Winnipeg Free Press News Cafe Social Media Day

I missed a bit of work yesterday to attend Social Media Day at the Winnipeg Free Press News Cafe. I really had no idea what to expect. The News Cafe is a new, and rather unique, idea of the local newspaper, to allow the public to interact more directly with its journalists. How exactly that works, I haven't had much of a chance to find out, but today was my first look.

I've been at the cafe a couple of times before, when there were no events. The food was excellent, and there's a pleasant ambience for a news junkie like me, with copies of the Free Press scattered around, and free internet (apparently - I haven't tried that yet).

I thought I was going to be late, but it started at 2 pm, not 1. That guaranteed I would be late for work. By 2 pm, there were very few open seats, and very little capacity left in the air conditioning. The session itself featured three speakers: John White, who spoke about the concept of the New Cafe, and the various social media that the Free Press uses to allow the public to interact, including Facebook and Twitter. The second speaker, John McDonald, talked about the importance for businesses of keeping up with what's being said on social media, and how to create new business opportunities from it. The third speaker, Alisha Paul, spoke on moderating comments on websites, but that was the point I had to leave for work, so I missed most of her talk. Fortunately, the speakers' talks are available on the Free Press website. I will see her talk yet.

This was a great introduction to the potential of the News Cafe. I look forward to more events like this.

Canadian Aviation Historical Society

I'm just back from Edmonton, where the Canadian Aviation Historical Society held its latest convention. The convention took place over five days, and some events were held in conjunction with the Alberta Aviation Museum. It started on Wednesday, with a directors' meeting in the afternoon and a Meet and Greet at the convention hotel in the evening. The Meet and Greet was a much livelier event than usual at these things. The organising committee, including CAHS president Danielle MetcalfeChenail, had gathered some excellent prizes for draws and auctions. One item given away was a pair of Westjet passes, which was a great fundraiser for the society. I won a nice framed print of Katherine Stinson, a pioneer pilot, on an early airmail flight.

On Thursday, the group headed to the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, for a tour. RAM is based on the collection of Stan Reynolds, a Second World War pilot and later owner of a car sales dealership. His collection was donated to the provincial government, and it's now an official provincial museum. It's quite an amazing place. The main building houses great displays of early cars, farm equipment, and other items. There's a separate building that houses most of the airplanes, and also is the home of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame. There's a storage building which is not generally open to the public, but we got a guided tour through there, too. The airplane most people would notice is the replica of the Avro Arrow, which was used in the Arrow movie with Dan Akroyd. The most interesting airplane for me wasn't even a complete airplane, it was the hulk of a Fairey Swordfish that's awaiting restoration... someday. In the evening, we held the annual general meeting of the CAHS.

The speakers programme ran on Friday and Saturday, and featured a range of subjects mostly relating to Alberta aviation history. Some of the subjects included "Wop" May, Tom Lamb, the High River air station, early search and rescue in the RCAF, and archaeological aspects of a SB-17G crash site.

On Friday evening, we had the option of going to a Swing Dance, organised by the Alberta Aviation Museum, but ten of us, including me, went to the Edmonton Eskimos - Calgary Stampeders CFL exhibition game instead. The museum put on a "Bush Pilots Dinner" on Saturday evening, that was well attended by museum volunteers and convention goers. After the dinner, we had some presentations, one of which, on the importance of preserving and presenting history, really stuck with me.

Sunday wound up with the Alberta Aviation Museum's Airfest, a fly in and open house. I helped man the CAHS booth, and wandered around the museum's extensive collection. Amongst other things, they have two CF-101 Voodoos, a Sabre, a CF-100 Canuck, a Barkley-Growe (looks like a Beech 18 with fixed undercarriage), and a Boeing 737 in Pacific Western colours. Vintage Wings of Canada also flew in their Sabre in Golden Hawks colours. There was also a Yellow Wings tour Stearman there.