It’s been our pleasure to work with distinguished author Neil Baldwin over the past several months.  Canary redesigned www.neilbaldwinbooks.com and created a custom content management system utilizing the  Drupal platform and a grid-based custom theme.

Neil was kind enough to send us the testimonial below.  For more from our clients, check out our testimonials page.

“I was petrified when www.neilbaldwinbooks.com began to receive its makeover from Canary. Intuitively I felt that I knew what I wanted, but despite — or perhaps because of — being an author, I had trouble expressing these needs to Mason, John and the Canary team. Of course, from the moment they came back with slate blue and earthy brown as the basic colors for the site (I had never even told them that blue and brown were my favorite colors), I was in the right hands & never looked back. I also admit that I was even more petrified when Mason told me — once my new site was built — that he was going to teach me (omigod, as they say…) how to go into the invisible infrastructure and make changes on my own. Yet again, John and Mason patiently talked me through the looking glass, and, before too long, I got used to the subversive nature of what I was doing. We literati develop an intense ownership over our work. Canary ‘gets’ this obsession intuitively and respects it as well. The best attribute of Canary? They combine cutting-edge creativity and inductive reasoning with infinite patience — and they are always there when I need them.”

We just had our first Drupal Camp here in Philly last Wednesday (Nov 19, 2008), and it was a surprising success. I say surprising because we really put this together in a very short amount of time. There was certainly a chance that we’d have a couple near-empty rooms and a very full buffet table. But Drupallers around here are hungry, and they showed up in droves!

We had a Beginner and an Advanced track, and I was happy to see people at both sides. I led the Intro to Theming session with my friend Jody Hamilton from ZivTech where we outlined the possibilities and tools available to a Drupal themer. My main goal with the session was to open it up to questions as early as possible and we did get to a lot of people’s questions. We tried our best to be clear and offer our best advice, so I hope we didn’t steer anyone wrong! There are usually many ways to accomplish your goals in theming and the rest of Drupal and you can’t go over all the options in a setting like that.

We at Canary were happy to help sponsor and organize the event, but the bulk of the credit and praise goes to Nate Gasser of Rock River Star. He did the bulk of the legwork and paid out the bulk of the cash to put us in such a great venue. We’re planning to do these regularly so look out for the next on sometime in Spring.

(more photos)

We woke up bright and early this morning to get 15 singers from the First Person Festival’s Complaint Choir over to CBS 3’s studios for a live performance.  Watch it here.

You can catch the full performance and a post-show discussion about the project tonight at The Painted Bride (230 Vinet St) at 6pm.  And it’s FREE!

Great post from Convince & Convert on social media and why you should be using it, even if you’re not an expert right off the bat. Do you think you - or your clients - don’t really understand social media so you don’t need to be using it as a marketing tool?  Then read The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media.

And while you’re at it, follow us on Twitter:
twitter.com/canarymegan
twitter.com/canarymason

Canary Promotion + Design is proud to be a sponsor of the first BarCamp Philly!

The first-ever BarCamp Philly, an all-day collaborative event for people involved in technology, media and creative fields, will be held on Saturday, November 8th at The University of the Arts in the Terra Building, located at 211 S. Broad Street (Broad & Walnut). Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m., and sessions will run from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. BarCamp Philly creates opportunities for participants to share knowledge, experience and support with one another in an open, classroom-style environment.

With over 200 registered attendees, registration has been closed, but people still interested in attending may add their names to a waiting list for possible openings. For more information, visit www.barcampphilly.org.

Philadelphia’s first BarCamp, organized by JP Toto and Roz Duffy, is part of an international network of BarCamps which have taken place across North America as well as in South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. It’s also part of a city-wide movement to encourage a collaborative creative community.

“With events like BlogPhiladelphia, PodCamp Philly and Ignite Philly bringing people from all over the region together to be inspired, BarCamp seemed to be a natural next step,” says Duffy, a web producer and a founding member of Independents Hall. “The connections that are possible may lead to new collaborations, new projects, future events. Hopefully it will bring more attention to our fine city!”

Toto, owner of a small technology consulting firm called 30Points Design & Consulting, attended his first BarCamp in Orlando. “I was hooked instantly,” he says. “About a month later, I attended Social Dev Camp East in Baltimore where I met fantastic like-minded developers, creatives and community organizers. After that it was obvious to me that Philadelphia needed to hold its first BarCamp. We hope that events like this inspire other folks to step up, organize more events and help lead the city’s technology and cultural growth.”

The events’ content is provided by participants, with the schedule being determined the morning of November 8th. All attendees are invited to present at BarCamp Philly and can sign up on a schedule when they arrive. Participants include web developers, designers, entrepreneurs, software engineers, public relations, marketing and social media specialists, community organizers and students.

Through BarCamp Philly’s website, participants have been exchanging ideas on session topics, which could include entrepreneurship, product design, branding, the broader social impact of social media and new technology, community organizing through social networking, understanding open source licenses, how to develop web or iPhone applications, and the state of the creative economy.

BarCamp Philly is sponsored by The University of the Arts, 30Points Design & Consulting, Canary Promotion + Design, ChoiceShirts, Comcast Interactive Media, Microsoft, Mother’s Work, Umlatte, AlertBot, BadCat Design, Empressr, Independents Hall, P’unk Ave, Rock River Star, and Wharton Learning Lab.

The name BarCamp originates as a play on Foo Camp, an invitation-only event held by open source publisher Tim O’Reilly. The first BarCamp was held in 2005, in Palo Alto, CA. The open invite event was a huge success and thus spawned a series of BarCamps all over the globe from Boston to New Zealand to India to Orlando and on November 8, 2008 in Philly. For more information on the BarCamp concept and events around the world, visit www.barcamp.org.

To schedule interviews and event coverage, please contact:
Megan Wendell, Canary Promotion
(215) 242-6393, megan@canarypromo.com

Happy Halloween from the Canary crew. Please enjoy this pumpkin carved by Canary’s own, designer John Refano. When not designing websites and writing code, he spends his free time honing his skills as a pumpkin carver.

Doesn’t this pumpkin look like it should be in the Simpsons?

“Doh, a squirrel started to eat my face already…”

The 7th annual First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art is coming up, and our lovely press kit is ready for your perusal.  The Philadelphia festival, produced by First Person Arts, runs from November 11 – November 16 (with preview events on November 6 & 7) and is the only festival dedicated to presenting works of art based on real-life experiences.  This year’s programming features a diverse line-up of memoir readings and author discussions, documentary film screenings, food events, performance art, experiential tours, visual arts exhibitions, music, competitions, artist receptions and more.

Check out their EPK here and download the press kit here.

Friend and former client Val Emmich is all over the place this week - new album, new video on MTVU.com, appearance as the new hearttrhob on Ugly Betty tonight.  Back when Canary was still a baby bird, we booked Val’s tours through the nooks and crannies of the U.S.  It was clear back then that he was a star in the making.  We congratulate Val on his recent successes and are glad to say we knew him when.

Watch Val’s video for “Get on With It” from his new record Little Daggers here.

Ben Franklin has been emailing me a lot lately. Ok, it’s a Franklin impersonator who added me to his mailing list. We even got a Franklin doll in the mail. I love Ben as much as the next Philadelphian, but my inbox is just waaayyy too full for fake historical figures. So, I (politely) asked to be removed from Mr. Franklin’s mailing list. This was his reply:

REMOVE ME: Our correspondence is meant; in this time where all true Patriots are being stressed in The Economic Sector and Military Arena to the limits., to be Educational and Amusing. If you can not Raise The Flag to Sip the Spirit of our Country, it is a concern that you may Not be a True American. Hope you find time to both Smile and exercise your right to vote.
Humbly Submitted
your servant ,
Benjamin Franklin,
PRINTER

He’s consistent, I’ll give him that. Only in Philly.

StreetTalkin.com visited The Wilma Theater last week to get the inside scoop on their 30th Anniversary Season which opens with Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll on September 24th.  Jess Conda spoke with director Blanka Zizka and actors Barnaby Carpenter (Jan) and David Chandler (Max) and got a sneak peek at the show.  Rock ‘n’ Roll runs through October 26th.