally, our PR team has already launched their online digital newsroom for these events at http://launchwave.ca/ and they will also be on the lookout for content tagged with HHH_CA to include on their site.

Having said all of that, here are some of the places you can either contribute content or find out more about the events:

Flickr photo pool: http://flickr.com/groups/hhh_ca
Toronto Event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8420923311
Digital Newsroom: http://launchwave.ca/

Team (member) blogs:
Community Connection Events – diamond in the rough
Heroes Happen Here, eh- What's going on up north for Launch 2008 Activities