Social Capital Conference: Ottawa’s first ever social media learnathon!

On Saturday, July 23, Ottawa will play host to its first social media “learnathon.”  We asked one of the organizers and occasional Local Tourist contributor, Lara Wellman, to tell us more about the conference and what attendees can expect from this educational event.  You can also find out more about the day’s agenda by visiting their website.

Give us a brief overview of the Social Capital conference.

Lara Wellman

Social Capital is a one-day conference where people with all levels of experience in social media will come together to learn from each other. There will be three streams of sessions: fundamental, advanced and business and we will also have a series of roundtable sessions that will be an informal conversation on a variety of topics with an expert to lead the discussion.

The website said the conference was inspired by the BlogHer social media conference you attended in New York City in 2010. What about this event was so inspirational to you?

The opportunity to be with a large group of people with the same interests as you, who understand your passion for social media and who don’t think you’re “geeky” for liking it so much is fabulous!  We get together, have a blast and learn a lot.  For me, social media’s real success is the “in real life” moments.

You’re a social media strategist – how are events like this conference in tune with what you do for your job?

I get to meet other people who are in the same industry as me as well as meet people who are looking to learn more – whether it is for personal use or business.  My job is to help people understand the tools that are out there and how they can best utilize them.  I love helping people figure out what’s out there.  One of my favourite things is to convince someone that one of the tools they previously never considered because of a pre-conceived notion might be worth a second look.

The logo for the Social Capital conference

Being a “learnathon,” how does this make Social Capital different from other conferences?

We wanted to make sure people left the conference with some tangible pieces of information they could take away with them they didn’t have when they arrived.  We’ve tried to create a schedule that will give people a lot of opportunities to not only hear about some great things people are doing but also to have tools they can use when they get back home or to work.

Ottawa has a great online community – who are some of the talented speakers that attendees will have the chance to hear from?

Andrea Tomkins, Social Capital speaker and local blogger

Our lineup of speakers is an amazing mix of almost entirely Ottawa folks.  We’ve tried to keep it as local as possible to capitalize on our amazing community starting with Glen Gower, creator of Ottawa Start who will be our keynote.  Glen will take us through the past, present and look at the future of social media with his thoughts about how its power can be harnessed to make Ottawa (or any other city) a better place to live.

Another one of the speakers is Andrea Tomkins who has one of the most popular Ottawa blogs - A Peek Inside the Fishbowl.  She’s been blogging since the 90’s and has a wealth of information but will be specifically talking on a panel with Rebecca Stanisic and Shannon McKarney about monetization, an issue so many bloggers grapple with.

They are really just the tip of the iceberg. I invite you to check out our blog where there is not only information about our speakers but they’ve answered some really great questions about themselves and their views on social media!

What are you most looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to an amazing day with friends, meeting people I’ve talked to online that I’ve never met in person, and learning!  I’m already trying to figure out how I can make it to some of the other sessions while I’m talking myself – I think that part may be challenging!

Thanks for letting us know more about the conference, Lara! Does this sound like something you’re interested in?  If so, tickets are $75 and can be purchased from the website up until the day of the conference (unless they sell out, in which case get them while you can!).

‘Fairs are amazing for small kids’: Lara Wellman shares one of her family’s favourite summer pastimes

Kids enjoying one of Ottawa's many local fairs

Lara Wellman is a wife, mother, and social media lover/freelancer. As co-founder of Kids in the Capital and Losing it in Ottawa, Lara loves to build online communities that translate into real life communities.

Play-all-day passes can be worth it for kids

For years I have noticed the small fairs that pop up around the city in the summer. You know the ones: the travelling fairs with the midway rides. I admit, I often wondered who went to them because personally, I never had any interest.

But when our son was almost three we decided to check one out – and he loved it! He didn’t stop talking about it for months! I had no idea these fairs are amazing for small kids!

Conquering this fish net was a big accomplishment for K.

That first visit we started with a few tickets. Then we learned that most of these fairs have unlimited access passes — usually for about $20.

I also learned that by not cheaping out the kids got WAY more enjoyment out of the fair. Going round and round the mirror/glass house and the climbing-slide house (those are the technical terms, I’m sure!) for example.

The operators of the rides are usually pretty nice about letting parents go in to help the kids if things get difficult without any extra cost, too. (Even getting to ride the bumper cars!)

Bumper cars

So if you were like me and weren’t sure whether travelling fairs are worth taking young kids to, believe me: they are! Keep your eyes open, and when you find yourself driving by, take the time to make a day of it. 

Thanks, Lara! Anyone else planning summer-fun stay-cations already? Tell us about it!

Losing it in Ottawa: co-founders Karen and Lara reflect on the success of their Ottawa blog

Lara Wellman (blog | Twitter) is a wife, mother, and social media lover/freelancer. As co-founder of Kids in the Capital and Losing it in Ottawa, Lara loves to build online communities that translate into real life communities. Karen (Twitter) is a wife to Matt, mom to Brandon and works full time at an awesome social media job she doesn’t talk about online. She is the author of Karen’s Chronicles and co-founder of Losing it in Ottawa.

So, tell me a little bit about the history of Losing it in Ottawa.

Karen & Lara: Losing it in Ottawa hatched from a post Karen wrote on her personal blog last summer in which she discussed her need to get healthy and lose weight. Lara commented that it would be nice if there was a community in Ottawa that supported that purpose. From there, we brainstormed and found four other women who agreed with us. Everything about starting Losing it in Ottawa was easy and flowed well. As a group, most of us hadn’t met each other prior to coming together for the blog and we became fast friends.

Karen, Ottawa blogger at Losing it in Ottawa and Karen's Chronicles

The community has grown incredibly quickly – why do you think it has been so successful?

Karen: Weight and body image are universal challenges. Even people who are a healthy weight can relate to the need to lose a few pounds every now and then. We have followers who are down to their last 10 and others who have over 100 pounds to lose. The challenge of making the right choices can be equally difficult for the person who is almost at their goal weight as it is for the person who is 20, 50 or 100 pounds away.

We also offer a safe place for people to go to talk about their challenges. Most contributors have published their weight and other measurements in updates. That could leave a person in a vulnerable position, unsure of the response. Will you be judged? Will people make fun of you? The Losing It community has been nothing but supportive and open with every single contributor. Some followers write about their weight loss journey on their own blogs. When you know that you will receive support and reassurance, it’s easier to discuss delicate topics with complete transparency.

Lara, you mentioned that one of your favourite things to do is create online communities and turn them into real communities. Can you talk a bit about that, with respect to Losing it in Ottawa?

Lara: Online community shifted for me about a year or so ago  from being worldwide to suddenly being really local – I was meeting people online that lived in the same city as me and I could get together with them in person.  With the growth of the Ottawa Twitter community, this soon became something that I did regularly, mostly with other moms, and I saw an opportunity for building more community by bringing people with like interests together – specifically those trying to lose weight with Losing it in Ottawa and people with kids on my other blog, Kids in the Capital.

Losing it in Ottawa started because of relationships already formed on Twitter and the incredible support and interest we saw from the first day (over 700 hits to the first post on the blog!) definitely came from the Twitter community.  From there it’s snowballed as people tell their friends and share the information on Facebook.

Social media really is an amazing tool!

Lara, Ottawa blogger at Losing it in Ottawa, Gliding through Motherhood, and Kids in the Capital.

Karen: When we started Losing it in Ottawa, half of us had never met anyone else in our group. We formed a quick, tight bond that hasn’t wavered. Our group of six made the conscious decision to plan activities with each other so that we could connect in real life (IRL) and support each other. The friendship we’ve developed comes through on the blog and when you see our interactions on Twitter and Facebook.

It’s one of our goals for 2011 to build an even stronger and more active community, starting with the addition of eight new regular contributors to be announced shortly. We’re participating in the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers in June and we’ll likely do some other events, such as Run for the Cure and the Ottawa Road Hockey Showdown, as we did in the fall. Doing work to benefit the greater Ottawa community is a bonding experience we’ve come to enjoy.

To build community beyond the group of regular contributors, we’ve reached out and asked followers to share their own stories through guest posts and blog hops. A blog hop – for those unfamiliar – is when a host (that’s us) adds a link to their site so others can share the link to their post. We’ve all connected with many of our followers through Twitter, Facebook and on My Fitness Pal – a calorie-tracking site. And soon we’ll be announcing a date for the upcoming Losing it in Ottawa meetup and clothing swap. We’re all looking forward to connecting with even more of our followers in person.

How has this project impacted you personally?

Karen: There is a certain comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. That you have people around you – even if they are silent – who care that you’re accomplishing goals. They’ve become our cheerleaders, rooting us on when we’re doing well. And when things don’t go so well, they are right there still, encouraging us to keep going and not give up. It gives us confidence in our abilities to succeed. And when you have a taste of success and know how good it is, you want more. That’s powerful motivation.

Lara: Beyond the fact that I’ve lost 23 pounds and started exercising regularly for the first time in many years, Losing It has been amazing because of the friendships that I’ve made. These supporters (both the actual bloggers and the people who are actively taking part in the community) are there for me in my weight loss journey, but also when I’m having a rough time with my kids, or am looking to get out of the house, or am wanting career advice. They are real and true friends and I feel lucky to have them in my life.

How are you hoping your project will affect the Ottawa community?

Karen : We’d love for this to continue growing into a widespread movement to get Ottawa healthy and a community-based support system that isn’t dependent on a particular kind of diet or exercise. Each of us follows our own prescribe plan to achieve our goals. Some like running, others don’t. Some like resistance training, others don’t. The point isn’t what we’re doing so much as doing it in a supportive environment and achieving our goals through healthy changes to our lifestyle. That kind of change is lasting. One day, we’d like to have a community full of people maintaining their weight and doing fun things as part of the process.

How can Ottawa folks get involved?

Read our blog, make comments, share on Twitter and Facebook or anywhere else they’d like to spread a post they’ve enjoyed. Most importantly, we want to hear other people’s stories too. Send us an email (losingitottawa@gmail.com) with a guest post. We love reading about the journey – even if it’s not on Losing it in Ottawa. Let us know if you post to your own blog. We’ll read it, support you and share your story with our readers through Facebook and Twitter as well.

This community is not just about the contributors on the blog. It’s about everyone who is working to achieve health goals.

Any advice for Ottawans thinking of starting their own blog?

There are countless resources that give step-by-step instructions for setting up a blog site. So, I’d say that with every word you publish, be true to yourself. It may take time to find your voice – it’s rare for anyone to start blogging and not change or evolve in some way. Don’t be afraid to share your blog with others. This can be nerve-wracking and vulnerable in the beginning, but this is how you grow a community. You share a little bit of you and through comments, followers share back. And probably the most important piece of advice is to follow other great blogs. Blogging is one piece of a large conversation. When bloggers read and comment on other blogs, they are showing that they care to connect with others. Finally, it’s important to think through the ramifications of sharing information on the Internet. Find your personal comfort level and share within your personal boundaries. There is also a series on Kids in the Capital called Social Media Mondays. There are several blog posts all about starting a blog and joining Twitter and the value of doing both.

Have you had success bringing the people of Ottawa together in a unique way? Send us a note and tell us all about it!

Indoor fun for your small tots: Kids in the Capital’s Lara Wellman shares her top spots

Lara Wellman (blog | Twitter) is a wife, mother, and social media lover/freelancer. As co-founder of Kids in the Capital and Losing it in Ottawa, Lara loves to build online communities that translate into real life communities.

Small children.

They are lively, fun, and energetic. But one of the biggest challenges with small children, especially if you have more than one of them, is taking them to a place where you feel confident you can keep track of them, and feel they are in a safe and secure environment.

Ottawa offers a lot of fabulous child-friendly activities and venues but not all are ideal for parents on their own with toddlers and pre-schoolers; especially ones who have a tendency to make a run for it when you least expect it.

Here are a few of the many Ottawa-area indoor locations that have made the herding of small children a little bit less stressful for parents:

Kid Kaf

3825 Richmond Road, Bells Corners

Kid Kaf is a child-friendly cafe located in Bells Corners.  While the front of the shop is set up as a regular cafe, the back in the perfect oasis for parents and their young children.  A large area that is filled with climbers, slides, playhouses, rocking horses and various other toys is accessible only by a buzz-in system.  To exit you must press the button located at adult level.  While in the space patrons have access to ordering food and drinks through a pass through window.  There is an age limit of five and under for Kid Kaf so parents don’t need to worry that larger and rougher children will take over or potentially harm the younger ones. The cost is $2.99 for infants under 11 months and $3.99 for older children – parents are included in this price.

Cosmic Adventures

1373 Ogilvie Road, Gloucester

Cosmic is a large indoor playground for kids of all ages, with two toddler designated areas that are great for bringing small children to.  The second floor area is large and has many toys as well as a climber and ball pit.  The area in enclosed with a large bumper (although some climbing children can make it over the bumper so keeping vigilant is important). For parents of children of varying ages it is ideal because they can let older children explore the bigger tunnels and slides while staying in the toddler areas with the younger ones. The cost is $10.99 for one year olds, $13.99 for two and three year olds, $16.99 for four to 12 year olds and $5.99 for adults. They also offer yearly memberships for $100 (cheaper for additional children) that include the cost of two adults per child.

Place d’Orleans Play Place

Just off RR174/Highway 17 at Place d’Orléans Drive

Place d’Orleans offers a free play area for kids on the second floor near the food court.  The area is enclosed with a latching gate and there is a staff person who sits by the door ensuring there are no escapees.  There is a toddler area at the back and a large climbing structure for the older kids at the front.  Children can’t escape the entire area, but there is no gate to keep the smaller children in the infant area, so there may be some chasing required when they want to make a break for the more exciting and larger structure.  The larger structure is fairly small-child friendly, as anything too difficult for a toddler is too hard for a toddler to climb on to, but parents must be vigilant of the older and often quite boisterous kids who can be in the bigger area.

Thanks Lara! Do you have fun spots you take your kids that you want to share with LTOttawa readers? Send us a note!