Podcamp Pittsburgh 3 was amazing and completely unlike Podcamp Boston 2 or 3. I was slightly concerned about attending as I felt that I likely didn’t know anyone there and would have to constantly break the ice but in reality I already had many connections in Pittsburgh.
The differences were vast, but mostly positive from my experiences in Boston. Somewhat intentionally and somewhat purely due to a different population in the city, the age range was much wider than in Boston. We had several senior individuals attending, who wanted to learn more and find ways to take advantage of this fast moving industry. It’s an older population here in general, but the average age was definitely closer to 40, than the likely 25 that Boston centers around. We also had a much larger openly gay demographic than we had in Boston, which was very cool and unexpected on my part. Pittsburgh also must have some great piercers because everyone had some pretty awesome piercings, kinda random… but I thought it was cool. I’m normally the only guy running around with an industrial in his ear around here, but that wasn’t anything compared to many people there.
Pittsburgh is a significantly smaller scene than Boston and has fewer ‘rockstars’. It is also significantly less commercial and professional at this point which was refreshing. Many people are doing blogs and podcasts for their own personal enjoyment and almost always on topics outside of social media/pr/etc. The attendance was about 1/3rd of Boston’s and overall much less experienced. However that doesn’t mean that they weren’t passionate or wanting to learn. The facility was nice, but the halls were a little cramped at times. The layout actually made a lot more sense than the 4 floors of madness at Boston 3, or the 3 buildings that ROFLCon spanned. I don’t think there were as many hallway discussions as I’d have liked, but the sessions and individual conversations were great.
I don’t believe that a single PR firm was there. No Shift or Topaz here. No digital firms like Crayon or NYC’s Undercurrent. Few consultants. No venture capitalists. Almost no VC backed startups. There was a cool incubator called AlphaLab (reminded me a bit in name of betahouse although quite different) Few programmers and hackers. Yet there were tons of budding bloggers and quite a few veteran Podcasters. Pittsburgh has some great podcasts! Everyone was super nice and I genuinely liked everyone that I spoke with.
I ended up speaking in four sessions, two of which were unplanned until shortly prior. My first session was a presentation that I had done at Podcamp Boston 3 on improving audio for podcasts. The second was Photography for the Blogger. Those were the ones that I had planned and scheduled ahead of time and I think they went ok. I didn’t have the attendance that I had in Boston, but thats OK and I felt some great interaction with the audience. By request I did a literally impromptu session on Virtual Worlds and Social Media since someone didn’t show up, then a session on the truth about advertising, making money and building your brand with a Blog. I don’t think either of them was great (on my part), but we had a lot of information sharing and some great ideas and conversation with me acting almost more as a moderator than a speaker.
I need to work on my speaking skills. I think I’m ok, but I could be a LOT better. Less time, a single presentation. Well practiced, better slides, and more preparation overall. I’m learning.
We went out for some drinks and had a great time. It wasn’t an insane party, but everyone had a great time. Pittsburgh has a thriving nightlife and it is very reasonably priced. I should also point out that in Pittsburgh you can get a decent house/apartment for cheaper than you could get a parking spot in Back Bay or Manhattan which is a real plus.
There is some minor advice that I’d give to Pittsburgh and attendees in general however. First of all. Tweet more!!! For the number of people in attendance the Twitter stream was a little bit quiet. I love that in Boston I can practically relive sessions via liveblogging and blow by blow tweeting from people like @mathurrell @skalik and @repcor. Not so there. Also, more media! I think I only saw two other people with SLR cameras there, and few with cameras overall. No N95/qik streaming of every minute. I actually couldn’t even find anyone with an N95. iJustine I was counting on you, but you were in Chicago! I was also crushed by reality to find that not everyone in the world of social media uses a Mac! Oh well. Also if everyone embraced the hallway a bit more and encouraged flash-sessions more that would be great. Really these are excessively minor complaints and I don’t think detracted from the experience overall. One thing I do feel however is excessively needed and critical is that attendees really do need to carry cards. Not enough people had cards to exchange which was really a shame.
But the real asset of Pittsburgh is its enthusiasm, energy and drive. I feel that the city is a little bit behind Boston in terms of social media and technology, but that really isn’t what’s important. They will catch up soon and the community is growing in amazing ways. The non-commercial nature of most of the people was refreshing and I think leads most people to being a bit more honest and open.
Boston’s Podcamps create a very huge and epic feeling. We constantly have the likes of Steve Garfield, Pistachio, Chris Brogan (he was at PCPGH3 and I got to spend a lot of great time with him), Chris Penn, occasionally Jeff Pulver, huge PR firms, Venture Capital out the wazoo, hordes of BU students and all of the Cambridge startup-geeks (like me) and simply amazing and awesome buildings like the Boston Convention Center and the Harvard Medical Campus. Yet, sometimes that’s a bit much and we don’t focus on the practical and pragmatic. These guys in PA don’t have to talk about authenticity and transparency because they are by their own nature. I think Pittsburgh has a lot going for it and is a pretty awesome place to be in social media.
I got a a handful of good photos (creative commons). I took some video that I’ll edit together and throw up a few places and link here. Slideshare is converting my presentations now, so I don’t have a link yet.
So I’m on the bus going to work. I am thinking, “I’d really like to show my bosses what I’ve learned this weekend at Podcamp and perhaps get the signoff to go to more of them nation-wide”. Seems like it should be a fairly simple debriefing right?
I’m honestly not sure the best way to describe it, and also pass on the information learned, the contacts made, and the experiences had to other people. It seems to be insufficient to simply describe what I saw there. Many of the things learned were subtile and a process of growth rather than revelation.
Even the “takeaways” that people had from Podcamp really aren’t a good description to summize what went on this weekend, and are generally only relevant to people who were there from what I’ve seen.
So help me out here, what can you describe that you learned at Podcamp or gained that you could outline to someone higher up in a company as directly benefitting the organization? Maybe I’m making too big of a deal of it and the 100+ new twitter followers, huge stack of business cards, few tips here and there, and friends made are what I should value the most and explain that to them. In fact, that’s what I’m going to try. Wish me luck.
I’m also giving a presentation on how we can use Twitter at work to get more done. Slides posted to Slideshare soon.
I didn’t take that many photos at Podcamp Boston 3, but I took a handful that I thought were decent and fun so here they are on my flickr feed. Enjoy! Comment, favorite, share! BY-NC-SA
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):
At one of the parties surrounding VON/Podcamp, I met Jeff O’Hara. He was carrying around a Nikon D40, and I’m always interested to talk to other Nikon guys to see what glass they have in their bag (and by that I mean lenses). I was tired of shooting, and he didn’t have anything good on him (I think just a kit lens) so I let him borrow my 18-200 VR Nikkor lens.
So he goes off to shoot better photos with it than I could. Me knowing the lens, and also having a camera that costs nearly 4x as much didn’t help me when it came down to skills and having an eye for it.
Podcamp Pittsburgh 3 was amazing and completely unlike Podcamp Boston 2 or 3. I was slightly concerned about attending as I felt that I likely didn’t know anyone there and would have to constantly break the ice but in reality I already had many connections in Pittsburgh.
I was also crushed by reality to find that not everyone in the world of social media uses a Mac! Oh well. Also if everyone embraced the hallway a bit more and encouraged flash-sessions more that would be great. Really these are excessively minor complaints and I don’t think detracted from the experience overall. One thing I do feel however is excessively needed and critical is that attendees really do need to carry cards. Not enough people had cards to exchange which was really a shame.
Boston’s Podcamps create a very huge and epic feeling. We constantly have the likes of Steve Garfield, Pistachio, Chris Brogan (he was at PCPGH3 and I got to spend a lot of great time with him), Chris Penn, occasionally Jeff Pulver, huge PR firms, Venture Capital out the wazoo, hordes of BU students and all of the Cambridge startup-geeks (like me) and simply amazing and awesome buildings like the Boston Convention Center and the Harvard Medical Campus. Yet, sometimes that’s a bit much and we don’t focus on the practical and pragmatic. These guys in PA don’t have to talk about authenticity and transparency because they are by their own nature. I think Pittsburgh has a lot going for it and is a pretty awesome place to be in social media.
