Podcamp DC: Good But Not Great

An Adobe Firefly-created image of the U.S. Capitol and podcast headset in front of the Washingotn D.C. city flag.

For the first time in my life, I just attended Podcamp DC in Rosslyn, Virginia. Before this, I had attended Widget DevCamp and that didn’t seem like anything appealing to me and had an essence of being more for developers. However, today’s meetup, to me, was something more for developers, designers, marketers, journalists, etc. and had something for everyone.

All in all, I don’t think it was a bad conference. It was pretty good. I got to meet some folks and was able to reconnect but didn’t do as much networking as I’d wanted to, but the sessions were most informative. What would have made this “unconference” great is if these sessions were held multiple times throughout the day to prevent attendees from having to make tough decisions. I know that there were sessions where I’d like to attend podcasting and social media talks, but felt that if I adhered to the “two feet” rule, it wouldn’t be productive as I’d miss out on some pretty cool stuff.

I did learn a little bit of stuff during these sessions though. It was enjoyable to have these discussions without any real structure and make it open to the masses to talk about these issues in a forum style. But what exactly did I learn? Just some simple stuff…

  1. eBay is good: The best place to find cheap (priced) equipment for podcasting.
  2. Twitter is going to be a topic talked about at other social media “unconferences” for a little bit longer.
  3. LinkedIn is more of a popular tool than I thought.
  4. There are still some online marketing folks who don’t know too much about social media – great to see them at these events.

What’s good for me to see at Podcamp DC is the amount of people who happen to be there who have a strong knowledge of social media trends and applications and enjoy sharing the knowledge with those individuals who are lacking it. The networking opportunities that Podcamp DC allowed were a welcome site and I even enjoyed the presentations by, what I’ve designated the keynote speaker, Christopher Penn, the organizer of Podcamp. His insight into how new media marketing can be used by companies and individuals to promote their brands was an invigorating talk and his promotion of LinkedIn was quite valuable…not to mention he was quite exuberant, which kept my attention.

All in all, I think it was a pretty good event. I filmed a couple of the sessions I was in and will be posting them shortly on this blog and other sites. Now I gotta prepare for my next event – Tech Cocktail 2 over at MCCXXIII on Thursday. w00t!

14 responses to “Podcamp DC: Good But Not Great”

  1. John F Croston III Avatar
    John F Croston III

    The reason I that networking was difficult was that talks were spread out over three floors and a lot of the rooms only held seats for like 30 people. So a lot of people myself included just left one presentation and went to the next to make sure I did not have to stand or sit on the floor for the entire presentation.

    Even when I got my lunch I went down to the room that Justin Thorp was going to talk about “Making Video Sharable” just to make sure I had a seat. I was not the only one that did that. About a dozen or so of us had a great quiet conversation on a lot of subjects.

    jfc iii

    1. kyeung808 Avatar
      kyeung808

      John, you're absolutely right. I found that being spread out in different rooms on different floors proved a little complex in having people meet up to mash technology ideas. I had wanted to attend the session on social media in business marketing, but I decided to attend Shashib's in order to stake a spot for Jim's presentation. I liked Shashib's presentation, but I think a little bit more organization for the “unconference” may have been nice to have.

      How was Justin's talk on “Making Video Shareable”?

      1. John F Croston III Avatar
        John F Croston III

        Justin's big point I guess was that you need to get your content to the people, instead of them having to come to you. That is where the sharable part came in. If you make your content in a way that people can take or look at your information it is great. You could use RSS, Widgets, YouTube, Viddler, etc. and let people find it.

        The guy that did the talk on “Podcasting 101” said that he got more followers when he changed the way he listed his podcast. Instead of listing at as “Nante Koto” (means “Oh My God” roughly in Japanese), he listed as “Nante Koto – Misadventures in Dating” more people foud it by just adding the dating part in the title.

        1. kyeung808 Avatar
          kyeung808

          Too bad I missed it. There were some good sessions but unfortunately I didn't want to miss the one I was in and reluctantly had to resign myself to not going to any of the other ones. I'd like to hear Justin's presentation though, but I agree with your point – which Justin stated that the people won't find your content. It needs to find the people.

          So with podcasts, SEO plays a prominent part in having them be found online?

          1. John F Croston III Avatar
            John F Croston III

            If you think trying to decide at PodCampDC was tough, just wait until you go to SXSW and they have 12 – 15 panels at the same time and you want to go to at least three and there are two more that sound interesting.

          2. kyeung808 Avatar
            kyeung808

            Yes, I agree with you. I have not been to SXSW and would like to go. I think I would really hate myself for missing out on those panels and “trust” that someone would stream these sessions for everyone to see.

    2. kyeung808 Avatar
      kyeung808

      Another thing that would have been good to have at Podcamp DC was that they had wi-fi available for everyone. It really sucked for people trying to share videos. I wanted to try and live stream the Jim Long/Andy Carvin talk on UStream but the Internet was spotty at best. I thought they said they would have available wi-fi for us?

  2. John F Croston III Avatar
    John F Croston III

    The reason I that networking was difficult was that talks were spread out over three floors and a lot of the rooms only held seats for like 30 people. So a lot of people myself included just left one presentation and went to the next to make sure I did not have to stand or sit on the floor for the entire presentation.

    Even when I got my lunch I went down to the room that Justin Thorp was going to talk about “Making Video Sharable” just to make sure I had a seat. I was not the only one that did that. About a dozen or so of us had a great quiet conversation on a lot of subjects.

    jfc iii

  3. Ken Yeung Avatar
    Ken Yeung

    John, you're absolutely right. I found that being spread out in different rooms on different floors proved a little complex in having people meet up to mash technology ideas. I had wanted to attend the session on social media in business marketing, but I decided to attend Shashib's in order to stake a spot for Jim's presentation. I liked Shashib's presentation, but I think a little bit more organization for the “unconference” may have been nice to have.

    How was Justin's talk on “Making Video Shareable”?

  4. John F Croston III Avatar
    John F Croston III

    Justin's big point I guess was that you need to get your content to the people, instead of them having to come to you. That is where the sharable part came in. If you make your content in a way that people can take or look at your information it is great. You could use RSS, Widgets, YouTube, Viddler, etc. and let people find it.

    The guy that did the talk on “Podcasting 101” said that he got more followers when he changed the way he listed his podcast. Instead of listing at as “Nante Koto” (means “Oh My God” roughly in Japanese), he listed as “Nante Koto – Misadventures in Dating” more people foud it by just adding the dating part in the title.

  5. Ken Yeung Avatar
    Ken Yeung

    Too bad I missed it. There were some good sessions but unfortunately I didn't want to miss the one I was in and reluctantly had to resign myself to not going to any of the other ones. I'd like to hear Justin's presentation though, but I agree with your point – which Justin stated that the people won't find your content. It needs to find the people.

    So with podcasts, SEO plays a prominent part in having them be found online?

  6. John F Croston III Avatar
    John F Croston III

    If you think trying to decide at PodCampDC was tough, just wait until you go to SXSW and they have 12 – 15 panels at the same time and you want to go to at least three and there are two more that sound interesting.

  7. Ken Yeung Avatar
    Ken Yeung

    Another thing that would have been good to have at Podcamp DC was that they had wi-fi available for everyone. It really sucked for people trying to share videos. I wanted to try and live stream the Jim Long/Andy Carvin talk on UStream but the Internet was spotty at best. I thought they said they would have available wi-fi for us?

  8. Ken Yeung Avatar
    Ken Yeung

    Yes, I agree with you. I have not been to SXSW and would like to go. I think I would really hate myself for missing out on those panels and “trust” that someone would stream these sessions for everyone to see.

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