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.

Contributors

• Dave Delaney
• Whitney Hoffman
• Jay Moonah
• Chris Penn
• Chris Brogan
• Linda Mills

Conferences mentioned

• Podcasters Across Borders
• PodCamps: UK, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Ottawa, NYC, Boston, Philly and Toronto
• BarCamp Nashville

Participate in the conversation. Leave a comment on this post or a record a voice comment at +1.206.350.6487.

 

 Thoughts on organizing a conference (part 1?) [35:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have been participating in a dialog on Chris Brogan’s site (Thoughts for Future PodCamps). As part of the conversation, Joel Mark Witt says of PodCamp Ottawa, “I think it is important not to have Podcamps become glorified ‘teetups’ ‘tweetups’. Not saying that yours did - just worried that they will become too informal“.

Joel’s point is very well taken and I thought I’d use this opportunity to explain a bit about PodCamp Ottawa and Zero to Podcasting since they have both attracted the attention of the PodCamp community. That thought process has led me to build on thoughts of others (Chris Brogan, Chris Penn, Whitney Hoffman, Sara Streeter, Tommy Vallier, Bob Goyetche, Andrea Ross, etc…) to share my own thoughts on the future of PodCamp.

Aside from having scheduled specific discussion topics for the day, PodCamp Ottawa was admittedly informal (we sat and lay on pillows on the carpet and did away with computers and projectors). In many respects that was the beauty of the event. The environment facilitated an open discussion where everyone (three-year veterans and those who have never spoken into a microphone) felt welcome and valued. The resulting discussion left everyone in the room thinking very differently about new and social media. There was a bi-directional mentorship that advanced the newcomers and re-energized and re-focused the veterans.

As a result of the impact of the PodCamp Ottawa discussions, several of the participants conceived and mapped out Zero to Podcasting. It was a seed-to-forest workshop that aimed at striking a balance between sitting on the carpet and sitting in a lecture hall. While we did well, I think there is a lot that we could have done better while still respecting the web streaming equipment that cut the room in half (not all conferences will have this problem).

We have received a lot of feedback on the Z2P workshop. The feedback that struck me the most was told to me by several people: where most sessions and workshops explain what to do, Z2P explained and actually demonstrated how to do things and why to do them. The discussion resulted in the exploration of options and the facilitators tracked the key points and relevant URLs on a virtual whiteboard that will be organized and made available for the community in the coming days (follow the Canadian Podcast Buffet and the CPB Wiki).

This feedback has made me realize that as conference participants (speakers/facilitators and audience) we need to look beyond ‘the event itself’ and start thinking about the goals and approaches of the individual sessions.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the future strength of PodCamp is in three verticals… vertically-focused events, structured vertical tracks, and embedded mentorship programs that build on the strengths of (and levels) both ends of vertical relationships.

The conversation about ways to exploit the unconference model as well as reinvent the PodCamp format continues. Not surprisingly, the first out of the gate are the PodCamp founders.

Chris Brogan has put up a post called Thoughts for Future Podcamps in which he endorses the Zero to Podcasting track (unveiled at PodCamp Toronto) as a way to help newcomers and veterans with their new media skills and strategies. He also throws his support behind Whitney Hoffman’s push for PodCamp verticals as a great way to cater to the unique qualities of various communities of interest (a great idea!!!) .

Chris Penn blogged about some of the great ideas that were incorporated into NewBCamp this past weekend (Reflections on NewBCamp 08). The one that struck me as most interesting is Sara Streeter’s Speed Mentoring, modeled after Speed Dating.

I often talk about relationships and connections on my blog. I see the PodCamp-inspired initiatives (Speed Mentoring and Tommy Vallier’s Mentorship Lounge) to connect individual newcomers and veterans as the best chance to ignite both levels of experience through co-operative and bi-directional mentorship opportunities. This is what the veterans need to reinvigorate themselves with the passion and enthusiasm that newcomers bring to the community.

PodCamp Philly took place on the anniversary of the original PodCamp (PodCamp Boston) and it was a fantastic tribute to the movement and its founders.

The event was first class. Whitney Hoffman and her team put on an amazing conference at a great venue, with committed sponsors, a herd of new campers and a fantastic anniversary celebration. About the only thing that was missing for me was my Canadian compatriots that were with me in Boston last year (see CC Chapman’s photo of my Tribute to Absent Original Canadian Podcampers and Chris Brogan sticker at the right of this post).

Here are my five highlights from the weekend (in no particular order):

NEWCOMERS

I’ve been to six podcast-related conferences and countless meetups. This is the first such event I attended that had more newly-minted and soon-to-be podcasters than veterans. I had suspected as much when I looked at the list of registrants and was convinced when CC Chapman opened a session by asking how many people in the room did not create a podcast — about 80% of the hands in the room went up.

CONNECTIONS

I always make a point of getting to know as many new people as possible and socialize out of my normal circles at podcast gatherings. Philly offered ample opportunities to meet new people because there were so many unfamiliar (to me) names and faces there. It was great to connect with so many genuine people.

PODCAMP TRIBUTE

Whitney rallied the community to create a tribute to the two Chrises (Chris Brogan and Chris Penn), and Larry Lawfer brought the vision to life in a series of great videos. One of the videos was played during the opening ceremonies on Saturday morning. I wonder if Chris and Chris realize what they have achieved and how many people they have affected.

ROCKY RUN FOR CHOP

While only a dedicated few of us actually made the bold move of self-humiliation when we recreated the famous scene from Rocky in which Sylvester Stallone ran up the steps of the Museum of Art and performed a victory dance, many people contributed to this fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The last I heard, we had raised nearly $300.

WHITNEY HOFFMAN AND HER FAMILY

Besides leading a great organizing team, Whitney was an incredible host. She was an incredible host at the conference and she and her family were incredible hosts to me, CC and Lynette who were guests of their home. Organizing conferences takes a lot of time, energy and juggling of life priorities including families. Whitney was able to do all of this, her family supported her throughout and then displaced themselves for the comfort of others in the process. You guys deserve a standing ovation.

For the first time ever, I arrived at an airport to a car service holding my name on a card — a great greeting from CC Chapman and Whitney Hoffman.

We sat down in an airport restaurant and caught up for a while, waiting for some other flights to come in. That’s when I found out that CC has left Crayon and will make the move to freelancing.

Forty minutes later, Chris Penn and Steve Garfield arrived. With that, PodCamp Philly kicked off in the middle of the airport. The first session took place in Whitney’s van as CC highlighted the features of his new Zoom H2 and Steve introduced me to the iPhone. Then Chris talked TubeTV and continued at Whitney’s house with a demonstration of Blue Sky Factory.

As it turns out, Chris Brogan won’t be here this weekend. I think there’s an agreement among us that we will photoshop him into some pictures and blog about his crazy antics.

Click here to see PodCamp Philly photos on Flickr.

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).