My presentation for Podcamp Boston 6 is entitled Business for Nerds.  As part of my presentation(s), I always try to give “take home” notes and resources to help people not only remember what we covered, but the things they can do after the session to implement some of the ideas we spoke about.  You can download my Business for Nerds: Resources for Businesses here.  It contains online resources including helpful podcasts, links to business templates and calculators, books to read, and the Ten Things Most People Forget to Do.

Entrepreneurship is tougher than you think.  By working for yourself, you have freedom, but you also have to fill all the roles in a business that are often filled with others  in larger businesses.  Add in that in a one man band, some of these tasks will inevitably fall outside your traditional skill sets and talents, and you’ll quickly understand why at least having information about what you might not know or have fully considered, will be important.  I hope you’ll get an idea of where folks typically run into problems in their small business ventures, and how to make sure you know where those holes are, long before they swallow you up or cause you headaches.

Please leave feedback here about the session and the handout, and what you find most useful.  I really value the feedback, as well as sharing what small business problems you may have encountered- let me know if I can help!

“The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.”

Steve Jobs

The web encourages and feeds the short attention span.  There’s always new information, coming through the fire hose, faster than we can consume it.  But as someone said recently- Information isn’t scarce- it’s knowledge and wisdom we really have to worry about.

Information has become abundant, but how to turn that information into something worth far more is harder to find.  More than ever, we need guides to help us digest everything we can find out via a search engine, into useful packages of curated information you can do something with.

I think many people get burned out from the web and social web because it seems like so much information, with a low signal to noise ratio.  At dinner the other night, I was trying to explain to a College professor I know why he would or would not find value in Twitter.  As a mere cost/benefit ratio, Twitter can certainly be noisy compared with a discussion with colleagues at the office, or reading a trade journal for  pure “useful” and related information you could use.  I’m not really sure everyone who reads a trade journal actually gets all that much ROI out of every article, just like many tweets are mere fluff to me.  But as a quick, efficient way to spread or broadcast information to engaged parties, it works well.  It can connect people in real time all over the world.  There are many tools that do this of course- google groups, the telephone, email…. In the end, the discussion became one of using a tool that was appropriate for the task at hand, rather than merely switching out one tool for another, on whim.

The reason I’m attending Podcamp Boston this weekend and helping organize Podcamp Philly October 1 & 2 is that I always find people at Podcamps who help me with these processes- both curation of information and selecting the right tool for the job at hand.  Whether it was Mitch Joel at the first Podcamp discussing Personal Branding with CC. Chapman, or Mark Blevis and Larry Lawfer discussing how to conduct a great interview, or the search sessions at Podcamp Philly, I’m always learning something new.  It may be a nuanced look at something I’ve taken for granted.  It might be a short-cut that I never knew existed, saving me time and money.   I find that I learn so much from talking with other people, discovering new resources, and simply meeting others from diverse backgrounds, that I always come away with something new to try and experiment with, that will make my investment of time and money more than worth while.

Over time, Podcamp has remained a vibrant place, with even more new faces each year than before.  While I understand the “old timers” feeling as if there’s nothing new they can learn from the sessions, the teaching and sharing with folks for whom it is new and exciting is still a spectacular experience.  Every year, someone comes up and thanks us, with a sparkle and electricity in their look that makes everything that goes into putting on the conference worthwhile.  And that’s why I keep coming back each year.  It’s not  revisiting old territory- it’s rediscovering the aspects you took for granted your first time down the path, and appreciating what it can do all the more.

I hope to see you at an upcoming Podcamp.  Let me know why you are thinking of going, or why you no longer attend.  What do you hope to learn?  Why are these community experiences important to you?  I know my reasons, but I’d love to hear and share yours as well.

For example, Hoffman Digital Media has several arms.  One is consulting to a select group of businesses on a variety of subjects; one involves public speaking and community event production and management; the last involves writing, ranging from books to material to act as “take homes” from my presentations, to this blog.  All of these things make up the whole of the business, but when I think about marketing Hoffman Digital Media, I have to make sure I keep the 4 P’s in mind- product, price, place, and promotion.  When I decide to attend a conference or event, is it a place where I can promote any one of my “products”?  Does it align with my current goals or direction for the business?  Are my prices in line- or moreover, is what I’m doing profitable- do I know my current burn rate or cost of taking the work versus amount I get charge for doing it?  If I am going to an event in hopes of promoting my business, is this a place to meet customers, or to merely network with other industry professionals?  How do I want to promote myself?  Are business cards enough?  Do I want to speak at more events?  Do I need handouts, books or other things to act as a form of souvenir, so to speak?  (And, is this souvenir a product in and of itself?)  By thinking through these basics, you can have a much better idea of whether or not attending an event with its direct costs and its indirect costs of taking you out of the office are balanced by the trade off in benefit as measured against the 4 p’s.  This is something everyone, almost regardless of your vertical, should take into consideration when attending an event because you think “it will be good for business.”  How will it be good?  What do you need to get out of it to determine whether its successful?

Chris walks his readers through many of the white level issues you need to think about when addressing questions about online marketing and how you hope any aspect of it will benefit your business, and since it can be read easily on any computer or device that has a kindle app, it’s pretty much universally available.  I promise you, you won’t regret picking one up.

This has been a big week for me.

After organizing Podcamps – digital media community unconferences – for the past few years, we were asked to organize the Open sessions at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City.  This was a tremendous experience that felt a bit like graduation day.  I think we found that you can create intimate learning and sharing spaces within a big conference- and how to engage, even as others found the larger conference colder and less friendly than they may have hoped.  For those that attended, it was a smaller and more intimate podcamp-like experience with some of the most compelling content, ranging from Augmented Reality, Eric Skiff and Bre Pettis talking about NY Resistor and great projects like the Makerbot coming out of it, to talks by Julien Smith of Trust Agents fame, Mitch Joel, best-selling author of Six Pixels of Separation, JC Hutchins, Dave and Lynette Young- and more- I could list the whole schedule here, every session truly worth every minute of your attention and time.  (Special thanks to Li Evans for pinch-hitting at the last moment…)

Then, on Sunday, November 22, I walk/ran the Philadelphia half-marathon.

Having been a desk jockey for quite some time, starting to get in shape and train for this event began in August.  I started working out with a trainer twice a week, and walking almost daily on a treadmill.  I’ve made a lot of progress in a short period of time.  Today, the day after, I am reaping the benefits in any and all shortcomes in my training.  And this is all my fault, of course- not doing enough course-like road work in advance, not doing enough distance, not realizing that all the signs about “pain is a sign of weakness and fear leaving the body” would have infinitely more meaning to me today than they did when I saw the signs along the course at mile 8 or so.

At 43, the fact that I took on this challenge at all is the real miracle, as John Bingham said.  I certainly don’t expect that I’m going to become a world class runner any time soon.  But I am working my way now through physical as well as mental challenges in ways I could not have fully predicted or appreciated beforehand.

And what I’m learning from all of this is that friendship and community is REALLY important, online and offline.

Friends came to NYC under their own steam, paying for their own hotels, to speak at a conference because I asked them to.  I am grateful to all of them, because the success is the sum of everyone’s effort- I just got the opportunity to provide the platform.

The success in finishing the half marathon also had a large amount to do with friends.  Elizabeth Stitson and Letisha Baldwin were also crazy enough to sign up to do this with me, and make it to the end.  Elizabeth was bleeding through her shoe like Curt Shilling in the World Series, but still made it happen.  Jen Yuan let me stay with her in Philly and was out there to cheer us on throughout the course, which was just terrific!  I tweeted out my progress which also went to my Facebook page, and a huge variety of friends from across the country sent on encouraging messages that I got when I needed them most- those times where the temptation to sit down, to stop moving were like a siren’s song.  It’s amazing how that cheering and encouragement, from friends online, and even from strangers on the side of the course- the high fives and more- really make a difference when you are fighting pain like you have never felt before.

I have a suspicion that like childbirth, the pain I feel now will soon recede into a memory.  But the support of my community when I needed it most won’t soon be forgotten.

Like John Bingham, for me, the finishing and doing well were all about keeping momentum going once I got started.  Taking on these challenges in the first place, and the audacity to dream that they could be accomplished took more courage and replacing fear with optimism.  (Okay, sometimes also with a certain naive-ness and not knowing how difficult or painful it would be when I decided it was a great idea…)

Bu t whether the challenge has been physical, mental, or largely a combination of both, the strength to get through has been helped tremendously by my friends and community.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I truly have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and will be thinking of you all on that day when we count our blessings.  More than ever, I feel truly grateful and thankful for a community that is so supportive, giving, kind, and a fountain of possibility and encouragement.  That’s a lot to be thankful for.

Yesterday, for the first time, I attended BlogHer. Blogher DC was part of BlogHer’s Reach Out tour- smaller, local versions of their bigger annual blogging and business conferences. I estimate there was probably about 250 women in attendance, and about 8 men, maximum. (As an aside, this is probably about the same proportion of men to women at most of the Knitting/Fiber festivals like Maryland Sheep & Wool or Stitches East, based on my past experience- not exactly testosterone friendly events.) I understand the GirlPower aspects of the conference, the striving to identify our voices and perhaps even the perception of not being taken as seriously as men are in the tech world. But I wonder if the name of the conference “warns off” the guys to an extent where they don’t feel welcome, and therefore, half the conversation we want to have is missing.  This, and the all-Women speaker policy doesn’t exactly invite men to participate- it’s pretty much excluding them from the conference and saying “you don’t belong here”.

This is not necessarily a bad thing- I think there are plenty of ways to define and divide a community.  I think having women-oriented events are empowering.  It’s a great opportunity for sponsors to reach a very specific market.  It gives opportunity for many women to speak freely and have a chance to sit on high-powered panels.  But then again, since I have run many Podcamps where anyone can speak, I haven’t found women prohibited from participating in any of these formats.

I  wonder if the all-women format does make BlogHer more niche, than say, South by Southwest or other tech conferences.

A friend of mine attended the BlogHer Boston Reach Out this past weekend, and ended up having a conversation with someone who wondered why the social media guys in the Boston area didn’t attend the conference. I had this same conversation with DigitalSista on Twitter at BlogHer DC, and extended it during the cocktail party. She remarked to a few of the male attendees who went out to catch a few minutes of playoff baseball that it was “funny how you guys continue to bail when they are out numbered by strong women in the social media space.” I tweeted back that I didn’t think BlogHer did much to make them feel welcomed, and DigitalSista replied that she didn’t feel the guys in the social media space did much to make women feel welcomed.

This has been so counter to my whole experience in the space, I was shocked. In fact, from my very first New Media conference, Podcamp Boston, Chris Brogan and Chris Penn made me feel very much at home. I was overwhelmed by getting to meet people like CC Chapman, and CC simply gave me a big hug, made me feel like I had something to say. All of these guys are not only my personal friends now, but they are colleagues. Subsequently, I’ve had the pleasure to work with others like John Havens, Howard Greenstein, Eric Skiff, Dan Patterson, and others, and have never felt like I am somehow “the little mommy” or anything other than a total equal.

I have a ton of male friends in this space, where, traditionally, men have tended to dominate, and I have never once felt marginalized in any way, shape or form. The only time I ever feel that I am treated differently is when they make sure someone walks me to my car after a late night event, or offer to carry something heavy for me. That’s manners, not condescension. And when I had an incident where I was accused of being a bitch for enforcing rules at Podcamp NYC, each and every one of these colleagues weighed in positively, supportively, without asking, on my behalf. I could not have a better or more loyal group of friends, male or female, period.

So I was pretty taken aback that whether or not guys were attending BlogHer was even an issue. If they want to come, fantastic! But I didn’t expect it, for the exact same reasons I don’t want to join a fraternity, which raising two sons has given me some perspective on, frankly. If the purpose of the conference is to reach out to women and that demographic, it’s kind of silly to think that all the male bloggers and web types in the area would be dying to come on down.

The event knows this, and the sponsors do as well. This is an event where door prizes are things like MAC makeup bags and giveaways like fuzzy slippers. Meals are salad and soup, not burgers and fries. It’s a girl conference, playing to a girl crowd, and that’s fantastic.

But if you are creating a sorority, with the intent of supporting women in the blogosphere, why should anyone be surprised the guys don’t automatically come and join?

Michael Gray wrote a post this summer about whether BlogHer conferences were sexist by design. The New York Times wrote a big article about the BlogHer conference, that generated a lot of blowback in part because it appeared not in the news or tech section of the paper, but the Style section. You can read more about that controversy in this article on Salon.com, and there’s a great video by Rebecca Traister from Salon about the controversy here.

Leslie Stahl, who has started a social network for women called WowOWow, Women on the Web, said in her presentation that she never would have predicted back in the 1970′s that the US still wouldn’t have a female president by 2008.  She would have said that was simply crazy.  But politics is a field where you have to be smart and aggressive, and many women have a hard time walking the aggression/not being labelled a B&^%ch line.  In fact, one of the things DigitalSista mentioned is how hard it was for many women to walk into a room of men and feel comfortable.  Well, isn’t that exactly the reason why more women aren’t in politics?

I don’t think it’s fair to blame men for this entirely.  I think women have to go to events and just assume they belong, speak intelligently, and get taken seriously because they are smart and serious people.  That way, people see Smart and intelligent first, not all the sexism stuff.  Even when working for such male bastions as the NFL, I’ve found leading with smarts is the quickest way to get respect and a seat at the table than anything else.  If women have a self-esteem or feel like the other, there’s not a lot other people can do, men or women, to make that go away.

Yes, as more women enter new media and do well, as more role models exist, the more people feel that this is a place where they belong and can succeed.  I agree the trailblazers make it easier for everyone else.  But I think the most important thing women have to stop doing is assuming they have to ask for permission or await an engraved invitation.  We have to be bold and take charge.  Assume you belong.  And go and prove you can make significant and positive contributions.

The biggest obstacle to the women’s movement is women sometimes.  Falling back on being shy is a bad thing.  If you want to have a voice, you need to use the one you have.  We have to have the self-confidence to participate and run things as well, if not better than our male counterparts.  We have to stop looking to men to act as our ambassadors, but look to them as colleagues and mentors.  Men don’t marginalize us- we marginalize ourselves by assuming we’re not good enough.

This means doing some hard work and finding how you can best learn and contribute, rather than assuming it’s someone else’s responsibility to make you feel welcome.  We can hope men decide to be as charming and welcoming as the best hostess on the planet, but that won’t make it happen any sooner.  But by showing them how much we have to offer- that makes us not a curiosity, but a force to be reckoned with.

BlogHer is fantastic and a great opportunity for women to feel safe and venture out into public a bit more- but the true success will be when there’s not a need to segregate events based on gender- when gender becomes just a context or a point of view, and not a be-all and end-all.  And I think that was the original point of the women’s movement.  But since gender is a biological fact we can’t change, let’s own it, accept it, and make it just like having brown hair or blue eyes- part of our identity, but not the whole thing.

Please add your own favorite sessions, videos, links, and the like in the comments and we’ll make this an interactive Pixelated Podcamp experience, just like the real thing.

Introduction- What Is Podcamp? Video by Larry Lawfer of YourStorys, featuring Chris Penn & Chris Brogan


The History of Podcamp as of the Summer of 2007 as Podcamp approached its first birthday
video by Larry Lawfer of YourStorys, featuring Chris Penn & Chris Brogan:

What is Social Media? Video by Larry Lawfer of YourStorys, featuring Chris Penn and Chris Brogan

And so you can get the vibe of being there- Video by Chris Penn of Day 3 of Podcamp Philly 1.0:

Track 1. Storytelling- How to Get The Point Across-

Part 1- four part series with Ira Glass from This American Life:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7KQ4vkiNUk[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmtwa1yZRM&feature=related[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE&feature=related[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9blgOboiGMQ&feature=related[/youtube]

Interview Technique- Ira Glass talking about Terry Gross, and Terry herself

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_cNwWkR1U&feature=related[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46NNgpMKqA0&feature=related[/youtube]

Track 2- Setting the Stage for New Media:

1. BBC 4 Audio series- Douglas Adams- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Future-four shows, dealing with changes coming in Broadcasting, publishing, music and one on technology convergence. While these were done in 2001, they still can help anyone get their minds around the huge changes happening and why.

2. The Common Craft Show- Lee LeFever does a great job with quick, simple videos, explaining everything from wikis, to RSS to social bookmarking and beyond in a straightfoward, anyone will get it way. I regularly share these with teachers I know, who are struggling to figure out what tool is good for what. He has some other good shows on everything from the Election to compact flourescent bulbs, and rather than making this this world’s longest blog post, I’ll direct you over to his site.

3. Shift Happens-[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U[/youtube]

4. The Machine is Us[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g[/youtube]

Track 3- Social Media- What You Need to Know:

1. (audio) Julien Smith Explains Social Media from September, 2006 on the Canadian Podcast Buffet

Track 4- Business and Marketing:

Malcolm Gladwell- consumer choice and curiosity

Steven Levitt On Carseats- why we guess wrong a lot

Larry Lessig on How Law is Strangling Creativity

Track 4- Education

(audio)This American Life Episode entitled Going Big- the first segment on Harlem’s Children’s Zone helps show that earlyintervention is really the key to changing education outcomes in a big way.

A Vision of Students Today- Digital Ethnography[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=user[/youtube]

Sir Ken Robinson’s Talk from TED – on why we need to value creativity in education

Richard St. John- Success in 8 words and three minutes:

David Eggers- Let’s Creatively Engage with Local Public Schools:

Dan Gilbert- Why Are We Happy- All the brain geekiness I love:

5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children DO- Tinkering School!

Miscellaneous Track of Goodness

Presentation Boot Camp- Battledecks from Podcamp Philly- Video by Jonny Goldstein

Presentation Hacks- Chris Brogan from Podcamp Pittsburgh

Half-Baked- Entrepreneurial Improv Theater- Hosted by Eric Skiff at Podcamp Philly 1.0- presentation by Chris Penn & Whitney Hoffman- Amish Chris Brogan

Economy

3. This American Life- Another Frightening Show About the Economy (audio)

4. Talk Radio News Service- Interview with Christopher S. Penn by Dan Patterson on the Lending crisis

Also check out NPR’s Planet Money

Chris Brogan, Chris Penn, Mark Blevis and others have been talking about how we can adapt podcamp to meet the changing needs of the community, and how we are exploring “verticals” or topic-based podcamps, to theme an event, so to speak.  This was first tried out by Vivian Vasquez and Andy Bilodeau at Podcamp Edu, and we’re trying to expand the concept at Podcamp NYC 2.0 being held at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY on April 25 & 26th, 2008.

Last night, the Podcamp Toronto team did a great job talking with the community about the pros and cons of their event, and I think this is a key aspect of Podcamp to share with others- what went well, what didn’t, what’s worth repeating, what’s worth reworking.  To that end, I thought I’d blog about what I think are the most successful elements at Podcamps so far (that I know about- I am sure I am missing something), and I would love it if you would include your thoughts about what you’ve liked the most if you’ve been to an event, or what’s been the most disappointing, so we can work to tweek the model for the benefit of the whole community.

1. The Power of Coffee and Donuts: Jay Moonah and his team at Podcamp Toronto pioneered this simple thing and it really helps people start chatting before the sessions begin and people are milling about with registration.  Ideally, putting the coffee as close as possible to registration keeps everybody contained and talking, and this brings a nice social aspect to Podcamp while everyone is still searching for conciousness.  I like to think we did a great job getting the Starbucks “open bar” sponsored generously by Comcast Interactive at Podcamp Philly, but we were blessed by a Starbucks in the lobby of the building where we held the event, and really, I was copying Jay.

2. Tracking: I look at this like storytelling- somehow, stringing sessions together, in one room, so that from the beginning of the day to the end, you could stay in that room and get a whole complete picture of say, video podcasting and production.   It gets tricky scheduling sessions and working out the details, but when possible, making a room a “marketing room” or How To” room makes it easier to find what you are looking for if you are bouncing between sessions, or looking to learn something in more depth- you can construct a workshop-like experience between the offered sessions.  This puts a bit of a burden on the organizers to check the sessions list and maybe even asking some people who are coming to speak or facilitate a conversation, to fill in any missing spots, but I look at this as meeting the needs of attendees, not trying to turn Podcamp into a Conference.

3. Keeping People Social: Feeding a variant number of people at Podcamp can be tricky, especially when registered attendees versus the number who actually show up is rather unpredictable.  What seems to work is to let everyone grab lunch on their own with whomever they’ve met, but have an evening social gathering where everyone is invited, allowing people to really talk and meet in a way that may not have been possible during the day and in sessions.

There is a growing number of younger people starting to attend Podcamps, making it necessary to consider a non-bar venue to accommodate those under 21.  I think the best idea on this was floated last night by the Podcamp Toronto team-maybe scope out a group dinner place that will accommodate everyone if they wish, and let any pub-activities or concerts happen afterwards.

It’s clear people want a “structured” way to meet up with others in the evenings, at least for part of the time.

 4. Keeping People Together: This is a logistics thing as well.  There was some thought that the great Zero to Podcasting sessions at Podcamp Toronto isolated this track from the rest of the conference.  This may have been due to the fact that the room was on a separate floor from the bulk of the conference session rooms, but it also created a sense of community and comraderie maybe a bit separate from the rest of the conference.  I hope to have some hands-on, how-to sessions at Podcamp NYC, but I am looking at trying to make sure that these sessions are right next door to some more “advanced” sessions, so the newer people do not feel segmented out of the larger community, and the more experienced people also feel free to come, learn, explore and help mentor others.

5. The Mentor Room:  Tommy Vallier successfully pulled off a session called the Mentor Room, I suspect similar to what I tried to have happen at Podcamp Boston, which I wanted to call “Stump the Chumps” (after the segment on Car Talk from NPR) where veteran podcasters and new media folk would answer any question at all from the audience, brainstorming solutions for them on the spot.  I think we’re going to see if we can’do this for Podcamp NYC, both for a longer period of time, and to help understand the problems and confusion some people face when they decide to give podcasting. video, or new media a try.  I think this will serve to make veterans better teachers, as well as answering the very real and frustrating problems people face when confronted with “all this web stuff”.

6. Hyper-local:  I think any Podcamp should be about the local community.  It should be about bringing local people to your event,  and growing the community from there, rather than expecting the handful of visible “regulars” to attend every podcamp. For Podcamp Philly, this meant involving the local tourism folks, having events in different parts of town, so people got to see Philly as well as the conference, and developing a local sponsor base.

Why?

I met Linda Mills at Podcamp Toronto- she lives about 15 miles from my home, if that.  I met many more people from Philly at the originial Podcamp Boston than I had met around Philly proper. It is absurd that I had to go to another country to meet one of my neighbors with similar interests, or drive 500 miles or more to meet my local folks.  Podcamp Philly and BlogPhiladelphia were events about bringing our community together, and I think it succeeded on many of those metrics.

So these are a few of the things I think help make Podcamps special and worth-while events to hold in your town or area.  But what do you think?  What makes Podcamp special and worthwhile to attend?  What works well for you and what doesn’t?  We can only improve if you share your thoughts and we make Podcamp what it has always strived to be- a community based new media conference- about the people even more than the cool tech tools.

….Phase 1: We find a place where there can be a multi-day, even weeklong retreat of New media Folk and their families.  Kinda like the Podcamp Cruise idea, only somewhat more back to basics.  Shoot, I’d have everyone here at my house, but I only have non-tent space for about 7 people.  Let’s not even worry about formal sessions at all, let’s just get together with the people we like most and spend time getting to really know each other, and take these online relationships and solidify them in the real world.  Most of us don’t live close enough to let backyard barbeques or margarita parties do the trick, so we need to meet someplace and do the background work we miss in this fast-ramp-up to friendship world.

…Phase II-teach others, maybe even kids and adolescents about new media.  You could do a crash course, a summer camp, an immersion- where we take newbies and let them loose on social media with guidance.  Project based things like LOLSaur. Workshops.  Anything we can dream up, we make happen.

…Phase III- Figure out a way to index people’s knowledge and talents in a way that makes their skill sets easy to find and access.  Let’s face it.  We all have a virtual roladex in our brains of who we’d at least start calling if we needed a certain kind of help, but I have no idea if the people I’d call are the same as the people you’d call or not.  I wish I had some greater database to see which people have which mad skills, that even if I don’t need to tap them today, I could keep track of this information for times when I’m asked for a referral, as well as for my own purposes.

…Phase IV- Find a way to aggregate the talent base at our disposal to take on some really great, larger than life project.  I’d like to do something that makes a tangible difference in the world this next year.

Anyway, these are my post-Turkey, too much sugar dreams.  What are yours?  If you could imagine anything happening, what would it be?  What can we do with this amazing community?  How can we share more and make more things happen?  How can we change the World, Together?

At conferences, I check out the stickers on people’s laptops- it’s like looking at a NASCAR vehicle, visual clues about what tools the smartest people I know and respect might be using this week. Yet what I really need is some sort of database that not only tells me what tools are available, but cross compares features, and even gives a pro/con list to help me figure out what’s worth my time and what’s not. I know I’m missing key things in my toolbox. But the learning curve on what will work best for me is still kind of steep.

I’m thinking it might be fun to have a New Media Oracle- like the Oracle at Delphi who could see into the future and predict what you might need or what you should do. Someplace where you could put in some information about yourself, and what you wanted to do, and the Oracle would spit out the latest and greatest tools, sorted by cost/convenience/reviews and point me in the right direction. A Consumer Reports of New Media. SEO optimization makes Google pick the most popular stuff, not necessarily the best, for example, so this won’t work alone for what I’m thinking about.

My time is my most precious resource, and there’s only so much information I can assimilate at one time. I have decent tech skills, but hey, I spent years studying biology and law. That makes me great at understanding things like motivations and outcomes, neurological basis of behavior, but this doesn’t help me read XML like a native or really understand PHP or MySQL.

What kind of resources do you use to find out what other things are out there? Is it magazines or websites like Lifehacker? How do you find what will help you, and how long do you stick with it before reverting to your old ways?

How much of your work flow do you outsource?  How do you manage your time?

Inquiring Minds want to know!

In organizing PodCamp Philly, I’ve found that it is really no different from organizing a golf tournament, bake sale, or bookfair. As much as “open source” means open participation, that doesn’t change the basic fact that someone pretty much has to be in charge of coordinating what’s needed and making sure the boxes are checked.

We have a really great team for PodCamp Philly. I am thrilled to know and work with everyone. But I have also learned that I have to ask for help when I need it, and I have to be able to delegate, making sure whoever gets a job knows what needs to be done and on what timeline. “Just go do it” doesn’t always make others feel empowered and involved. People have to catch the ball and then run with it, too.

Organizing the “un” way is great if everyone is used to “un”. If your team has a lot of people who don’t know each other that well, and come from standard business backgrounds, you need to adapt and have a little more structure. Make sure people feel valued and dole out work and benefits across the board. Value everyone’s input, but be willing to bring it to a decision and close. We’re all busy- keep things short and sweet.

(I adopt Chris Brogan’s Calories in/Calories out system- do the things that add value- those that just keep people busy or suck up too much time with little return- forget ‘em.)

Also remember that when organizing an Unconference, it is all about the community. This often means planting seeds with attendees and potential sponsors early. Things take time to grow and spread, just like kudzu. But just like kudzu, things also will slowly take hold and then experience exponential growth. but you need to hack away at it consistently.

Some of the things we’ve found helpful for spreading the word about Podcamp Philly include:

Engaging the local business, PR and Media community through networking events, groups like Social Media Club, BlogPhiladelphia, and Junto. There are movers and shakers in every community- track them down.

When you send sponsor letters, give the sponsor a reason why this is a good opportunity for them. Can they add value by presenting? Is this a good demographic for them? It should be about asking to help them first, helping you second.

We tried to make our UnConference about Philly as well as Podcamp. Our events are spaced out a reasonable distance in the City, but highlight unique areas and give people a sense of Philly beyond a conference room. Ultimately, we want our local community and those from out of town to have more than a “rubber chicken” convention experience.

Use your local resources. This means if there are colleges in the area, contact faculty and students in Departments that might have an interest- business schools, law schools, engineering, computer science, media, and beyond. look for research topics of faculty and send them an email telling them about the event and why tthey might be interested. Who knows? It could help their research and give you a potential stellar presenter all in one.

As much as possible, use the LEGO approach. I tried to design Podcamp Philly in such a way that the money raised would first go to pay expenses, and then if we got enough money, we could start adding on amenities like “modules” or Legos as time and money allowed. Things like printing and tshirts need lead time- make rational decisions about how long to wait to okay those kind of items. Give sponsors and other people firm deadlines to make decisions and contributions.  Prioritize. Ask for Help. Have a timeline. And be fiscally responsible.

Underpromise and overdeliver. I never promise sponsors or anyone else anything I can’t deliver 100% for sure. If money allows for things like registration kits and schwag, make that a special add on and suprise value add- people will feel like they got a prize inside, and they’ll be more likely to sponsor you or another podcamp in the future.

Don’t pee in the pool, so to speak, and make sponsors feel short-changed. It hurts more than just you and your credibility, although that should be reason enough, right there.

Organize this for the community, not for you. I’m glad there are going to be sessions I can’t wait to see at PodCamp Philly. But the purpose here is to bring our community together – I’m tired of meeting new media people who live in my backyard in cities 6 hours or more away from home, or even in other countries. That’s just crazy.

I’m glad people are getting to know me through PodCamp Philly. But Podcamp Philly isn’t about promoting me, or the LD Podcast, or my blog projects. It’s about the connections, the conversation and communication.

If you think organizing a Podcamp is simply a slick self-promotion tool, you’re crazy. There’s simply too much work to be done, and if it’s all only about you, your motivation will eventually flag- if it’s about everyone else, there will always be a reason to tough it out through the rough spots. You can’t build a team if the only word you know is “I”.

I want to thank everyone involved in making Podcamp Philly such a success.  We had a great community of sponsors we’ll blog about (after I get some sleep…..) a great group of speakers, volunteers, and a group of Organizers that have become really great friends over the past couple months.

Some quick special thanks-

Drew Olanoff- The Rocky Run was inspired- Let’s keep this spirit going and make sure Podcamp isn’t just a once a year event, by getting involved in the community now.   You helped bring on fun sponsors and donors, and helped bring some extra special when we needed it- thank you Dr. D!

Annie Heckenberger, Alex Hillman, Geoff DiMasi  and everyone from Junto and BlogPhiladelphia who made me think I could pull this thing off, got behind it, and helped in big and small ways to make it happen….

To Chris Penn, Steve Garfield, Mark Blevis, CC Chapman, Linda Mills, Lynette Young, Rand, Smitty, Eric Skiff, The KROOSH, and all the other folks who just become part of the community and helped out.  If something needed to be done, you made it happen.  Thanks for being part of my family- I couldn’t ask for better friends.

To Todd, Russ and everyone at UsedWigs.com-  The live participatory art really made Podcamp Philly’s Sunday something special.  Souvenir in french means “to remember”, and your participation in Podcamp gave people very special interactive Souvenirs that will help them always remember you and Podcamp Philly.

And to the organizers who helped make this all happen:

Steve Lubetkin:  You helped with the PR, the Podcasts, and making sure we approached the “grown-ups” and made them aware of Podcamp.  This helped make the event real, and will help even more in future years.

Lisa Marshall: Despite having a chaotic summer and lots of stress, you helped so much in getting Drexel interested in the event, and making sure we kept ourselves realistic.

Alan Chaess- The buttons and badges were such a great idea, and really made the conference feel like a fun event.  You were calm and pitched in, and we knew it would all just work out ok.

Adam Plante-I admire you more and more every day.  You are insightful, and just amazingly calm and just made things happen.  The House of Geek are the go-to guys,  and I hope you know how much I appreciate all you work from designing the website and logos, to taking care of the last minute “help” calls- you were amazing.  Thanks isn’t enough.

Bill Rowland- You came on the team and things went from a “good enough” to a professional standard immediately- I couldn’t have pulled off without you.  You helped with every aspect of communication, to helping with sponsors, to the tshirts and guide, the video- you are an amazing guy, soft spoken about all you did, and I can’t thank you enough.

Jen Yuan – thanks for quietly cleaningup the wiki and really pitching in with the schedule- that was awesome.

MaryHelen Votral – Thanks for stepping up and dealing with registration-You took that whole worry out of my hands, and it worked well and smoothly.

Every one of the organizers brought their own talents to the table. They are stand-up people, and I am so lucky to call them my friends.

Thanks again to everyone-  off to get a little sleep, and then I’ll continue the wrap up.