When Bob Goyetche and I first started working on Podcasters Across Borders 2006, there were a lot of reasons to be concerned — mostly relating to financial commitments and community interest. Okay, concerns may not be the right word. Let’s say Stress, with a capital ‘S’.

We took a big gamble, committing personal funds to secure conference facilities and invested a lot of time to plan and promote the event, and process registrations. It was a great learning experience. In fact, maybe I should blog some of my lessons-learned about that process sometime.

A turning point in the process, for me, was the day we received our very first paid registrations. I knew that no matter what happened, PAB2006 was going to be great. In my view, it was already a success because others believed in the event and its organizers enough to commit their own funds and holiday time to participate. Karen and Ross made my day and became silent motivators when things seemed rough. They will always be the first ever paid registrants for PAB.

Things are a bit different this year. PAB is an established event with a large following. A lot of people have been emailing Bob and me for months asking for registration information — many have also offered help. That doesn’t change the fact that there were concerns going in to the big registration announcement. It’s amazing how that first paid registration can evaporate all of those concerns. We have Bill Deys to thank for kicking off the demonstration of trust in us this year.

Registrations are coming in faster than we expected. This is real!

See you in June.