I thought PAB2007 would end and I would be able to return to a normal life. Not so. I have been constantly thinking about what I’ve learned from the conference, about conference planning, and how we even planned this thing in the first place. You can expect a number of posts as a result.

Here is some of what I’ve learned from co-organizing/co-running PAB2007.

Lesson 1: Be transparent then trust and believe in the community
It’s not easy being shouldered with tough decisions — especially when they result from your own mistakes. Take, for example, the Saturday afternoon draw for the Zoom H4. That was a closed draw that was to exclude speakers, sponsors and organizers. So, when we drew the name Chris Sherry, who is affiliated with one of the sponsors and didn’t catch it, we had the potential of a real problem. We decided to come clean with our mistake and include the community in the decision. The community unanimously forgave our mistake. Immediately after that was resolved, Chris Penn stepped up and donated a second Zoom H4 for the Sunday draw. This leads me to the next lesson learned.

Lesson 2: Include everyone
For our first Zoom H4 draw we announced that speakers, sponsors and organizers were specifically excluded from qualifying for the draw. Many speakers rightfully expressed their disappointment — after all, they weren’t paid and they are part of the community. For the second Zoom H4 draw we decided that all paid registrants, speakers and sponsors who were in the room at the time of the draw qualified to win.

Lesson 3: Share the love
As part of PAB2007, we held a children’s book drive for Kingston’s Central Public School. The drive was a huge hit. We collected 86 amazing kids books and the community felt great being a part of that. Later in the weekend we held a collection to raise money to replace Bruce Murray’s camera after it had disappeared from the conference room the night before. The community raised $291 before Bruce’s camera turned up. When we talked about having a 50/50 draw as a possible use of the collection, Chris Penn piped up with the suggestion that we donate the money to Central Public School. The community immediately approved of the idea.

Lesson 4: Remain calm; the problem can be solved
Actually… what I told a few people — and practiced — during the weekend was to “remain calm and the problem will solve itself”. Many people say that a lot can go wrong at a conference, failing to acknowledge that there is a lot that goes famously well. More importantly, if you think creatively — and keep your wits about you — there is likely to be many possible solutions for every problem (if nothing else, you won’t be stressed).

I have a few posts that I’m working on as part of my reflections on and wrap-up of PAB. I’ve been slower to get them together than I had hoped.

In the meantime, I found this fantastic group photo taken with Jim Milles’ camera (Bruce Murray may have been the photographer). I love this picture. I love that it showcases one of the great qualities of PAB2007… that it’s big enough to be a conference and small enough to result in a great family photo. The picture says so much more than I can articulate, so I’ll just quietly admire it for a while and remember the great event made possible by everyone in the picture, and a few people that aren’t in it.

See you next year!

This Podcast is a culmination of my series on Blevis-ian editing, and the audio from my Editing Techniques and Decisions presentation at PodCamp Toronto. I highly recommend that you also listen to Bruce Murray’s presentation on Editing (How to make a layer cake with a butterfly and a sledgehammer). Between Bruce’s humourous and philosophical study of editing and my demonstration of editing techniques, you will gain a solid understanding of this area of audio production.

What makes this Podcast different from the video recording of my presentation (available at the Podcamp Toronto website) is that I have spliced in the audio clips that I played during the presentation. In this way, you can better hear what the edits sound like.

Photo: Timothy Pilgrim (Twisted Wrist)

 

 Editing Techniques and Decisions presentation at PodCamp Toronto [39:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download