PodCamp Kilkenny 2008
This is belated, but I had such a fantastic time at PodCamp this year I had to write about it anyway. For the last weekend of September, I spent a lovely couple of days in Kilkenny with some brilliant individuals at the Hotel Kilkenny.
Last year was the first time I had ever been to a PodCamp, and it was this same event down in Kilkenny. I was not anywhere close to creating any podcasts at the time. I was so impressed by the people I met and really energized by all the fantastic content. So this year, I was really looking forward to participating more in PodCamp. Having now created several podcasts for both internal (Microsoft-only) and external audiences, I was eager to learn more about it and about the other forms of media being presented at the event.
The first talk I went to was the introduction hosted by Krishna De, Brian Greene and Dean Whitbread. They gave a brief overview of digital audio in Ireland, how they began podcasting and why. It was really interesting to see that the two have pioneered so much and to get their perspectives on how everything came to be the way it is today.
I found out I had not just a fellow American, but a fellow Saint Louisian at the event! Actually two: Mike Buckley and his wife Jan came all the way from Missouri for a holiday to Ireland and they made PodCamp Ireland a part of their trip. Mike also gave a session about baby boomers and social media which was quite interesting. I find it fascinating how some people, regardless of age group, jump in to any new technology they can, while others wait for their peer groups to get absorbed in it and then think about dipping in a toe. Mike and Jan were very nice, and I really enjoyed Mike’s discussion.
Next I went to see Dr. Liam Noonan talk about his SchoolBots computer gaming competition, which I loved. This talk struck a chord with me especially because of this particular slide about ICT at second level. I found this very interesting because while I had been using a computer, playing games, coding and creating web pages for many years before I started college, I had no concept of computer science as a career. In fact I didn’t even know anyone who used a computer at work. That changed very quickly when I got to university, but it was a matter of luck and of a spare credit in my international business program that I ended up taking a course in the computer science department for fun and discovered the career options there. So I think it is very important for students in second level to at least have some formal exposure to computer science. Even more so given the declining rates in student enrolment into computer science courses.
I listened to Deborah Hadley talk about taking her hobby, which was cooking, (link to her excellent cooking blog: http://tast.ie) and turning it into an online and profitable business. Deborah is certainly one of the most thorough people I know. Seeing her business plan was impressive because one might think it’s trivial to sell something on a website. Deborah took her idea very seriously from beginning to end and put in a ton of work to make it happen rather quickly. She was very realistic in the products she decided to create, in evaluating the competitive landscape, and in researching her target market. In the end, the target market surprised her as it turned out she had quite a lot of early 20-something male customers instead of the working mom type of demographic she expected. Deborah also took the time to bake loads of goodies for the audience at PodCamp which turned out to be very well received. As a new convert, I am now looking forward to trying many of her products as well.
Sabrina Dent is one of my absolute favourite speakers and people. I like Sabrina because she’s 100% no b-s. So her talks are chock full of incredibly useful tips without the sugar coating, and I’d never miss one. I learned a lot from her talk about “Blogging Like a Boy” at Creative Camp earlier this year. This talk was called “How to Market Your Website or Blog Without Making the Internet Hate You” and it was just as excellent. Sabrina talked about the conversational rules and used some great examples of bad marketing. She was right – if anyone had used those tactics on me, I would have been severely annoyed. Great Q&A as always, too; I’d never miss Sabrina’s talks.
I gave a talk as well at PodCamp; it was called “Podcasting Inside the Evil Empire.” I had talked with Krishna De earlier this year about a program Microsoft is running internally called Academy Mobile, where Microsofties publish internal-only podcasts to help educate their colleagues. It’s been very successful and has allowed me to get access to some great equipment and software through the companion “Podcast-In-A-Box” program. I talked about how the two programs work at Microsoft and how other companies could push a similar program. My slides are here if you’re interested:
I have a few photos uploaded here as well: http://pix.ie/martharotter/album/329288/goto/731661
There were several other talks I wanted to go to including Dean Whitbread’s session on Video Conversation, Roseanne Smith’s talk on Twitter, Brian Greene’s talk on Social and Affordable Radio, and especially Rosemary Khelifa’s talk on posture and massage for folks who work at desks all day. Darragh had the great idea to maybe do some recaps at OpenCoffee or other meetups, which might work really well.
Thanks everyone for a wonderful day of catching up with folks, great talks and a lot of fun. See you next year.
