For a while, it looked like the Unconference was going to live up to its name: while Podcamp Philly had a list of proposed seminars, we didn't get a concrete schedule until Wednesday. No worries though -- Podcamp's organized chaos congealed at the last moment, providing a rambling structure to a Saturday full of podcasting goodness.
The chaos lurked just behind the corners as folks tried to use the guest ids scribbled on whiteboards around the Drexel University classrooms to log into the wireless network … at least until they figured out that the IDs only worked on the lab computers. Wired connections for the wandering bands of Mac, Windows and Linux laptop owners were scrounged however, giving rise to deep-sea scuba-like drama as people swapped Ethernet cables back and forth to share net connections.
The sessions were about what you'd expect at any conference: some good, some blah, with the best ones being those that encouraged audience participation (the exception being Apple's GarageBand session, which gave a lightning fast overview of the software, but still managed to provide some helpful insights into it. Of course, the conference itself was free, which gives it an edge up over many conferences I've gone to that had so-so seminars but cost a few hundred dollars.
I was disappointed by lack of education-specific seminars -- there was one on parenting and podcasting, one on podcasting in K-12, and one about Drexel's Second Life Island that unfortunately ran out of time before we got to the island. Next year I'd like to get together with some of the other colleges and universities in the area to see if we can get a full track's worth of education podcast seminars together.
Organizationally, I'd love to have had a map of the buildings that would be hosting the sessions, more hands-on sessions (e.g. editing with Audacity or GarageBand) and a schedule that was firmed up a week in advance of the conference (the better to persuade my co-workers to attend).
It was excellent getting to meet Doug (Geek Acres) and MA (Better L* Than Never) in person and that alone made it worth going to the conference; everything else was just gravy.
The conference got great support from Philadelphia area businesses, including Comcast (free coffee form Starbucks), Microsoft (raffle for a fully-loaded Xbox 360) Otto's Mini (a car dealership which provided t-shirts) KYW News Radio (lots of free air time for commercials), Blogger & Podcaster (free subscriptions giveaways) and many, many more.
The event had plenty of things to do socially, with gatherings Friday and Saturday night. I didn't attend them -- I'm going to enough conferences this year that I thought it prudent to only go Saturday, and head home early to spend time with the family (and rescue Sue from the kids). But I could definitely see spending a full day there next year.
On a related note, I learned about Podcamp Second Life at this conference, and I'm definitely planning on attending when it's held in 2008. I think this could either be a fantastic venue for a podcamp (allowing a lot of people to attend from all over the world) or a disaster (as Second Life crashes under the strain). Either way, it'll be interesting but I do wonder how we'll get our t-shirts...
Overall, I had a lot of fun at the conference, learned enough to make the seminars worthwhile, and left with a thousand idea that I want to implement right now!
* * * Update * * *
Reading over my post again, I realized it may seem more negative than I meant to write. Chalk that up to a morning of vacuuming and a 4 a.m. wake up call from my daughter (and by wake up call, I mean, a scream about needing to go potty).
In any case, while there were some logistical challenges, I think the (un)conference was well worth attending and I went home eager to start trying out new things and reinvigorated about my own podcast (and with my mind spinning about another one I've been thinking of launching for about six months now).
The other thing it got me speculating about was the possibility of having some sort of meet up for Lehigh Valley podcasters and bloggers. I'm not thinking of anything like Podcamp Philly, but I was highly envious of the community they've got going down there. It seems to me that with all the colleges and businesses in the valley, we should be enough people and interest to get *something* going.
And on the topic of constructive suggestions for new seminars:
* Public Relations for Your Podcast: Tips on coming up with media kits, business cards and other supplemental material to promote your podcast.
* Video Podcasting Workshop: Have people bring their own video cameras, shoot video, and then workshop editing it into a vodcast
On the education front I'd love to learn how colleges and universities are using podcasting, from videotaping lab procedures to audio recordings of lectures to convincing faculty that all this stuff really can help (or talking about cases where it *didn't* help, 'cause I'm sure that has happened to.
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