PodCamp Boston 3 (#pcb3), thoughts vs Podcamp Boston 2
I just got back from a killer weekend at PodCamp Boston 3 (#pcb3 on twitter). It’s been almost a year since last year’s PodCamp Boston event and what a year it has been.
First I would like to say a few things. Umm, sorry for not blogging for so long. With my father’s death things have been a bit crazy, plus I’ve largely migrated to a new laptop and to be honest didn’t have my Wordpress password saved on the new one. Things are getting better from here and life is finally resembling something that seems almost normal again.
Also, please don’t take any of these comments about Podcamp Boston 3 as a negative reflection upon the efforts of the organizers or other speakers. They all did a great job, and it was a well put together event and I am thankful and very appreciative of their hard work.
PodCamp Boston 2 was a simply magical weekend for me and marked a massive and strong change in my life. I met so many amazing people for the first time there: Julia Roy, Amanda Gravel, Amanda Mooney, Sandy Kalik, Jeff Pulver, Dan Patterson, Chris Brogan, Sooz, David Tames and countless others. I also started actually using Twitter properly as prior to that I had simply used it as a software piece to update my blog from SMS and I was frankly confused as to its usefulness. After Podcamp my blogging took off, and many friendships grew. I went from having little understanding of social media, to nearly being able to act as a consultant in some fields of it. I also started flourishing more as a photographer and getting used to doing events like this. And at the time I was working with Nate Aune and Jazkarta.
This year I met some great people, but things were a bit different. To many I wasn’t a new face, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but certainly a shift that is to be noticed and felt. Also instead of being an audience member only, largely confused and taking notes at a rapid speed, I was now a presenter. This certainly added a new degree of excitement that I didn’t have prior. I certainly felt that I was a larger part of the conversation this time, as opposed to nearly a fly on the wall. Even though I knew many people however, I met well over 100 great new people that I didn’t know before and I am so happy to be connected with now. When I figure out heads from tails and go through my overflowing email box I’ll give some link-love out to many, but its fair I say that I have made many new friends here that will hopefully prove to be just as strong as those from Podcamp Boston 2. 
The vibe overall this year however was strikingly different, and I don’t believe that I was the only one to notice it. First of all it was a completely different venue, for better or for worse. The rooms themselves were certainly better layed out mostly, and better setup. Many jokingly referred to PCB2’s venue as “The Hangar” as it certainly felt as if several aircraft could land there and still have a room for everyone. Yet, in the long hallway at PCB2 there was a certain logic to where the rooms were as they were largely sequential, but all of the rooms were simply too big for our audience. Otherwise this venue rocked much, with better AV systems and a much better location overall.
Furthermore there was a certain festive vibe to PCB2 that was largely missing from PCB3. At PCB2 there were musicans performing in the hallway with PA systems, flashmobs lead by Bre Pettis and friends creating the LOLSaurs and hitting the front of Digg, more companies giving technology demonstrations in the hallways (the tables this year were upstairs on the 3rd floor, somewhat hidden away and largely un-staffed), a live production and broadcast of Jeff Pulver’s internet show along with Guitar Hero playing robots, a killer open-bar after party put on by Jeff Pulver at one of the Seaport Hotels with live music, and a certain amount of green earnestness that could be felt by the handful of recent and soon-to-be college graduates in their senior year that were attending who would soon launch off to take over Boston and NYC in Social Media. The energy was there and it felt good.
Additionally, right after PCB2 was Video On the Net (VON) that imparted a certain amount of energy, in addition to a completely huge and insane party at the Roxy put on by of course; Jeff Pulver.
It is not that we didn’t have energy this year, or fun things happening. We have a Twittervention where we grabbed some poor kid that wasn’t on twitter and forced him to sign up for a twitter account as a semi-religous experience (all being recorded by likely 10 flip cams and god knows how many streams on Qik). It was random, but fun, silly, and created an instant crowd.
There were also some great and fun jam sessions with Chris Brogan, David Cutler, myself and others that were great. I played guitar so hard at one point that my right hand started bleeding during an energy filled rendition of “Mr. Jones”. Also played were, “Pork and Beans” and “We’re not Gonna Take It” on which I played drums poorly on my laptop in Logic Pro by mashing on the keyboard. Overall it was fun and I want to try and find the YouTube/Qik streams of it. So far I haven’t found any, but I saw cameras rolling!
Perhaps I missed a thing or two, as you can never capture 100% of what is happening at Podcamp, but also there was an absence of epic parties, and just the raw excitement. I would describe the vibe best as more mature and more professional, which isn’t bad thing but certainly a shift. Also, while Utterz are cool, I still have a special place in my heart for Mimobots and keep a Vimobot on my desk at work.
So more importantly, what do I make of all of this? What does it mean? Is it a bad sign that nothing happened that was so absurd that it hit the front page of Digg? The good news is that its all ok and I’ll explain.
PodCamp has grown, and in just 10 months so have the people. The internet has grown. We’ve seen the emergence and death of some technology and some trends already in this short time. The cutting edge has moved and a few of us are still looking for it so we can try to stay ahead of the slice (if you know where this cutting edge is, please let me know as for whatever reason no matter where I am I still feel woefully behind, but that is another blog post overall). Many people have graduated, moved (a massive exodus to NYC it seems), changed jobs and grown. I would describe PodCamp Boston 2 as a “startup” feel with new ideas hitting the wall to see what sticks. PodCamp Boston 3 was more a refining of business that is already in place and a growth stage.
The good news is that this is simply news from the cutting edge. There is still so much growth to be had. This is by no means the “death of social media” and I feel it is quite the opposite. It is a sure sign that it is coming into its own and maturing into something greater. Last year far fewer people were monetizing things as well, and honestly many of us had no clue how or even if it could be done. Now we know and we’re running with it.
And please keep in mind that this is only my personal view. Surrounding this Podcamp and last PCB I had many personal things in life happening (this time around the death of my father) that are filtering my vision and outlook on things. I am also still recovering from the amazing energy of ROFLCon that months later still rocks me in ways that I can barely articulate. Perhaps you think differently, and in fact I think you likely do. What do you think about this Podcamp vs ones in 2007? Comment, Twitter, Email.
Thank you again to the organizers, sponsors and supporters for putting this on.
Below are fun links of media associated that I’ve came across (to be updated):
- GregPC has an awesome Flickr stream of the “Faces of Podcamp“
- My presentation on Qik from Len Edgarly
- My photos from PCB3.
I think you’re right on with the vibe, and the vibe was different by design. Previous PodCamp Boston events had epic parties, and some even took to calling it “Geek Spring Break”. While I love a good party, I love sharing, learning, and growing even more, and it’s tougher to do that when you wake up still drunk. I love that sponsors abandoned their tables, because it meant they were out engaging, participating, collaborating - everything except shilling and hawking their wares.
I think PodCamp’s energy was different this time - instead of party & fun at the top of the list, it was share and learn. Fun was still had, more than a few people tweeted they were headed to bed awfully late, but PodCamp itself was definitely more focused on the learn/share.
Thanks for being a part of it!
And I definitely agree - Jeff Pulver was sorely missed.
I loved playing music with you. I’m not very good (as you saw first hand), but I have a lot of fun doing it. I just love trying. That part was a win.
There were some new folks, but not a massive influx. Wish there were more, but I was happy with who came.
Ditto Mr. Penn. I missed Jeff.
And finally, I agree that this time it was really heavily focused on the learning, which is why it didn’t feel as festive. Maybe a blend next time. : )
The empty sponsor tables was a bad sign to me, because it meant that they clearly weren’t in a place where the crowd was engaging them. Just because they are at their tables doesn’t mean that they are hawking their wares. It means that you know where to go to speak to someone who cares enough about the community at Podcamp to lay down money and support it, but without someone at the tables I can’t be sure that I’ll speak to them about what it is that they are doing that I should be excited about. You can be engaging, participating and collaborating behind a table too.
I also felt the absence of music this time around. While spontaneity is great, I would have enjoyed knowing that there was going to be music at certain times or between sessions.
[...] #1: There’s some conversation going on at David Fisher’s blog What is Noise as well as at Dan’s previously mentioned blog. permalink :: July 20, 2008 at 6:24 pm, filed [...]
Good post.
This was my first PodCamp, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I loved the vibe. That’s me on the left, with the FlipVideo, in the photo of the “Mr. Jones” performance. I loved singing along with you guys (I was in a band, back in the day, that didn’t last long, and I jones for singing and guitar-playing all the time) and it would have been great to have even more fun moments like that, but I was very satisfied with things as they were too. I learned a lot.
Can’t wait until next year.
Tibbon–I hear you. The vibe was different. Perhaps more educationally focused, as Chris Penn suggests; but I think we also had a sense for who our friends are this year, where we had less of a pre-built community last year.
As it is becoming more of a destination for learning and sharing, I think Podcamp may be quietly transitioning from unconference to conference (whether Chris and Chris intend for it to or not). We’re feeling the ripples of transition this year.
We’ll have to wait till next year to see what happens with Podcamp, but we have plenty of new friends from this year and last to hang out with in the meanwhile.
I definitely agree that podcamp Boston 3 was a very different feel than last year. Last year was my first year, and I saw it as an opportunity to learn from people I wasn’t familiar with at all….it was a great way to connect with new people and find out what they are excited about, and I’ve run into those people many times over the past year. This year it felt like an opportunity to reconnect with everyone at once and see what they were working on.
The other main difference for me was that we were able to sponsor this year. The best part of that was being able to give away a couple of flip cams! As far as Rob’s comment- I agree, I thought it was strange too. There were times where I was the only person at a table up there, but I can understand it. Even the sponsors want to go to the sessions and learn…and then run back to the tables for the breaks. I was lucky enough to have someone with me, so I was able to be away from the sponsor table most of the time.
This was my first PCB so the comments here and at the conference made me think I missed a good party. More importantly, they indicate that PCB2 set some really good stuff in motion and this year, while different, did not disappoint.
I thought the venue was good - plenty of spaces for informal conversation in addition to well-equipped meeting rooms. And what’s not to like about free, underground parking in the City of Boston? If we used the same place next year I would relocate the sponsor booths to some space on the ground or first floor. That would increase the foot traffic and still give the booth people a chance to duck into the sessions.
[...] I should be writing a review of Podcamp Boston 3 I think that other people have covered it well enough that I really don’t need to re-hash their comments. If you missed it, you [...]
[...] it was time to head down for the unkeynote, I settled in to the auditorium and stayed for David Fisher’s presentation on Advanced Audio Techniques, then CC’s Personal Branding session. Of course, it [...]