Wow, super day of PodCamp – far surpassing my expectations (and destroying the inhibitions I may have had).
When I first heard about this a few months ago I was totally expecting it to be a slightly more organized version of the monthly geek dinner meetup, with a few dozen people I already know (or virtually know) taking turns blathering to each other.
Wrong.
When I walked into the Station Park Inn yesterday I was greeted by a crowd of brand new faces – a lot of people here from a lot of different backgrounds.
And no, the sessions weren’t just rote recitations of the social media gospel. There was everything from “101″ sessions for beginners, to more advanced technical topics as well as cultural, demographic, and evolutionary — yes, evolutionary — discussions.
It was an enjoyable and educational experience to see people sharing specialized knowledge and actively building on that by asking questions and challenging presenters… speaking of which…
One of my highlights was Dave Fleet’s session on social media ethics. What happened there was a pretty good representation of what’s happening in the world at large.
The talk was geared towards public relations and the room was full of people, including some established PR and media professionals — with ‘varying degrees’ of appreciation for social media. There was some argument over what exactly PR is about, and what’s the right or wrong way to go about it in the online age. Dialogue and debate is great — but also frustrating when some of the positions are so misguided.
What the dissenters don’t get is that experience is now abundant, and it’s experience that people really buy (not just the product or information itself), and the market is being blown wide open. Consumers/users/readers/viewers/listeners/followers can easily go elsewhere if you don’t let them feel respected, important, and involved enough — and not-coincidentally, those principles are stated explicity in the PodCamp Foundation License:
- All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
- All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
- All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
- All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet – if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else. It’s not like you have to get your money’s worth!
- The event must be new-media focused – blogging, podcasting, video on the net.
- The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.
PodCamp isn’t just about giving lip-service to social media, it’s a working demonstration of these underlying values: openness, mutual respect, personal empowerment, appreciation that our actions affect the larger world around us, you get what you give, etc.
These are lessons London needs to learn fast. Edward Platero made a compelling remark in the wrap-up session about how great it is that something like this can take place in such a conservative city as London — I will add, even if only to prove that something like this can take place…
When I try to weigh the civic value that something like PodCamp generates, I have to believe it’s hugely worthwhile. When compared to more high profile, top-down initiatives, something like PodCamp may not generate huge amounts of concrete, gross, and immediate gains, but in terms of cost/benefit margin and long-term generativity it’s obvious we need more of this.
Now someone might say, “but there are conferences all the time in London — much bigger ones as a matter of fact — what makes this different?”
What’s different is that social media, blogging, podcasting, etc, isn’t just another independent industry or field of interest, it adds a whole new layer onto everything else and in many ways it has radically altered the way things are done. It touches everything, creating challenges for everyone, opportunities for those with their eyes open, and serious problems for those who try to ignore it.
Apart from the technical, how-to sessions, a lot of the presentations came from the perspectives of specific professions, about what they stand to gain or lose by adopting or not-adopting social media.
One of the most well-attended and lively sessions was a panel on Old Media Becoming New, featuring Steve Groves and Dan Brown from the London Free Press (here’s their article on the event), alongside old-to-new media colleagues from AM980 and London’s Corus Radio stations (whose names I didn’t catch and can’t find, for now, sorry). [Update: the radio guys were Nathan Smith and Dale Dubilowski. Hat tip to PluggedIn Nick and Dan.]
Melissa Cheater covered social media marketing (another area that is pretty well developed); less obviously, Gabe Boldt and Michael McAlpine gave a presentation on “how Web 2.0 is changing the medical and legal professions”; Andrew Sinclair gave a presentation on social media tools as they relate to HR within enterprises; and there could have been a lot more — education being the first thing that comes to mind.
More generally, Jonathan Kochis from Resolution IM (which generously covered the drinks at last night’s after party at Windermere Manor, as well as the shuttle that delivered our tipsy asses to-and-fro) discussed demographics, specifically how young people use social media (or don’t use it as much as we might assume, as it turns out).
(You may notice I’m trying to ‘casually’ insert links to sponsors as a gesture of gratitude… I won’t get them all in. The rest are here.)
Beyond change, there are whole new opportunities opening up — not just new efficiencies, but new business models and markets.
For example, Stephanie Ciccarelli gave a presentation on voice technique. The demand for voice work has exploded as markets for audio books, video games, interactive voice-response systems, etc, continue to grow, enabled by new technologies. Ciccerelli’s innovative, London-based company, Voices.com (the event’s premier sponsor) is capitalizing on an opportunity that didn’t exist a decade ago and couldn’t have even been imagined a few years before that.
As James Shelley reflected in his presentation, these new technologies are changing humanity deeper ways — literally rewiring our minds and cultures to redefine what it means to be human — just as technologies like the printing press and the refrigerator shaped what we are today.
What other opportunities are emerging? What about threats? How should we approach them? Those questions are all answered by social media — which is not to say that social media is the answer in itself. Not at all.
Social media isn’t ‘the’ answer, it’s simply the best way of working the answers out… (It’s also the funnest.)
As Daniele Rossi argued in his presentation, “you have the awesome ability to make positive changes to people’s lives all over the world through your podcast and other social media tools.”
So big, big thanks to Bill Deys for stepping up (again) and leading the way to put this thing together, along with Titus Ferguson, Will Spaetzel, John Leschinski (who really came through with an amazing design), anyone else who contributed – Edward Platero, comes to mind for doing tech support, Rogers Wireless for the stuff, Jason Fredin for all the pictures, everyone who presented…
And in the spirit of PodCamp and social media, I should mention everyone else who came out to participate and learn.
Let’s do this again sometime!
{ 6 comments }
It was nice to meet you this weekend Brian. Thanks for sharing your podcamp London reflections.
I love the idea that social media adds a layer on top of everything else. It’s all gotta be about something to be of value. Although us geeks can spend a few hours Twittering about Twitter, at some point we gotta communicate something other than our methods of communication, or else it’s all just technological autoerotism.
Great recap Brian. Glad you enjoyed the presentation / drink tickets / shuttle (in that order).
Excellent recap, Brian. Glad you liked the session. You’re right – the discussion was great; I was able to just sit back and watch for a good chunk of it.
Two of my biggest highlights (among many) were Jonathan’s youth and social media presentation (for the great argument he made around the generational gap in social media) and Andrew Sinclair’s piece (for the thoughtful discussion among the audience).
The whole event was excellent, though – I look forward to returning in future years.
Sean & Dave – it was great meeting you guys, I’m glad we had you and so many other social media conference vets come to London. I hope you’ll be back (and/or maybe more of us from London will venture out and run into you elsewhere).
Jonathan – Judging by reactions your session was one of the day’s hits.
Phronk – I had to look up “autoeroticism”… Good point and I’m glad you used a word that some people might assume refers to cars (like I did, until I looked it up). Gives me something to keep rambling on…
Compare it to a car show. People take their antique or suped-up cars to those events to show-off and to admire other people’s cars as well. PodCamp has a bit of that with people sharing knowledge they’re proud of and admiring what other people have brought. But at a car show the variety is superficial: a lot of differences in terms of components and aesthetics but at the end of the day everyone drives out single-file and their cars are still the same cars.
At PodCamp you walk into a session or strike up a conversation and it takes a bit of work to figure out where that person is coming from, and we leave a little different from before. We see things from different perspectives. We go home not just with ways to improve our sites’ appearance and performance; we go home with a fresh appreciation of what we’re doing, exactly. Right now I’m sure there are at least a few pclo09 attendees having trouble sleeping because they heard something Saturday and realized, “I never thought of that possibility…” and they’re dreaming of starting whole new projects and practices.
Getting back to Jonathan’s presentation, I can’t help wondering if maybe the relatively low percent of surveyed youth saying using the internet is an important part of their lives is due to their inability to distinguish the internet from anything else. (I.e. I wonder what the result would have been if they were asked how important sleep, food, or breathing is to their everyday lives.)
I love the idea that social media adds a layer on top of everything else. It's all gotta be about something to be of value. Although us geeks can spend a few hours Twittering about Twitter, at some point we gotta communicate something other than our methods of communication, or else it's all just technological autoerotism.
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