Northern Voice Rejects

Comments 8 by Rebecca Bollwitt

A little while ago John and I expressed an interest in attending this year’s Northern Voice conference. Being bloggers and podcasters (in Vancouver and Iowa) for 3 years it seemed like a great opportunity to meet other locals with the same interest. We’ve met up with other bloggers before and attended a podcast meetup last year, which was really fun, but we’ve never been to a Northern Voice conference before. Most of all it would be a great opportunity for John to network since he’s going to get his work permit for Canada any day now.

The only thing keeping us from going was the entry fee. The two day conference is $100 out of our pockets and another $40 is we wanted t-shirts. So… for full participation and t-shirty experience it would cost our family $140. Now let me give you a quick little background on John and I.

John moved here in 2005 to be with me and hopefully start a lovely new career. Since he’s basically immigrating he cannot work until the Permanent Resident application is approved. He’s been jobless and I’ve been supporting our family monetarily ever since, needless to say, we don’t have a lot of money. We splurg sometimes and go out to watch a Canucks game at our fave local watering hole, and yes we attended Barcamp in the summer – which was really great. But at this point in time we’re inches away from having his work permit, which on top of all other immigration and lawyer fees, is $150. You may be able to see our financial dilemma now.

The Northern Voice crew were looking for submissions for a travel bursary, $500 for 5 people to make their way to the conference, who otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to attend. John and I jumped on this and recorded a podcast a couple days ago. We submitted and were hopeful. We only asked for part of ONE of the bursaries, not really the whole thing either, just the admission fee. Sure, we’re locals but maybe our cause is worthy enough, we’ve never been to a Northern Voice and we were really looking forward to it.

This morning the winners were announced, and we weren’t included. That’s perfectly fine, I mean it would only cost us $4.50 to get there by bus, but the admission is really the kicker. Oh well, right? I’m sure others were just as deserving and had to travel greater distances. Hmm…. although I think the idea of one of the winners could have just been put implemented, since it’s a great gesture, not sure it should have taken up one of the bursary spots though...

Regardless, if this is the first you’ve heard of Northern Voice and you’re a local blogger, check it out – the schedule has been posted and it looks really great – hopefully you’ll network, learn, shmooze and have great fun.

On the other hand, this was something that I really wanted to be a part of but I’m not certain that we’ll be able to get there this year, due to financial constraints (getting John’s open work permit = $150). So if that’s the case there’s always next year…

Update: To be a good sport, here are links to the winners’ blogs.
*Candace, Will, Jim, Mike, Monique, Laurie

Current Contests on Miss604
*All contests are open to residents of Canada only, unless otherwise stated. Contest timelines are published on each individual post along with entry methods. Some contests may only be open to those 19 years of age and older. Winners are announced on the contest blog posts. Contest policy »

8 Comments  —  Comments Are Closed

  1. GZ ExpatTuesday, February 6th, 2007 — 2:16pm PST

    Ahhh…that sucks. It would have been good to have your perspective there. But, hey, maybe the two of yas are too GOOD for the likes of them (I say in my best pirate voice…arrrghg).

  2. Miss604Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 — 2:18pm PST

    I just got some other bad news today, but GZ Pirate you just made me smile 😀

  3. NetChickTuesday, February 6th, 2007 — 7:51pm PST

    🙁 Sorry to hear about that… Any thought to participating one day instead of both?

  4. Miss604Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 — 7:56pm PST

    I think we’ll try for just Saturday if anything… there’s still some hope.

  5. BrianWednesday, February 7th, 2007 — 10:03am PST

    You might want to contact Cyprien Lomas, our volunteer coordinator and ask if he still needs people. Volunteers get free registration, and the duties are light, even fun.

  6. melWednesday, February 7th, 2007 — 11:24am PST

    Yeah, I keep my eye on web2.0 type conferences like this but I feel that the fees are always ridiculous. It seems like it’s very restrictive to companies and not individuals 🙁

  7. Miss604Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 — 11:44am PST

    Thanks Brian, the volunteer route is an option and I believe in our submission podcast we mentioned we’d be willing to do that. I cannot find info on being a volunteer on the NV site, however. Do you have contact info for Cyprien? Thanks.

  8. BrianWednesday, February 7th, 2007 — 2:29pm PST

    [email protected]

Also on Miss604.com
«
»