Marketing Monster

I spoke with Chris Brogan about the success of PodCamp last February in Toronto:

(You can see the 6 rules of PodCamp here.)

Recently, I asked Christopher Penn three questions about the evolution of PodCamp and the vision for the future.

AM: Montreal is the 3rd Canadian city to host PodCamp (after Toronto and Ottawa). What was the most surprising location request that you’ve received, and how did it turn out?

CP: Cape Town, South Africa - not only did it turn out well, but it was the first carbon-neutral PodCamp!

AM: What did you learn about the process of moving from a free model to a paid model for PodCamp Boston 3?

CP: People are a lot more likely to show up and be committed, participate, and be energized when they have some money in the till. Money is a proxy for commitment in today’s world, a tangible indicator of a promise, and both Boston and Philadelphia had attendance rates in excess of 80%, far above the 40%-50% of previous free versions.

AM: How would you like to see PodCamp grow?

CP: Imagine for a moment that your industry, that your specialty, is a single post, a single beam. It represents your vertical, everything you’re good at, and also everything that’s wrong with your industry’s growth. It’s fishbowl. It’s vertical. It’s a silo, an echo chamber in which no new ideas flow in or out.

You keep struggling to find new ideas, new innovations. Event conferences in your industry are the same old, same old, with vendors marketing the same solutions to yesterday’s problems.

Now imagine you found a way to tie together your vertical with others.

Imagine you found a way to bridge the gap between your vertical, your silo, your fishbowl, and not just with one other silo, but with a ton of silos. Imagine a series of fishbowls connected, so many that you effectively have an ocean to swim in. Imagine you found the commonalities among verticals that were strengths, and that working with others in completely unrelated fields helped mitigate your individual weaknesses.

This is the mission of PodCamp. Bring together everyone from different worlds who want to learn, share, and grow your new media skills. Bridge the gap between pools of ideas so that the best ideas are accessible to everyone, and the power of friends working together can overcome the obstacles that by yourself stood in your way.

PodCamp Montreal is September 20 - 21, 2008. If you are interested in hosting a PodCamp in your community, you can find out how here.

One Degree is a proud sponsor of PodCamp Montreal.