Podcamp Hawaii

Podcamp + Wordcamp Hawaii 2008 Wrap up

roxanne — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:18:33 +0000

Well, it is almost too embarrassing to put up this report so many months after the event. Nonetheless, it is part of the plan and we want all of you out there to remember what an incredibly successful event this was! Plus, it's never too late to add thanks to all those who helped make this such a magical weekend for the web in Hawaii. These notes are just the highlights! It would take days to actually cover it all. So much happened on those two days - and even more has transpired since. You can read testimonials from our sponsors here.

Hawaii's first Podcamp + Wordcamp was a smashing success! When you consider that a small group of dedicated volunteers pulled this together in less than four months, the achievement becomes even more impressive. The dedication and long hours contributed freely by Roxanne Darling, Shane Robinson, Judi Clark, and Kyle Nishioka really paid off for our community. The changes in less than six months is astonishing in so many ways. Here's a list of the additional volunteers who supported this event.

We raised $21,562 in cash donations. (Our cash outlay expenses were $1,9887; we have a small reserve to seed potential future unconference events. You can podcamp-final-expenses-090524 here.)
We raised $44,961 in-kind donations.
We had over 400 people attend the live event.
We live streamed our event both days, adding thousands more virtual attendees.
Our tag, "pch08" was the #2 tag in the world for that weekend on Twitter and Flickr. (This represents thousands of mentions on those two web sites, not to mention on countless other sites.)
We had visitors from throughout Hawaii, the US mainland, and as far away as The Netherlands.
We had generous local and mainland sponsors who actively participated. Johnson & Johnson, Viddler, and Blip.tv all sent staff to attend and speak at our event. (Each and every one of them has a custom page on this site. Please go check them out!)
We brought the community together across newbies and bona fide techies, education and government, tourism and small business.
We all worked together as peers - speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and attendees. The collaborations were amazing, business deals were initiated, learning was through the roof, and as a result dozens of Hawaii companies and government agencies are now using Twitter, blogging and sponsoring bloggers, and we have launched a Hawaii Chapter of the Social Media Club.
We walked our talk - just look at all the features and social networking on this blog!
Roxanne has logged over 400 hours of her time on Podcamp Hawaii; the others were probably smart not to track it.

What did the sponsors think of Podcamp?

rshaner — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:16:17 +0000

Sure, most conferences focus on the attendees, the venue, the speakers. But we wanted to also focus on our sponsors. They each (large and small) have a custom landing page on our site, where they can speak directly to our audience and be part of the conversation that is the social web. They also experienced one of the unwritten rules of the social web: the more you participate, the more you benefit. We linked to them, we tweeted about them, we featured them on our live stream, we mentioned them at the live event and we blogged about them. We included interviews with them here on this site, some audio some video. We think it's time for sponsors and attendees to have more interaction. The tables were co-mingled with the main gathering areas - not isolated in a sponsor ghetto. Many sponsors were also speakers - sharing their expertise not their pitches. That comes later, during the many social events and in the hallways.

"Congratulations on an amazing, amazing event. It was an honor and a pleasure to be part of it - and congrats to you on being a truly fantastic and welcoming hostess and planner extraordinaire. Thank you so much for a magical few days in Hawaii."
- Dina Kaplan, COO, Blip.tv, New York City

"Representing Viddler at Podcamp Hawai'i was a true joy. Hawaiʻi is not only one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, but Podcamp Hawaiʻi was the best Podcamp I've ever attended. All of the sponsors, speakers, and attendees really knew why were were all there; to help get Hawai'i onto the new media train. I think we accomplished that and I'm really looking forward to the future of new media in Hawai'i."
- Colin Devroe, Technology Evangelist - Viddler.com, Bethlehem, PA

"Thank you and your volunteer team for a terrific unconference last weekend. Wow, has the week flown by. What a great weekend we had....the PODCAMP event was really well coordinated, supported the sponsors well, and had really great, fun, interesting and interactive sessions. Much better than just a bunch of boring speeches. The technology used to stream the main session, and have the chat room, and the dialog on twitter added to the interactive nature of the event. Thank you also WI FI! Its critical at a conference (unconference) like this.

We all learned a lot, and had great dialog among us. The venue was terrific, the location in the HCC was just perfect for networking, and easily getting to the next session. I could not attend the after hour parties, but our team said they were terrific, with great locations choices, and good dialog.

The AV equipment was the best ever at a Hawaii conference. Perfect for a speaker, and made our job to present much easier, with great equipment. No messing with computers, hook ups, bad sound or screens that could not be seen. Well thought out, and well planned. All necessary for success.

The food was great, and the casual "pay your own meal" system worked like a charm. We had casual lunches with old and new friends, and could discuss and dialog easily about the sessions and the technology.

I am not sure from a business viewpoint if we can put an ROI on our investment in the sponsorship, but we believe our real ROI was to support the overall "mission" of the PODCAMP and promote the need for companies and organizations to get more engaged in Web 2.0 marketing channels. We live this everyday, and need to keep communicating it to our clients and stakeholders here in Hawaii, and abroad.

We now have homework to do...and new ideas to initiate here at our company and with our clients. Also, we have new contacts that we met at the event and individuals and companies to follow-up with.

Thank you for your time and effort, and congratulations to all for a successful fist-time event in Hawaii."
- Dave Erdman, PacRim Marketing, Honolulu, HI

Podsafe Music Available to You!

roxanne — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:29:11 +0000

Jenn Wright (of Simple Souls, Mighty J, Kanalo, and MySpace) reached out all over and collected several songs for us to be able to use for making media. Please remember:

You must mention the artist and their website when you use this music - in the audio or video itself as well as adding a link to the artist's web site when you post your media.
You may not re-sell this music!

Please friend these artists around the web and be sure to leave a comment here to thank them for sharing their art, heart, and souls with us.

We've already collected some tracks for our Hawai'i podcasters to play! While we continue our search for great PODSAFE music, below are songs that were so graciously given to us by our local artists… See Jenn Wright at Podcamp to find out how you can get the tracks for YOUR podcast!

KANALO (www.myspace.com/kanalo)
Download these songs here. (22.6 MB)
Track/Written By/Album: Come On Over / Jenn Wright / Move
Track/Written By/Album: Back to Yesterday / Jenn Wright / Move
Track/Written By/Album: Guilty / Zaysha Labrador / Move
Track/Written By/Album: I Gotta Find A Way / Jenn Wright / Move
Track/Written By/Album: The One For Me / Zaysha Labrador / Move
Track/Written By/Album: I Go Crazy / Keoni Nicodemus, Jenn Wright / Kanalo
Track/Written By/Album: Do It Right / Keoni Nicodemus, Jenn Wright / Kanalo
Track/Written By/Album: Spend My Life With You / Henohea Kaupu / Kanalo

MIGHTY J (www.myspace.com/mightyjmusic)
Download these songs here. (12.6 MB)
Track/Written By/Album: Calling Out / Mailani Makainai, Jenn Wright / Calling Out
Track/Written By/Album: No More Tears (Bonus Track) / Tiki Suan / Calling Out

JROQ (www.myspace.com/chickfromthafifty)
Download these songs here. (25.9 MB)
Track/Written By/Album: World Traveler / Jenn Wright / Jroq vs. Dr. Trey
Track/Written By/Album: Where Did You Go / Jenn Wright / Jroq vs. Dr. Trey
Track/Written By/Album: Tiny Bubbles / Jenn Wright / Jroq vs. Dr. Trey*
Track/Written By/Album: Unsociable / Jenn Wright / Jroq vs. Dr. Trey
Track/Written By/Album: Think / Jenn Wright / Jroq vs. Dr. Trey

THE GIRLAS (www.myspace.com/thegirlas)
Download these songs here. (13.5 MB)
Track/Written By/Album: And I Go / Candy Diaz / Now or Never
Track/Written By/Album: Nightshades / Kelli Heath / Now or Never
Track/Written By/Album: Make You Mine / Carly Smith / Now or Never

JOHNNY HELM (www.johnnyhelm.com)
Download this song here. (5.7 MB)
Track/Written By/Album: Staring Up Trees / Johnny Helm / Divide

MISTAH NICK (www.myspace.com/mistahnick)
Download these songs here. (14.9 MB)
Track/Written By/Album: Somebody / Mistah Nick / (no album yet)
Track/Written By/Album: Sunshine / Mistah Nick / (no album yet)
Track/Written By/Album: The Bitch Song / Mistah Nick / (no album yet)

MATTY MCINTIRE (www.myspace.com/mattymcintire)
Download these songs here. (19.6 MB)
Track/Written By/Album: Where Am I/ Matty McIntire / (no album)
Track/Written By/Album: Crazy/ Matty McIntire / (no album)
Track/Written By/Album: Time Is Now / Matty McIntire / (no album)
Track/Written By/Album: Fly Away / Matty McIntire / (no album)

Message #3 to Addendees (Oct 22, 2008)

roxanne — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:33:43 +0000

If you missed the first two messages, we recommend you read them on our web site:

Message #1
Message #2

It's Almost Here! We've got a few more reminders for you and I am personally looking forward to seeing you in person. We have 500 people registered; if you need to cancel please reply to this email and we will be happy to release your ticket for someone else.

The Schedule Is Out
You can view it here (it's in a Google Doc spreadsheet and is changing a lot, despite our best efforts to lock it down. We will be modifying the home page of our site on Thursday, so check there for any last minute updates. Our amazing @judico (Judi Clark) has made pages for all of the speakers so you can check them out in advance on our web site. We truly have an amazing lineup of speakers!!

What To Bring
Bring your media and tech gear: laptops are welcome, phones, cameras, recording gear, pens and notepads - it's all good. $5 cash only for parking in the HCC garage; and a little cash for lunch. Food will be available for purchase on site. (Enter the garage on Kalakaua St.)

Let's Talk About This UnConference Thing
* The Law of Two Feet: If you are not enjoying a session you are in, please exercise the Law of Two Feet and go to another session. The speakers will not be offended; they want you to get what you want from this event. It is far less formal than most conferences.
* Speak up! The speakers have all being advised to use less power point and more demos, show and tell, Q&A, and conversation. It is up to you to get what you want from this event. There are no silly questions.
* Enjoy & Respect the Wifi: We are paying for (and getting a nice discount too from Pacific Direct Connect) a lot of wireless internet (3 Mps for you geeks). Please do live blog, live stream, live tweet, etc. Please do not download or upload large files/applications and please turn off any file sharing applications you may have open.
* Bring Your Shwag: Unlike other conferences, we want you to put out your brochures, your business cards, your whatevahs. Please respect the sponsor tables and be on the lookout for the free community table. We will not however have a formal exhibit area - the sponsors will be hanging out with us, so we can chat informally together.
* Recording & Creative Commons: At podcamps, people typically are taking pictures and recording audio and video all day long. Podcamp rules state that all media produced at a podcast is "share-alike and no-commercial" licensing. That means if I make a video of people hanging out at Podcamp, you can post it on your site (share-alike) but you cannot put it on a DVD and sell the "Best Hits of Podcamp" (that would be commercial.) Our goal is to encourage media-making and story-telling and sharing of what we learned. Want to be interviewed so you can have a video clip to put on your site? Ask someone with a camera! It can be that simple. You can read more about Creative Commons here. It is a modern alternative to traditional (and very restrictive) copyright.
* Tell Your Friends About Our Live Stream: We will have an official live video stream all day both days (internet permitting) and we invite you to tell your friends. (You can wave to them and they can talk back to us in the chat room!) They will be able to join us from anywhere in the world. Please share this link to our custom page and we will also be featured on the home page so mainly just remember www.ustream.tv! Please reply to this email if you would like to help us film or monitor the chat room. @shane (Shane Robinson) has created some very cool live-streaming features.

Friday Night at Tiki's Bar and Grill: Tiki's has offered to host us with drink discounts and the debut of "Podcamp Punch!" You will need your Podcamp + Wordcamp badge for the disount. Special thanks to our sponsor Viddler who is helping us with that drink discount. If you see Colin, please give him a hug! He came all the way from Pennsylvania to be with us

Saturday Night Beach BBQ at Magic Island: The amazing @NctrnlBst (Ed Morita) is organizing a sunset party for us Catering services are being provided by Leon Bragass of LBJ Catering. Food and utensils are being provided by Podcamp Hawaii. Please reply to this email so we can get a rough idea of who is planning to come.

Win A Waikiki Hotel Stay! We are also planning a special contest where you may just win two free nights at the beautiful Waikiki Wyland Hotel! Details at Podcamp.

Look for the Purple Podcamp T-Shirts: The volunteers will be sporting these, under the direction of our cool, calm, and collected volunteer venue manager, @MadMarv (Kyle Nishioka). Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you - we'll do our best!

Aloha,

Roxanne Darling
@roxannedarling
Podcamp + Wordcamp Founder

P.S. If you are not receiving these emails, please contact us to get on the list: podcamphawaii@gmail.com

ʻOhana Sponsor – LBJ Catering

roxanne — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:41:58 +0000

LBJ Catering was a full-service, last-minute sponsor, brought to us by the BBQ Wrangler, Ed Morita. It was looking like the BBQ would be cancelled due to lack of volunteers, then Ed showed up, and brought along his friend Leon! Ed planned the menu and got the food and supplies while Leon brought his professional rig to grill and serve it all up!

Contact Information: Leon Bragas, Mobil# 808-343-7829.

It was formerly known as J&J Catering, but Leon is in the process of transferring the family business into his name, and renaming it. Please support this entrepreneur and contact Leon for catering your next event.

ʻOhana Sponsor: Vantage Counsel

roxanne — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:28:20 +0000

Greg is a founder of Vantage Counsel, and helped us set up the legal requirements for Podcamp + Wordcamp Hawaii. In true aloha spirit, he didn't hesitate when asked and offered his services pro bono to set up the official LLC that is responsible for this event.

Greg is an active participant in various tech groups in Hawaii and is devoted to building a technology industry in Hawaii. He is a founder, board member and executive officer of HiBEAM, an accelerator program for emerging technology companies located in Hawaii, and is a founding director of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Hawaii.

About Vantage Counsel

Vantage Counsel LLC is focused on company building, with legal expertise in the areas of corporate, securities, finance, intellectual property and licensing, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, technology contracting, general business and corporate governance. Like the companies we represent, we are committed to building sustainable businesses and creating rewarding jobs in Hawaii.

The opening ceremonies at Podcamp and Wordcamp Hawaii

cdevroe — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:29:23 +0000

Photos credit: Chris Heuer.

The opening ceremonies to Podcamp and Workcamp Hawaii were, put simply, the very best opening to any *camp style unconference to date.

The morning started out with two traditional Hawaiian chants (called ʻoli) done by two local sisters, Haunani and ʻIlima Kauka, of Aloha Blessings. The first chant was asking for permission to be here, to be able to do what we were going to do. The second, was a chant of welcoming. Both were equally beautiful.

After that we were treated to a hula dance by Kanoe Miller (pictured above). For those of you that have never seen a hula, I recommend catching Kanoe's dancing at the Halekulani Hotel. Hula is a dance that is done to a mele, or chant / song, that helps to dramatize the mele. Kanoe's dance was beautiful and I can not wait to see another Hula in the near future.

I dare any other Podcamp or Wordcamp to try to top this opening ceremony.

Session: Using Video to Build Community

cdevroe — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:45:03 +0000

Flying all the way from Pennsylvania for the Social Media Club Workshop, Podcamp and Wordcamp Hawaii, I had no way to know whether or not my session would resonate with the attendees. I was incredibly happy when room 304B was standing room only, and didn't empty once I began my session.

I thought, beyond just sharing my slides, I would share the general thoughts that the session covered also.

Be You. Not them.

There are a lot of really great examples of good video podcasts, communities, personalities, etc. Although there are some lessons to be learned from all of these examples, the one thing you do not want to do is directly imitate another video podcast. Although their formula works for them, it may not work for you.

The best thing to do, when you are trying to learn from others, is to break down what they do into lists of what they do right and what they do wrong. This way as you are going over your general idea for how you're going to use video to build your community - you can learn from their successes and failures without imitating them.

Sure fire ways to build a community

There are, in my opinion, a few general points to follow when trying to build an active community (whether you are using video to do it or not).

Passion. If you love it, others will too.
Consistency. Same time, same place, same channel.
Engagement. Get the audience involved.

The passion you have for what you are doing will resonate through your video. If you can't find the passion inside of yourself for your product/service/message - go out and find someone who is passionate about it. Ask them to help. Passion is palpable. You can't fake it.

Consistency will help build habits. You should be consistent in your release schedule, the feel of your videos, the way you distribute them, etc. This will help your audience to get comfortable with your style and build habits in them that will keep them coming back every single time.

Engaging your audience to participate through things like questions, contests, memes, etc. will not only build a strong community base that is active, vocal, and participatory - it will also build more content around your project that you could have never done on your own.

Incorporating video as a tool

There are several ways that you should view video podcasts. Do not think that it is limited to a person being in front of a camera. The best podcasts that I've run across are not a specific person with a mic.

Here is a short list of the types of video podcasts that you can produce, depending on your need, and what you think your community would like to see.

Traditional video podcasts. Episodic, "short", often.
Reviews. Hands on demonstrations, screencasts.
Interviews. On location, industry experts.
Activities. Educational, Outdoor, Action.

Each of these types of video podcasts (and there are others) can be used depending on your unique community and what you think would work best for them. There are great examples of each of these.

Examples to follow

Again, the following list of examples are not to be used as a list to mimic. Rather, I would recommend watching a few episodes of each of these examples and try to make a list of the things you like, and you don't like, about each one of them. This is learning from someone else's example and will save you from falling into the same pits as they did.

Traditional video podcasts that I'd recommend: Wine Library TV, Beach Walks TV, The Dog Files, Brides Made Fit, Tech Zulu, Digg Nation, Two Guys on Beer.

Review based video podcasts: Engadget, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Playstation blog, Crackberry.

Interview based podcasts: Pop17, Moblogic.tv, Rocket Boom.

Activity based video podcasts: Ukulele Underground, Scam School.

I have learned things from each of these video podcasts. Rather than relay those to you, I think each of you can learn what you need to from each of them to fit your specific project. Again, only spend a few minutes with each of these shows to learn.

Tasks for tomorrow!

A few things that you should do, as soon as you can, to get started.

Sign up for Viddler!
Research the good examples.
Plan your first five shows (optional).
Have fun.

I had a ton of fun leading this discussion with all of the attendees in room 304B. I am looking forward to tomorrow's session about WordPress plugins. See you then!

Colin Devroe is the Technology Evangelist at Viddler.com. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife Eliza and his two cats. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his personal site.

Photo credit: Eliza Devroe.

Podcamp Speaker: Arleen Anderson

judi — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:08:14 +0000

Who Else Wants a Rush of Traffic to Their Blog/Pod Site For Free?

Arleen Anderson will share specific proven methods and techniques that drive traffic to your blog and/or podcast pages which do not require spending money.

You have or wish to create a public presence on the web for the purpose of being seen. You have a particular demographic you wish to attract for a specific purpose.

How do you get them there without draining your bank account? At this session you will discover that it's not difficult.

Driving traffic to your site can be simple, easy, quick, free, and fun!

If you sell a product or service, these methods increase profits.

If you have an organization, cause, or club you want to build awareness for, you will learn how to capture and grow your audience.

If you blog or podcast just for fun, you'll discover how to round up fans and build a massive following.

Be ready to share what the objective of your site is! We'll go through as many specific applications for people's site as we can in the time we have!

About Arleen Anderson

Arleen Anderson is with Market With Excellence, a web based company serving businesses, organizations, and individuals creating and implementing online marketing campaigns that get results.

Arleen has consulted, designed, and implemented online marketing projects since 1999 for industries from Aviation Publishing to Sports Celebrities. Prior to her dedication to online marketing, Arleen was in telecommunications for 20 yrs. with her own Silicon Valley based company serving over 6,800 Greater Bay Area businesses for 14 yrs.

Arleen Anderson can be reached at: (808)343-3290
Email: Arleen@MarketWithExcellence.com
Twitter: @AlohaArleen

Podcamp Speaker: Rob Farrow

judi — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:52:37 +0000

Managing your Identity

Rob will give a brief overview of identity, building your personal brand and ways to build relevance in social media.

About Rob Farrow

Rob Farrow is brand czar (Co-Founder and VP of Marketing) of chi.mp, and is responsible for the creation and messaging of the brand and the implementation of all consumer outreach programs, including the development of promotional channels, merchandise programs, event sponsorships and activation opportunities. Rob has over 20 years of experience as a "brand-gineer" developing highly successful strategies that engage consumers and enhance brand identity. Past corporate clients include Clearwire, Durex, Hotel Renew, Hawaii Winter Baseball, Active.com, EAS nutrition, Rohto-V, CytoSports and Muscle Milk. He has worked with professional athletes, musicians, events, non-profits and community organizations developing their individual identities and brand strategies.