Podcamp Boston is happy to welcome Microsoft bizSpark as a sponsor to our community and event this year.

Please take a few minutes to stop by and chat with Brian and Chris at their booth!

Podcamp Boston 4 is pleased to announce that BluBrry, a social podcasting community that connects podcast producers, advertisers and everyone looking for great independently produced content, has sponsored the event.

Please take a moment and stop by their booth at PCB4 and find out more about their services!

We’re pleased to announce that email service provider and marketing professionals Blue Sky Factory has joined us as a Sponsor of Podcamp Boston 4.

Take a moment to stop by their booth at PCB4 to find out more about their services and amazing team!

One of the most powerful things about the talks at the TED conference is the restriction that speakers keep their presentations incredibly tight, to 18 minutes of time. Never letting a good idea go to waste, we ask that discussion leaders keep any structured material – presentational stuff – to a maximum of 18 minutes in their time slot, leaving the remainder of the time open for discussion and conversation.

The shorter your “talking head” portion of your discussion is, the better – use it to set the stage or frame the context of the discussion you want to have, and then turn over the reins to the community as a whole and see what the discussion bears.

The formal discussion schedule for PodCamp Boston 4 has been posted and can be viewed on our Schedule page. A few notes:

1. Don’t print it out just yet. It’s subject to change.

2. You’ll note there are 3 rooms and 1 space (possibly more) that are designated as open/unplanned. These are spaces that are lounges with comfortable seating designed for all the impromptu conversations, discussions, guitar performances, etc. that happen at PodCamps. We’ll have a wiki page up on the day of the event that will let you schedule these spaces freely, and they’re being left up to you entirely.

3. Did we mention it’s subject to change?

4. The most important part of PodCamp isn’t the schedule or planned discussions. These are at most a third of your PodCamp experience, if that. The real juice is in all the hallway conversations, all the side chats, impromptu activities, etc. that happen spontaneously. The planned discussions are there just to give you some starting points for discussions.

5. PodCamp obeys the Law of Two Feet: just because you sat down in a scheduled discussion doesn’t mean you have to stay there. You are expected- obligated, really, to get up and walk out if you’re not getting what you want out of the discussion. Go to another one. Go to an unplanned space. Get the most out of PodCamp by doing what you want to do, listening to the conversations you want to listen to.

Thanks to everyone who has submitted a session, the schedule is now full up and we’re working on getting it up for you to print/view/make your own list.  Those who have registered sessions but not yet registered at Eventbrite to attend the event have their sessions on hold and will be receiving notice of that via email.

We should have the final version posted this weekend.  Stay tuned.

Podcamp Boston 4 is proud to welcome social CRM software company BatchBlue as a sponsor.

Please welcome the BatchBlue team and check out their website and BatchBook to find out more about them!

Happy to welcome C.C. Chapman, partner of The Advance Guard and podcasting rockstar of award-winning Accident Hash and marketing podcast Managing the Gray, as a Friends of Podcamp Sponsor this year.

Please join us in saying thanks to C.C. for his faithful donation to making Podcamp Boston a possibility every year.

Here’s a few reminders and updates.

• Hotel group rate closes on July 28th! The group rate is $119 a night at the Doubletree Bayside, only a 5 minute walk from the venue.  You can get the rate by visiting the hotel page for Podcamp Boston.
• Registration with lunch included will close on Tuesday, July 28th in order for us to get accurate numbers to the catering department.  If you want lunch with your ticket, you must register before July 28th.
• Registration to lead a discussion (not presenting but a conversation) is still open, if you’re interested helping to answer questions or have a question that’s burning to be answered, sign up to lead the discussion and get the answers.
• Parking is available at the venue, the cost is $6 a day.  Not so bad and right next door to the building.  However, the red line stop at JFK/UMass has a shuttle bus that drives to the front door of the venue as well.  It’s the first stop.  (Don’t worry, we’ll mention this in the guide.)

We’re still looking for lunch sponsors. Even smaller sponsorships will help cover the costs, since the venue is isolated a bit it’s important that we manage to make this happen.  If you or your company is interested in sponsoring please check out the sponsors page let us know.

(Edited to add:  The deadline for booking rooms at this price is July 28th, 2009 and a limited number are available.)

The long awaited hotel details are ready for sharing.

Doubletree Bayside has offered us a group rate of $119 a night.  For it’s location is astounding.

This rate is only available if you book through our hotel page.

Questions?  Send us an email at events [at] podcampboston [dot] org.