May 24, 2012
Axiom News article about LiveWorkPlay and Julie Kingstone (my wife) receving an Ottawa Business Journal and Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Forty Under 40 award with a few mentions of yours truly and some really kind quotes from third parties.
May 15, 2012
First published as a Canadian Journal of Volunteer Resources Management (CJVRM) members-only document, my article “Social Media: Being The Change” is now available to the public.
May 4, 2012
I’m was honoured to be the keynote speaker at the Concordia Interdisciplinary Graduate Symposium (Montreal). Although I included some comments about social media in the presentation, it was a real pleasure to be talking about some of my other passions.
If the attendees at this conference are representative of those who will build our future, then I am very pleased with that thought! They are intelligent people who aren’t afraid to ask questions of themselves and the world around them.
Also, they laughed at my jokes.
This is very important.
May 3, 2012
I was quoted in an article in Capital City News that covered Recipe for Success 2012 and LiveWorkPlay involvement in National Volunteer Week.
April 17, 2012
A very comprehensive interview with Renee McGivern, host of NONPROFIT SPARK: A nonprofit reinvents itself: LiveWorkPlay takes on social change it was more than a little intimidating to talk unscripted for 40 minutes, but Renee is amazing at what she does. Check her suggestion for the interview with Paul Schmitz, it’s great!
April 16, 2012
I was the MC for a LiveWorkPlay National Volunteer Week volunteer recognition event with His Excellency the Governor General of Canada.
April 12, 2012
This makes 14 years of hosting the Recipe for Success Culinary Adventure and Charity Auction for LiveWorkPlay. The real stars of the show were Sandy Sharkey and Derick Fage! I promoted the event with Derick on Rogers 22 Daytime and with Sandy on 93.9 BOB FM Cub & Company.
March 30, 2012
I hosted the LiveWorkPlay Foolish Family Feast, we had a great turnout of 120 people.
January 24, 2012
A very kind feature in the uOttawa Gazette 
in which I got a lot of credit for accomplishments that are shared with countless others. But I was very pleased with the opportunity to help profile how a great employer like The Works is helping make a difference in the Ottawa community!
January 12, 2012
I wrote a “Vision Blog” for Community Living Ontario which was featured on the home page of their website for several weeks. The generated a lot of discussion not only in Ontario and Canada but with an international audience.
November 7, 2011
My contribution to a discussion on CBC Radio Ontario Today about an ugly incident in Ottawa where a bus passenger thought to be an individual with autism endures a tirade and violent threat by the bus operator.
November 4, 2011
An extensive interview resulted in this article featured on the Community Living Ontario website. Speaking out about sheltered workshops risks offending some of my peers in the field, but it is time. All people belong in the community, not artificial segregated environments. It is 2011. Time for segregation to end. First we must name the problem. Then we must work to sovle it.
October 25, 2011
Quoted in this Ottawa Citizen article about the launch of the Employment Accessibility Resource Network. The launch featured LiveWorkPlay member Heather, who is now an employee at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa.
October 9, 2011
Another fun interview with Rabbi Bulka on 580 CFRA Radio. We talked about issues related to the employment of people with disabilities in the Ottawa area, and how LiveWorkPlay is working with other service providers and United Way Ottawa to improve the situation.
October 5, 2011
Very pleased to be appearing in this video created by United Way Ottawa. Shot at The WORKS Gourmet Burger Bistro in Orleans (Ottawa) and at LiveWorkPlay headquarters. This is a great story about Melissa, an individual supported by LiveWorkPlay, who has become a valued employee at The WORKS as her manager explains in the video. Melissa was also featured in a print ad donated by the Ottawa Citizen newspaper and appeared with me on September 22 (see below).
September 27, 2011
I enjoyed delivering the plenary presenation for the Community Integration Network conference in Toronto. This network brings together agencies that provide immigration services and I’ll be leading off the first in a series of major gatherings throughout the year. 
This was a social media for social change presentation with an emphasis on how to transition from the print-heavy marketing that is typical in this sector and incorporate social media into a communications and marketing plan. I discussed at length the important of reciprocity in social media, and was very pleased with the session feedback that often mentioned “social capital through listening, sharing, and trust.”
September 26, 2011
Presented on social media for non-profit organizations at Mills Community Support. The Mills (as they are commonly known) hosts frequent “lunch and learn” opportunities that they open up to a variety of constituents in the social services sectors as well as municipalities, schools, businesses, and anyone else who wants to learn!
September 23, 2011
Spoke at the LiveWorkPlay Welcome Back Family Feast & AGM. Our Board of Directors proposed an exciting new Vision, Mission, and Values to our membership (they were alll adopted). I was the lead on helping integrate this effort with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I delivered a speech “Being The Change” which you can see and hear below.
September 22, 2011
My heart was pounding on this one as Max Keeping “threw” to me in front of more than 1000 people at the United Way Ottawa campaign launch. But LiveWorkPlay member Melissa Cunningham was the start of this show! See photos or watch the video!
August 10, 2011
Governance Seminar and Social Enterprise Panel
I enjoyed presenting on non-profit governance and participating in a panel about social enterprise at Recrear Magnify at Carleton University. Both sessions were streamed live to viewers worldwide.
Recrear is an organization believing above all in the potential of young minds. They support youth to create and carry out their own projects in the field of international development. They aim to develop a platform where project developers can be put into contact with consultants, like-minded NGOs and corporations in demand of development-based corporate social responsibility programs.
I hope that I offered useful information about non-profit governance and contributed to the social enterprise discussion with my esteemed colleagues. This was a bit far afield from my usual public speaking topics but the audience was so engaged and passionated about their work my two hour presentation ended up generating an additional hour of questions!
July 25, 2011
I was honoured to serve on the judging panel for the Shad Valley students at Carleton University. Shad Valley is an award-winning program of Shad Valley International, a not-for-profit educational organization that is based upon the values of creativity, excellence, community, diversity, and responsibility. Participants are “high potential” high school students, selected for their remarkable academic capabilities, as well as their community involvement and creativity.
I was not fully prepared for the demands of the judging task, which included evaluating four business proposals (about 40 pages each), evaluating four 30 minute live presentations, asking questions of each team, and then retreating for a wild one hour session with my fellow judges Leslie Lang, a business evaluator from the Business Development Bank of Canada, and industrial designer Tim Moore from ErgoSum. We gobbled subs, came up with an evaluation grid, and took on responsibility for speaking to key points (I got “marketing plan” and “theme” – the theme was “Designing for Improving the Quality of Life for a Canadian Child with a Disability”).
Organizers surprised the students by revealing that the judges would not decide the winner – all of the teams would vote to choose the one representative project that will later go on to compete in the Research In Motion/Shad Entrepreneurship Cup. I won’t reveal anything more but they made a great choice and we wish them the best!
July 23, 2011
I was a panelist for the Social Media for Social Change session at Social Capital: A Social Media Learnathon in Ottawa. My co-panelists Shannon Smith and Stacey Diffin-Lafleur are both very impressive, it was humbling to share time with them! The session really heated up the twitterverse thanks to the awesome audience, and my Twitter account @keenanwellar (which is now @socialkeenan) actually trended along with other people and hashtags associated with the event! There was also a piece in the Ottawa Citizen and I got a little mention.
A week earlier I enjoyed appearing with @socapott organizer Lara Wellman on Daytime where we shared an interview about the conference with Derick Fage and guest co-host Stephanie Egan. I know the word “grassroots” has become overused (and even abused) with respect to community-building, but that’s what this was: Lara and her compatriots surmised that this was needed, and a sold-out event on a Saturday in the summer in Ottawa is all you need to know about whether or not they were correct. Well done!
June 22, 2011
Volunteer Canada released a podcast of an interview about social media for social change that I shared with Dorothy Engleman from Getinvolved.ca. It’s about 16 minutes, but you can check out at 2 minute selection of my comments and if you like what you hear, click on through to the full podcast (Episode 4). Dorothy is great at interviews and knows her subject very well, so listen in for her comments even if my contribution doesn’t float your boat (please note that’s not my normal voice, my vocal chords were almost burned out).
June 21, 2011
I’ve been quite agitated about what I felt was an unbalanced media perspective as regards changes in United Way Ottawa funding priorities (and blogged about it several times) and I got a chance to share my own views on CBC Ottawa 91.5 All In A Day.
June 8, 2011
I presented on Social Media for Social Change at the Canadian Business & Community Partnership Forum hosted by Imagine Canada and Volunteer Canada in Montebello, June 7-9.
My session on Wednesday (8th) at 9am in Le Club Room (cool name – only in the Outaouais) had a wonderful audience that asked excellent questions! You can VIEW THE PRESENTATION here.
June 2, 2011
The Engines of Success annual LiveWorkPlay celebration was a huge success. I produced the presentations and Julie Kingstone was the amazing host. There were so many deserving winners, please watch this short video to learn more about these spectacular individuals and organizations in the Ottawa community.
June 1, 2011
Slideshare Presentation Social Media for Social Change at MARCOM 2011
I had a great time co-presenting with Stacey Diffin-Lafleur from United Way Ottawa at the MARCOM conference on the topic of social media for social change.
Audience members reported finding it both challenging and fun, which is exactly what Stacey and I had hoped for! For what I am sure is the first time, I actually “trended” in Ottawa!
You can view some live footage as well as the slide show presentation and a photo album. Below is the promotional video by the conference organizers.
May 27, 2011
Media Coverage & Keynote Presentation
I was honoured to be the keynote speaker for the People First of Peterborough and Community Living Peterborough third annual self-advocate conference “Believe in Yourself…It’s all Possible.”
I discussed organizational, personal, and professional motivations for supporting People First of Ottawa and self-advocacy. Special thanks to Josee Varin for taking the live video, this was a complete surprise and I very much appreciated the effort!
May 25, 2011
Presented at the College Association for Language and Literacy conference at Algonquin College. It was an ambitious agenda that included confronting how the language of systems machinery contributes to the isolation and segregation of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. I discussed how social media can help build social capital and improve perceptions and treatment of one of our community’s most marginalized populations.
May 14, 2011
Provided support to a People First of Ottawa movie, discussion, and membership event. They tripled their membership!
May 3, 2011
I had a great time with Social Media for Social Change part II! A follow-up from the sold-out workshop in January, and we sold out again! Details were at the Volunteer Ottawa website, here’s a nice picture of everybody!
So exciting to see all that you are doing!