I try not to cross-post so much do to the potential annoyance factor, but here is something I put up at Tech PR Gems this morning:
PodCamp Boston 2 is upon us and we are ready because, erm, we have to be – right?
Topaz Partners is pleased and honored to return- as a founding sponsor of the original PodCamp Boston, and as a PR volunteer. It has been a busy month, but not nearly as busy for me as it has been for the rest of the organizing team, led by super-community builder Chris Brogan and podcasting ninja Christopher Penn. This looks to be perhaps the biggest PodCamp ever (PodCamp New York was pretty big too, but don’t make me go look up the numbers. We expect 1,200 people this weekend).
So what can a PR flack hope to get out of PodCamp Boston?
- Let’s start with the obvious: sessions. Lots of folks have signed up for sessions, and I somehow conned myself into co-presenting with Bryan Person (or did he con me into sharing the load? Wait a minute….). Here are a few sessions I picked out that have PR interest:
- 9:30 am: Rm 204c The Transparency Manifesto
- 11:30 am: Rm 204c The Social Media Metrics Game
- 11:30 am: Rm 205 The New Rules of PR with David Meerman Scott
- 2:00 pm: Rm 205 Tools Of The (Social Media) Trade
- 4:00 pm: Rm 203 Following and Joining Online Conversations: Social Media PR 101 (This is the one I will be co-presenting with Bryan Person)
- 10 am: Rm 204b Social Media for Business
- 12 pm: Rm 205 Social Networks 101
- 2 pm: Rm 204b Crappy Web 2.0 Marketing
- Networking, networking, networking. The hallways and public spaces will be filled with a lot of creative new media types. This year, the crowd promises to be broader; more business types, other communicators, educators, media. So, new business opportunities, networking with fellow PR and marketing types, and meeting a lot of extremely creative new media people are on the agenda. Just swallow the shyness and meet people. And bring lots of business cards!!!
- Learn, and teach; you don’t have to be an expert to impart your knowledge– everyone has something to offer. And you don’t have to be leading a session to share information. Again with the hallways…
- Report! Use your blog/podcast/Facebook/Twitter etc. to report on happenings. Live-blog or Twitter as you go, do a more thoughtful post or podcast afterwards, or do them all! Oh, and bring your camera and post things to Flickr or otherwise share them. I plan to live-Flickr any decent camera-phone shots, and take a few slightly nicer pix with my regular but still-modest camera. Look for me to drop some audio Twittergrams as well as text quips and notes at www.twitter.com/DougH, where links to any on-the-fly blog posts will also appear.
- Participate in the aftershocks; don’t just blog, but look at all the other blogs , podcasts, Flickr streams and other conversations going on during and after PodCamp, and dive into comments. This is as much a part of the event as the event itself
Is that enough for you? I won’t even be doing everything I laid out here, but I do expect to meet personal and professional goals based on my expectations for the event– plus, I am sure, there will be a few surprises– the best part!
I look forward to seeing people, meeting new people, and charging through what will be a very high-energy PodCamp Boston 2– and I look forward to seeing you there