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.

Over the last few weeks I have blogged about the defining quality of Podcasts (context is king) and the concept for a Powered by Passion community.  How fitting that the two have come together over the last few days to create yet another concept.

On October 12th, I blogged about a comment Larry Lawfer had made (”from passion to purpose”) during a PodCamp interview and I elaborated on how it was missing the mark on passion by equating purpose with money.  Purpose can be anything the individual values - that was the missing piece of the interview.  Here we have a great example of content in a particular context, and content missing context.  See… it’s all about context!

Larry and I have corresponded about passion, purpose and money and how you can have all three, or any combination thereof.  One of the greatest quotes of our discussion was how Larry explained what I will now call the Equation of Absolute Success.

“Passion is key to any success.  Purpose is also necessary.  Passion without purpose leads nowhere.  Purpose without passion is also a slow death.  Mixing passion with your purpose is what drives all great successes.”

| success | = purpose * passion

So, how does this relate to Powered by Passion?  Powered by Passion acknowledges one of the above groupings and does so because other groupings are already represented with tangible identifiers.

From my sleeping bag on the floor of Room 813 at the Holiday Inn Express, Cambridge, MA.

PodCamp is amazingly well organized.  The organizers have to be proud of themselves.  Sessions that were among the standouts based on an informal poll with Bob and Julien include C. C. Chapman and Mitch Joel’s presentation You and Your Brand; PodCast Consultation with Jason Van Orden (John C. Havens and one other guy whose name escapes me at the moment); the music panel discussion with C. C., Jay Moohan, and Eric Skiff; and, Pricing and PR presented by John C. Havens.  My own presentations, Extending the Conversation, and Interview Techniques which I presented with Larry Lawfer were also quite successful.

Bob, Julien, Mitch, C.C. and I went back to the hotel to have a beer and hang out before we joined the gang at The Grand Canal.  You realize how much there is to learn when you hang out with these guys.  The Grand Canal was fun and someone apparently picked up the bar tab starting at a certain point.  I believe that was a well excercised offer.

Julien and I had an interesting experience getting back to our hotel after the obnoxiously loud music at The Grand drove us away.  Just when I started to feel some degree of concern for my welfare during the cab ride, Julien leaned forward and asked the cabbie, Dude.  You do know where you’re going, right?.

At its peak, there was about eighteen people in room 813 last night.  That’s when Bob, J. Moo, Chris and I started playing music.  The highlights included De Do Do Do, and a version of No Woman No Cry that went something like No C. C. Home Fries.

We’re getting up right now, and getting ready for the day.  The morning schedule looks packed so we’ll split up the presentations and share the information on the drive home.