Village Gamer

ProFusion 2011 is happening June 17th and 18th at the Toronto Congress Centre, and it’s much more than Canada’s largest professional photo and video tradeshow.

Along with new technology and product demonstrations, ProFusion will showcase a long list of professional seminars and workshops, conducted by world-renowned experts in the field of photography and videography, some lecturers in Canada for the first time.

“Last year’s show exceeded our expectations, particularly the overwhelming response to our seminars and workshops” says Vistek President, Ron Silverstein. “With the success of last year’s show, we decided to up the ante and to expand our selection of seminars, both in quantity and quality.”

According to Mr. Silverstein that’s what distances ProFusion 2011 from any other tradeshow. “It’s not your average ordinary tradeshow. I mean, along with all the new products and technology, we’re offering the most impressive list of seminar presenters ever assembled in this country. These are the best of the best. Most of these guys only do custom workshops on their home turf. Ordinarily you’d have to leave the country to hear them speak. How we convinced them to come to Toronto is still beyond belief.”

Some of the high profile lecturers Mr. Silverstein is referring to include: Jay Maisel, Vincent Laforet, Philip Bloom, Seth Resnick, Douglas Spotted Eagle, Peter Krogh, Mark Cleghorn, Gary Fong, and others.

One of Canada’s leading Web conferences, mesh, has come west by way of a one-day event in Calgary on June 8 at the MacEwan Conference & Event Centre at the University of Calgary. Tickets are $ 279.00 each and can be purchased online.

Like mesh, meshwest will focus on providing insight and stimulating conversations around four streams – media, society, marketing and business. Led by opinion leaders and entrepreneurs, meshwest will provide the opportunity to have thought-provoking and engaging conversations in which the attendees are involved as much as the speakers.

“We think Calgary is a great place to launch meshwest,” said Mark Evans, co-founder of the mesh conference. “There’s a growing start-up and high-tech community, and there are many large companies exploring the use of social media as a new way to communicate, market and sell.”

From Canada’s leading digital marketers to local social media strategists, meshwest will provide an emphasis on exploring what’s over the horizon in the digital world.

Speakers to include:

Tobias Lütke – CEO of Shopify
Stuart MacDonald – One of Canada’ leading digital marketers
Doug Lacombe – Canada’s Internet publishing pioneer
Greg Hounslow – Emerging Media Advisor for WestJet
Mark Evans – mesh Co-founder and former technology reporter with the National Post and Globe & Mail
Leigh Himel – Owner of Toronto-based, Gravity Ltd., a ‘Social Enterprise Design’ firm
Sarah Dickinson – SVP, Strategy at Blast Radius
Tony Rino – Web & Social Media Advisor, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)

meshwest sponsors include CIRA, Yahoo! Canada, CNW and Hill & Knowlton Calgary.