2010.04.06

PAB2010: June 18-20 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa

Bob Goyetche and I are busy planning PAB2010, the fifth edition of Canada’s first large-scale conference of new media producers. This year the conference moves from Kingston (Canada’s capital from 1841-1844) to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (Canada’s capital since 1857). This year’s theme is relevance.

The inaugural PAB in 2006 was a sold out event that drew delegates from across Canada and the United States. It kicked off with a keynote address by the CBC Radio’s Shelagh Rogers, featured a full day of speaking sessions and ended with a concert by two Canadian independent bands.

PAB has evolved into a social/new media conference and expanded from a one day to a three day event that includes speaking sessions, our popular five-minute JOLTs, workshops, concerts, social activities and a charity drive. The conference has flourished on a reputation of strong content and a welcoming community, attracting participants from as far away as the U. K. and South America.

We are currently preparing to open up for registrations. In the meantime, we are accepting speaking proposals. If you’re interested in being part of the speaking program at PAB2010, please submit a written proposal of no more than 150 words or an audio or video proposal of two-minutes or less to podcastersacrossborders@gmail.com. Your proposal must include contact information, a title, a summary of your session and your audio/visual requirements. Deadline for submissions is 5pmET, Friday, April 9.

Hope to see you at PAB2010!

2007.11.25

PodCamp Ottawa: pillows, pizza and participation

The way I'll remember the first PodCamp OttawaToday, twenty campers came from Ottawa, Gatineau, Kingston, Montreal and Guelph for the first, and likely not last, PodCamp Ottawa. They made themselves comfortable on pillows (sitting up and laying down), participated in a lively discussion, ate pizza and collectively raised $200 for the Snowsuit Fund. That’s right. In my books, PodCamp Ottawa was an outrageous success.

Click here to see my Flickr Photos of PodCamp Ottawa.

Today’s event tested out a number of theories and ideas about PodCamp and how events can be run. This list includes things like having no chairs or tables (although chairs crept into the circle late in the day), facilitated discussions instead of presentations, no computers and limited capacity.

For me, the greatest victory was the principle of ‘no computers’. Everyone cooperated on this one and not a single person told me that the event was lacking as a result. Everyone was engaged — more so that I had expected. I have to admit that I was expecting resistance and noise about this one, particularly from a community of people who live their lives in a connected hobby or business.

A truly campy spiritPerhaps the only of the points I’ve just raised that could draw some form of constructive criticism is the fact that we had only 20 attendees out of 25 registered with a planned capacity of 80 (most notified of their cancellation in advance). My feelings on this are strong; the small group allowed everyone to participate in the discussion and everyone got to know each other. Personally, I have a far better understanding of the challenges that podcasters, new and established, are facing. In fact, you can expect some announcements in the next week or two about a new initiative to help the community. There will likely be some changes to the Canadian Podcast Buffet as well.

If that isn’t enough for you, Chamika and Chulaka Ailapperuma (who are not YET podcasting) brought fruit and treats for the entire gathering, and some!

It’s likely that I will release most of the discussions as podcasts. I’m catching up on work and family so it may be a week or two before any of that makes it out.

Thanks so much to National Arts Centre New Media for the space and Thornley Fallis for the use of their projector for Bob’s workshop on Audacity.

2007.11.24

culture.ca launches new podcast directory

culture.ca podcast directoryThe Canadian Government in partnership with the National Arts Centre, and the help of Collectik, launched a new directory of Canadian podcasts earlier this week on their culture.ca website.

The directory is available in English and French versions and focuses on podcasts that have a Canadian cultural slant. The definition of culture seems to include everything that isn’t specifically sports and science.

The new directory of can be found at podcasts.culture.ca.

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