PodCamp Ohio Recap
cross-posted from bub.blicio.us
If a Podcamp pops up in your area, I recommend you attend it. Among other reasons, Podcamps are free and you can’t argue with free networking and knowledge.
Podcamp Ohio
was a total success! I’m not sure of the numbers yet, but I believe
they may have surpassed 200 attendees. Not bad for an unconference that
ran a basically viral marketing campaign, depending on Twitter and word
of mouth.
The sessions were great. I enjoyed the first session I attended – Podcasting in Plain English by David Jackson.
It covered all the basics you need for podcasting. Sometimes I think
these podcasting experts forget that if you’re just experimenting with
the idea, you shouldn’t go out and buy expensive equipment. Jackson
made sure to mention that. Make sure it’s something you like and enjoy
before investing.
I also attended What Not to Do: Social Media Anti-Tips by Paull Young and Luke Armour.
It was probably my favorite session of the day, although I didn’t
attend too many. In this session they covered all sorts of social media
mistakes, particularly pertaining to marketing. They interspersed their
presentation with Great Moments in Twitter, which showcased some more
embarrassing tweets. Remember folks, Twitter is forever.
My session on Twitter went quite well – or so I’ve heard. I’m trying
to get a full presentation together for some upcoming conferences and
this was sort of a practice run for me. I got enough feedback that I’ve
already started "upgrading" my presentation, although many have told me
it’s fine as is. I had a complicated mix in the room of Twitter
skeptics and Twitter diehards. It’s hard to gear a presentation to
both, but hopefully I carried it off.
For me, the best part of Podcamp was the time I spent networking.
Perhaps I’m a bad camper, but I missed about two sessions because I was
getting to know people in the cafe and hallway. I particularly enjoyed
conversations with Shawn Morton of Profilactic and Doug Petch.
In fact, Podcamp drove home a point for me about social networking. In
my various speaking engagements, I always try to push the fact that
while we’re all making friends online, our real goal is face to face
networking. For a lot of people, myself included, it’s easier to
network semi-anonymously online and then meet someone in person.
Meeting so many of my Twitter friends "in real life" at Podcamp was
fantastic. Meeting Doug Dockery, Julie Niesen, and others, well, it was like meeting old friends.
There were several folks video/audio recording each of the sessions.
(I’m camera shy, so I found this unnerving). The sessions should be
online sometime soon.
And to the organizers, congratulations on a successful event!
Cheers!
–
Find Michelle Lentz here on Write Technology, on Twitter, or on Pownce.
Debba
June 30th, 2008 at 4:31 pm #
Michelle – I heard your session was great and wish I could have attended! I’m looking forward to seeing/hearing the sessions I missed online. PodCampOhio was a great success and, I agree, networking and meeting other like-minded people made the event GREAT!
Thanks! Debba http://www.girlfriendology.com
Paull Young
June 30th, 2008 at 8:12 pm #
Glad you enjoyed my session with Luke.
I didn’t get in to the conference until lunch time (unfortunately I got in real late the night before and lost presentation prep time) so I missed your presentation – I heard good things though!
Luke Armour
July 8th, 2008 at 9:16 am #
Also glad you enjoyed our session, Michelle, and let me echo Paull’s regret in not being able to attend more sessions. The day just flew by and I was sorry not to have touched base with you. Next year for sure!