PodCamp Pittsburgh 2009: Wrap up

There's standard lecture etiquette and then there's PodCamp etiquette. Typically you sit in an audience, gleaning knowledge from a power-pointing expert, rapt attention in the form of no distractions. Meaning: Cell phones are kinda rude.

Not at PodCamp.

At last weekend's fourth annual social media "unconference," it was impolite to sit idle with empty hands. Empty hands mean no documentation, no interaction. No iPhone, Blackberry, Netbook, Canon PowerShot or flip cam. And with no Tweets, Facebook updates, blog posts, Flickr photos or YouTube videos... then, honestly, what IS the point?

As they say, if the tree falls and no one hears it, did it make a sound?

PodCamp, which gathered Saturday and Sunday, early a.m. to mid-p.m.at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, made sounds alright. The conversations swirling around the fourth floor of the Downtown building were as awesomely satisfying as the treats provided by the Goodie Truck and Franktuary. But the dialogue--and echoes of those voices--that circulated and are still circulating not in-person, but online, well, those might be the loudest sounds of all.

The event drew 362 attendees (500 were registered, but the weekend's weather was so pristine you could hardly blame someone for biking rather than blogging). The live event stream attracted 2,480 views, and videos of sessions will be posted on the PodCamp site later this week for those who want to relive the glory or who missed it the first time around. The Flickr photo pool? More than 800 images thus far. Left Hand Clothing, a local T-shirt design site, is already pre-selling "Don't Tweet Your Poop" shirts based on a PodCamp presentation by 96.1 Kiss FM's morning freakshows Mikey and Big Bob. And Twitter, Facebook and blogs are abuzz with proclamations similar to that by user "douglasderda," co-host of the Should I Drink That? craft beer podcast. He tweets, "After talking at Podcamp Pgh & now today I'm on a social media high. Love how psyched everyone is to learn & getting great tips!"

The point of PodCamp was manifold. Impart knowledge, pick up knowledge, problem solve, have fun, place faces to avatars and down post-conference shots at the bar with fellow nerds who know what the hell you're talking about when you blather on about hashtags, RSS feeds, SEO and CMS.

It's the Content

Sessions addressed everything from the professional (selling social media to your boss, by event organizer Cynthia Closkey, and social networking for job seekers, by Jaci Malecki of UPMC) to the personal (finding blog fodder by Michelle of TheBurghBaby.com, and adding humor to your podcast by Maureen McBride). Sessions, in theory, ranged from beginner to advanced, but any total newbie would feel out of the loop without some preexisting understanding and experience.

On his blog "Patrick's Realm," Twitter user "deltran," a PodCamp attendee, writes, "I've had a blog since before I knew they where called blogs, and I still felt a little on the outside. My wife has only gotten a blog this past week (no, she has no posts), and while they did have courses labeled Blogging 101, she couldn't relate to much that was going on."

As Jeffrey Inscho of the Mattress Factory noted in his stellar Sunday afternoon presentation, "Friendship 2.0: Community Building for Non-Profits," there are no "experts" in social media, and anyone who claims to be one is full of it (there are no experts 'cause we're all experts and all idiots, right?). So while there may have been no experts at PodCamp, there certainly were rockstars.

VIP attendees wore Steelers-yellow T-shirts emblazoned with "Rockstar," while the rest of us mere mortals--who attended the conference for free thanks to donors' generosity--bumbled around, peering at nametags for clues to the real-life identities of some of our favorite online personalities.

Pittsburgh's online elite were all in attendance. In addition to Councilman Bill Peduto, the appearances that generated the most jaw-drops were, no surprise, PittGirl and iJustine. Justine Ezarek didn't present but rather listened, mingled and took pics with fans.

But PittGirl, who was splashed on the front page of CNN.com after unmasking herself a couple months ago as Virginia Montanez, spoke with Mike "the Butler" Woycheck--at perhaps the most highly attended session--about her anonymity, and her reasons for revealing her identity and re-launching the Burgh Blog as That's Church.

PodCamp focused on social media as both lifecasting (a la PittGirl and whatever your mom is doing on Facebook) and as a marking tool and profit-generating product.  For example, Priya Narasimhan showed how YinzCam and iBurgh are personalizing sports and government for fans and citizens. And Alicia Barnes from ModCloth, the Burgh-based online fashion retailer, discussed how to use social media to increase sales. The company has profiles on 40 different social networking sites, and generated almost $100,000 of revenue from visits to its blog in just September of this year.

The conference also touched on the theme of social media as a news outlet--a emerging area in which Pop City is excited to play a part. Mia Aquino spoke on how bloggers are now breaking stories before "real" journalists, as did Ryan Hopkins of The Pittsburgh Citizen, which is described as "a new hyperlocal news platform specifically designed for citizen journalists interested in telling new kinds of stories about public policy and the civic affairs in the Pittsburgh region."

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Captions: Bill Peduto (courtesy Flickr_dietzy2320); iJustine with friends (Flickr_nathanballash); audience (Flickr_onedamnthing); Jeffrey Inscho of the Mattress Factory (Flickr_magistrazap); t-shirt (Flickr_jayesel).