It’s now been three days since PodCamp Toronto 2008 wrapped up and about time I posted something. This was the 5th one I’ve attended, and the first I’ve helped organize, and I had an absolute blast doing it.
I gave 2 sessions this weekend: one on how I’ve been slowly abandoning desktop application in favour of web-based alternatives, and the other one was a getting-started session on TalkShoe. I also moderated the ever-evolving Mentor Lounge, and sat on a panel called “Twitter 101″ to a standing-room-only crowd.
As this was my first time helping to organize one of these events, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I ended up doing a lot of registration desk sitting and hallway monitoring over the weekend, just to make sure attendees were able to find what they came in to see. It was really interesting to hear the reasons why people were showing up throughout the day.
I want to give a big thanks to Connie Crosby, Dave Fleet, Rob Lee, Katherine Matthews, Sean McGaughey, Jay Moonah and Eden Spodek who were all involved in organizing the event. I also want to congratulate Mark Blevis, Bob Goyetche, Rob and Katherine on the very successful “Zero to Podcasting” track they put on this weekend. There was a lot of buzz in the halls about it.
I’ve always supported the idea that PodCamps, as a whole, should learn from our own mistakes and over the weekend I took a number of notes about what I felt we did right, and wrong, so that other events such as NYC, Ohio and Pittsburgh can learn from where we slipped and better their own events. This can the let us better our own event in 2009.
I’ll be posting more about the weekend as the next few weeks go on. That’s it for now.
Tommy Vallier helps groups, individuals and businesses understand how social media tools can be used to their fullest. He is also a community builder and web developer living in Kingston, Ontario.