The Art of Digital Storytelling - A NetSquared Victoria Panel

NetSquared Victoria (#Net2Vic) is hosting a panel discussion on the art of digital storytelling.

Bill Weaver (Across Borders Media (http://acrossbordersmedia.com/)) will moderate a conversation with leading digital storytellers from around Victoria, including Patricia Sims (CanazWest Pictures (http://www.canazwest.com/)), Jeremiah Armstrong (Armstrong Creative (http://armstrongcreative.net/)), and Jordan Bower (Walk to Mexico).

Storytelling lies at the heart of communication. Many not for profit organizations use storytelling intuitively in order to explain the work that they do, the communities that they work with, and also to describe the successes and impacts that their work has had.

Digital storytelling moves this art into a new arena. With digital storytelling, organizations are able to communicate with a global audience. How and organization chooses to tell its story using digital medium is a question often put in the “too hard basket”, often due to misunderstanding about the complexity and cost of creating digital media. As a result, many fantastic, important and engaging stories are not being compiled in a digital format, and therefore, not being shared with an eager global audience.

Suggested donation: $5.

Agenda:

• 5:30-6:00: Doors open. schmoozing (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/schmoozing) and snacks

• 6:00-6:05: NetSquared welcome

• 6:05-7:05: Digital Storytelling Panel

• 7:05-7:30: Mingling, talking about next steps

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Bill Weaver is a Peabody-award-winning, 40-year veteran of television and radio. He has produced, directed, edited and shot 10 documentaries for Canadian television, as well as numerous other short films for values-based business and social profits. For over a decade he was founder and facilitator of Hollyhock's Media that Matters gathering, an interdisciplinary collaboratorium for conventional and unconventional media makers. He currently sits on the boards of Reel Youth and the Power of Hope Canada, an organization aimed at helping teens become creators, rather than consumers, of culture. Most recently, Bill has been video producer for The Robert Bateman Foundation, crafting stories that deliver effective funding asks and environmental messages to both progressive and conservative audiences. He has just returned from shoots in Istanbul, London, and rural India, profiling nominees for an international ethics award for the Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.

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Patricia Sims is an independent Canadian filmmaker who has produced documentaries around the world, focusing on nature, conservation, indigenous culture and the interrelationships between humans and animals. She has collaborated with some of the world’s leading conservation celebrities, scientists and explorers, with a specialization in wildlife and oceanographic productions. Well-traveled in over twenty countries, she has produced documentaries for CityTV, CBC, TVAsahi, YLE, ARTE, Discovery Channel, NHK, NHK-BS2, TBS, non-profit organizations, and the UN. Since 2005 Patricia has been based in British Columbia where she founded CanazWest Pictures Inc. Her most recent productions include “DocJam”, a 15-part documentary series for Astral Media in Canada. Since 2008 Patricia has been working on projects on that bring awareness to the plight of endangered Asian elephants through digital media outreach and her two films produced in Thailand: “Return to the Forest”, a 30-minute documentary narrated by William Shatner; and “Elephants Never Forget”, a feature-length documentary currently in post production. Patricia is also the co-founder of World Elephant Day, an international social media awareness campaign about the critical threats facing elephants that she launched on August 12, 2012.

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Jordan Bower's experimentations in digital media began during a 2007 walking journey into one of the last surviving kingdoms in the Himalayas. In 2010, Jordan displayed the digital photographs from two years spent meandering in South Asia in the advertising space inside of a Toronto public streetcar, creating what one reviewer called "one of the most intriguing exhibitions" of the world's largest photography festival.

Jordan is best known for Walking to Mexico, the crowdfunding and digital storytelling project about his 3,000 km walking journey from Vancouver to Tijuana. Based in Victoria, where he is writing a book about the walk, Jordan offers a range of digital consulting services including web design and content strategy. His website is www.jordanbower.com (http://www.jordanbower.com/).

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Jeremiah Armstrong is the Principal/Owner Armstrong Creative

Digital storytelling lies at the heart of Jeremiah's work. He uses photography, video, web and social media to communicate his clients narrative. From heavy industry to the fashion industry to global NGO's Jeremiah has created for a diversity of clients during his decade in business.
To learn more visit www.armstrongcreative.net