I have just joined the list of amazing speakers and topics for the PodCamp Toronto…

Workflow and the Creative Process - A discussion on how to pull together recorded content, chop it up, mix it up and sequence it in a way that delivers a message and/or tells a story that engages your audience.  This session is not about tools; it’s about proven techniques and approaches for developing and producing engaging content — whether the result is 60 seconds or 60 minutes.

One of the great underlying themes at PodCamp Ottawa 2008 is that communications — particularly anything released within social media and new media — is a process, not a result.  Some great examples were shared throughout the day to illustrate this point including Jeff Parks‘ story about finger painting with a little girl, Maurizio Ortolani relating how the NACOcast is reaching patrons (young and old) of National Arts Centre events including as an augment to orchestra performances and Hugh McGuire’s session in which he played a deeply personal excerpt of Scarbrorough Dude’s reflections on the death of his son’s friend as published on the DicksnJanes podcast (the room then proceeded to discuss and disect the elements that made the piece so compelling).

While the discussions at pcott08 centred around the publication of content and not the interaction through social media, digital dialog is why most people participate.  Publishing content online is just the beginning of the process of engaging with other people and further developing one’s thoughts.

The grassroots often refer to the ethos of social and new media.  What they describe sounds like the current of an ocean; the energy that makes online content and engagement exciting and ever evolving.

To me, the communications process begins with selecting content, developing it (even if only in one’s mind as part of a stream of consciousness), delivering it (including the context in which the content is delivered), recording it, editing it (if you so choose), mixing it (not just for levels but adding music and additional audio for audio backdrop), producing it, publishing it and promoting it.

Perhaps it’s the process-mindedness of many in the community that causes them (myself included) to become squirmy when they hear others use the word monetizing, not so much with turning hobbies into businesses.  The way most people drop that word and idea into a conversation is very final — an end, not a process — and they seem genuinely disinterested with quality of content, context and conversation in a way that emphasizes their interest in slapping a price tag on it.  They seem unconcerned and impatient when it comes to discussing and learning the skills that make people effective communicators, great storytellers, thought leaders and capable content producers.

You can’t build a house without a foundation and a frame so you may as well enjoy the process of design, materials selection and construction.

Photo: I has…part of a roof by BoneDaddy.P7.

UPDATE:  Other current discussions on this theme…

• It’s all about skills, baby! by Bob Goyetche
• Building a Business, Not Monetization by David Peralty

Congratulations to everyone who participated in PodCamp Ottawa 2008.  Not only was the day engaging and filled with opportunities to kick-off new friendships and rejuvenate established ones, the participants worked together to make a difference by raising $330 for the Snowsuit Fund — an Ottawa-based charity that raises funds for the purchase and distribution of snowsuits to needy children, 15 years and under, in our community.

According to the Snowsuit Fund website, “a donation of $35.00 is all it takes to dress a child warmly”.  That means that PodCamp Ottawa will be keeping 9 children comfortable this winter.

Over the past few years, I’ve been part of the organizing teams for many events and because of my work in social media and podcasting I regularly find myself in discussions about other events and the community.  I often hear that participation is noticeably skewed towards white males, aged thirty through fifty, that there isn’t enough cultural diversity or women represented.  In fact, I have at least twice been told that I don’t do enough to include multiculturalism and women in the community.

The community and its events are inclusive.  Anyone who wants to attend is welcome.  Invitations to participate are implied.  Invitations to speak or submit speaking proposals are open.  Oddly, some women and individuals from different cultural backgrounds that have expressed their concerns have never submitted speaking proposals to the events I’m involved in.  I respond by requesting they submit proposals and make the effort to increase multicultural and female participation.  There’s only so much the community organizers can do and I can assure you that we have made efforts to reach out to the under-represented.

The Canadian Podcast Buffet was created as a resource and meeting place for the community.  We don’t define who’s in the community, only that it exists for all to join and contribute.  Podcasters Across Borders was created to bring the community together in a single physical space.  We don’t decide who comes, only that the event is organized and those willing to sign-up and travel to Kingston can be part of the scene.  Speaking proposals are welcome from everyone.  I know that the same is true of the PodCamp movement — events are planned and invitations to participate are open.

Andrea and I have been talking about this lately because planning for PAB2009 is about to ramp up.  The PAB community has been built on word of mouth which emanates from CPB.  If you feel that we need more people from a particular country, cultural background or gender, it’s up to you to help increase that representation by spreading the word and inviting the people you feel the community will benefit from meeting and listening to.

Communities thrive when they are made up of mixed opinions and backgrounds.  Make sure you help create the environment in which we can all grow.

Photo: PAB2007 Group Photo.jpg by Sean Joyner.

It’s official… PodCamp Ottawa 2008 is taking place from 10:00am - 4:00pm on Sunday, November 23, 2008 in the Panorama Room of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre.  Thank you very much to the NAC’s New Media department for making the room available to the community!

This year’s theme is Fresh Thinking and Approaches, the intent being to talk about ways to put a new spin on content creation, presentation, production and delivery.

Like last year, the concept behind PodCamp Ottawa is to engage with people, not technology.  The guiding principles are:

• BE SMALL: Attendance will be capped at 80 because a small crowd offers greater opportunities to listen and be heard, and meet everyone.

• BE RESPECTFUL: If you register, please attend. If you determine that you will not be able to attend, please remove your name from the registration list as soon as possible so that someone else may take your place. During PodCamp Ottawa, please be sure to contribute to the discussion and listen to what others have to say.

• BE CAMP: There will be no chairs or tables at PodCamp Ottawa so bring a pillow or blanket so you have something to sit or lie down on.

• BE INVOLVED: Bring your Moleskine, a pen, your ideas and willingness to participate.  Please consider leaving your computer at home.

• BE CONNECTED: Make sure you meet and speak with real people.  We will not be providing any Internet access; wired or wireless.

• CONVERSATIONS NOT PRESENTATIONS: Anyone who wishes to lead a session is asked to bring their experience and ideas and serve as a facilitator. Please introduce the discussion and then make sure that you manage the conversation so that everyone has a chance to participate. We will have no lecturn.

• NO MARKETING: The goal of PodCamp Ottawa is to advance the creation of podcasts (technically and as a host/producer) and ways in which to make them available. There are plenty of forums at which people can promote their businesses and the business of podcasting and new media.

• SHARE THE LOVE: Every PodCamper is asked to bring $10 for the Snowsuit Foundation. Let’s make a difference!

Registration is limited to 80 people.

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.

NOTE: for some reason, this post is not accepting comments even though the comment option is selected.  Feel free to email any comments to markblevis@gmail.com.  If you indicate that they can be public, I will add them to the post (remember to include your URL).

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.

The number of conferences with a social media slant has been increasing over the last few years. I have attended a few of them and have found each to have their own unique style of promoting knowledge, community and collaboration. I decided that I’d take a few moments to share my experiences and offer my thoughts on three social media conferences.

PODCAMP

Even within the PodCamp unconference movement, each event has its own style. PodCamp Boston 1 and 2 were strong in their efforts to promote community and the media of podcasting. PodCamp Toronto 07 and 08 catered very well to the marketing interest and had strong focus on podcast promotion and technology. PodCamp Philly had a decided education and community flair. PodCamp Ottawa was truly unplugged. Of course, these conferences had a lot of breadth of coverage in many domain areas and became the catalyst of conversation that stretches beyond what I mention here. What PodCamps have in wide-angle scope, they lack in specific depth of focus. Being a free event that is community organized offers the ability for the community to decide what it wants to share and that gives the movement a lot to grow on.

MESH

This event attracts a lot of key players from pop-culture, marketing, communications and social media. Mesh was packed from end-to-end with innovators and thought leaders who were excellent at delivering on the promise of the Mesh motto, “connect, share, inspire”. The panel discussions and keynote format (in which there was no real speech, but a discussion between a guest and co-organizer) offered the audience some amazing insight into some incredible projects and people. However, I felt that because there were so many panels and keynotes, there was little opportunity for many of the speakers to dig deep into their subjects and propel innovation beyond its current state. Those sessions where more a discussion of the past and present and offered little to push the envelope of innovation. For me, the best sessions at Mesh were those delivered by an individual or team that shared details of a specific project or idea. They made me want to get up and do more.

PODCASTERS ACROSS BORDERS

What started out as a grassroots event aimed at helping the community advance together in a meetup-meets-conference format has become something more credible and formal. Being a co-organizer, I am both proud and critical of our accomplishments to date. Our first two years were vastly different from each other and that has allowed us to examine the stuff that works (lots of engagement with the community) and the stuff that doesn’t (too much programming, insufficient breaks) and find a way to make the best of our event meet the stuff I love most about other events to hit one out of the park with PAB2008. My lofty vision is that PAB establishes itself as the TED of social media — a conference that changes the way people think in twenty minute segments and then offers a forum to explore those ideas as a group. I believe that this year’s program represents experience and a maturing of the conference and community. I’m looking forward to this year’s conference which we can almost start counting down to in hours.

PARTING THOUGHT

People often talk about the best part of conferences being the networking and socializing. In fact, I often hear of people attending one conference in particular (name withheld) just to socialize and have given up attending the sessions because, for them, the sessions lack substance. I believe that conferences should always excel at providing worthwhile networking opportunities, but never at the expense of offering high quality sessions and high quality speakers.

Whitney Hoffman and I spoke Sunday evening about the debate over the fee for the upcoming PodCamp Boston.  It seems that many people are quite upset about the fee and have used the argument that communities shouldn’t charge its members to participate in events.  That’s when we started to talk about physical communities and financial support they request.  Immediately, several communities came to mind including my own neighbourhood which asks households to contribute $5 to sustain the activities group (the fee is requested whether you participate in neighbourhood activities or not).

Perhaps the most significant — and oldest — community to expect members to contribute is the church.  Here’s an organization that does a collection from its congregation each week.  To be fair, synagogues have fundraising drives to sustain community activities.  It’s worth noting that these are communities that people are born into, not specifically adopted the way the social media community is.  Many would argue that these are communities that will play the guilt card.

Bob Goyetche said this past fall that social media is a hobby and in order to participate you need some money to buy at least the most basic of technology making us a community of disposable incomes of some degree or another.  Whitney supports this statement by offering demographic data that shows an overwhelming majority of PodCamp (that’s free PodCamp) attendees are professionals in their 30’s.  An increasing number travel great distances, stay in hotels and eat out to attend the events.

Smaller PodCamps like PodCamp Ottawa can be organized in a few days and run at absolutely no charge.  And because they are locally focused, it allows people in a geographic region to connect and form their own community without having to travel and stay in hotels.

PodCamp is a proven model.  An event fee equivalent to a few Starbucks coffees won’t change the content or delivery.  It will sustain it.

I’ll be participating in an ooVoo session as part of PodCamp NYC.  The session begins at 2pm and focuses on the use of social media tools (such as ooVoo) to connect and inspire people to communicate in meaningful ways.  I understand that one discussion will explore the use of social media to connect a community in Lesotho, Africa.