At least one person has wondered - is PodCamp Boston, with its giant venue, growing participants list, and improved outreach, still a PodCamp?
Unquestionably. That said, some accommodations need to be made for scale and logistics.
Believe it or not, when Chris Brogan and I created the PodCamp idea last year, we seriously didn’t expect more than 50 people to show up. Around 300 did. This year, we’re going all out to make PodCamp Boston as big as possible.
Is bigger better? Sometimes. PodCamp Boston, and all PodCamps, are community events. In fact, Chris Brogan and I had this discussion just two days ago. Bigger is better from the perspective of connection opportunities for participants. Where else will a high school student run into a CEO of a major conference series and actually talk to him without getting escorted away by bodyguards? In addition to being a learning opportunity, PodCamp should be a hub of its community. PodCamp Philly should be the hub of the new media community in Philly. PodCamp Minnesota should be the hub of the St. Paul area and beyond.
Fundamentally, we come back to the seven 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 and events must be free of charge to attend.
5. 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!
6. The event must be new-media focused - blogging, podcasting, video on the net.
7. The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.
As long as PodCamp Boston or any other PodCamp obeys the 7 rules, it’s a PodCamp in every sense of the word and spirit. See you in Boston!
- Christopher S. Penn
August 16th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Thanks for talking about this, Chris. As part of the PodCamp NYC team last year, we were nervous about the scale, and things turned out surprisingly PodCamp-y and not like some large impersonal conference. I know PodCamp Boston will be the same.
Plus, in a larger sense, If we don’t “break the fishbowl” and bring new people into the UnConference, Podcamp and Social media world,how do we expect our world to grow? How do we make new connections we don’t even know about yet?
We’re honored that PodCamp Philly will be the same weekend as the very first PodCamp, and I’m getting really excited as the last minute things start coming together- What a great time to celebrate!