How could I say, after all of the amazing PodCamps I’ve been to, including the original PodCamp in Boston, that PodCamp Montreal is my favourite so far?

To me, PodCamp Montreal represents the best of what’s been done and the potential for what lies ahead.  It incorporated bilingual tracks and managed a fully-bilingual-easy-to-read-and-easy-to-use web site.  It attracted the perfect balance of veterans and newcomers (many of whom don’t yet produce podcasts).  The social events made it easy for people to mingle and facilitated making new friendships.  And, on that point, the people that came to PodCamp Montreal had the right attitudes to make the weekend great.

My three session highlights in no particular order are:

• Alexandre Enkerli’s session called Social Academia, which, in addition to the engagement within the session, sparked some interesting online chatter about extending the academic experience using digital technologies and how different types of professors and institutions are approaching its use.

• Wanker Girl and Miss Something shared their thoughts on digital connections in their session, Relationships 2.1.  They were insightful and transparent about their experiences — some of them positive, some of them positively scary — and what they’ve learned from them.

• Scarborough Dude shared reflections about himself and how he became the person he is during his presentation, Finding Yourself Through Podcasting.  The session was not about the technology.  The Dude epitomizes the ethos of podcasting as the Dude sees it and his authentic presentation style made it obvious why he’s become the spiritual leader of this community.

Congratulations to  Sylvain Grand’Maison, Laurent LaSalle, Jean-François Blais, Julien Smith, Michelle Sullivan, Hugh McGuire, Mitch Joel, Harold Boeck, Laurent Maisonnave and Bob Goyetche for organizing an outstanding event.

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There’s a wave of social media events and conferences coming up that I’ll be attending and I encourage you to attend, as well.

Niagara on the Lake Podcasting and Social Media Meetup (tag: notl2008) is a hybrid meetup and conference taking place August 16 (yes, next week!) at the Prince of Whales Hotel in Niagara on the Lake. The event is being spearheaded by John Meadows and Keith Burtis, both of whom hope that this is the event that crosses the line from being a geeks-only event to one that includes the Social Media Widows and Orphans. While I’ve heard that one is in the works, a schedule of family-focused activites has not yet been published. The speaker schedule is available on the site as is a great promo by StevieZ.

The second PodCamp Philly (tag: podcampphilly) is happening September 6 and 7 at Temple University in Philadelphia. Lead organizer, Whitney Hoffman, has a history of organizing events that foster both an amazing sense of community and an environment that gets people thinking and talking about the medium and related opportunities. Last year’s conference had a great educational program and this year’s appears to be building on that success. SearchCamp is new for the 2008 edition of PodCamp Philly. SearchCamp is a series of sessions designed for people interested in seach engine marketing.

If PodCamp Montreal (tag: podcampmtl) isn’t the first ever officially bilingual PodCamp, it’s certainly one of the very few. That’s right, PodCamp makes its first appearance in La Belle Province September 20 and 21 at the University of Montreal’s Design Pavillion (Pavillion de Design de l’UQAM). The posts on the PodCamp Montreal website are all bilingual (French first, then English) and there will be separate tracks for French and English sessions at the event. Despite the segregation of the sessions by language, I hope that there’s a good amount of mingling between languages and cultures; both have a lot to learn from each other. If the organizing committee is any indication, this is going to be an incredible event.

I’m also considering going to Third Coast for the first time, this year. I’ve heard that it’s a religious experience for producer-geeks like me.

Eavesdrop on some of the conversation as four high-school friends travel to see The Police perform at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Mark, Jay, Franc and Tom recall memories of The Police, being in bands, Loverboy on Good Rockin’ Tonight (with Terry David Mulligan), brushes with celebrity and going to concerts including Sting, Rolling Stones, The Who, Billy Idol and KISS. A post concert analysis takes place on the drive home.

This show qualifies as iTunes explicit.

 

 Roadtrip to see The Police [30:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I waited twenty-five years to see The Police and it was worth every minute of the wait (though, it would have been amazing to see them perform during their original run). I have the photos, memories and the $40 t-shirt (I know, I know) to prove I was there — the July 25th show at Montreal’s Bell Centre.

It’s amazing that three people can create such incredible music. The degree of complexity, simplicity, depth of sound and open spaces is astounding. It’s no wonder The Police have cemented their place in music history and that people are flocking to their shows in amazing numbers and at record rates — makes you think that Sting, Stewart and Andy should seriously consider long term plans including another studio album and a supporting tour.

I was relieved to figure out that the critics of the tour have it all wrong. They have complained about reworked and experimental versions of the hits. Anyone who has seen The Police live, or has watched or listened to any of their live recordings between ‘78 and ‘84 will know very well that the band has always explored, experimented and reworked songs in their live act. In fact, Regatta De Blanc (the song) evolved out of the extension of live version of Can’t Stand Losing You. I will concede that Don’t Stand So Close To Me was a bit dull with the leveled vocal range, and that the smoothed-out singing in Truth Hits Everybody and Next To You took away from their edginess.

Stewart performed in a shirt that read “Leroy Coolbreeze”, the nickname of his brother, Ian, who was the booking agent for The Police (among others). Sadly, Ian lost his fight with skin cancer in May 2006. If those shirts were available for sale at the concert, I would have bought one.

I did the road trip to Montreal for the concert with three high school friends. During the drive to Montreal we recorded some of our thoughts about The Police and concerts. On the way home, we did an impromptu review of the concert. I’ll release some of that audio as a podcast on this site in the next few days.

Would I see The Police, again? Without a doubt.

Click here to see my photos from the concert.
Click here to see photos in the Flickr Police Reunion Tour 2007 group.

I’ve uploaded photos from the Montreal podcast meetup and Ottawa podcast meetup to my Flickr account.

Thanks to Arthur Masters for driving both ways for the Montreal meetup, and to Scarborough Dude for making the Ottawa meetup necessary.

Arthur Masters and I will be hitting the road shortly for the Montreal podcast meetup.  Expect some photos and audio from the trip.