PodCamp Atlanta

So I got up at the crack of dawn this morning and motored on over to the Miller-Ward Alumni House at Emory University to attend PodCamp Atlanta. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the protocols associated with an "unconference", I would strongly recommended attending one soon. It is refreshingly different from the more traditional conferences hosted by the likes of TAG and AIMA, or even TechLinks for that matter. Very relaxed, very informal and very informative........I walked away this afternoon with 7 pages of notes and all sorts of wonderful new insights into PodCasting & Video Blogging and met some truly interesting folks. Registration was accomplished via a Wiki and early in the registration process someone changed the status classified as "attendee" to "participant" and I think that communicates the ethos of an "unconference". You don't go to listen to broadcasts from various professionals. Instead, you go to engage in a dialogue with colleagues across multiple disciplines who have in many cases extensive experience dealing with the issue(s) that you dealing with everyday. At the same time, there are just enough neophytes that you don't feel like you are in the wrong place; i.e.; everyone is welcome to participate and I think that perhaps having some of us neophytes in the room actually creates a more balanced dialogue. I could easily envision some of the participants taking the conversation to a level of detail that I would find most disconcerting. But because the protocols allow for crowd moderation it never seems to travel very far down that path. Moreover, the crowd also tends to take folks back to point if we start losing sight of the topic that we all came into the break-out session to discuss at the onset. All in all, it is a relaxing atmosphere filled with opportunities to learn new things or just revisit some things you forgot.

I'm not certain that I can remember all the folks that contributed to the program development, but I would certainly want to say thanks to Penny Haynes of 1st Podcast Publishing, Amber Rhrea of the Georgia Podcast Network, Rusty Tanton of the Georgia Podcast Network, Josh Hallent of Hyku (our kick-off moderator) and all the other participants and moderators that contributed to making today so enjoyable. You know, you come out of some of these events and you feel drained and dread another day. I walked this afternoon invigorated and can't wait for tomorrow! Now, if only I can remember to take my cameras I'll feel less like a neophyte.

Okay, I have to go watch Carolina kick some ass! Go Tarheels.