I headed down to Boston for the first time in a year and a few months on Saturday and Sunday. My trip revolved around PodCamp Boston (no, not the World Series), a gathering of new media folk at the amazing Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. I went to the event to socialize, learn a thing or two, and promote the Small Steps Podcast.
PodCamp, for those of you who don’t know, is an event organized by a set of devoted organizers and the event’s participants. It’s a lot like a BarCamp, but it’s focused more on podcasting and other new media and less on technology. Over 1,200 people registered for the weekend (an incredible number given the relatively young age of podcasting).
Aside from the sheer number of people registered, the most impressive aspect of the event had to be the variety of people it brought together under one roof. There’s always been talk of an “A-list” of bloggers throughout the blogosphere, and a similar concept has been occasionally mentioned throughout the world of podcasting. Whatever the case, a number of popular and recognizable podcasters all assembled under one roof. Despite the event’s size, everyone was amazingly approachable; I was overjoyed and impressed at how many of my favorite podcasters I met over the course of a couple of days. (The list of people I met in person included C.C. Chapman, Mitch Joel, Matthew Ebel, Rudy Jahchan & Casey McKinnon, Chris Penn, and Brother Love.) It was so energizing to have so many people within the community together in the same place.
The event was organized amazingly well. The BCEC’s location was easy to find, and the schedule was planned out well. The participants of the event did their part, too, by contributing an enormous amount of content to sites like Flickr, Twitter, and their own blogs. Many of the sessions were recorded either by the presenter or by members of the audience, and the recordings should be available in podcast feeds soon.
There was, of course, still some room for improvement. PodCamp founders Chris Brogan and Chris Penn commented in the wrap-up session that the crowd may have actually been too large for the intimate style traditionally held by PodCamps. Not everyone who signed up for the event actually attended, including some of the presenters; Chris Penn saw this as an indication that PodCamps should be allowed to charge a nominal admission fee (PodCamps up to this point have had to be free to attend). He mentioned that an admission fee would most likely raise the quality of presentations and discussions as a result of having a more devoted, focused group attending the event.
I found it odd, though, that he brought up that point after mentioning the dreaded fishbowl. For the last year, podcasters have been debating whether they exist in a fishbowl; in other words, everyone who listens to podcasts are in the same core group. The fear is that podcasting is not reaching an audience outside of this core group, and it will therefore not be able to grow in the future. By charging an admission fee, I’m afraid that people new to podcasting would be hesitant to pay the cost of attendance; I think an admission fee to PodCamp could quite possibly encourage the fishbowling of the community.
The fishbowl manifested itself at PodCamp in a rather predictable way; as the event progressed, I started to have the feeling that I’d heard everything being said already. Many of the presentations were given by people I regularly hear on podcasts, and most of them understandably talked about the same things they talk about on their podcasts. The most valuable part of PodCamp for me, therefore, were the discussions and socialization occurring outside of the actual sessions.
In my opinion events like PodCamp should be a time to discuss where the community is heading in the future. How do we appeal to more people? What else can be done with these media? How is the dynamic changing within a world of user-generated content? I mentioned earlier that the schedule for PodCamp was planned very well. For the next PodCamps, I’d actually encourage Chris and Chris to be a bit more flexible with its scheduling. I propose that the Sunday afternoon of the conference is left open, and the sessions for that time are decided either Saturday night or Sunday morning. This would allow presentations to move beyond the routine topics covered by podcasters and move into a more general discussion about podcasting and the world of social media in general, largely fueled by conversations occurring during the first half of the PodCamp. The spontaneity of a malleable conference schedule screams “new media” to me.
I was extremely impressed by the organization of the event, and I’m truly glad I went down to participate and honored that I met so many of the people I hear every week. As Chris Brogan mentioned, these events allow the “social” of social media to come alive; amazing things can happen with so many smart people under the same roof.
Check out my photos from the event at Flickr. I didn’t get many and they’re not very good, but I wasn’t really there for photography.