Last year around this time, I was luckily enough to be asked by “Alex Lemanski”:http://www.bitfyre.net/, of bitfyre fame, to partake in a panel proposal for SXSW 2010 on the meat and bones of freelancing called “Leave Your Job, Start An Agency”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/leave-your-job-start-an-agency. A year later and after a very well received SXSW panel, I am fortunate enough once again to be asked to partake in another panel proposal for SXSW 2010 called “Are You There Social Media? It’s Me Conflict!”:http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/7784

*Are You There Social Media? It’s Me Conflict* is going to be a no holds barred discussion on Social Media and it’s current role in Global Conflict. Everyone knows that social media is the _golden child_ of marketing and it’s impact on local and international business have been beaten to death, but what, if anything, is Social Media doing in the realm of International Conflict? What are the positive changes that have been implemented? Or are we looking at it’s role with rose-coloured industry glasses and maybe everything isn’t turning up as _sunshine and lollipops_ as it seems.

It’s going to be an incredibly interesting panel conversation and it’ll bring together a pretty interesting team. Including, (obviously myself):

* “Caitlin Currie”:http://www.nonresidentalien.ca – A rogue academic, a Masters Candidate at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), George Mason University and a contributing member of Techchange.org.
* “Lyndsie Bourgon”:http://www.lyndsiebourgon.com/tagged/portfolio – A freelance journalist who has been published in King’s Journalism Review, The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star and Canadian Business.
* “Nick Martin”:http://www.techchange.org/index.php?/About-Us/meet-the-team.html – Who is the co-founder and president of TechChange and is a visiting professor at the United Nations University for Peace (UPEACE).

It’s going to be quite the heated and diverse conversation, *but this is where we need your help!* if you’ve got a second and do plan on attending “SXSW’11 in Austin, please log on to the panel picker”:http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/7784 and give our panel a big thumbs-up. *Voting closes on August 27th*, so be quick.

Armadillo Studios is incredibly excited to announce the launch of our latest project – The Canadian tour site for “Dancing with the Stars’ Louie Van Amstel’s production of Ballroom with a Twist”:http://www.ballroomwithatwist.com.

In conjunction with Calgary’s “Event Group”:http://www.eventgroup.ca and “Innovative Events”:http://www.innovativeevents.ca/, we set out to create a unique and exciting one-stop informational site for the upcoming 2010 Canadian tour. Building off the current excitement surrounding ballroom and professional dancing, we wanted to create a design aesthetic which encompasses the passion that Louie Van Amstel brings to all of his projects. Using a combination of bold pastel colors and a variant of glowing light streams, we created a vibrant mosaic to create a sense of excitement.

As a single page site, our next goal was to utilize as much of the screen real-estate as possible to provide users with the maximum amount of information. A dual column layout provides potential concert goers with a simple introduction to Louis Van Amstel’s production with an accompanying list of the 10 Canadian dates.

Then we created three secondary sections to promote the show’s star performers – Evan Lysacek and David Hernandez – while also allowing users to sign-up for email notifications on advanced ticket sales or to share the tour with their facebook friends.

Louise Van Amstel’s Ballroom with a Twist Canadian tour is set to launch this October and we are more than excited to be a part of this unique experience.

So, if you’re a fan of Dancing with the Stars or Louise Van Amstel, now’s your chance “to see both in a city near you”:http://www.ballroomwithatwist.com.