Kicking off Earth Day 2008, a group of eco-minded social media makers produced over 50 pieces of social media at the EPIC Sustainable Living Expo in Vancouver April 18-20. The multi-media coverage including audio podcasts, video clips, blog articles, and a vast collection of photos. In all, the crowd-sourced campaign featured over 70 eco-conscious businesses and sustainability minded organizations, plus numerous presenters and even a "green" episode of CBC's the Dragon's Den.

The media dispatches were published using many "web 2.0" technologies including posting on the happyfrog.ca "Frog blog" and at the new EPIC Expo blog, as well as the writer's personal blogs and various eco-community sites. The rich-media content was distributed via multiple channels including photos at the happyfrog Flickr pool, "Pondcasts" in iTunes, Frogwalking videos on Blip.tv and You Tube, and even micro-blogging on Twitter.

A comprehensive guide to the happyfrog.ca coverage of EPIC is included in "Get Social with EPIC 08 Coverage" or subscribe to the EPIC Expo 2008 RSS Feed.


Brought together by BC green web community site, happyfrog.ca, the social media makers comprised a diverse assortment of personalities, interests, and demographics which resulted in a variety of topics and points of view.

Rewarded with a bamboo/organic cotton t-shirt and an "honorarium", the "Frog Squad" showed their commitment to spreading practical ecological information to effectuate positive change with this multi-day blog marathon. The citizen journalists explored every facet of the show from sampling organic beer, vodka and coffee, to checking out presenters like Mike Holmes, Adria Vasil and Simon Jackson.


Working from a "blogger's lounge" (a coffee table, a few chairs, and a borrowed Salt Spring coffee airpot) next to the happyfrog booth in the concourse, the volunteer team of experts provided almost real-time coverage by publishing continually throughout the day. The stream of content allowed interested people from out of town to experience the expo - as well as building excitement during the run of the 3-day event.


The resultant grassroots footage is dubbed "social media" since it is meant to be shared. Site visitors are encouraged to add favorite posts to their social networks and shared bookmark services, send to a friend or post a comment on the blog. Further, with Creative Commons licensing, the interviewees may re-use the content on their blogs to help magnify their message.

Highlights:

Simon Jackson, fervent protector of the Spirit Bear, garnered a report from the floor by Raul (AKA hummingbird 604), background info by Jonathon Narvey (jnarvey), plus a podcast of his stirring presentation.

Super-contractor Mike Holmes' candid presentation was live blogged by Rebecca Bollwitt (AKA Miss 604) and Raul interviewed with Adira Vasil, author of Ecoholic.

More audio "Pondcasts" (produced by johnbollwitt of Radio Zoom) included happyfrog Community Manager Dave O's (daveo) conversations with the Reddot Campaign against junk mail, local news source The Tyee, a tech-activist offering solar power web hosting, Simple hemp shoes, and stylish and efficient Vespas.

Videos interviews with LevelGround Trading, Industrial Artifacts, Hank&Cheef, and many more vignettes from the floor with hosts Christy and Cliff.

Reports from the journey by two Salt Spring coffee roasters who biked their way to EPIC to tell about the company's carbon cool initiatives and green tax on disposable cups.

Handmade body care crafter Naked was featured in a podcast interview and a post by eco-enthusiast Alexa Booth (xabooth). 

Vancouver designer coverage with a Devil May Wear podcast, blog post about Dahlia Drive, and an eco t-shirt comparison including RioRain, HTNaturals and Me to We.

Sustainable travel tips with a podcast and blog post about Parks Canada and a post on Adventure Travel by Colleen Coplick (colleenc) who also points about the problem with plastics and the benefits of the EPIC Sigg bottles.

Greg Andrews (GregEh) also noticed the Sigg bottles along with Frogfile sustainable office products - ditto by Karen Fung (countablyinfinite) who also reported on the fancy solar lounge table and the design panel hosted by Shared Vision.

See all EPIC coverage at: happyfrog.ca EPIC Expo 2008 coverage.

More:

If you are interested to learn more about how and why we took on this campaign, please contact me - Dave Olson, Community Manager, dave (at) happyfrog (dot) ca

I rallied a squad of environmentally conscious bloggers, podcasters, and video-makers and we joined the other sustainability-minded visitors at the inaugural Vancouver Green Living show.

The resulting collection provides deep coverage of a variety of interesting businesses, unique products, and people effectuating positive change by creating and marketing sustainable alternatives to polluting products.

The crew of grassroots media makers expressed a variety of point of views and focused on their particular interests while finding surprising products under the BC Place dome from February 29th ~ March 2nd.

Here's a brief recap from the frogsquad's work:

Lisa Tilson discovered some natural toys, questioned the role of big corporations at a green show, and made her podcasting debut discussing city bikes and hemp clothing.

GregEh brought his bachelor perspective while writing about eco snow melter plus bikes of all kinds, hemp milk, and yerba matte, and pitched in heap of great shots for the photo pool.

Rebecca "Miss 604" and Keira-Anne covered the show in their savvy manner sampling products from soybean candles to organic beer. The prolific bloggers also visited the Vancouver Aquarium booth and K-A offered this sage advice for visitors:

"One final piece of very important advice I leave you with:

Though you will be tempted to try samples of all the foods and beverages you see, once your tummy is full of no less than organic chocolate, organic beer, coconut oil, hemp butter, organic wine and hemp milk, that same tummy will be very, very angry with you."

Joe Solomon offered discourse on green cleaning services and addressed the social issues of traditionally low-wage jobs. hint: Check out Joe's Netsquared blog for info on finding web geeks to help your social change project.

Alexa Booth shot a heap of great Green Living Show photos and contributed to the happyfrog Flickr pool. The smart shopper likely found a few businesses to review to add to her happyfrog-leading total, and even tested the In-Bed Organics mattresses (see also: Organic Latex Mattresses Seek Insomniacs.

happyfrog's own ChristyS and her personal cameraman created the first batch of FrogWalking videos with interviews with green entrepreneurs. Christy talks to a recycled clothing designer, a green wedding planner,artsy eco t-shirts.

Finally, I'm (happyfrog Community Manger Dave O) rolling out a new podcast series. The first batch of the "happyfrog Pondcast" podcasts features Rain City Bikes, Dancing Bear Hemp Clothing, Me to We T-shirts, and the Emily Carr communications design art exhibit. The shows are rolling out so subscribe to the happyfrog Pondcast feed to catch the conversations as they post.

Next up for the frogsquad? The EPIC - The Sustainability Expo at Canada Place on April 18-20. This is EPIC's second year and the last one was a busy hive of eco-edutainment so be sure to join the throng.

Have something to say to the world? Join the band of social media makers for a fun weekend of creating documentary evidence of ecological efforts. Contact happyfrog to express interest and check the green event calendar to find ways to share knowledge.

Another eclectic mix of vendors and practitioners filled the vast hall at Canada Place with booths offering healing, nourishments, comfort and knowledge. The happyfrog bloggers were on the scene to document the diligent entrepreneurs going "all in" to help us eat better and feel healthier.

After years of visiting eco-minded events at Canada Place, it is a treat to see the combination of traditional practices and continued innovation on display. While exploring the booths and speaking to the entrepreneurs behind each enterprise, I considered the importance of helping them "get the word out" about their services and wares.

Certainly many green-minded business-people get involved because they love helping heal people or the planet rather than having a burning desire to balance books, file taxes, draft marketing plans, and pay for ad campaigns. We happyfrogs hope to help spread the message and bring convenience for conscious-consumers and visibility for the business or organizations.

With this in mind, here are a few of the people we met in the eco-neighbourhood. For more photos, please visit the happyfrog group photo pool on Flickr.

Green Earth Organics share their bounty of produce right to your house or office. A great way to eat healthy when busy since they bring a consistent variety letting you try new veggies.

Level Ground Trading were pulling espresso shots of their fair traded coffee beans and sharing stores about working directly with small-scale producers in developing countries.

Wilderness Committee were selling recycled cards and sharing their passion for protecting the temperate rainforests and wildlife.

The men from Born 3 Eggs indulged with a conversation about their styrofoam packaging - "i love your eggs, your cartons, not so much". They explained that all egg cartons end up in landfills rather than recycled! This was shocking to me and sounds like a good idea for a Tyee investigative article about what happens to the stuff on the blue boxes. The Born 3 crew also have a few new varieties coming out so keep an eye out for these flax-fortified eggs.

Speaking of flax, I got the story from the Omega Crunch guys (originally from BC but now based out of Nova Scotia) who are offering a few choices of tasty, shelled, ready-to-eat seeds to boost your Omega 3 intake. We chatted about trans-Canada business and the pros and cons of flax and hemp seeds in daily diet.

As for packaging, I couldn't help to think crafty thoughts about these organic olive oil bottles - bottling pickled peppers, bath salts, or a vase - the oil inside is grown organic in Greece and imported by Basil Olive Oil who make a variety of products from moisturizers to tapenades.

I gotta admit I purchased a pack this "single-use" wooden cutlery brand by Aspen Ware called WUN. The story about shop teachers who engineered these wooden molded forks/spoons/knives with a modified waffle iron is great, and clearly these utensils are more aesthetically appealing the plastics one, but using them still uses trees, just small pieces - though by being biodegradable, perhaps they can fertilize future growth ;-).

There were plenty of practitioners offering show-rate sample treatments as well as education groups encouraging preventive testing to minimize the impact of unsettling diagnosis. Note: Our friends over at Shared Vision recently published an article about "Breast Practices" with new methods for checking.

These tiny-looking Onya Bags are rugged enough to pack full of shopping but small enough to pack up and clip to your belt, purse, backpack etc. so your re-usable bag is always "on ya". Avoiding plastic bags is a simple but critical and visible step to reducing your impact without any sacrifice at all and these big/small bags make it easy to get eco.

Zen Organics know and love tea. Importers of the finest Japanese Matcha or as the Chinese say "the froth of the liquid jade" - matcha holds many healing benefits (and is the tea used in the renowned Japanese "Cha-no-yu" tea ceremonies) and Zen makes the goodness available as sugars, chocolate as well as tea to wisk up and drink from the bowl (if you wanna go Nihon-local anyhow).

Which booths did you really like? What new products amazed you? Did you try any healing services?

If you have any photos from the event, please submit to the happyfrog group photo pool on Flickr.

Next up on the happyfrog green trade show docket? Green Living and Epic - hope to see ya there!

A few more Choogle Ons and another Postcard from Gravelly Beach episodes released for your listening pleasure.

Grab em all and share ‘em with your friends!

NYC Speakeasy Stroll with Bubble Bands and Falafel Bars - Choogle on #45

Clayoquot Old-Growth Blockade Flashback - Choogle on #44

Waiting (and Resisting) in Baghdad - Postcard #47