I have been slow in blogging - guilty as charged!  Nevertheless, I trust that most of you receive regular updates through the Social Media Club Toronto Facebook page, and are following @SMC_Toronto tweets.

Feb was a great month for the chapter as we hosted our first official speaker event. The timing could not be more perfect with Social Media Week in full swing around the world (including Toronto), and a special high-calibre speaker, Wendy Harman from American Red Cross, visiting Canada for the first time.

On 9 February, we hosted an event as part of Social Media Week Toronto entitled "Social Media Club Toronto presents: Case Studies from American and Canadian Red Cross". Wendy Harman, Social Media Manager at American Red Cross, spoke about the history and development of the American Red Cross social media programme, including how the organization used social media during the Haiti earthquake, raising $32 million through a SMS campaign, Joining her was Karen Snider, National Media Manager of Canadian Red Cross. Karen shared an example of how social media can be used for community events, and demonstrated the needs and benefits of thorough social media monitoring tools (Sysomos, a Marketwire company which sponsored this event).

The space, Foundry, is a cool new cowork space and we were one of the first events to take place there. This will be one of our options for future events. As a new chapter, we are slowly establishing our pool of event partners.

About 60 people attended (and stayed!! :)), great questions from the audience, catching up with old friends/striking up new relationships over appetizers and more. A nice way to stay warm and happy on a cold evening.

Wendy and Karen had kindly shared their decks as well - do check them out. Included is an introduction deck that lists volunteers who had so kindly offered their assistance.

The next event will be announced this week ...so stay tuned!

Evelyn