Incredibly proud of the PodCamp community

Posted by Christopher S. Penn on Jul 21, 2008 in PodCamp | View Comments

Incredibly proud of the PodCamp community

PodCamp Boston 3 wrapped just hours ago, and I miss it already. The folks who attended made it one of the most amazing PodCamps yet, in terms of energy, passion, and excitement. I’m incredibly proud…

… of you. You made it to PodCamp Boston 3, made it your own conference, made some incredible discussions and shared amazing knowledge. I picked up some fantastic tips for my own work from my peers and shared as I could, but you made it happen. Plus, you helped raise just about $1,000 in cash for the Greater Boston Food Bank. The most amazing thing of all was your energy. Everywhere I went, there were intense, energized discussions, conversations, sing-alongs, and collaborations. Everyone made use of the venue and opportunity exactly as I’d hoped, to engage each other, to share their passion for new media and for making a difference in the world and our communities. As a presenter, I was happy to see more empty seats than normal, because it meant that people were out working together, collaborating, and making the conference their own.

… of my team. The PodCamp Boston 3 organizers – Chris Brogan, Chel Pixie, Sooz, Steve Sherlock, Doug Haslam, Whitney Hoffman, plus a TON of great volunteers all made PodCamp Boston 3 happen. I want to send three special shoutouts to Chel, Sooz, and Steve, who sat registration and skipped a LOT of the conference experience so that all of us could enjoy PodCamp Boston 3. They deserve tons of acknowledgement and recognition for their sacrifices and their dedication to PodCamp Boston, year after year.

… of our sponsors. Instead of raw shilling or crass commercialism, I was so pleased to see premium sponsors Blue Sky Factory and mDialog, plus sponsors Mzinga and Utterz, and sponsors Marketwire, MarketingProfs, Matchmine, ooVoo, Blip.tv, and Blubrry integrate themselves into the event. I saw frequently that sponsor tables were simply unmanned or abandoned, which meant that instead of trying to sell something, the sponsors were participating as part of the community, which was wonderful. I’ve been to a TON of conferences in the last year and a half, all around the world, and I have to say that the companies that step up and support the PodCamp community get it – they understand that community and business opportunity are not mutually exclusive.

… of our venue. Harvard’s team, largely behind the scenes, did an amazing job making sure everything was right, on time, and as promised, except for a technical problem beyond their immediate control. While I can never tell what the future holds, I’d have no trouble recommending or using Harvard Medical School as a conference venue again. The venue was well sized, well laid out with plenty of casual seating, included parking for attendees, and was overall a real treat.

… of my employer and wife. A special shout out to the Student Loan Network, because honestly, how many other companies out there let ANY of their employees create a conference while on lunch break? (incidentally, to my coworkers, that’s why I’ve been so anti-social at lunch the last week or two – sorry!) A double special shout out to my wife, whose husband has been working the equivalent of a second job for 3 months now. Honey, I’m home!

I hope you take to heart the message that Chris Brogan and I promoted this entire weekend. The time for talk only is over. New media, social media, whatever you want to call it, is an incredible power, the likes of which we as humans have never had before. We can affect events at great distances, see beyond walls, know the thoughts of others, influence millions without getting out of our chairs. I hope you take a step back, realize the power you have, and make something of it. I hope you DO something, whether it’s volunteer with a local charity, raise money for a food bank, help homeless kids, whatever your passion is, I hope your PodCamp Boston 3 experience has given you the means to begin improving your part of the world.

As Peter Parker’s uncle famously said, with great power comes great responsibility, and I hope you take advantage of the power you have while you can, while opportunities abound.

Thank you again, so much, for your energy and for making PodCamp Boston 3 such a memorable experience for me as both a participant and an organizer. I can’t wait to see what you do with what you got at PodCamp, and I hope to see you next in Philadelphia for PodCamp Philly.

Image courtesy CC Chapman

p.s. If you have any feedback on my little part of the conference, I’d love to hear about it on LinkedIn if possible.

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Double shot of coffee today

Posted by Christopher S. Penn on May 29, 2008 in PodCamp | View Comments

Check out the best marketing podcast ever made in a doughnut shop, Marketing Over Coffee. Today’s a double shot as we try out the Flip Cam.

Watch this Justin.tv video from PodCamp NYC

Posted by Christopher S. Penn on Apr 29, 2008 in PodCamp | View Comments

The background: individual sponsor tables were set up by PodCamp NYC organizers so that sponsors could share what they had to offer with the community.

This particular lifecasting crew decided that they’d set up shop on a sponsor’s table (having not sponsored themselves) and when asked to leave so that the sponsor could set up, reacted… well, watch the video.

The result, of course, is what you saw above.

Whitney did a superb job managing PodCamp NYC and meeting the expectations of the sponsors – without whom there would have been no PodCamp NYC, period. For this particular group of folks from Justin.tv to behave as they did was inappropriate at best.

Food for thought:

We were pleased and happy to have Michael Geoghagan and Tim Bourquin from Podcast Academy and New Media Expo, respectively, at PodCamp NYC. In the world of new media, reputation is everything, and in this case, a lifecasting crew from Justin.tv has demonstrated why “pro” events like NME might not want folks like this at their events.

Food for thought:

It’s very easy to behave irresponsibly when you have absolutely no investment in an event or in the community which you ostensibly belong to. After watching this video, I’m tempted to INCREASE the price of ticketing for events like PodCamp Boston to ensure that participants, if they lack an understanding of the social contract of a free event (for participants, not sponsors) like PodCamp NYC, at least understand the financial contract of paying to attend, and the financial consequences of being asked to leave.

New media community: prove me wrong. Prove that this crowd is the exception rather than the norm, that the community is wholly capable of self-policing and self-sanctioning itself, so that organizers can focus on bringing great experiences to you and not having to play parenting to the minority that chooses to willfully act badly. Prove that the new media community is capable of actively managing itself so that ticket prices for events like PodCamp don’t have to be financially onerous just so it’s clear what the value being provided is.

Please leave your comments here and on your own blogs and podcasts.

The Dual Mandate of PodCamp

Posted by Christopher S. Penn on Apr 28, 2008 in PodCamp | View Comments

The Dual Mandate of PodCamp

PodCamp NYC was yet another fantastic success in the ever growing lineups of PodCamps around the world, and I’m very pleased to have been a part of it. I wanted to take a moment as co-founder and Executive Director of the PodCamp Foundation to very clearly lay out what the vision and mission of PodCamp is:

1. PodCamp has a mission to welcome new people into the new media space. There are a TON of great conferences for new media people in the new media space, such as Podcasters Across Borders, New Media Expo, Podcast Academy, and many more. These conferences are powerful, informative, and very much support the new media community. While PodCamp fulfills a great community role, it is more important to bring in new people, to welcome folks curious about new media into the community with open arms.

I like to think of PodCamp as a real-life welcome wagon for anyone who wants to get started in new media.

PodCamp accomplishes this by putting veterans and new people in the same room and letting the magic happen.

2. PodCamp has a mission to connect new media professionals with resources. Very often, I have found at PodCamps over the last year that there are LOTS of individuals and organizations who have access to tremendous resources and want to participate in new media, but would prefer to work with someone already established in the new media space, rather than reinvent the wheel. The second mission is to help folks who have resources but lack knowledge connect with new media pros who have knowledge but might lack resources.

PodCamp in this fulfills almost a role of matchmaker, and accomplishes this by putting smart and resourceful people in the same room and letting the magic happen.

Are there other aspects of PodCamp that are important? Absolutely. A community focal point, a way to focus on local community building, a social outlet, a chance to reconnect with friends – all are important, all are vital to the overall fabric of the new media community, but these two mandates to me are what distinguish PodCamp, what keeps PodCamp going and growing, what makes PodCamp worth YOUR time and energy as a participant, volunteer, or organizer.

What’s your take on the mission of PodCamp?

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PodCamp DC Review

Posted by Christopher S. Penn on Apr 22, 2008 in PodCamp | View Comments

PodCamp DC was a fantastic event held on April 19, 2008 at the Art Institute of Washington. A huge hat tip to AIW for offering the venue and helping out with logistics. Hats off as well to organizers Tammy Munson, Joel Witt, and Ernie Ambrose.

Not much to say right now, save that it was an excellent time and filled with an incredibly diverse crowd of participants, from hobbyists to educators, to lobbyists and politicians, with everyone there eager to learn new media and how we can continue helping change the world for the better.

If we met or you were in one of my sessions, please leave me some feedback – I’d love to know how I did, and more importantly, how I can improve.

Leave feedback on LinkedIn by clicking here!

Need to add me on LinkedIn? I’m cspenn at gmail dot com.

I look forward to seeing and meeting more great people at PodCamp NYC this coming weekend.

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Laura Fitton is right. PodCamp was never free.

Posted by Christopher S. Penn on Apr 16, 2008 in PodCamp | View Comments

One of the best comments in the free/not-free discussion I’ve ever read was by Laura Fitton (@pistachio on Twitter) on CC Chapman’s blog last October. Reprinted from the source:

The event isn’t, and from what little I understand, never was FREE. In a way, no event ever is. It is subsidized by sponsors and by volunteer hours. You attend for free, because somebody else paid your way. Simple as that.

I think opening up the option for it to be a nominal fee, or a pay what you want, or some other locally-derived setup, and oriented largely towards keeping attendance expectations (and resulting volunteer hours) in line with reality, is 100% reasonable.

While anticipating an event that huge, the volunteer corps of organizers really had to bust their guts. Hard. Long hours, much stress. Value their time at a nominal rate of $10 or even $5 an hour, and you see that a very small group paid hundreds and thousands for the rest of us to have the event for free.

Laura nailed it in one.

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