Lessons from PodCamp Toronto 2010 #pcto2010

Lesson 1: there is no better time to know a little or a lot about 'social media' - you're in demand. There were something like 1600 people signed up in Toronto yesterday. I didn't check, but I'll bet the first podcamp had something like 12 people show up.

Lesson 2: business is catching on, catching up - a couple of jammed sessions I sat in on included:

Chris Barger, Director of Social Media for General Motors (who knew?) discussing the role of his group during GM's Chapter 11 meltdown and relaunch.

Donna Marie Antoniadis of co-founder and COO of ShesConnected Multimedia Corp discussing the power of Facebook and throwing up cool Facebook promotions from Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, Jet Blue, McDonalds and others as great examples of business-building through community building on-line.

David Bradfield, Senior Partner, Global Chair, Digital at Fleishman-Hillard tackling the issue of how to deal with social media when it turns against your brand (and there was also a 'boob' story but it didn't translate very well at the back of the room) - a decidedly PR approach to social media (David is a very knowledgeable, great speaker) that unfortunately left me cold.

Lesson 3: the 'unconference' approach to topics has huge value - experts in the crowd, relevant conversation, questions and answers - but not everyone gets it yet (any presentation longer than 10-15 minutes is too long) and it's tricky if there is only one expert in the room (which doesn't happen often).

Lesson 4: I'll never pay $1200 for a conference again. Podcamp Toronto is FREE (as are any huge number of meetups, mixups and mashups going on all the time now all over Toronto on any and every topic). Not only did Podcamp Toronto include first class facilities, topics and presenters, the sessions were live-casted on the web, and podcamp has its own great website, facebook, twitter, etc, etc. It's been a while since I've read Chris Andersons book called Free, but clearly the FREE pricing model extends  beyond the on-line world - at least to conferences about the on-line world! Gotta be a big thanks to heavy-hitter sponsors like Social Media Group, Chevrolet and Rogers for making it possible.

Bottom line on Podcamp Toronto. Great value. The world is still changing fast. Business is hanging in there. It's a good time to be an unexpert.

Got a comment? Keep it to yourself - The Boston Globe

By the way, don’t bother posting any comments directed to me when this article appears on the Web. I won’t see them. Instead, go start your own website or blog or buy a legitimate newspaper, or write a letter to the editor, or an op-ed (and sign your own name to it). If you really have something interesting to say, I’ll find you.

via boston.com

Wow. I thought the Boston Globe had gone out of business. It employs people like this and survived? How?

On a separate but related topic I see this author sharing a point of view that others in the traditional media seem to be hanging on to. That somehow they are more credible and trustworthy than other forms of media. That they are 'real' journalism. I swear, not getting this one is THE major miss that is sideswiping newspapers, with TV following right behind. Audiences learned something really important over the past 5+ years - they learned that the traditional media and many traditional 'journalists' are lazy, biased, frequently wrong, and in the business for one thing - to appeal to their own particular market niches. The Fox's and the Lou Dobb's have done more to devalue traditional media than the internet and goofy commenters combined. If traditional media has any hope, that hope would be to truly return to unbiased perspectives and quality reporting. That seems especially important given the new pay-for-content business models being floated about for newspapers that can only work if audiences find something that is good enough - and unique enough, to pay for. The odds of that happening seem pretty slim right now.

Posted via web from Jim's posterous

Prezi. Not Your Kids Powerpoint.

Experimenting again.

A few weeks ago I came across Prezi, a web 2.0 'scalable' presentation software. I was intrigued.

Unlike Powerpoint (at least my Powerpoint) it's fun, interactive, unpredictable. So, I started trying it.

Here's my first output. My CV or whatever the right term for it is. Prezi zooms in and all over the content below to make for a fairly different presentation experience.



Just click on this link and you'll go to Prezi. Open it, and the arrow keys, right bottom should get you going. Use the arrow key to scroll through. For auto play hold the forward arrow down and choose time (go with 2 secs). Once on auto, the only way to stop it is to close the presentation (I think).

Some thoughts on Prezi. I think it's cool. I've showed it to a few people and they were intrigued. It definitely takes some getting used to. The interface is simple but getting the spacing and scaling right took a lot of time. I wish I were a designer. In fact, I'd love a designer to crack at it.

Something else. There's a 'blerp. excuse me!' button top right of this blog. Experimenting with that too. Great way to leave comments, post-it notes, etc. Any thoughts, maybe leave them on blerp?