Bloggers Networking on CBC TV Late Summer 2012

Bloggers, internet marketers, social media enthusiasts and people curious about the related topics and about John Chow, the famous A blogger from Vancouver, have been meeting regularly for a weekly lunch meeting for years. Those meetings came to be known as Dot Com Pho. But never before has the mainstream media like TV and radio paid any attention to that. That has changed on April 01, 2012.

CBC TV crew came by to observe what we do at Dot Com Pho and to make a documentary about it. This is not an April Fool’s Day joke. I have a video to prove it.

Why would CBC TV be interested in what local bloggers, internet marketers and social media enthusiasts do around a lunch table eating noodle soup, spring rolls and drinking iced coffe or the house tea? Is there a success story behind it somewhere?

You bet there is. Everybody loves a success story. It’s great that a TV station is paying attention to things other than disasters, crime and horror stories.

The fame and success of John Chow got their attention somehow. As the importance of the internet and social media increases so will the main stream media attention to it. CBC TV is going to run a TV documentary series this summer or late fall about social media.

Update: At today’s (August 18, 2912) Pho in Vancouver visited by John Chow after many months John Chow announced that the CBC documentary about him would be broadcast today, August 18, 2012 at 7 p.m. on CBC TV channel.

I have written about the importance of Live Networking and Social Media in several of my posts. For those of you who missed that or ignored it you may want to go and read the posts now. At least read these two: 5 Reasons for Internet Marketing Networking and Social Media Engine Optimization.

When things are on TV it usually means that they are more important than things that don’t make it there. At least that’s how most people perceive it. The masses will certainly pay more attention to what is on TV especially if it’s there often enough.

The coming CBC TV documentary series will be likely an opener for more things to come on the subject.

As far as personalities go the main focus of this coming documentary, the part of it that will be from Vancouver, is John Chow.

The CBC TV crew asked four long timers of Dot Com Pho, those who have known John Chow for the longest time questions about him and how he became successful. To be fair they asked other questions too, having to do mainly with what the interviewees themselves do.

One of the recurring questions was “How would you describe John Chow to your Grandfather or Grandmother?” I personally found it funny. But there were a lot more interesting and deeper questions and no matter which ones will make it into the televised documentary, they will be great to hear and find the answers to by watching the program.

It will be interesting and educational not only for complete strangers but also for all those who have been going to Dot Com Pho lunches all those years or a portion of them and who know John Chow personally like myself. The reason is that those questions or at least some of them were never asked before or even if they were they weren’t answered in such depth.

I found the CBC TV crew very friendly and down to earth. Compared with some big screen movie making people that I had the chance to observe they were refreshingly normal, with no ego of elephant size towering above them.

They were:

Andrew Lavigne behind the camera who also asked some of the questions. Andrew Lavigne is the director and the main guy behind the coming series. Update: Andrew Lavigne scraped content from my YouTube video and from the YouTube video of Michael Kwan. He did so without our permission and without giving us any credit, mention or link. This is why I have removed his link from this page. We found out that he used our content without permission on Friday evening, August 18, 2012 when the show aired on CBC TV.

Kemp Edmonds asked a lot of the questions and seemed to be the PR guy.

Ruth (she did the lighting and I never caught the last name) and Jeremy who did something invisible.

The Dot Com Pho people that were interviewed in order of the interviews:

Rainer Schmoll from Thinkreferrals,

Ed Lau, from Ededition,

Michael Kwan, from BeyondtheRhetoric,

Stephen Fung from Futurelooks.

At the urging from our table CBC TV also interviewed Brian, the owner of the restaurant.

We had a normal and fun Dot Com Pho meeting as usual aside from the CBC TV filming crew presence creating a bit of extra excitement.

Watch the video below to see for yourself that CBC TV crew was really there. Andrew Lavigne at the start of the video also outlines the reasons for and the subjects of the coming documentary series.

Now that you’ve watched the video, please do check it out at least the first half of it if you haven’t done so, do me a favor and let me know by leaving a comment about it and the post above.

I’d also like your response to the following question:

If you knew for sure that there is going to be a TV crew filming a meeting for a documentary that will be shown on TV in your state or province and possibly nationwide would you be more likely to attend than if the meeting was to be a private one with just a video from it appearing on YouTube?

I’m very keen to know your answer. Hit the comment section right now and write away.

Have you done it? Great. Now tweet, bookmark, Google+ and Like it on Facebook.

I’ll thank you when I reply to your comment.

One last thing. Learn everything about social media in practice. Check out the most comprehensive course I know of and which I study myself. Click on the banner and take a good look.

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Authored by Vance Sova

Last Saturday internet marketing gurus talked about the Android and iPhone smart phones and beer as they gathered for a networking lunch for bloggers we call Dot Com Pho to which everybody interested in internet marketing and blogging is welcome.

While I’m not counting myself as a full blown guru, my meeting with these guys and getting to know them and what they do and how they do it is certainly helping.

The top blogging guru that was present was John Chow.

This is a continuation of what is now turning out to be my blog posts series on internet marketing live networking. Reading all my posts on this subject would be an excellent idea.

To start with read these two: Internet Marketing Networking, Facebook and Succeed Online by Networking.

As time goes on I write less and less about the obvious virtues of doing live internet marketing networking and more about what actually happens at the ones I’m attending.

Even better than just writing about it is posting some videos from there. In this post you can find and view three of them.

The first one is about John Chow’s friend Michael Kwan who went to the dark side or joined the ranks of the forces of the light, depending on whether you prefer the iPhone or the Android and which of them you think is destined to win the battle of the smart phones.

Watch Michael Kwan talk about the Android phone whose ranks he joined right below

It is amazing to me that 5 or 6 regular Dot Com Pho attendees are now carrying the Android. They are now in majority.

But not all is lost to the cosmic sounding phone. The iPhone still has its fans and the top gun, John Chow, is not jumping the ship.

John Chow let it be known that he is going to get the iPhone 5 when it becomes available in October.

Watch and listen to John Chow talk about the iPhone 5 just below

Are Dot Com Pho lunches all about business and no fun? I’d say the opposite is true. And to prove it I made a video for you of us talking about beer.

It is important to know what one is ingesting and have an idea where it originated and where it’s made. To no one’s surprise things aren’t necessarily made where they originated from anymore.

Thus not all Japanese beer or Czech beer is brewed in those countries.

Where was the Japanese Asahi beer John Chow ordered and drank brewed?

Was it Japan, the Philippines or where?

Watch the video below to find out where John Chow’s Asahi beer was brewed and more

Now it’s time for you to post your comment.

Tell me which smart phone you prefer and own or are going to get.

Will Android continue to take away market share from iPhone?

Which is your favorite beer and do you care where it’s made?

Are you networking live with other bloggers, if not are you inclined to do so soon?

Post your comments and tweet and bookmark the post to enable others to participate in the discussion.

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Authored by Vance Sova

Live Internet Marketing Networking, John Chow Interview Videos

Internet Marketing Networking at its best just happened at Dot Com Pho in Vancouver’s Happy Pho Restaurant. To market on the net you’ll, more likely than not, need a good camera. Panasonic Lumix GF2 and GF3 were covered by John Chow. The Keys to the City Award privileges mused upon and a lot of fun was had.

Rather than write about the virtues of meeting online people at live events which I have done before several times (read 5 Reasons For Internet Marketing Networking and Meet Fellow Bloggers Live if you haven’t read them yet), I decided to show you and write more about what happens at some of them.

The most recent Dot Com Pho in Vancouver with 10 participants included the famous blogger and internet marketer John Chow.

Asking him questions and opinions and picking his brain is a lot of fun not to mention the value of what one learns.

It’s great to see and actually put your hands on some of the tools of the trade he uses. This time it was the Panasonic Lumix GF2 camera which I held in my hands before. But now we talked about the new Lumix GF3 as well.

It turns out that the GF3 is smaller and won’t have the shoe anymore. Thus it is lighter but otherwise the functionality is the same.

Below is the video of John Chow on Lumix GF2 versus Lumix GF3 which I highly recommend you watch to find out the price of the new model as well as how you can trade in the GF2 camera for a hefty credit towards the new one.

Top internet marketers often receive awards and nice privileges for their achievements. There is one award which very few people know much about and that is Keys To the City Award. While most people seem to have heard about it, they don’t seem to know if it gives any privileges to the recipient.

So Far John Chow has not received keys to any city and it remais to be seen if he ever will.

But what does he know and think about it?

Find out in the video below what John Chow’s views are on the Keys To the City Award privileges:

Since we didn’t get a definitive answer from the very interesting conversation with John you can read what I found later just below.

The Keys To The City Award Privileges

The usually oversized and decorative key is given to honor the person who gets it. It’s otherwise completely useless as it doesn’t open any doors.

You don’t get access to anything that you normally don’t have access to without the key. It doesn’t entitle you to a free stay at any hotel, the city hall, the mayors residence or anywhere else.

The award is purely ceremonial and aside from bragging rights, if you should want to use them, doesn’t provide anything tangible.

The Keys to the City Award is a symbolic gift in the form of ornamental or otherwise pretty key presented to people a city wants to give honor to. It is a symbolic and ceremonial gesture (an empty gesture really) of appreciation and welcome.

No privileges are given to the recipient of this award nowadays.

Historically, when cities had walls around them and were heavily guarded and a permission to enter a city was needed, the Keys to the City Award gave significant privileges.

Would you like to be honored by getting a ceremonial key or would you rather be given a key that opens at least one real door?

How about the Panasonic GF2 and GF3 cameras, do you have or would you like to have one?

What camera are you currently using to make videos and for still pictures, do you use different cameras separately or do you use one camera for both videos and regular pictures?

Please answer at least one of these questions and add your related thoughts in the comments section and tweet and bookmark this post to enable others to join the conversation.

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Authored by Vance Sova

Internet Marketing Networking at the Dot Com Pho without John Chow this time was a lot of fun. We discussed Facebook and the Amega Magic Wand besides having a lot of fun.

Facebook is something that I will be coming back to later in this post and even more so in my future posts because it is a great tool for many things including email list building.

You may or may not recall my post 5 Reasons For Internet Marketing Networking I wrote about Internet Marketing Networking and how important it is to be participating in it.

In that post I also pointed out how Google and all the other search engines aren’t yet able to distinguish it from Network Marketing.

Well, there has been no progress on that yet and the confusion is still being perpetuated.

To make it clear again what the difference between the two is I will try to define them very briefly as best as I can.

What is Internet Marketing Networking?

Internet Marketing Networking is an event or activity during which the participants, who all engage in some type of internet marketing, exchange experiences and contact information with one another.

What is Network Marketing?

Network Marketing is a new better sounding name for MLM or Multi Level Marketing.

Without going into the details of how Network Marketing or MLM works, it is clear to most people that it has very little to do with Internet Marketing, at least originally.

Some savvy Multi Level Marketers or Network Marketers like Ann Sieg have in the last 2 or 3 years started doing the marketing of Network Marketing online and called it Internet Network Marketing.

Just because they use the internet to attract leads and new converts into their business, it does’t change the nature of Network Marketing or MLM completely or even significantly.

Their business and income is still primarily tied with the Multi Level scheme and the products of the Multi Level or Network Marketing company.

On the other hand Internet Marketers aren’t tied to any Multi Level Marketing or Network Marketing company, its scheme or products.

Google and the other search engines should be able to distinguish between Internet Marketing Networking and Network Marketing and even Internet Network Marketing.

Please let me know if my definitions above make it clear enough for you.

Amega Magic Wand and Switch On AMGeneX Demonstrated

Part of the reason why I’m revisiting this subject is the fact that for the first time ever, as far as I know, one of the participants at the last Dot Com Pho, Moneca Yardley, happenes to be a Network Marketer.

All the rest of us at the Pho meeting are, however, just Internet Marketers and so the meeting is still about Internet Marketing Networking.

This brings a question to my mind and perhaps yours too about what the proper name would be for a meeting of Network Marketers, those who do their network marketing with the help of the internet.

I think that it would have to be something like Internet Network Marketing Networking or for short INM Networking.

While it seems that everything will eventually get intricately connected with the internet, the difference between Internet Marketing and Network Marketing will always be very significant and fundamental.

I’ll let the video from the last Pho speak for itself about the products Moneca is promoting. They are carried by a company called Amega Global and the two products we were shown were Amega Wand, (we called it Magic Wand or Amega Magic Wand) and AMGenex also called Switch On.

Just to make it clear, I’m just reporting on the event in which I participated spontaneously without any possibility of financial gain.

I do not sell, profit from, neither have I bought any of the products of Amega Global. The Dot Com Pho is an admission free Internet Marketing Networking lunch meeting where each participant buys their own lunch.

We did have a lot of fun and plenty of laughs. At the first part of the video you will find out about the Flip cameras and a discussion about Facebook. I’ll write about Facebook more in my future posts as this is getting long enough.

Video  from the Packed Dot Com Pho with John Chow, Feb. 19, 2011

What to do now?

Check out the brand new offer (September 2017 and after) below by clicking on the banner.

Please leave your comments about this post. Do you care about Internet Marketing Networking, as in meeting with other internet marketers and bloggers?

What do you think of MLM or Network Marketing?

What about the products shown in the video above? Is it all a gimmick or is there something to them?

After you make your comments do tweet and bookmark the post for others to add their voices.

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Authored by Vance Sova