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Podcamp Pittsburgh 4 – the recap

October 17th, 2009 douglas Leave a comment Go to comments

That’s Creation Rex. He sits outside the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and attended Podcamp Pittsburgh 4. Where were you?

Once again this gathering of social media minds was a huge success and for the first time ever the event was sold out! How do you sell out a free event? Easy, you can only fit so many people into one area

You’re probably going to ready many many many recaps of the weekend so here’s my short short version.

Meet n Greet

Erie Brewing was the beer sponsor with myself, sickpuppy and Paradox as your lovely bartenders. Beers for the evening were:

Railbender
(2008 Bronze/2009 Gold at GABF)
Presque Isle Pils
Mad Anthony APA
Misery Bay IPA
Derailed Black Cherry Ale

10.5 cases of beer and a case of wine was kicked in 2.5 hours. Attendance was packed but enough room to breathe. After Party was Jekyl and Hyde where Dox fell into a DFH120 coma and did shots of Crystal Head Vodka with sickpuppy. Sometime around 12am we made it back to the hotel.

Day 1 – Podcamp sold out at 500 people. (VIP’s and free guests)
11am – Grassroots Podcasting
This is the session that has become a staple of Podcamp Pittsburgh. Hosted by Should I Drink That and the Wrestling Mayhem Show, the premise of the talk is to discuss inexpensive ways to start and then promote your podcast. Oh yeah, and people get chopped, chopped, chopped and chopped. The tradition continued of another packed room of people with fantastic audience interaction. A few questions came up about how to make money doing what we do. And while some left as soon as we said this is a hobby (that’s right biatches, I saw you get up and bolt. you were there to find out how to get rich quick and leave. We heard you were floating through groups. Next time we chase you with a chair.), we saw the glow in the eyes of our people when new ideas were presented. I have to give Sorg a lot of credit he really knows how to promote and market a show. When he speaks you need to listen.

The plus side for myself and sickpuppy was the new business opportunities which arose from the talk for us. I decided to let it out that SIDT is expanding and well… you’ll have to wait. We’re gonna redefine media whores

Papuga Porch
This is the smokers lounge aka, porch outside AIP cafeteria. We have renamed this in honor of the great Dawn Papuga who was unable to attend this year because her pussy was hurt. Serious, her cat was in the ER.

1pm – Yinz Cam
Priya Narasimhan was on hand to present quite possibly the greatest sports app developed and it was created here in Pittsburgh. Yinz Cam will allow your cell phone the ability to watch replays, different camera angles and see things that not even the TV’s will show you all for FREE on your phone. Currently this technology is available in the Mellon Arena for Pens. I have seen it used and its hella cool. Also talked about was the iBurgh app (also free) which allows you to complain to the city electronically. Have a pothole that needs fixed? Take a pic with your phone and send it to the city. The built in GPS of your phone will help tag the exact location. Yinz Cam/iBurgh are prime examples as to why Pittsburgh is a leader in technology and “e-democracy”.

2pm - “We do a radio show… but not really.”
Mikey and Big Bob from the 96.1fm Freakshow hosted what turned out to be the funniest session of the day. I’ve hated Pittsburgh morning radio, that’s why I got XM, but from talking to these guys online and seeing how they’ve taken to social media I’m now a faithful listener. They showed 3 of their videos and what seemed like 45 minutes of self promo turned into a kickass education on how local media needs to accept and embrace the future. Through social media they’ve been able to create and host events that would never have been possible with the traditional phone calls and announcing on air. Its about instant media, feedback and reaching as many as possible in the shortest amount of time and cost.

3pm -Shutting down your blog “A case study of the Burgh Blog”
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this session going in. Most Pittsburgh bloggers and social media folk have been friends for awhile so we knew parts of the story and I had talked to Ginny a few times but never knew exactly what was involved with closing down the most popular blog in Pittsburgh history. Jaw dropping is cliche but true. Hearing how well executed Woy and Ginny did this was not just amazing but genius. This is a session you need to watch for yourself and watch you can do, soon.

Podcamp Pittsburgh broadcasted every session live thanks to the team at Vivo and will shortly be available online for you to watch. That’s right, you can watch Podcamp if you weren’t able to make it!

Day 1 After Party
Went to Red Star. Food was decent, beer was OK (best on tap was Sam Adams Oktoberfest) but Chris from Bocktown saved that and brought some growlers for us to drink (Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot infused with dates and other glorious flavors) and did the now traditional 649 shot which that night it was Tequila, Vodka and Razzmatazz.

(thanks to DahCheet)

Left there for Jekyl and Hyde where we stayed the rest of the night and closed the place. Drank many DFH120, Victory Wild Devil and, per sickpuppy’s request, all did multiple flaming Dr Peppers. Couldn’t find a taxi so the 3 of us had to walk from south side, across a river, through a tunnel and go downtown to our hotel. Stopped at Holiday Inn Express on South Side to use the bathroom, crashed a bachelorette party, told the desk clerk that we were staying there (we weren’t) so we got a shuttle back to the Marriott downtown. Dox went to sleep so sickpuppy and I took a 6 pack down to the front lobby and hung out outside. I think it was around 4am by the time we got back to the room.

Day 2
doug_glare
Got to Podcamp around 11:30am, just in time for free lunch. Stayed for 2 sessions and went home. We might have been a LITTLE tired.