billpalmer.net

A year and a half ago I received an email from a handful of folks attempting to pull off a grass roots podcasting event they were referring to as "PodCamp." I had doubts as to whether anyone could pull off putting together a conference in the short amount of time they'd given themselves, but something seemed right about it. So I signed on as a sponsor and asked them to put me in touch with someone who wanted to appear on iProng Radio and give us an interview about what they were planning, and I received a message that read "I'm Chris Brogan and will be available for your podcast."

After hearing what Chris had to say on our podcast, I got the sense that this PodCamp thing, whatever it was going to be, was something that shouldn't be missed. So I headed up to Boston with Shelly Brisbin, who was co-hosting iProng Radio at the time, and walked into what at the time felt like a foreign country. Strange phrases like "social media" and "podsafe" were being thrown around, unfamiliar tools such as LinkedIn and Second Life were being discussed, and while I didn't understand everything that went on that weekend, I went home knowing that it was something that I Ð and iProng Ð needed to be a part of.

Shortly thereafter, PodCamps started springing up all over the world. About six months later there was finally one, in Atlanta, that was sorta kinda near to me so I attended that one and ended up leading one of the sessions. Who me? I'm not even a speaker. But that's the whole idea behind PodCamp. Sessions are led not by professional speakers who travel the country giving sales pitches, but instead by folks from the community who have something to say, and just as often, people who have things they want answered.

I went home from PodCamp Atlanta thinking "I've almost got the hang of this," so when I found that there was another one in New York City a few weeks later, I used the fact that it had been too long since I'd been to Manhattan as an excuse to jet up there and take another swing at it. Finally, sometime that morning, it clicked for me. This really is a community of equals where everyone there assumes that everyone else there has something to add to the conversation, where the guy with the most popular podcast can sit there and chat with the guy who has an audience of twelve people and neither one feels out of place doing so.

I learned a few other things along the way as well, like how to get better sound quality from my podcast, and how to do a better job interviewing people (ironically, the latter is the session I was leading). But it's the community aspect that stuck with me the most firmly, and that held true through PodCamp SoCal last fall, which took place shortly after I'd moved to Los Angeles, so it was nice to finally have one in my backyard.

Now it's springtime again and that means it's time for PodCamp NYC 2.0 on April 25th and 26th. Actually there's a PodCamp in Washington, DC this weekend, and another in two weeks in San Antonio, and I'm not going to be able to make it either of those two, which is a shame because I know who's organizing them and so I know they're both going to be great events. PodCamp only has six official rules, and sometimes I think there should be a seventh: you're not allowed to feel guilty about the fact that you can't make it to them all.

But I'll be fortunate enough to make it to New York next week, and as it's been six months since my last PodCamp, I'm almost unduly excited. Friends I haven't seen in too long, things I haven't yet learned, more portions of the concept of community to grasp. And we're doing something new this year, as there will be an iProng table where we'll be having podsafe musicians perform live, sit down for an interview, promote their album if they've got one. Although it's new for us to be the ones facilitating it, it's old-hat for PodCamp, as co-founder Christopher S. Penn had musicians performing impromptu at his table at last year's PodCamp NYC, and I can recall a band called Uncle Seth setting up and performing in the main hall all the way back at the original PodCamp in Boston.

There will be plenty more going on at PodCamp NYC this year, far too many free sessions to even attempt to list here and the just fact that it's in Brooklyn this year is newsworthy. I look down the sponsor list and I see that the NYC Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting has signed on, as has Microsoft's Zune team. Sure, no one takes the Zune particularly seriously, but if they're looking to change that, showing up at PodCamp is a good start (note to Apple: where the $#!@ are you?). But no matter how big of names sign on for PodCamp, the key is that it's still an event where everyone who shows up is treated as equals and everyone goes home having learned something.

In any case, if you're within shouting distance of New York City, I want to see you there next week, particularly if we have yet to meet in person. For all of our remote communication abilities in this day and age, there are still times when you can meet face to face and accomplish more in five minutes than you could have remotely in five months. And if you're nowhere near NYC, check podcamp.org to find the nearest one. Or for that matter, just put together your own PodCamp locally the same way the founders put together the original one; after all this time, that's still the way it works.

So I hope to see many of you in person next week. It'll be easy to spot me, I'll be the one having way too much fun.