Lace up your runners people, because there’s going to be a sprint to the box office on Thursday, August 12th at 8pm when the 60 tickets for the 2010 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon go on sale  through Eventbrite!

Last year the tickets went in one week and we already have a lot of interest so we deliberately placed the release at a time when we figure everyone can be at home and in front of their computers. We’ve also set up a waitlist so if someone gets a ticket and then can’t attend, we can pass it on to the next person on the list. Very important: Make sure to leave your email and a phone number.

Be advised: To ensure we have 60 participants, we have created a new rule for the event. If you hold a ticket but do not register before 8:30am on the event day, we will release your ticket to those on the waiting list unless you contact us in advance to let us know that you are planning on arriving late or that you are delayed. Before releasing a ticket to the waiting list, we will attempt to contact the original ticket holder using the phone number entered during the ticket purchase process. Therefore, make sure you provide a phone number you can be reached at on event day (i.e. your cell phone number).

If you are planning on arriving late on the event day, notify us in advance or you will lose your spot!

This year the ticket price is $24. The ticket includes participation in the marathon itself, free film and development, your photos exhibited at the free gallery showcase, the chance to win some great prizes and lots of other goodies.

There was some confusion last year as to the name of the event so the team decided to make the video you see above to shed some light. Feel free to spread it far and wide: YouTube.

A big thank you goes out to our fabulous Lesley Tetlow Stefanski, for directing and editing this award-winning piece of comedy!

We are well underway in the planning of the next 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon which will take place on Sunday September 12, 2010. Sponsors are coming on board, media is starting to contact us and people are getting excited.

12×12 QR Code

This year we are trying to raise the bar a bit where our digital presence is concerned. Among the many new features we are introducing is the weird graphic you see here – the newly minted 12x12YVR QR-Code. If you have a barcode scanner app on your phone you probably already know what this is, but in case you don’t here’s a very very short primer:

A QR Code is a two-dimensional bar code that contains more information than a regular one dimensional barcode. With a QR Barcode Scanner (i.e. your cell phone) you can lift information off this code including links to both this website and all our social media outlets.

You can get a barcode scanner app for pretty much any smart phone. Here’s a link to the free Android one I’m using. I’m going to venture a guess and say that you can probably get one for your iPhone at the App Store for a dollar or two.

New Short-Form URL

In addition to our tried and trusted URL www.VancouverPhotoMarathon.com we have acquired the shorter www.12x12YVR.com domain to make it easier for everyone to create links to our posts and other information. The new 12x12YVR.com domain points to the same site and the same pages as the longer form original and they can be used independently. That means next time you want to link to us using Twitter and you don’t have enough characters left for the long version, just swap out the long domain name for the short one and get the same results.

Simpler Social Links

To make it easier for everyone to find us on various social networks, we have created some new and simpler social links. They are:

• Twitter: www.12x12yvr.com/twitter or www.vancouverphotomarathon.com/twitter
• Facebook: www.12x12yvr.com/facebook or www.vancouverphotomarathon.com/facebook
• Flickr: www.12x12yvr.com/flickr or www.vancouverphotomarathon.com/flickr

All of these links will take you straight to the various social network profiles. No magic, or mumbo jumbo. They are just easier to remember.

I know you’ve been wondering… Is there going to be a 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon this year? Well, the answer is a definite “yes”, with bells on. As you can see from the top of this site, the next 12×12 Vancovuer Photo Marathon will take place on Sunday September 12, 2010. We’ll be releasing more info about the event, how to get tickets and everything else you need to know as the date comes closer but set your calendars because it’s going to be great!

As you can see we’ve completely dedesigned the 12×12 Vancovuer Photo Marathon website in preparation for the 2010 event. We wanted a cleaner layout with easier navigation and also wanted to add some new features (tba) so consider this step 1 of a multi-step process to get everything on track for the big day.

The committee is starting to plan both the marathon itself and the following exhibit and we are in the process of bringing in sponsors, media and most importantly enough rolls of film for everyone. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions or want to take a bigger part in this year’s event, drop us a line or leave a comment below.

And most importantly: Spread the word! 12×12 is back and it’s going to be great!