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Now that I’ve had a couple LONG naps, I have mostly recovered from PodCamp NYC. I wanted to give my take on the event and report a few interesting tid bits and lessons learned.

Attendance/Registration

• 1300 registered online for the event
• 631 people officially signed in at the venue (not sure how many more people came that didn’t sign in)
• This was the biggest PodCamp yet
• At one point we thought we’d be happy to get 350 attendees
• Despite it being a holiday weekend, we still had a large attendance
• Yes, we did realize it was Easter but we scheduled that weekend because that was the only day that The New School, our original venue, was available
• I think one reason we had such a large number of registrants is that we had an easy to use registration form (not everyone is familiar with using a wiki to sign up)

Email List

• Having an email list for PodCamp NYC was invaluable
• Every registrant was added to the email list in order to get important updates
• Next year’s will be that much easier because we already have a list
• The wiki is useful and great, but I highly recommend using an email list as well to communicate details about an event like this

Newbies @ PodCamp

• A lot of people who are brand new to blogging and podcasting come to PodCamps.
• My most attended session (standing room only; people sitting all the way around the wall) was Podcasting, Blogging and RSS Basics
• People need and want basic ground-level information on what podcasting is and how to get started
• I added this session just before the schedule filled up because I wanted to be sure to fill this need
• I think it is important to make sure this kind of content is available at each PodCamp even though it is easy to take for granted and not the sexiest topic

Critical Mass

• There comes a point with an event like this where the buzz hits a critical mass
• After this point, the sponsorship and registrations increase exponentially
• It might come late in the game. Chris Brogan told us this would be the case. I underestimated this statement.
• Sponsorships really increased in the last 10-14 days

Venue

• Educational institutions have been common venues for PodCamps. Sometimes it works well.
• But Universities/colleges come with bureaucracy and red tape. That is just a fact. Be prepared for this when organizing a “camp”.
• There is a cost to “free”. Paying for our venue meant we were paying for a product/service. The New Yorker took really good care of the event because they were being paid to do so

My Table @ PodCamp NYC

• My wife is a superstar. She sat at the table all day long and talked with people. The decision to have a table was very last minute and she really stepped up to the plate.
• We sold 20 or so copies of Promoting Your Podcast
• I answered more questions about podcasting than I can count
• 60 people took their picture at iMac photo booth at my table (I’ll be posting a collage soon)

Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan is a genius (and a superhero). I owe him for two stellar ideas:

1. He suggested that I write my domain name on the box of Krispy Kreme donuts I was walking around with to make friends (no I am not above bribery for friendship, or poisoning depending on how you look at it)
2. He suggested that my wife use Photo Booth on our iMac to make our table more interactive

Wiki

• I used MediaWiki on the PodCamp NYC site because I wanted a wiki that was on our own domain
• MediaWiki is powerful and customizable, but it is not as easy for visitors to use when compared to a hosted solution such as PBWiki.
• Wikis offer many benefits when organizing an event (anyone can improve it and add info), but not everyone understands how to use them. It creates community, but it also puts up usability barriers.

Volunteers and Organizers

• You can never have enough
• I made great friends and worked with very talented people while organizing PodCamp NYC. I hope I still get to associate with them often even though the event is now over.
• Thank you to all those who gave their time/money/talents.

John Havens

John is a star. He worked his butt off. I never felt much stress about the event because he took the brunt of it. He worked way more hours than anyone and brought in by far the most sponsors. Thanks John.

Why I Helped Organize PodCamp

I posted this in a comment on Paul Colligan’s blog, but I thought I would post it here as well.

1. I wanted a podcasting event in NYC
2. To raise awareness about an industry that is my life in a key city (that I live in)
3. To volunteer some time to something I love
4. Extend my brand and build awareness of what I do
   (GASP! I’m not 100% altruistic)
5. Networking (I have met at least two very important contacts as a result of being a PodCamp organizer. They will directly impact the success of my business.)

OK. This post is way too long now. But I needed a brain dump. More to come on PodCamp NYC including slides from one of my presentations, unconferences vs. conferences and a list of my favorite posts and media coming out of PodCamp NYC.

Photos credits in order of appearance:

1. Daniel Alexander/FramesMedia.com
2. CC Chapman
3. CC Chapman
4. CC Chapman
5. Daniel Alexander/FramesMedia.com

This entry was posted on Monday, April 09th, 2007 and is filed under Podcasting Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.