Almost since the moment PAB began on Friday, we (Bob, Cat, Andrea and I) have been approached in person and through email by people who would like to help out with PAB09. Here are my unfiltered thoughts:
1) Start thinking of the topics you’d like to hear or speak about. The speaking sessions this year inspired creativity and community. The presenters didn’t show us what to do or how to do it — they explained what could be done, why it’s worth exploring different approaches and to innovate on your own, and ways in which to move beyond the production and hosting constructs of traditional radio. I feel that there is so much more to explore and we’ll be looking to you to help us find those topics and speakers. You may be one of them!
2) Register early to reduce pressure on the organizers. PAB is a not-for-profit event. The conference is paid for by registration fees and a small number of sponsors and we don’t spend money we haven’t collected. It can be difficult to coordinate with the hospitality and catering departments of the hotel, the A/V requirements, swag, social events and related catering, etc… when we don’t know our registration numbers and revenue collected. It would be amazingly helpful if you sign-up and pay as soon as possible when we open registration.
3) Spread the word about PAB by showcasing its value. We spend a lot of energy organizing the event to make sure that we have the best possible speakers, topics, environment, etc… Partly because we’re busy and partly because we like to keep the event small, we haven’t spent a lot of energy on promotion. We count on word of mouth. While word of mouth by simply telling others why PAB is worth attending is extremely valuable, the greatest value is in acting on the things you’ve learned. What I mean is, more than talking about it, showcase the value of PAB in your social media and content production activities.
4) Send us your authentic feedback. We can only improve PAB if we know what you think needs to be removed, fixed or dropped added and what shouldn’t be touched at any cost. We’re not going to blast the community with a survey because surveys are generally structured around the vision of the survey’s creator not the needs of the participant. Please send us your thoughts in an email (podcastersacrossborders@gmail.com). While we may not be able to act on everything, we can at least guarantee that we will read and consider every comment, concern and suggestion.
5) Recommend sponsors or direct sponsors to us. We consider ourselves to be champions of the community, not salespeople. We look for sponsors that connect with the ethos and energy of the community and because they’re legitimately invested in helping advance creativity, innovation and thought leadership — not because they want to plaster their name on another event. And, as champions of the community, we want to limit the number of sponsors to a small and committed few. This means that our preference is for a small number of silver and/or gold level sponsors that believe in the event.
6) Keep following PAB and CPB. The PAB website will likely be dormant for the most part until we make decisions about PAB2009. Nevertheless, it remains the best site to follow for updates. PAB2008 conference audio will be published on the Canadian Podcast Buffet throughout the summer and PAB2009 announcements will be made on that podcast when decisions are made.
Photo: Christopher S. Penn
I enlisted the help of some friends to share experiences and ideas related to conference and unconference organizing. The hope is to kick off a conversation in which everyone — conference organizers, sponsors, participants, vendors, etc… — contributes and makes future events more smooth, successful and creative.
You may have noticed that episode 88 of the 
