Yes, 2012 is almost here. And with another year, comes another exciting Social Media Camp event, and the 2nd Annual West Coast Social Media Awards.

In our inaugural year, we awarded in 8 categories. We are looking to expand the offering this year. What do you think would make a great award category, and why? Add your ideas to the comments below. The committee will be taking all comments into consideration when deciding on the categories this year.

Remember, they don’t have to be too serious. Last year, we had 3 fun categories, too.

The following is a guest post by Angela Crocker.

I started musing on all the things you can do to prepare for a conference over at Beachcomber Communications and seeing as I was writing with Social Media Camp in mind, it only seems fair to share some of the tips here. (Thanks to conference organizers Paul Holmes and Chris Burdge for inviting me over!) Now let’s get down to my sage (I hope!) advice:

How are you going to make notes? Do you like a paper notebook or prefer to make digital notes on your Netbook? Maybe an iPad or Blackberry Playbook is your thing? Or perhaps you need a sketchpad? Whether you scribble detailed notes, jot down some key points or doodle the concepts that speak to you, make sure you have the paper & pens or digital gizmo that works for you.

Pack any books you want to have signed by authors who will be at the conference. Social Media Camp’s speakers include several published authors including Amber Naslund, Jay Baer, Sean Moffit and me. And don’t worry if you don’t have all the books yet. The fabulous folks from Munro’s, one of Victoria’s leading bookstores, will have copies for sale on site. (Somebody, please, remind me I need to pick up a copy of Sean Moffitt’s book!)

Determine the conference hashtag and prepare to tweet your heart out. There’s no need to wait until conference day – jump in and tweet chat with fellow attendees today. Please make sure you are using the official hashtag – it’s #SMCV11 for Social Media Camp. I recently went to a conference with no official hashtag and several different conversations happened simultaneously. I was disappointed to miss some great content. Make sure your contributions to the online conversation are part of the right conversation.

Pack a self-care package for your hotel room. How can you look after yourself? A water bottle, pain relievers, antacids, extra reading glasses, your favorite pillow, hand sanitizer, bubble bath, gluten-free energy bars, a novel … What creature comforts will recharge your batteries between conference days?

Arrive fully charged, if you can. I mean, get enough sleep before you come. Being well rested is a great defense against any conference germs (they happen) and you won’t embarrass yourself yawning all the way through the keynote or other presentations.

Find your winning smile and bring it along. I smile most of the time, I can’t help that natural advantage on this one. But, please, leave your “grin and bear it” grimace at the office. Prepare to share the part of you that’s excited to be at the conference. If you’re not excited why are you coming?

Bring a small shoulder bag to carry around the conference. This could be a purse or a man-bag or a small backpack. Make it a small bag so you won’t be tempted to carry around a lot of extra stuff and travel light so you won’t tire as quickly. This is also a courtesy to those sitting around you in packed conference rooms. Leave everything you won’t need back at the hotel.

Cash in your pocket can make your conference life easier, too. Buying a latte is much faster with cash and the lines are often long. Do your bit to keep things moving quickly. It’s also easier to chip in for lunch or cocktails with a group of conference buddies if you can put cash on the table for your share.

Want more tips? Visit Beachcomber Communications for the rest of my advice to prepare to enjoy a great a conference. And feel free to add your tips below.

Guest Post by Dan Gunn

On behalf of the nearly 900 companies and 13,000 direct employees within our technology sector, welcome to Social Media Camp 2011. Most visitors to our city are not aware that technology is our largest revenue producing private industry at $2 billion in annual revenues. Tech is so big here that we now promote our city as Tectoria to help our more than three million annual visitors discover that not only is this a beautiful place with outstanding quality of life but it is also brimming with opportunities for them to find a career or to invest. Our local tech economy has more than doubled in size in the last decade and our members tell us that the greatest barrier to growth they face is in the areas of recruitment and investment. Ensuring that the world discovers Tectoria and all of its opportunities will play a key role in addressing this challenge and assisting in ensuring continued growth that outpaces the country.

Speaking of discovery, I’m sure today will provide extensive opportunities for you to expand your knowledge and insight. Your willingness to embrace new innovations and to expand your understanding is one of the key characteristics that make this Canada’s Smartest City. If you are already a Tectorian, I invite you to check out our beta community site Tectorian.com where you can share and discover events, discussions and ideas. If you are visiting form out of town, please check out Victoriatechjobs.com when you are ready to join our tribe.

Yours in innovation and entrepreneurship,

Dan Gunn
Executive Director
Victoria Advanced Technology Council (VIATeC)

Here’s your chance to win some cool stuff from The Q and The Zone during Social Media Camp 2011.

Just search for QR codes hidden all over the Victoria Conference Centre. Each QR code will contain a keyword linking to a specific prize. Fill out an entry ballot at The Q and The Zone’s booth and write the keyword down on the back for your chance to win that prize.

You can enter as many ballots as there are QR codes.

You could win concert tickets, festival wristbands, gift certificates and other prizes!

Here’s a sneak preview of some of the sweet prizes …

• A pair of tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion
• A pair of wristbands to the Rifflandia Music Festival (Thursday, September 22nd – Sunday, September 25th, 2011)
• A pair of tickets to The Zone’s 10th Anniversary Zone Show: Sum 41 (Tuesday, August 16th at Club 9ONE9)
• A pair of tickets to V.I.C. Fest (Saturday, June 18th at St. Ann’s Academy)

As the leading social media event in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, we are adding several new features this year:

• Two days, hands-on workshops, and up to four concurrent sessions
• A Networking Dinner, featuring the first annual West Coast Social Media Awards
• A formalized Genius Bar
• A Tradeshow featuring 27 exhibitors, more than double last year’s
• Numerous events rounding out Tech Week

All of this is very exciting, but we are also planting the seeds, with small steps, for what we think will put Victoria’s event on the must-attend list for the social media industry for years to come: The Social Showcase.

The Social Showcase is an opportunity for developers in the social media space to demonstrate, launch or otherwise show-off their product or product feature.

Sound like advertising? Not really.

There won’t be any hour-long, drawn-out advertorials posing as presentations (which we have thankfully managed to avoid at Social Media Camp, but you know what I mean, as these sessions sometimes features prominently at various conferences).

Here are the rules:

• The media, and a small number of venture capitalists will be invited to attend. (No promises, of course.)
• Each participant has 12 minutes (the timer will be ticking, and we will be ruthless, in respect of everyone’s time).
• Questions will be handled in the adjacent break-out room, for anyone who is interested in finding out more.
• This year, there are 9 presenters, filling 2 hours.

For a complete list of presenters, and their schedule, visit the Social Showcase page.

Are you coming to Social Media Camp?

Want to get on the schedule for the Genius Bar? We’d love to have you!

Here’s what we need:

• Your name
• Your title and company (optional)
• One URL and the words for this URL (like a Twitter handle or a company website)
• Up to 5 words describing your “Area of Expertise”
• Your preferred 1-hour time slot (see the Schedule to make sure you don’t miss that session you’ve been waiting to attend)

The print deadline is FRIDAY, May 20th. Please e-mail info at socialmediacamp.ca before then.

And, of course, you are welcome to be a genius in the genius bar as much as you’d like during the event … you don’t have to be on the list (just show up and be smart).

Here’s the Official Video Invitation for Social Media Camp Victoria 2011.

There are some other videos going up that will be a little lighter in nature.

Did you know that …

• Last year we had 470 attendees from all over Vancouver Island, Vancouver, Seattle, Kelowna, Kamloops and beyond!
• Social Media Camp 2010 was the largest technology event on Vancouver Island in 2010.
• Last year our keynote speakers were Scott Stratten (“UnMarketing”) and Julien Smith (“Trust Agents”). This year, our keynotes are Jay Baer and Amber Naslund (“The Now Revolution”).
• So far we have confirmed 6 authors for Social Media Camp Victoria 2011. We’ve invited a local bookstore to sell books, and assigned book-signing times for authors.
• This year will feature 101 and starter workshops on Friday morning, so people who are new to social media can receive some great orientation.

Look for more fabulous developments as Social Media Camp Victoria 2011 takes shape!

If you thought last year was great, this year will blow your socks off!

Thank you to everyone who came out bright and early Sunday morning to Social Media Camp Victoria 2010! We had well over 400 people in attendance!

Don’t miss the CHEK News story (click “Social Media Camp”).

We do plan on making this a regular event, and will keep you posted right here about details.

There are also tonnes of photos, videos, news and more coming out over the next couple weeks, and we’ll try to post (or re-post) as much as we can here, or on Twitter.

So far Chris and I have only been hearing good things about the event: people had a great time, learned lots, met with friends, were inspired, etc.

All this feedback is great, but I’m sure there are a few things you didn’t like, too… So, we will be sending out a survey soon to those who came, and would appreciate your blatantly honest feedback, so we can make the next event EVEN BETTER!

Thanks to everyone who helped, spoke, sponsored, exhibited, partnered, moderated and otherwise came out for a very full day! Great ideas are nothing without great people!

We had the opportunity to raise a bunch of money for the United Way of Greater Victoria (the final number is forthcoming). Thank you to everyone for their generosity to this important community fundraiser!

You can also find the United Way on Twitter as @uwgv.

A special thanks to media partner CHEK News for featuring Social Media Camp on their weekly “What’s In Store” feature.

Ticket sales close at Noon, Wednesday. Don’t miss out!