The Secret Sauce- Cross Pollination

Julien Smith asked a question recently- when did you last have a breakthrough idea?  And he suspected they probably didn’t come from a blog, or the stuff that “everybody” reads.  That got my thinking- Where do I get my best ideas and insights?

I get my breakthrough ideas when I read a book outside my typical area of interest.  I get them when I attend conferences that are not in my usual niche.  I get them after talking to someone who I might initially presume I have nothing in common with, but find out they have lots of interests and experiences I can learn from.

One of my favorite examples has been reading business books- management, marketing- and applying those ideas to everything from teaching to parenting.  Likewise, some of the great educators and parenting books have the best advice on how to manage clients, spouses, colleagues, business partners, and yes, even teenagers.

The “big idea” here is that you get breakthroughs when you can take a principal or thought from one area and then tinker with it and learn to apply it generally.  For example, books like Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath talk about how to make your ideas memorable- that works in every form of communication.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a letter, a piece of ad copy, a flyer, a lecture, a poster- all of those ideas work when applied to any situation where you’re trying to make an impact with your stories and information, regardless of the context.  Books like those of Marcus Buckingham and Tom Rath encourage us to try to find our underlying strengths and talents- and those you can also apply anywhere, once you get a sense of what you’re really good at.

I see the best meetups and conferences- like Tweetups, Web 2.0 Expo and Web 2Open, Podcamps, Barcamps and the like- all succeed because they draw from different verticals.  It’s not all “tech people” or “business people” or “PR and marketing” types,  “government people” or “web heads” or “artists” or whatever label you might want to apply- it’s a bit of all of these folks in one space, teaching and sharing and learning from one another, and realizing that all the great ideas are probably not isolated to your industry.  This requires being open to the fact that an event might be different or weird or even not your cup of tea- but you’ll never know unless you step out of that shell and consider, even for a moment, that you might have something to learn from someone you might not ordinarily run across.

A great example of this was the recent Delaware Tweetup at Kildare’s in Newark, DE. DelTweet 3 was the third such event in Delaware, and it brought out people from local businesses- real estate brokers, business owners, bloggers, web designers, advertisers, designers, tech company folks, consultants, and tons of people in local politics, including Governor Markell, who started his official twitter account at the event.  The event showed everyone there the potential power of social media platforms to bring people together to share ideas and to really try to make a difference and make progress.  In a small state like Delaware, working together is particularly important.  Having the Governor see the diversity of interests and perspectives that can be drawn together by something like a tweetup has got to make bringing people together to tackle tougher issues like jobs and business issues seem a little easier and less daunting.

It’s easy to stay within your niche, within your echo chamber.  But the best ideas usually come from outside or from having a new perspective, often brought in from the periphery.   Sometimes the perspectives might seem naive or uninformed, but we can get people up to speed- it’s their fresh viewpoint and experience we need to hear, to look at our situation through a new lens, and see it with a fresh perspective.  We can also learn that people do care about what we do and the decisions we’re making- and that caring, passion and involvement is the energy we can really harness to make a difference, together.

My best advice to anyone who feels stuck, feeling like they are in a rut, or that the problems in their area never seem to change or improve, is to step out of that bubble a bit, and try a bit of fresh perspective.  Read a book yo might not ordinarily pick up- try something by Seth Godin, for example, or one of the gazillion books on my list on one of the other pages of this blog.   (I have an Amazon affiliate store with these books in it and the link is on that page- I get a few pennies if you buy a book from the link, for full disclosure purposes)

Step out of the usual, and you’ll be amazed how many great ideas you’ll start having once you get a fresh perspective.

Tags: barcamp, cross pollination, Deltweet, made to stick, marcus buckingham, podcamp, strengthfinder, web 2.0 expo, Web2open

When is an Unconference not an Unconference

A friend forwarded me this link to a new Unconference, PR Camp , taking place in New York on Friday, November 20, a day after the Web 2.0 Expo concludes in NYC.  Given that I will be in New York, since the Podcamp Foundation is helping to organize the Open Unconference  sessions at the Web 2.0 Expo, I was initially intrigued.  I love Unconferences, and as Director of Operations for the Podcamp Foundation, I love to see how other people put them on.

Now, I have gotten into many interesting debates with people over what exactly constitutes an Unconference, and where the line between conference and unconference lies.  We talk about scale, what elements are crucial to success, and which ones have some flex in them.

For me, the heart of the Unconference is the sharing.  It’s speakers coming to educate, and to learn themselves, to be participants as much as leaders and educators.  The essence to me is about learning and sharing, and that everyone has something to say and teach someone else.

The rules about “The Law of Two Feet” and being able to leave any sessions, to create your own experience, is important.  The rules about “no pitches” and encouraging people to walk out of any session that becomes an infomercial is important to maintain the community spirit of the event.    The rules about “No Rockstars- everyone is an equal” is important too, as is the fact that anyone can sign up to lead a session, which tend to be more discussion and questions and answer based, rather than lectures.

Barcamps tend to adhere pretty strictly to the rule that anyone can present, and the schedule is created that day- people can sign up for rooms and to lead sessions the morning of, not in advance.  At Podcamp, we bend this rule a bit, and while we maintain open space where people can create content on the fly and in the moment, a good portion of the content, sessions and scheduling are set within a week or two of the event.  Why did we make this choice?

After Podcamp NYC, where we had over 1,000 people sign up for the event and over 100 sessions in rooms of vastly different sizes in which to place these people, we decided that having people sign up for sessions in advance was crucial, as was organizing the sessions into some rough tracks, just to make the event logistics a bit easier for everyone.  For example, one room night have great content about online video, while another focused on Search Engine optimization, and another on marketing your projects on the web.  We found that Unconferences can scale, but logistics and fire codes are still important factors to consider!

The advance scheduling of sessions has had another interesting effect-people who typically might be a bit nervous about this Unconference thing attend, because they know a bit about what to expect in advance.  They come and participate, and many have what I would call a conversion experience, where the differences in what they get out of an unconference compared to a traditional conference changes their minds completely about what a conference can be.

One of the things we say frequently about Podcamp is that at traditional conferences, the hallways and social events can be the best part of the event, and we try to turn the whole conference into the hallway.  Chris Penn often says that we provide the canvas paint and brushes, but the experience and art you take away at the end of the day is up to you- you structure your experience to get the most out of it, rather than having it dictated for you.

So let’s take a look at PR Camp.  It’s one day, limited to 200 people.  So far, so good.   The tickets range from $199 to $295, depending on when you sign up.  That’s way out of the league of the charge of most unconferences, many of which are free.  In fact, Podcamp Philly charges $20, but that money goes not to cover conference costs but to a local community charity, to help further support our community- this year was Covenant House.  Likewise, Podcamp Boston charges $50, some of which covers operation expenses not covered by sponsors, and helps cover things like lunch, with any extra funds going to the Boston Foodbank.  I have a hard time, even knowing what it costs to put on an event in NYC, how this pricing structure is in the Community-based, non-profit realm, which is also at the heart of most unconferences.  Strike One.

The confirmed list of discussion speakers is a list of PR Professionals, but there seems to be no room for anyone in the community to sign up and lead a session.  Strike Two.

I see a lot of people I know and who I know know unconferences participating, so I have some hopes that there will be some “unconference” in this event, but from the outside, it looks pretty much like a regular old conference to me.

I know that there are things the Unconference movement can bring to make any old conference better and more productive.  But if you are going to call yourself a “camp”, if you are going to adopt the name unconference, particularly if you are in Public Relations, you have got to realize you are treading in shark-infested waters.  Your PR brethren may not understand the difference, but there are legions of geeks who do who also consult to marketing and PR firms about the social web, and this is pretty much a poor PR move if ever there was one.

And if I think this use of the terms Camp and Unconference is over the line and not appropriate for this conference, being the poster child of the Hybrid Conference myself and constantly getting heat from Barcamp folks about it, all I can say is: batten down the hatches and good luck.  It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Tags: barcamp, chris penn, christopher Penn, podcamp, PR Camp, unconference

Things to know about Podcamp

This year, we seem to be getting lots of questions and confusion about the difference between Podcamps and Barcamps. So I thought I’d do a brief post here so everyone is clear.

1.Podcamp is Not Barcamp. This is a biggie.  Barcamp veterans often write me and say that they think Podcamp is not a “true” unconference because we have altered the format to be a bit more of a bridge between a Barcamp Unconference and a regular old conference.  To be honest, this seems like a silly debate to me.  The decisions on how a Podcamp differs from a Barcamp, which I’ll discuss below, were made to help make the events accessible and comfortable for people who are used to regular conferences, while maintaining the community feel and the basic rules of Unconferences.

2. The Podcamp Rules (Click here to read Chris Penn’s Excellent Blog post on this subject)

Here are the Six Rules of PodCamp:

1. All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
2. All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
3. All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
4. 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!
5. The event must be new media/digital media focused – blogging, podcasting, video on the net, social networks, etc.
6. The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.

3.  The way we do Session Planning.

For most Podcamps, we set up a wiki or Google Form where people can sign up to speak in advance- once the spots are filled, they are filled.  We also attempt to leave at least one set of rooms open for people choosing to add content the day of the event, Bar-Camp Style, or to extend conversation sstarted in sessions.

The reason we allow pre-planned sessions is that it gives people an idea of what to expect at an event, and whether they should sign up or not.  Surprisingly, many people don’t want to commit to attending an event where they don’t know who is speaking, or on what topic!   This tweak has actually been shown to help boost attendance at Podcamps, and aids the organizers immensely when planning for any swag or amenities they might provide.  It also helps potential sponsors have a better idea of what Podcamp is about and thus make a more informed decision about their sponsorship investment in the community.

4. We don’t “vote” on sessions to decide whether or not they should be presented. While some events, like South by Southwest take suggestions or submissions for sessions and then let the community vote for what they want to see, we don’t.  As a result, Podcamp is not a popularity contest, but if you want to present, it’s always prudent to register as a speaker and submit your session as early as possible.

Venues do not have infinite space, and we have a limited number of sessions available over the course of a weekend.  Sessions are usually 30 to 45 minutes long rather than rapid fire, five minute presentations.  So with limited physical space and limited time, we can’t always accomodate everyone who wants to speak.  This can lead to disappointment for people who don’t feel they were warned that sessions spaces were getting tight, but the lesson here is that the early bird gets the worm and those who procrastinate may lose out on opportunities.

5. Unlike Barcamp, we don’t use the “morning of” sign up for sessions. As discussed above, many podcamps, but not all, have moved away from the day of sign up for sessions.  Often, this is to avoid the chaos of hundreds of people gathered around a whiteboard, or problems caused by being unable to access an online schedule.  Because our attendees are computer and internet afficianados, their ability to crash and slow internet connectivity is close to legendary.  All of these folks  in one spot often leads to connectivity issues, even with robust wi-fi systems.

6. Some Podcamps charge an admissions fee. Podcamp started out as a free to attend conference like Barcamp.  But after we found that only about half on the people signing up to attend Podcamp were showing up, several Podcamps, including Podcamp Boston and Podcamp Philly have instituted a nominal fee.  This has raised attendance rates to well over 80%, making planning for space and for events much easier and much more predictable.  The admissions fees are used, typically, either to pay for event-related expenses like facility rental and insurance, or some have donated the admissions fees to charitable causes.  In either case, the fees are well below typical conference fees and we have yet to have people question the value proposition.

I understand that Podcamp is not everyone’s idea of an unconference, and some of the community-organized features can frustrate those expecting more of a professional conference experience.  I look at Podcamp as being partly a laboratory, we are not only are learning from each other during the event, but with each version, we try new things and make improvements to try to do better each and every time.

The Organizers are volunteers, and do this for the love of the community and their belief in the experience that Podcamp delivers.  It is not a profit making enterprise, but seeks to run budget neutral for each event.  The organizers from each community conference live in the community and the surrounding area, and while the Podcamp Foundation has set forth the rules for what constitutes a Podcamp and what does not, the formal affiliation between events remains largely in name and spirit only.

While the Directors of the Foundation, including myself, Chris Penn and Chris Brogan, strive to provide advice and guidance for any Podcamp or potential Podcamp organizer, we are not directly involved in producing Podcamps outside of those we have always been associated with at this point in time.  I’m happy to help anyone start a Podcamp in their area, and we are currently working on an e-book in our “free” time to try to make this process easier.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions about Podcamp I can answer in the comments, and I look forward to seeing you at Podcamp Boston and/or Podcamp Philly.

Tags: barcamp, chris brogan, chris penn, podcamp, podcamp philly, unconference

Cafe Cultures and Social Media

Chris Brogan has talked about cafe-shaped conversations, and how conversations between businesses and the public need to become a bit more intimate, like the kind of conversations you might have in a Parisian cafe.  Having just come from a trip to Paris, Spain and Italy, I saw a bit of how this culture works first hand, and I think it has implications on how we use social media in this country and beyond.

In the many cities we visited in Europe, there are cafes everywhere.  They are places for a quick coffee and snack, places to share food and conversation, places to relax.  In Spain and Italy, the Siesta is still practiced- shops and businesses close mid-day for about two to three hours everywhere, and people take walks, have lunches, go home and spend some time with family, before returning to work.  Mealtime is typically 9 pm or later- if you try to eat at Western hours of even 7 or 8 pm, restaurants are empty and they look at you as an oddity. (They must all think Americans are like elderly people trying to get the early-bird special at Denny’s.)  I rarely saw any “to-go” bags, boxes or cups, except for the occassional Starbucks in Paris.  Everyone sits or stands at a counter and enjoys their espresso, chats with friends or the barrista and then goes on with their business.

There is a culture that develops around these small establishments.  There is pretty clearly a regular clientel in many of them, and people greet each other with familiarity and joy.  There is a community that has developed, and you could say that cafes are like religion- they have a ritual and a pattern that brings structure to life.

What struck me is how much of this is missing in America.

We don’t have the corner bar or pub where people congregate after work to relax in most areas.  In the suburbs, where you have to drive everywhere, you don’t have the same logistics that make this kind of neighborhood social gathering point a regular part of the commuity- the closest we get is pick-up line at our local schools, or perhaps the playground, and this tends to be limited to moms and kids below age ten- what happens to everyone else and their needs?  There’s the kids’ sport teams, and maybe the gym, but many of these activities don’t really encourage a bonding and growth of community in the same way relaxing with coffee in a cafe does.

In the U.S., we tend to go home and shut our doors.  We get in our cars and don’t ride public transport.  We don’t have to interact with people, and we seem to take the “home is our castle” myth to its logical conclusion- our homes and apartments are bastions to keep the world out and our possessions in, and once we enter, we roll up the drawbridge and don’t let anyone in.

As a result, social media tools, like Facebook, Twitter and more serve the function of the corner pub for many of us.  We can catch up with friends in far-flung places in just a few minutes.  We may twitter about the mango salsa at our local place, but this piece of simple information creates that “cafe-shaped” pieces of information we would exchange if we actually were sitting at a pub with each other after work.  Not all information is business related, but some is. Some exchanges are like pointing people to the great sale at the mall, or the best recipe for curry, or what you’re reading.  Not all exchanges are merely background life information, but some of this information is still useful- it’s what we would talk about, face to face.  We find out who hangs out with whom.  We find out where are friends are and what their doing- we stay connected in a very ambient way, like we would if we saw our friends for coffee  in person a few times a week.  And while it may not be the “highest” or “best” use of any of these communication tools and channels, it serves a very real purpose to help us get to know each other, well in advance of any real-world meeting.

I suspect there will be some differences in adoption rates of social media  in places where cafe-shaped conversations are already a part of daily life, because the need it fills is very different.  Social is already a part of their lives; they just want the media part, to amplify the messages and expand the audience beyond the narrow focus of the cafe. Regardless of the availability of technology, wifi, and the like, the cultural reasons for adopting online communication are simply different.

By seeing how different the cafe culture is in Europe, I wonder how, or if, we can ever breech this gap and begin to create stronger “real world” local communities, when so much of it is transferring into a virtual space and away from the real world.  Group-working environments like Philly’s Independents Hall and the communities we begin to bring together through Podcamp and Barcamp events help make the virtual actual.  It gives the local community a cafe, if you will, where we can gather and share, and hopefully extend that to a more regular relationship, and will go beyond needing an event, a party or big occassion to pry people out of their homes and interact.

The power of knowing so many people, literally all over the Country and all over the World, and having a sense of that cafe-sized conversation almost daily is amazing, yet it never can completely replace the power of Coffee and Croissants.  The person to person, face to face interaction, the power of the handshake – that is still a very important part of maintaining and extending relationships.

And all the Facebook coffee and drinks won’t replace a cappucino and a smile from a friend at Cafe de la Paix.

Tags: barcamp, cafe shaped conversations, chris brogan, cultural differences, eurpoe, independent's hall, indyhall, podcamp, pubs, social media