My blog n'at

5 years of podcamping already. I can’t believe it has been this long since I first made my trip to Pittsburgh Filmmakers with sickpuppy on that chilly November Saturday morning in 2006 for what would be a life changing event known as Podcamp Pittsburgh. For you young bucks this was before Chris Brogan became the social media superstar that he is today.  He even socialized with us little people. (haha). I was just a spectator star struck that these people who made content I watched were here at one place. I admit, when the Tiki’s came in my jaw dropped.

Fast forward to Podcamp Pittsburgh 5. I’m now sponsoring the beer for the Meet n Greet for the 4th straight year, giving 3 presentations and I’m making a living with skills I’ve learned over the last 4 Podcamps. This year was a completely different experience for me and being more involved in sessions than attending gives you a different perspective of the event. Before I decided to public speak (which I don’t like to do in general but for some reason beer and social media comes easy for me to talk your ear off about) I looked at the schedule and wondered if there was anything left for me to get out of Podcamp. The event, much like myself, have evolved over the years. I was now starting to get back experience as a presenter and getting over my speaking fears where as before I was learning the skills I would end up talking about. Wait, did that make sense?

Meet-n-Greet – For the first Podcamp there was a Meet-n-Greet at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh which had sandwiches and a couple beers. SIDT was just getting started and I think we had St. Nick Bock and Penn Pilsner.  Since Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 we (SIDT) have been the suppliers of craft beer for the events. Each year we’ve provided 4-5 different offerings from Erie Brewing Company. This is our time to really showcase the podcast and do my favorite thing, talk to people about craft beer. I love giving someone new to the product their first taste and to explain the features of the beer. If I didn’t love it so much I could never do it. Plus I love talking to people. Have I mentioned I like talking? Seriously.

So for me here were the sessions I did and my impressions afterwards. All of which were on Saturday. If you’ve ever been to Podcamp you’ll know that Sunday is not a very functional day for me BTW, all of the sessions were recorded and will be online soon.

10am: Social Media in Higher Ed – I wasn’t sure where this was going to go and honestly to have 5 people would have made me happy. Mmmmm yeah I walked in to a full room. One thing I’ve noticed is that no one is talking to Higher Ed people on social media on how to use it, what to do, what not to do, and basic strategies. Well there are some people who charge out the ass to say “you need on facebook”, take your money and run. Podcamp is FREE and I was giving you that knowledge. I had 45 minutes and made it through 1/2 my slides thinking I wouldn’t have enough to fill the time but it turned out that the conversation was incredible. The video will be available soon and I’ll release the slides then also so I won’t spoil what happened. It did make me aware that I’m in a unique situation where my administration is very open minded and trusting in me to let me do the things I have so far. Some schools wont get in social media because they think they don’t need it.  If you say that, you need it more than anyone.

11am: We’re Still Here: How to Keep Your Podcast Kicking – This was a discussion panel with myself, Sorg and DJ Lunchbox from the Wrestling Mayhem Show and Hutch from Burgh’s Eye View. Our shows have been running since the first Podcamp and we’re still around so we shared what’s made our them survive. The main thing to take away was that you need to do what you love and you need to take a breather or change things up before it becomes stale. Since SIDT started I”ve moved twice, bought a house, lost a father, gained a son, lost job and gained a kickass new career.

We had a very attentive audience who asked great questions about the creative process and why we do the voodoo that errr we do.

Lunch – Food was provided (That’s right, its a FREE event AND you get FOOD!) but the line was really long so I struck up a food run with Shell and Jen from Burgh’s Eye View and the always kickass Tall Cathy. We traveled to the culinary kingdom with a lotta porn known as Smithfield News. Cathy got the win of the day when she found this gem.

2pm: Podcasting 201 – Sorg asked me to join him for this session and I wasn’t sure what to expect. We had chatted a couple days earlier about an outline and from giving presentations together in the past figured we would wing it. Worked out perfectly for us as we focused building your community and some tech issues when having guests/co-hosts who are worlds away. Sorg does incredible things with the WMS that there were moments I stepped back and marveled. This is why I love Podcamp, you’re always learning something new!

Afterparty – This was the first year that I didn’t go. Instead I spent time at home with Lushie and Teaspoon since I hadn’t seen them for more than 5 minutes in almost 3 weeks. After everyone went to bed I headed to BEV Lounge and mmm yeah it was a long night.

(Thanks v-rock for the awesome pics!)

BEV Lounge is now my new favorite place to go for a beer. Hutch records his hit podcast Burgh’s Eye View in the room next to the lounge and I must say, when I eventually have a man cave I can only dream of it being as cool as the lounge!

Sunday – I went to some sessions but I’m not sure which. I actually arrived at 10am which is a first for me and scarfed down cold pizza and a special present from Erie thanks to Locobone.

Once again it was an incredible weekend and huge props to Missy, Jennie, Rob, Sorg and all of the organizers for putting on yet another huge success of a Podcamp. A huge hi to all of the new people I met this weekend and the multiple hugs from the not so anon Secret Agent L. Now that it has been a week and I’m done with classes I’m motivated from Podcamp to start new things and improve on what I have now. I have time to focus on what I want to do next.

cheers!

P.S. Here are all of my Podcamp recaps. Man i missed that shaved head.

Podcamp 1 | Podcamp 2 | Podcamp 3 | Podcamp 4

Like most instances at Podcamp Pittsburgh this is one of those “things just happened” that has now become a staple of the establishment. Waaaay back at Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 we met a fine young Canadian gent by the name of Tommy Vallier. Tommy is not only a social wiz but an instigator and purveyor of fine alcoholic libations.  It was on this night all of us would learn how the Great White North stays warm, you mix whatever you have together and drink until you’re blind.

Justin Kownacki, Podcamp Pittsburgh founder and helluva model American when the laces are out, explains exactly what a 6-4-9 is.

Scared yet? Probably should be. Tommy said to us it has to do the lottery, we say its a cruel trick to test the fortitude of your liver.

Below is the short, yet official, history of the shots along with video so you too can see how its done.

Sunday morning when you wake up with the worst hangover of your life just remember, 6-4-9

As the last post kinda hinted I’m taking a breather and for the record the show is not over by any means no matter what you may hear on the internets. Both of us have a lot of things going on in our lives so we decided on no more fests for a bit. If you do see one of us at one its because in the almost 5 years we’ve done the show we haven’t been able to enjoy a fest without working it so. We’ll be at a few smaller ones this fall but as fans, no recorders in hand (this doesn’t mean we won’t pimp your fest if you ask). Also after this show is released we’re going to try a new format. We’re going try a few things that fit our schedule for now and in between I’m going to focus more on my writing and filming . We haven’t left the formula for almost 5 years so for us creatively we were getting bored.

If it works out it could be great for us and if the fans hate it then we’ll figure something out. You’ll still get your main show but now there will be smaller personal reviews. (Jesus, this actually sounds like more work as I type it). I’m working on the new Studio B at my new house and we’re in the process of upgrading equipment (I LOVE our HD camera already). Come to think of it, this is more like in between seasons of a TV show but for us Season 1 was 4 years long and the off time wont be spent on a beach, it’ll be in Pittsburgh.

SIDT has grown into its own beast and like anything else you start, you need to grow with it and not act against it. If you want to know specifics you can come to the 11am session at Podcamp Pittsburgh I’ll be a panel on called “We’re Still Here: How to Keep Your Podcast Kicking.”

Is it jumping the shark? Christ I hope not but if it is I’m SO buying a leather jacket and going water skiing.

(click here for the whole gallery)

Ahhhh the Steel City Big Pour. I’ve been to the previous 3 and once again it lives up to expectations. This year we took a different approach and had a booth at the front door. Wow what an experience! For the Big Tap In we were at the entrance of Brewers Alley which was perfect but this was the main entrance of the event. The downside to being at the front though was that we weren’t in the main room with the brewers. Turned out that was a good thing.

The crowd in the main room with the brewers, art and music was very loud so for recording purposes it would have never worked. We also poured some firkin beers from Erie Brewing which would turn out to be another great decision. While people were waiting in line our banner was the first thing they saw. The beer would then bring them in and we’d pitch the show. The thing to keep in mind for beer fests is that the first session is usually beer geeks and the second is more of your party crowd. You still get beer geeks but they’re in the minority. We also had a great visit from Mr. Baconpants and Justin Kelly who organizes a monthly meetup for craft beer fans at OTB Bicycle Cafe.

First session was non stop busy and we had zero time to record but the bonus was that I finally got to meet Thirsty Girl. What a kickass blogger and if you haven’t been reading her site you should check it out. Also going on while we were selling the show, meeting fans and pouring beers social media was in overdrive as Chris from Bocktown had the first ever Twitterfall that I have seen at a fest. The official tag for the event was #bigpour4, Foursquare was buzzing with checkins and the Beerby guys were having a great day with people downloading their app. At our booth we had deals where if you joined our facebook fan page you could win $30 The Pear Cares dollars, $20 Bocktown gift card and 2 VIP passes to Podcamp Pittsburgh 5 ($50 value). We had at least 10-15 people sign up at the booth plus Twitter was smokin with event exclusive SIDT giveaways and all calls to the drunk dial hotline could get you a free shirt and pint glass from Main Street Brewing.

During the 2hr break of the 2 sessions we were slammed with interviews of brewers who came to us. This turned into a round table discussion that turned epic and you can hear when we release the show in the next week.

2nd session started and was just as crazy as the first for traffic. I met more fans, Pittsburgh’s newest badass, and a fan from Houston, TX who said that he loved the show and his friends would die for a pic with me. Apparently the DFH120 Chug is a favorite of beer lovers in Houston so I was humbled that’s for sure. If he posts a pic to the SIDT wall I’ll share it.

The night ended around 9pm for us and after 12 hours of being on our feet I was ready for my bed. Ironically as soon as I started my car the rain came down hard. With all of the equipment that we carried that could have been a huge mess but that didnt happen.

Thanks to all who stopped over to see us (Always a blast chatting up Lindsay and Andrea too!) and some of you I don’t have websites for or I’d link ya. It was a rewarding night and also my last one. You can read more about that tomorrow…

Quit laughing. If you know me you’re saying “he doesn’t shut up”. That’s besides the point right now. I’m talking about presenting at Podcamp Pittsburgh 5 this year.

I’ve been an attendee since the first Podcamp Pittsburgh and a speaker since the second one but never have a doubted if I would be able to be involved until this year. Podcamp is my favorite time of year because great people get together to educate the masses on what makes up social media/networking, trends and you really cant beat the price, it’s free! That’s right, you get FREE advice from industry leaders that might normally charge you some hefty cash.  I also go for the friendships I’ve made with podcampers, to get chopped by the Wrestling Mayhem Show and to brainstorm (total geek-out moments).

Should I Drink That has become a staple of providing the alcoholic beverages for the Meet n Greet the last 2 years (we’ll be doing it again this year!) and thats where I really get to sell the show to people and talk beer. The following day we join the Wrestling Mayhem Show for a joint session in Grassroots Podcasting but this year sickpuppy wants to try something new so who knows what we’ll do. Podcamp is a great promotional tool for us plus it gives us a chance to talk shop with those wanting to learn.

That’s not where my issue comes from (3 paragraphs to get to my point, see what I mean, I like to jibba jab), I do social media for a living and the hesitation I have is if I have time to prepare a quality presentation. I know, its podcamp and a very laid back environment. I can talk this subject in my sleep and have been to a few events where I didn’t know what the topic was until 5 minutes before I went on but this is different. This is non-SIDT Doogle and if you’re coming to hear me talk I want to make sure you’re getting a quality presentation. I’ve always shot from the hip with a few note cards and that worked really well but this is a setting that a lot of information can be given and I want to make sure nothing is lost.

I could be over-thinking this and selling myself short on how fast I can actually put this together. I may be taking this more serious than I need to. Maybe this is the time I make that leap I’ve hinted to some of yinz about. Since I was brainwashed in my role as project coordinator at Ericsson many moons ago sometimes its a curse to be so meticulous.

what do you think?

(click me and i’ll get bigger)

I check out our stats religiously to see if there are any spikes in traffic. Once the whole buying a house/moving process started I got a little very lazy on keeping up. I was checking out a few things yesterday when I saw another spike so I had to start investigating and thats when our good friend Adri broke the new to the world – Should I Drink That was listed under the ‘What’s Hot” section of iTunes in the Food category!

I don’t even know what to say about this one. Amazed is probably a good one. SIDT is in the process of re-inventing how to cover beer festivals and live events so to get news of this honor gives me the extra boost to keep on going when I could just say screw it, I’m done, i have more important things to do. If any of my readers are fans of the show I want to thank you for downloading it and supporting us. If it wasn’t for you we would have stopped after 10 shows. We do love all of you, even if you’re from Philly

cheers!

The almighty Sorg posted this morning a link to the movie “The Social Network” coming out in October which tells the story of how Facebook was founded, the drama and blah blah blah. Other White Jim also posted on Facebook (ironically) about it and I got to thinking, if one was made about the Pittsburgh social networking scene who would play you? Let me know in the comments your top 2 choices. Yinz outside of Pittsburgh feel free to chime in also, you can have a cameo.

I’m taking first dibs here and saying Zane Lamprey or Jack Black

(click here to see the entire gallery on Flickr)

What an incredible evening! Tuesday night a lot of the work I’ve done on SIDT paid off when I was invited backstage to hang out with Zane Lamprey (and a few beverages) before his Drinking Made Easy show started at Mr. Smalls Theater. I was contacted a couple weeks ago by Zane’s PR people asking if we would be interested in talking with Zane. They knew of the podcast and thought we would be a great fit. Were we ever!

As we walked up to the door we were greeted at the door by Steve McKenna who was already downing some beers. Incredibly nice guy but that may have had to do with the fact I was carrying a box of  presents.

• 1 growler of East End Monkey Girl
• 1 growler of Erie Derailed
• 1/2 gallon of Rebel Yell whiskey
• 750ml Brookside whiskey
• bag of misc. swag from Bocktown whom also provided the growlers
• 1 Gray Kangaroo personal alcohol filter
• 6 pack of SIDT hangover preventer – a.k.a. Pedialyte

The “green room” I think it’s the old sacristy which is where we chatted up Marc Ryan. That’s right, Mr. Smalls is in an old church. Pittsburgh likes to convert old churches into venues for mass consumption of alcohol.

The interview with Zane turned out amazing and will be posted shortly. He was very welcoming and we really appreciate that he took time to hang with us 10 minutes before he went on stage. The man was in the zone. If his name sounds familiar, Zane was the host of a show called Three Sheets which aired on MOJO, FLN and, as he announced at the concert, Travel Channel will be airing all episodes. Zane said he’d be in touch again to give us an update on everything.

This was my first time seeing a comedy act on stage since I won my Comedy Central private party with Lewis Black so I forgot what it was like until that front row was blasted by the acts. LOVED it! People, when are you going to learn not to heckle the talent. You’re gonna get burned.

The tour is called Drinking Made Easy which is also the name of his show on HDNet this fall. In fact as he tours around America he is recording episodes. Unfortunately Pittsburgh got snubbed but we do hope he returns soon.

Zane gives you an education on the basics of alcohol which you may not know. From a craft beer angle I have to say he covered us rather well and showed what goes into beer and how its made. Afterwards we hung out with some SIDT fans which I do have video of and will get on You Tube shortly. It goes along with the EP we recorded for so you’ll need to sit tight for this week.

I’m not a fan of books and in fact I hate reading but after picking up Zane’s book “Three Sheets: Drinking Made Easy! 6 Continents, 15 Countries, 190 Drinks, And 1 Mean Hangover!“ I finally found something I can get into and not get bored outta my skull. Once I finish the book I’ll write a review.

Its been almost a week and I’m still geeking over it. It’s good to be the SIDT.

Hey everyone, we need your help with something that was just brought to our attention and will take you less than 2 minutes but we need you to do it ASAP since the deadline is May 31st!. Pittsburgh Magazine is holding its Best of the Burgh competition again this year and there is not ONE mention of craft beer or podcasts. We want to change that and here’s how you can win something very badass in the process.

1. Go to : http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/April-2010/Best-of-Pittsburgh-Survey/
2. Scroll to the bottom and in “Did we miss something? – Best of Other” type in “Should I Drink That – Best Craft Beer Podcast”
3. Submit

Now you can fill out the rest if you’re so inclined but the main thing is to get us in the OTHER category.

Pittsburgh is booming with great craft beer destinations and no where in “Food and Drink” do you find a category for them. Pittsburgh needs to be aware of the incredible craft beer culture we have in this city and by submitting our names you’re helping to get the word out!

Now, since we like to reward you for your help here’s what you get, let us know you voted (honor system here folks, we trust you) and you will receive 5 entries for… 2 tickets to see Zane Lamprey’s Drinking Made Easy Comedy Tour at Mr. Small’s Theater on June 8th at 8pm! You may know Zane from his hit TV show Three Sheets so now you can hang with SIDT & Zane in the same night! Its a drinking doubleheader!

Get out and vote!

DEADLINE IS MAY 31ST!!!

4 years ago today sickpuppy and I launched SIDT. We figured that it would last 10 shows and maybe a couple hundred downloads from friends. This evening we’re releasing EP63 and are pushing 700,000 downloads.

I thought about doing a “state of SIDT” address for today but realized that required a lot of work and I have beer to drink. I know we say this every year but we’ve kept our promise, wait till you see what we’re gonna do next. 2010-11 has already shaped up to be unreal and we will be doing more with our social media sites getting you guys even more involved.  iphone/droid apps are in the works, more with the DD hotline and goodies I havent even told sickpup about.

I will say this, our 5th anniversary is going to be a freaking bash

Thanks everyone for the support and don’t forget to call…

cheers!

Since the Pittsburgh Magazine article came out I’ve had quite a few notifications of new followers. Most times I’ll follow back because I’m always up for a good conversation and try to keep up with everything going on through the day but lets be honest, you can’t follow all the time (just like it can’t rain all the time).

This morning I tweeted that I was psyched to see Anthony Bourdain was coming to Pittsburgh to talk. This is a must for me so I told Lushie we need to make plans for it. Shortly afterwards I had a reply from TwinmamaTeb saying “@douglasderda clearly you missed all my tweets about the presale and gettting 8th row seats. heh.”. That’s when I thought, how many conversations am I missing?  Granted most tweets are people spewing random nonsense (I’m guilty myself) but what else have I missed out on? I decided it was time to checked my stats.

As of right now I have 1,250 followers, I’m following 987 back and I’m on 112 lists. Those 112 lists can be summed up in the following categories: beer, hockey, Pittsburgh.  If I were to die right now that is how I could be summed up in 3 words. I love craft beer, I love hockey and I love Pittsburgh.

The most popular question I get from people obsessed with Facebook is “Why do you tweet?”  I gave it some though and here’s the deal on how/why I use Twitter. I’m connected to every user. Because of tags such as “craftbeer” I have been introduced to a community of people that I may have never had the chance to meet besides the degrees of separation on FB. I use Twitter because it’s about the conversation. Over the past day I finally started watching the #craftbeer tag on Twitter with TweetDeck and have met some incredible bloggers, fans from all over the world and a few brewers.  I’m able to buy and sell hockey tickets and chat with other Pens fans during games. I have been invited to events I may not have known about before and helped plan a few of my own. All in under 140 characters. I can ask questions and people, while sometimes smartasses, answer. I can get traffic updates from not just the networks but from people out on the roads.

From the 1250 I’m not following 263. Odds have it you’re selling me a service I don’t want, you’re a spammer or I really have no clue what your deal is. Now there is the margin of error since Twitter is notorious from un-following people without warning and if you’re one of those let me know.

So now I’m reaching out to you. If you’re in the rest of the 987 and read this blog (which hopefully you do because you follow me on twitter and obviously wanna get to know me ) leave me a comment. I can say that I know MAYBE 2/5 of you personally from beer events or social media but if we’ve never met before I want you to say hi. If you wanna keep it personal then shoot me a message on my contact form.  Spoon wants know who you are! If you’re in the Pittsburgh area and want to meet others check out Pittsburgh tweetup!

I should probably tweet this…