Digital Storytelling: WordCamp Calgary Presentation

For years, I have worked in the trenches of marketing, and I have watched technology advance, but I have also seen how slowly content and storytelling has kept pace. Admittedly, the great storytellers in art, media and advertising have shown us some of the way, but the majority of businesses, creators, groups and organizations don’t have huge resources to tell stories. For them, it can seem impossible to do digital storytelling right.

I’ve chosen to learn and teach how to present, produce, create and plan content that is as real as it is riveting to people. I believe that everyone that has access to technology should have access to tell great stories using that technology. It makes for a better user experience, and it makes for a better web—one that’s driven for and by people who connect through meaningful content.

Stories have been with us since the dawn of language. They are the core of our art, our religious practices, and even the life lessons that we were taught as children. Many communication experts have argued that stories remain the best way to connect with people and share information effectively.

And stories are even more important today in the digital world of noise and information overload. We see that stories and great storytellers drive the ‘viral’ content that moves across the globe through social media and digital channels, but yet, the majority of content on the web lacks story-driven structure. Instead, we see endless bullet lists of features and benefits, useless descriptions and flat, heavy information that holds little emotional weight or engagement value.

In this storytelling workshop, content creators and marketers will learn the fundamental building blocks of great stories and how they can define and assemble them into well crafted content nuggets. Then they will be given practical techniques to coat those nuggets to make them even tastier to their target audiences (without affecting the authenticity of the story). They will also strategize where and how they can publish that content across digital platforms for maximum impact.

So what will you walk away with?

• How great stories work in digital environments
• What great stories are made of: core elements and structures
• How to build your brand story for audience connection
• Apply the storytelling method to smaller content pieces