Transportation tales

New Views, Two Views

I’ve been contemplating some info I learned through one of my volunteer activities. Although said activity has nothing to do with writing, the info itself can be useful to writers, I think. 
I was in Toronto (Hi, CN Tower!) at the Skate Canada annual convention a few weeks ago and attended a workshop titled “New Web Strategies.” You can’t beat sports when it comes to expertise in fans and technology, right? 

The workshop was given by Kevin Albrecht of iSport Media and Management. He went over the current landscape in consumption of sport product and internet usage, and how to make use of this to promote and build a community…to eventually make money of course. 

The community being referred to was the community of skaters or skating clubs and organizations and fans, but presumably the community could be any group of individuals with similar interests. Maybe like, say, followers of certain books or authors.

First, it’s kind of obvious, but we were told the goal of any business is to produce content, distribute the content, and somehow make money from that. Whereas in the past the distribution channels for sport were limited to a couple options (TV mostly and only a couple channels at that) now there are hundreds of options for distributing content. Hey, sound familiar my publishing pals? 


Into this new world of distribution options comes these facts:

  •  Canadians spend more time online and view more content online than any other country in the world 
  •  Canadians spend more time online than in front of the TV 
  •  Internet penetration in Canada is 72%; in the USA it’s 62%
Pretty obvious digital content is becoming very important. Add to this a study that found how people view websites. He said a study of 1.36 million internet users found the eye tracks a website this way: across the top, down the left and across the middle/bottom. You have 2.4 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention.

What does that mean?

    • This dictates where your important information and/or big advertising spots on your website should go 
    • You need new content regularly to give people a reason to come back to your site (so quit taking blog holidays already, sheesh!)
      Some interesting predictions were: 
      • live streaming from just about anywhere will become a reality as people live stream events from their own phones and send that to a website of their choosing
      • apps to a closed community will be worth the most money (so eg. a skating club app with schedule, news, competition results, live streaming of competitions or events, etc) 

      So will we soon see author apps?

      I bet it’ll start out with the big guys, those who are big enough to warrant interest in appearances, opinions, news of forthcoming books, etc. Maybe later on it will filter down or come down in price for those of us with a more modest presence.

      Food for thought, no? 

      Sure made me think. It was fun to step outside my regular writing mindset. I was glad I went on a number of levels. Besides, this easily-fascinated-by-forms-of-transportation gal got to enjoy this view from my hotel room. Airplanes took off from the runway, and there are sailboats, ferry boats, and a water taxi. Yes, this view was pretty easy to take.



      But at the banquet I kinda wish I’d never had this view. Who wants a big ole castor canadensis looming over an otherwise stellar dinner? 



      (Yeah, it’s standing on the floor and that’s the ballroom CEILING and part of one of those gargantuan projection screens on the right.) Apparently they’ll make a big inflatable anything these days.

      © Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
      No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

      Pop a Wheelie Point of View

      This past weekend I took Number One Son to field lacrosse provincial qualifiers in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). As we were speeding down a major multi-lane highway I noticed two motorcycles on the on ramp. Because I was in the right lane, I was in the process of judging whether or not I’d need to adjust my speed when I realized exactly what the first motorcycle driver was doing: he’d popped a wheelie! Merging onto a major highway. Not 50 feet away from me.

      Here are our two points of view:

      Number One Son: Whoa that’s EPIC! How does he do that?

      Me: OMG is he crazy?! What if he wipes out and crashes in front of me?

      And that’s why I love writing for kids. Their reaction is so much more fun. 

      (The motorcycle sustained the wheelie for about 5 seconds or more, returning to two wheels just as it merged onto the highway proper and sped away. Big relief for me. In spite of our differing points of view, it was definitely the most memorable moment of the weekend for both of us.)

      © Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
      No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

      Boats and Bushplanes

      It was a seven-hour road trip to The Soo last weekend. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. (That’s one of those names you just had to memorize in geography class, isn’t it?)

      Why was I there? Kid. Competitive sports. But I kept to my resolve to embrace the madness and find something interesting in the odd corners of the province I find myself in. This time it was the Bushplane Heritage Centre.

      I’d become aware of this museum while researching for the bushplane stage of Let’s Go! We used the Norseman as a good model for the visual in the book. They have one there! Visitors can actually climb inside one. So I did. Very cool.

      Once inside I realized that I’m not so sure I’d want to actually fly in this or any bushplane, though. I’m a chicken flyer. Getting up close to all the bushplanes really gave me an appreciation for the planes and their pilots. And the props inside the Norseman gave me a chuckle: empty beer cases.Very Canadian.

      We even saw a couple ships at the waterfront, but it really was the wrong time of year to see much activity there. 

      Too bad too because I really would have liked to see the Great Lakes shipwreck museum, and maybe look at the locks. Lots of transportation technology there.

      So I can now say I’ve been to the Soo. Woo-hoo! 

      © Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
      No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

      NY and Back–by Bus

      Ah, mass transportation. This past weekend I went to NY, NY for the SCBWI 2010 Conference. By bus. Overnight. Because the bus is affordable and has a flexible schedule, that’s why.

      Sure my butt fell asleep. So did at least one leg. I also can’t forget that my neck got a horrible crick in it, but it sure was an interesting trip. Between the bus from my hometown to Toronto, time in the terminal, and then the bus trip from Toronto to NY, it was about a 17 hour marathon. Each way. Plenty of time to ponder life and observe people, particularly since the book I’d chosen for my journey turned out to be lame and I couldn’t for the life of me fall asleep for any decent length of time.

       Memorable Moments

      • Realizing the seat I’d chosen from hometown to Toronto was in front of Muttering Man, a guy who fielded regular phone calls between which he’d mutter strings of F words at the weather, the traffic, whatever. I’d be lying if I said the words Manitoba, knife, bus, and murder didn’t all go through my head.
      • The New Man who sat beside Muttering Man for part of the journey and proceeded to get Muttering Man into a conversation which revealed MM was up on assault charges against his ex. TMI!
      • Waiting at Buffalo for about 15 Amish people to find seats on the crowded bus full of sleeping, or pretending to be sleeping, people.
      • Discovering that the Amish people had gone through the underground shopping concourse in Toronto in order to arrive at McDonald’s for breakfast.
      • Seeing Security swoop down on and herd away the two drunks who were heckling the Amish people who were at McDonald’s for breakfast in the underground Toronto shopping concourse.

      Snippets and Observations

      • How do you get to the bus terminal, sit down and then think, “Hey, now’s a great time to clean my ears” whereupon you roll up a napkin and proceed to do just that? ?????? 
      • In a closed environment like a bus, one cannot help but think that the greatest and not-widely-enough-applied invention of modern society is deodorant. Trust me on this one.
      • Whatever happened to the guy sitting in the seat in front of me? He never did get back on after the stop at the border, did he?
      • People will eat fastfood at any hour of the day… or rather night. Even 3:00am. Gack!

      Mass transportation: A writer’s observational research goldmine.

        © Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
        No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.