Some photos from last year:

Many more here.

– Amber

—

I’ve been trying to decide whether or not I want to be the main organizer of PodCamp Atlanta again in 2008. Lately, I’m leaning toward ‘no.’

Being in charge of the first PodCamp Atlanta was exhilarating and I wouldn’t change anything about it. But I think this time around, someone else should be in charge and put their own spin on it.

Since I scheduled both of them, I’ve known for months about PodCamp Atlanta ’08’s proximity to Sex 2.0. People have asked, “Can you do that?” Sure, I can. But the more important question to me now is, do I want to? Because if PodCamp starts to feel at all like an obligation instead of something fun, then I know I shouldn’t be the one leading the effort.

When PodCamp Atlanta ’07 was in the planning stages, the social media climate (god, did I just use the phrase “social media climate?”) in the Southeast was different from what it is now. It was very nascent at that time (in terms of events, that is; not in terms of how many people were blogging or whatever). SoCon07 was being planned at the same time, and was held in February 2007, as Atlanta’s first social media conference. Since then, there have been tons of other events and gatherings. There’s no shortage of people in this city who could easily lead the PodCamp effort in ’08.

One thing I know about myself is, I have a history of taking on too much and cleaning up the mess if other people drop the ball. And it takes a toll on me, physically and emotionally. I don’t want to be put into high-stress mode come April of next year, when what I should be doing is celebrating and having fun.

Sex 2.0 is where my heart and soul is, and that’s where I want to focus my energy. Obviously, I will happily be involved with PodCamp, just as I will happily be involved with any social media coolness in the Atlanta area. To whomever ends up taking PodCamp and running with it, I’ve got a collection of great quotes about PodCamp ’07 that can be used on promotional materials for next year, including Julie Squires saying, “PodCamp Atlanta changed my life.” That’s sure to rope in some sponsor dollars!

– Amber

First, I received this email from Chris Brogan:

I might have venue space for a PodCamp Atlanta on Dec 5-6. Weekday timeframe, so I know it might draw different, or might not work out for you. What do you think?

I replied that I would be out of town Dec. 6-7, and that I’m currently too overloaded with other projects at the moment to take on anything else, but that it sounds like a good idea and if people are interested, we should try to do it. (A weekday timeframe isn’t great for me personally, because I work during the week, but I think the fact that it would draw a different crowd makes it an interesting idea.) So I sent this email to the Atlanta Podcasters Google group and the PodCamp Atlanta Google group:

See note below from Chris Brogan. The location is Cobb Galleria. I think doing a “mini” PodCamp Atlanta would be cool; however, I’m going to be out of town on Dec. 6th, and have a lot going on between now and then, so I really cannot commit to being the organizer. If anyone else is interested in seeing this happen, please reply ASAP. I will forward names of those interested to Chris.

The only responses I received were two terse emails which basically dismissed the entire idea out of hand.

Today I emailed both groups again:

Okay, well, so far, the only responses I’ve gotten have been two people saying they don’t think a mid-week PodCamp would work. (Which I take to mean, *they* wouldn’t come to a mid-week PodCamp. Whether anyone else would come is another matter entirely, but I’ve not received any other input.) I still think it would be a good idea and a worthy experiment, if nothing else; but like I said, I am not able to take on the task of single-handedly organizing it right now. So, I’ll give it until the end of this week for someone else to volunteer to handle things (it wouldn’t be a ton of work, if you’re on the fence) and if no one speaks up, then we’ll just nix the idea of a December mini-PodCamp Atlanta.

Frankly, I think it would not be a big deal to do this and make it very hardcore BarCamp-style. That is, no advance planning of sessions, people just show up and propose sessions the day of, and then see where things go. Get your own food, no T-shirts or other fancy schwag, just people hanging out and sharing good ideas and conversation. (Side note: if I hear the word “conversation” used to describe the ethos of social media one more time, I think I might vomit.) Brogan seems to think there needs to be more advance organizing than that, and generally I would be inclined to agree, since I don’t like leaving stuff up to chance – it makes me nervous and sometimes physically ill. But I think that if this is a “mini” PodCamp, there’s no need to go overboard. But he’s apparently not comfortable doing it without something a little more formal. And I can understand that.

So if any of y’all are interested, please speak up ASAP. Otherwise, I hope you’ll still plan to participate in the next full-on PodCamp Atlanta, which is scheduled for May 17-18, 2008. (And I will need a lot of planning assistance with that, so consider this your heads-up!)

If interested, comment here, email one of the groups, and/or email me directly. Thanks.

– Amber

—

Holy crap y’all… the PodCamp Atlanta AP story was picked up by freakin’ USA Today, Fox News, Newsday, Forbes, the Washington Post… the list goes on and on! Somehow, it’s everywhere! See for yourselves: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1114553505&filter=0

WTF?? I am blown away!!

This is awesome but on the other hand I’m like… wow… someone at a news desk at the Washington Post FFS thought this was newsworthy… but not our Atlanta paper? Weird!!! I mean, I think it’s newsworthy, but WP newsworthy? Forbes newsworthy? But, hey, I’ll take it – oh hell yes I’ll take it! Excuse me – WE’LL take it!!

Please pardon all my exclamation points. I know they’re excessive.

Feel free to post this info far and wide.

—

And, a big “thank you” to AP reporter Daniel Yee. Want a beer, dude?

– Amber

If you have posted a podcast and it’s not listed here, please edit the media page on the wiki and add your link.

Day 1 scheduled sessions

9:00 a.m.

• Kickoff

9:15 a.m.

• Blogging, Podcasting, and the Social Media Movement with Josh Hallett

10:00 a.m.

• Podcasting 101 with Steve Eley

10:45 a.m.

• Podcasting to Increase Search Engine Rankings with Penny Haynes
• Legal Issues in Podcasting with Amanda Witt (Also: Here are the very informative Powerpoint slides from this session)
• Podcasting 102: Tools You Can Use to Get Your Podcast Going with Deanna Spencer

11:30 a.m.

• Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: Podcasting and Traditional Media with Doug Monroe, Grayson Daughters and Rusty Tanton
• Better Sound With The Gear You Have with Stephen Eley
• So You Wanna Be a Podcast Consultant? Now’s Your Chance! with Carter Harkins, CrowdAbout

1:45 p.m.

• Meet the Vloggers with Grayson Daughters, Ajit Anthony Prem, Erin Nealey, Chris Daniel, Kary Rogers and Ben Ramsey
• Smooth Speaking – Removing the Ums, Ahs, You Knows From Your Speech with Penny Haynes
• Misadventures in Podcasting with Amber Rhea

2:30 p.m.

• Screencasting with Patrick Fitzgerald
• iProng TV live from PodCamp Atlanta with Bill Palmer and Dana Sanders

3:15 p.m.

• Podcasting and Entrepreneurship with Jeff Haynie
• Podcasting on a budget with Sam Chupp

4:00 p.m.

• Grow Your Business by Podcasting with Lee Kantor, Adam Shafron and Andy Greider
• How to Interview Famous People (and Not-So-Famous People) and Live to Tell About It with Bill Palmer
• Tools for Audience Engagement with Michael Bailey

Day 2 scheduled sessions

9:45 a.m.

• Day 2 opening remarks

10:00 a.m.

• Live Interactive Podcasting with Mark Juliano
• Building Communities Through Podcasting with Amber Rhea and Rusty Tanton

10:45 a.m.

• So You Podcast Something…NOW What? with Carter Harkins
• Chronicling Creativity with members of the North Fulton Drama Club

11:30 a.m.

• Editing Techniques, Tips and Music Mixing with Penny Haynes

Breakout sessions, other podcasts recorded at PodCamp Atlanta

• Final step of my podcast learning curve by Len Witt
• GA Politics Podcast – Peachcare, Slavery Apology, Confederate History, Sunday Alcohol Sales, Transport Bills, HPV Vaccine (Episode 11)

… More to come! Stay tuned!

For now, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came! And also, if you posted photos in the Flickr pool, here is a reminder: one of the 4 rules of what constitutes a PodCamp is that all content created during/for the event must be released under a Creative Commons license. However, the default setting in Flickr is for your photos to be “all rights reserved.” This is antithetical to the spirit of PodCamp! Fortunately, Chris Brogan has an excellent tutorial that shows how to change the “privacy and permissions” setting in your Flickr account.

Thanks everyone!

– Amber

Join your fellow Podcampers Saturday night in Virginia Highlands for an evening of drink and food. Headquarters will be Moe’s and Joe’s Tavern and The Cavern. Show your Podcamp badge any time after 7:00pm for $5 PBR pitchers at Moe’s and Joe’s and $4 Jagermeister shots at The Cavern. From there you are on your own to pick your pleasure from the many restaurants and bars in the neighborhood. Griftdrift and his faithful assistant Moe Beers will be there to direct you to the potables and delectables.

Directions from Miller Ward House

Area Restaurants

Moe’s and Joes: Beer and wine only. Sandwiches, appetizers and typical bar food. Smoking after 8:00pm

The Cavern: Beer, Wine and Liquor. Pan Asian tapas. Smoking permitted.

George’s: Beer and wine only. Sandwiches, appetizers and typical bar food. No smoking.

Everybody’s Pizza: Beer, wine and liquor. Very good pizza. Back patio.

Fontaine’s: Beer, wine and liquor. Seafood including a variety of oysters. Back patio.

The Highland Tap: Beer, wine and liquor. Full service steakhouse with a funky bar. Smoking allowed at the bar.

Noche: Beer, wine and liquor. Tapas.

Murphy’s: Beer and wine. Sit down dining in a comfortable atmosphere. No smoking.

Taco Mac: Beer, wine and liquor. Sandwiches, appetizers and typical bar food. Huge beer selection. Smoking allowed on patio.

– Griftdrift

• $5 pitchers of (hopefully not green) PBR
• $4 tequilla Jager shots

Just show ’em your PodCamp Atlanta badge, and you can drink yourself silly. But try to keep it to a dull roar, since there’s another day of PodCamp to make it to the next morning. Directions here, and a good Moe’s and Joe’s primer on Craigslist here. Several folks will meet there around 7 p.m.

If you decide that Moe’s and Joe’s isn’t your thing, there are plenty of fine establishments within walking distance that will be happy to take your money and get you liquored up on the cheap. You can view a list with links here.

Also, be sure to join us Friday night (tomorrow!!!) at Manuel’s Tavern at 7 p.m. for pre-Podcamp boozing.

– Amber

I had a good phone conversation with Chris today, too… unfortunately he won’t be able to make it to PodCamp Atlanta, but he wished us well and offered this reminder: above all else, HAVE FUN!

See y’all this weekend!

– Amber

Also, if anyone has any spare change they’d like to throw at us, it would be a big help. You can go to podcampatlanta.com and click the Paypal “donate” button. As things stand now, we probably will not have enough lunch for everyone on Saturday and Sunday, because the catering is really expensive and we just don’t have enough money to cover it. Worst case scenario: some people will have to go get their own lunch. Best case scenario: enough people come through with donations that we can increase our catering order and cover everybody!

– Amber