This weekend I’m thrilled to be attending my 2nd Podcamp Montreal. Last year’s inaugural event was, to say the least, fantastic. I met a ton of amazing people, and I can’t stress enough how much I love the unique vibe and class that the Montreal organizers bring to the event. You really have to experience it in person to know what I mean.

Podcamp is about connecting, sharing, community, and network building. It’s also about technology, and the Web. So it stands to reason that lots of people will be bringing their technology with them to Podcamp, and using it profusely throughout the weekend. There will be abundant laptops clicking away, video recorders running, photos being snapped, and mobile devices being mobile. Which is totally fine. Far be it from me to deny a geek access to their technology!

I choose to do things a bit differently when I attend conferences. I take a mostly low-tech approach to my environment here. I don’t lug a laptop. I carry my iPhone (I’m not crazy!) but I use it sparingly.

Ow ow ow! Hand cramp! I am definitely a note taker. I write stuff down all the time. I have to. It’s part of my composition – it’s how I retain information and learn new things. I type a lot faster than I write, so if I’m typing notes during a session, I tend to want to try to write everything down. And if I’m doing that, I’m not really listening to the presentation. So I come armed with no more than a notebook and pen. That way, if I am writing, it’s only key info. And, pen to paper is a lot less distracting for the person sitting next to me as well.

One other side benefit of not bringing a laptop? Well, I typically don’t like to walk up to someone and strike up a conversation if they look “busy” on their computer. How available do I look if in between sessions, I’m head down trying to figure out how to upload the video I just shot, or checking my email? If I’m not clacking away, I stand a much better chance of making eye contact with someone, and starting up a new conversation.

Are you here for you or for them? I might get in trouble for this one, but again, this the way I do things – I’m not judging others here. If you find value in live tweeting events, then go to town with it. Really. However…consider what value live tweeting is really adding. Again, if I’m head down in my laptop or on my phone, posting to Twitter every darn thing the speaker is saying, am I really absorbing the information? Am I actively participating or passively documenting? And to what end? Are your followers deriving value from your stream or are they tuning you out till the conference is over? Are real conversations happening and if so, are you paying more attention to the online stream or what’s going on in front of you?

Other than maybe taking a photo or two or documenting something funny or compelling that happens in a session, I tend to keep my in-session tweeting to a minimum. Not everyone cares about ROI on social media, so I don’t feel that filling my stream with strange, out of context quotes adds value. If I really want to talk about what I’m learning, I’ll blog about it that night. But live tweeting? Not for me, thanks.

Reach out and touch someone. I don’t go to a ton of conferences, but the ones I do go to tend to be the unconferency, grass rootsy type of affairs. I like the format and the flexibility and the fact that I can wear jeans and a sweater and a ponytail. I like The Law of Two Feet. I like that it’s totally inclusive. I like that I can just sit on the floor in the hallway with a group of people and experience and learn and get excited about things as easily as I can inside of a formal session.

Gathering at events like conferences is about BEING 100% THERE. It’s not about bragging to all your followers how you’re hanging out with the popular kids. It’s not about waltzing around telling everyone what an expert you are. It’s about coming together with other like minded, talented, passionate, and genuine people and building friendships and business relationships and yah, you know what? Sometimes, it’s a little bit of sitting in a circle singing Kumbaya too. And I’m totally down with that. Because it’s about being together, live, in person – connecting. And at the end of this weekend I intend to have some fresh ideas, some new friends, and a renewed sense of passion for this work I do. That’s why I go. That’s why you should too.

Podcamp Montreal 2009
September 19th and 20th
UQAM Design Centre
1440 rue Sanguinet
Montreal, QC

See you there :)

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Podcamp Montreal is behind us and after having a day or so to reflect on my experience I have a few observations. 

Day 2 of Podcamp was just as captivating as Day 1. I did only manage to attend a couple of sessions, but what I experienced was well worth it. 

C.C. Chapman and Mitch Joel did a compelling open-concept session about creating quality content. They covered everything from how to record good audio to the best way to interview people. Since I’m a video person, a lot of the tips were things I already knew. However, something really interesting struck me about their conversation, which, by the way, you can hear a portion of on the most recent episode of Mitch’s podcast Six Pixels of Separation. 

Podcasting is truly evolving (sorry Rob Blatt – I don’t think it’s dead either!). Back in 2006 when I attended Podcamp Toronto, almost every session had to do with monetization of podcasts and blogs. Everyone was touting the next great business model for making dough in social media. Well, in 2 years, we’ve learned a lot.

These days, people are definitely still interested in making money – but the emphasis has changed entirely. Now, conversations are centred around creating technically sound, content rich podcasts that build loyal followings of fans. The means of making cash is changing – podcasters and bloggers alike are realizing that by producing compelling content they can not only achieve a loyal fan base that is attractive to advertisers, they can attract potential clients who may enlist them to produce a similar type of quality product.

The other session I attended on Day 2 was with the always entertaining Julien Smith. At first, I felt a bit like I was at a rock concert rather than a presentation, as the crowd whooped and cheered as Julien was introduced. Julien’s gaming analogy drew people in right away, as he discussed how people need to up their game to become agents of trust in the social media space. Social capital is the “currency of the web” as he says, and being a trust agent means you are out there building that capital; by banding together, sharing, lifting each other up, and making the community work better for everyone. In the end, it’s all about people. Julien is writing a book on the subject of trust agents with Chris Brogan, and based on how engaged the audience at this session was, I am willing to bet that the book is going to be a resounding success (You heard it here first, folks – ha ha ha ha :-))

Aside from the terrific sessions I attended during this un-conference, the best part for me was being able to see old friends, like Jay Moonah and Bob Goyetche, and finally meeting some pals I’ve known only online until now, like the aforementioned C.C. Chapman and Rob Blatt. I also had a chance to meet some new people, like Dana (aka Wankergirl), Scarborough Dude and Sean from Akoha, and I look forward to getting to know them better as time goes on. 

Overall, Podcamp Montreal, in my opinion, was a wildly successful event, due in no small part to the hard work of the organizing committee, the many volunteers, and the generous support of lots of terrific sponsors.

I am officially hooked on Podcamps, and you will definitely see me lurking about at many more in the months to come. Hope to see you there!

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Day 1 of Podcamp Montreal was a resounding success. The energy of this event is phenomenal…people are really enthusiastic and the whole place just seems to be a buzz of activity and creatitivity.

The presentations yesterday were really terrific. Sylvain Grand’Maison told us how to not suck. He gave some awesome tips to content creators, pointing out some obvious and not so obvious ways to help ensure the quality of the content you are putting out, whether it be a podcast, a blog, or a tweet, is up to snuff. What I want to know is, where did he get that fabulous green font???

Unfortunately due to some work stuff that came up, I had to forego the session with Mitch Joel and David Usher. But the room was absolutely bulging to the seams, so I get the distinct impression it was a valuable session.

Connie Crosby and Eden Spodek of the Community Divas podcast put on a great little talk about how they have developed their podcast. These lovely ladies are new to podcasting. They spoke highly of their podcasting mentor, Jay Moonah, and in addition to passing on some great advice they’ve gotten from people, they also weren’t afraid to put questions to the audience, to find out how other people do things. This just proves the community theory of social media. Podcamps provide a safe, open forum where people don’t have to be afraid to ask questions if they don’t know something – even the presenters. The community is there to help. They do not judge. Use their wisdom, people!!

The day was capped off with a terrific chit chat facilitated by Jay Moonah on Old Media vs. New Media. As someone coming from an “Old Media” background, this is a topic I am quite passionate about. Like Jay, I believe that in order to know where we are going we need to know where we come from. It’s something I’m trying to pass onto my college class. The conversation (which included Mitch Joel, Bob Goyetche, and several others whose names escape me) revolved around how new media creators really “fit” into the media world. Is old media dead? Or is it just evolving, to encompass the changing landscape, where everyman can be the journalist. That’s a blog post for another time, but suffice it to say that there are vast and varied opinions on how we as the new media creators fit in. It was a great conversation and I wish it could have gone on for another hour or two!

Last night I was privileged to spend the evening at dinner with Cheryl (aka Fendergurl on Twitter), Allan Isfan, Dana (aka. WankerGirl on Twitter), Gavin (aka Gavin1980 on Twitter),  Sean Power from Akoha, and Christine from Miami. We ate at The Three Amigos on St. Denis and it was delicious!

Afterwards we walked around a bit and ended up at the Podcamp party at Benelux, where the DJ’s were spinning Duran Duran and the beer was micro-brewed and yummy.

The common theme of this Podcamp is really about us, as content creators, finding our voice. We have built communities, produced podcasts, personally branded ourselves, and now we are ready for the rest of the world to find out about us. I think the questions that will be answered over the next while are, “Where do we really fit in?” and “How do we expand the community beyond the tech-geek, early adopter communities?”.

Looking forward to Day 2, and exploring more ideas with all of you.

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So after a hectic day of work, my friend Cheryl (@fendergurl on Twitter) and I arrived in Montreal about 9pm last night, and, after getting quite lost and literally intuiting our way to the hotel, we headed for La Quincaillerie, where the opening night party was going down. We were starving, and not in the mood for poutine (hey, we’re from Ottawa – we get to eat that stuff all the time!). However, we decided to make a brief appearance at the bar to see who was lurking about.

We were greeted warmly by Mark Blevis, who proceeded to tour us around a large table to meet some of our fellow podcampers (how DOES he remember everyone’s name!!!). I’m sorry if I don’t remember all your names yet, but hopefully by the end of the weekend I will!

After ducking out for a bit to eat at Caféo down the street, we came back to a packed bar with all sorts of people milling about. It was terrific to meet up with Jay Moonah and Bob Goyetche again, since last time I saw those two was at Podcamp Toronto over 2 years ago! What was also exciting about last night was I finally got to meet some long-time Internet friends in person, like C.C. Chapman and Rob Blatt. What fun!

Anyway, we headed home to our cosy little hotel room and are rested up for day 1. I look forward to meeting and talking with my fellow campers in what promises to be a fun filled 2 days!

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