pe.ma Pema Hegan's collection of news and ideas too long for a tweet

Clever people saying smart things

The Mesh Conference is coming up in a couple of weeks and, in my humble opinion, there is likely to be some clever people saying smart things. If you are in the music, media, marketing or tech startup worlds, and if Toronto isn't too far away, I highly recommend you come along. The keynote lineup looks good and there will be plenty of interesting people to meet over the 3 days.

Some of the sessions I'm looking forward to:

• Keynote discussion with Ethan Kaplan, head of technology at Warner Music
• Michael Geist's presentation on Digital Activism
• Founders Stories, moderated by Paul Kedrosky
• My friend Mike Masnick from TechDirt talking about the "economic opportunities of abundance"

I was also lucky enough to be invited to participate in a panel. Candice Faktor (toronto.com/OurFaves.com), Daniel Burka (Digg.com) and I will be chatting with Mathew Ingram about The New Font Page...

In the past, the front page of the newspaper or the TV news was our main source of information. Now, as media becomes social, we are just as likely to see a link on Digg or StumbleUpon, or get sent one through Pownce, or see one on a friend's blog. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Some feel this is making us more narrow in our interests, as we see only the content our friends agree is important, but others see these "recommendation engines" as a positive thing. Join Daniel Burka of Digg and Pema Hegan of GigPark in a discussion about how the Web is the new front page, moderated by Mathew Ingram.

I'm sure Candice, Daniel and Mathew will put on a good show. I'll muddle along in my funny accent and try to keep up ;)

See you at Mesh!