Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

Category: Conferences

  • Why Pixelated is brilliant and wrong

    Mitch Joel created a great meme over the weekend – Pixelated, the 100% virtual online conference, assembled from video footage of conferences past. Since then, lots of folks have created their own riffs on this idea.

    It’s brilliant and gets the idea of conferences wrong.

    Conferences aren’t about sessions, talking heads, and lecture format, which is what online video captures best.

    Conferences are about interaction, collaboration, and meeting people, at least to me, all things that one-way, online video is terrible at.

    What is Pixelated, then? It’s pretty much a Gigadial podcast or a Google Reader shared items for video – hand-selected content that you think is important.

    Does this make the idea bad? Not at all. It’s especially insightful when you see a Pixelated from someone you respect, like Mitch, because it’s a way of seeing what they think is important. Like seeing their iPod playlist for business, if you will.

    But it’s not a conference or an unconference. When you finish a Pixelated, you probably will not have increased the size of your business network or collaborated to create a new meme like bacn or lolsaurs.

    Make your own Pixelated. Call it a conference if you like, but realize that it doesn’t fulfill those vital roles of collaboration and interaction, not yet.

    How would you add interaction, collaboration, and networking to Pixelated?

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    Why Pixelated is brilliant and wrong 1 Why Pixelated is brilliant and wrong 2 Why Pixelated is brilliant and wrong 3

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  • Why pro conferences are different than PodCamps and why neither is better

    Company logoImage via Wikipedia

    Why pro conferences are different than PodCamps and why neither is better

    Some interesting discussion this morning on the differences between PodCamps and pro conferences like the Affiliate Summit, which I’m speaking at on a panel on Tuesday, August 12. A difference to highlight, from the registration page of the Affiliate Summit:

    PHOTOGRAPHY, RECORDING & VIDEO TAPING: Sessions may be photographed, recorded and/or video taped by Affiliate Summit. By your attendance, you give Affiliate Summit permission to be photographed, recorded or videotaped and agree to the public display and/or sale of the photographs, recordings and/or videotapes. Personal recording or videotaping of any kind during the event is prohibited.

    This is part of what separates PodCamp from pro conferences (that and the price tag, PodCamp Boston 3 was 50,99 at the door, the Affiliate Summit is 949 for early bird,1,949 at the door). That said, there are several very good reasons for pro conferences to prohibit recording, considerations that went into PodCamp and were ultimately rejected.

    1. Protection of speaker intellectual property. This is a big deal. PodCamp has been absolutely blessed by speakers like David Meerman Scott, Mitch Joel, David Maister, and many others, who normally charge tens of thousands of dollars to speak at a conference. The presence of any kind of recording online causes them real economic harm – it literally costs them money, since it makes them a less valuable speaker. Why? Exclusivity counts for a lot. Imagine being a conference planner and trying to advertise that your pro conference has information that’s exclusively available at your conference… and then finding out that your keynote speaker can be found on Blip.tv or mDialog for free. You’re less likely to book that speaker as opposed to someone who’s always behind a paywall.

    2. Protection of conference revenue. One of the biggest sellers at a conference? The conference DVD, often for up to 2/3 of the price of the conference. If you pay 1,949 for the conference and the DVD is available for695 or you can see it on YouTube for free, which will you choose? More important, if recordings are freely available online, why would you go to the conference in the first place?

    3. Protection of conference attendees. As we said at PodCamp Boston, the conference is the hallway. At top-tier pro conferences, there are a lot of folks floating around who, quite frankly, don’t want to be recorded for any reason unless they’re compensated to be, and that’s fair. That’s their choice. Some of these folks have exceptionally valuable information that isn’t intended for the world to consume, and the premium they charge for that information is their prerogative.

    All of these considerations are valid, and make good sense for a professional conference model. That’s an important distinction, because a lot of folks in social media believe PodCamps, BarCamps, etc. are the evolution of the conference, and that the models which power PodCamps, BarCamps, and unconferences are the right way to go for professional conferences.

    They are not.

    Professional conferences and unconferences are two completely different animals, two completely different models. Professional conferences work on a revenue model that emphasizes profitability. Speakers get paid and share proprietary information, attendees pay and derive value from sessions (not to mention craploads of handouts, printouts, etc.) and access to VIPs, vendors and sponsors pay and get lead generation lists and access to top level corporate folks. Everything works.

    Unconferences emphasize a revenue model of meeting costs. Attendees occasionally pay, sponsors pay for exposure, speakers don’t get paid, but the net effect is that everyone pays much less than a pro conference. An “expo floor” booth at an unconference will probably run a company 1,000 or less. An expo floor booth at a pro conference will cost at least10,000, if not more. Because no one’s making money beyond meeting costs, expectations are lower and people are more free. Again, everything works.

    Which model is right? Both are right for their roles, and both are supremely wrong out of context. A professional conference that let recordings be free would do itself significant economic harm. A PodCamp that sold its registration list for $25/head would be demonized by its community. It’s inappropriate for members of either style of conference to criticize the other for not being more like them, since each plays a vitally important role in the events ecosystem, and each attracts the crowd that wants to be there.

    There’s room enough for everyone, pro conferences and unconferences alike.

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  • Transmitting Essence in Social Media

    Transmitting Essence in Social Media

    As I continue to learn more about digital photography and graduate from clueless hack with a nice camera to somewhat clueless hack with a nice camera, one of the lessons I’ve learned so far is that very often, representing the whole can be done through representing the essence.

    What the heck does that mean?

    Here’s a few photos from my recent trip to Block Island. The island itself is 6 miles long and conveying a sense of the culture and energy of the island is difficult in whole. Here’s a picture of the beach:

    Block Island 2008

    Tough part is, this is such a broad picture that it could be any beach in the world.

    This photo conveys a lot more about the spirit of the island:

    Block Island 2008

    Notice that it’s using fonts and layout that are reminiscent of a 1950s ice cream shop. Here’s another shot:

    Block Island 2008

    What I’m learning is that sometimes just a picture of something as seemingly inconsequential as a sign in a shop or a wood fence on a dune conveys a lot more feeling about the place than trying to take a giant panoramic photo of it all. The small picture brings out the essence of what’s different about the island, what sets it apart from the thousands of other islands in the Atlantic ocean.

    Likewise, look at your social media efforts. You can try to be as broad as possible, trying to keep up on every network, running around like crazy on every platform, but that ultimately makes you the equivalent a collection of wide-angle, subjectless photos. You see everything but nothing’s interesting. Sure, take a few panoramas at the start, but then dig in and find the essence of the kind of social media experience you want to have, and focus your efforts where you want to be. Find out what’s different.

    If there is one feature that distills the essence of social to you, what is it? That will tell you what network you need to be on. Is it presence? Twitter and its clones. Clubs and groups? Facebook. Exploration of people’s interests, one on one? MySpace. Career-focused, professional networking? LinkedIn. There are plenty of others, and other ways to perceive each of these networks – these are just how I use the properties.

    Pick the conferences and events you want to attend based on the essence of the experience you’ll get out of it. Want a “fishbowl” new media event? Podcasters Across Borders. Want to meet a never-ending flow of new people? PodCamp. Marketing? Look to MarketingProfs. Inspiration? TED. Each conference and event has an essence, and if that essence is what you want, then when it comes to making hard choices about what conference to attend, you’ll have a better idea of where to allocate scarce time and money.

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  • An Epic Battle: Conversation vs. Monetization

    At Podcasters Across Borders, Chris Brogan and I had an epic fight over conversation vs. monetization, over community vs. marketing. Here’s the video of this late night “session” which will set the tone for podcasting for years to come…

    … or at least until the next conference to which we bring lightsabers.

    Hat tip to Chel Pixie and Whitney Hoffman for the camerawork.

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  • Podcasters Across Borders 2008 Review

    Podcasters Across Borders 2008 Review

    PAB2008 group photo

    Podcasters Across Borders 2008 has wrapped up, and I’m back in the office. Another terrific weekend, full of great friends and interesting discussions. A few takeaways from this weekend that I picked up:

    Sylvain Grand-Maison showed a great slide of song structure and podcast structure – comparing the two, and suggesting that the same ideas that make a song worth listening to could make your podcast worth listening to.

    Sylvain Grand-Maison - PAB2008

    Jay Moonah did a great demo of how the medium is the message by having a blindfolded volunteer identify the quality of a promotional message by the paper it was printed on.

    Jay Moonah - PAB2008

    Tod Maffin from the CBC explained about “IT” or the quality that makes a podcast terrific. One of his suggestions was to speak more intimately, reminding us that a significant portion of people listen to podcasts with headphones or earbuds; speaking to them as if you’re shouting across the room (radio) is a mismatch for how people listen.

    Tod Maffin - PAB2008

    There were plenty of other discussions I had this weekend, and I’ll be making some changes from a technical perspective as well as a marketing perspective for the various media adventures we all participate in

    Oh, and I won a Blue Snowball mic, which was a nice treat, and soon to be a nice treat for the listeners of the Financial Aid Podcast.

    PAB2008 UStream setup

    Many thanks to Mark Blevis and Bob Goyetche for putting on another fantastic conference.

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  • Preparing for PodCamp DC with the Jeff Pulver Method

    Preparing for PodCamp DC with the Jeff Pulver Method

    Jeff Pulver writes a great recurring blog post about how to prepare for an upcoming conference. His method of making a conference a productive experience for you is one that is infinitely valuable, and I highly recommend adopting the framework for your own conference experiences, whether at one of Jeff’s highly recommended VON conferences or unconferences like PodCamps.

    Here’s my action plan for PodCamp DC, based on Jeff’s method.

    Join the community. Taken care of.

    Set your goals. My goals for PodCamp DC are twofold – to share as much as I can of the stuff I’ve been working on with all of the folks in new media who want to hear about it, and to learn from folks doing important work about what they’re doing and how I and my network can help. Social media has given me a rare opportunity to be a part of a community of millions, with thousands just a click away on networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.

    I especially would like to meet folks who are interested in taking their existing communities in the political and government relations realms into the new media realm. There are a lot of people in new media who can be especially helpful to your work, and I’d love to be able to connect the two worlds together a little.

    Say hello. Here I am. There are a lot of ways to get in touch with me. A few include:

    Self portrait 2My friend Chris Brogan recommends posting a recent photo of yourself before each conference so people know what you look like. To be honest, I haven’t really changed all that much in a decade or so, so this photo is perfectly up to date.

    Change my email habits. I’ll definitely be checking email less frequently, probably in the early mornings and evenings. As much as I can, I’ll try to stay in touch.

    Study the map of the conference. In this case, Google Maps is the main game, as I’m staying in one spot, helping with the UnKeynote in another spot, and presenting in a third sport. Here’s my public PodCamp DC map.

    Be aware of the event schedule, and be in control of your own schedule. Both will be tough, but I think there will be plenty of time for, as Jeff calls it, serendipity.

    Originally, PodCamp DC was scheduled for two days, but logistics and other considerations demanded a full one day instead. As a result, I’ll have a little extra time on Sunday if folks want to get together to chat, do some informal stuff, maybe grab a cup of coffee or lunch before I fly back to Boston. If you’d like to schedule a meeting on Sunday, please hit up one of the contact links above, and I’ll do my best.

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  • Reflections on NewBCamp 08

    For those who didn’t head out to PodCamp Toronto this weekend, another UnConference launched in New England – NewBCamp. Very closely aligned in concept (though no connection) to PodCamp Pittsburgh‘s BootCamp PGH, NewBCamp was created by Sara Streeter, a student at Johnson & Wales University, to achieve the dual goals of introducing new people to the various technologies available and to energize the Providence area technology scene with the power of new media.

    I went to NewBCamp to share a little and see someone else’s take on the UnConference idea, and I’m pleased to say that NewBCamp is very much the same energy, enthusiasm, and excitement that embodies the PodCamp series of events. I think the Providence area has got its own UnConference series, and it’ll be interesting to see if NewBCamp and BootCamp can work together, since they’re so closely aligned.

    Sara StreeterEven a veteran can learn lots of new stuff, and I’m certainly no exception. Sara’s session, Speed Mentoring, is an absolute gem of a session that I would love to incorporate into PodCamps. It’s like Speed Dating, but instead of relationships, a few people self-designate as mentors in specific topics, and then folks in the room can cluster towards topics that they’re interested in or that they need help in. Those small, focused discussions were revelatory in their own right, but I think the Speed Mentoring concept is a nice twist to conversation.

    I had the opportunity to fine-tune and present a more story-like version of my New Media 101 session. Matthew Ebel was kind enough to stream it on uStream.tv, and recorded part of it here:

    A full version with better audio will be produced and released soon.

    Matthew Ebel Live at AS220The day concluded with a concert at AS220 in Providence with Matthew Ebel. Over 90 minutes, Matthew took us all on a fantastic musical tour of his work, including a new version of probably my all time favorite song of his, I Will Wait For You.

    NewBCamp was a fantastic experience, and I hope to see it flourish and accomplish its twin missions of introducing new people to technology and bringing a boost to the Providence technology and new media sectors.

    “The sun’s coming up in the morning, and I’ll be there…”

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  • John Wall Nails Trade Shows

    Want some of the best advice about being a trade show exhibitor? The Ronin Marketeer, John Wall, has it all for you.

    For more of John, check out Marketing Over Coffee, too.

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  • Why You Should Go To Jeff Pulver's VON.x

    Laser beam at the iSightJeff Pulver’s hosting Spring VON.x in San Jose the week of March 17. While I can’t make it, if you have any interest in voice or video online, you should.

    Top 5 Reasons to go to VON.x

    1. See great speakers give you an idea where things are going for them
    2. Watch a professional conference team put on an event with operational excellence that would make your ops team envious
    3. See Jeff try to broadcast his entire conference from a Nokia N95
    4. Pulver’s All Conference Party. If you’ve been to one, I need say no more.
    5. Cisco gives away laser pointers at their booth on the VON expo floor. Frickin’ laser beams.

    With luck, you can make it to VON.x. Wish I could! Register here.

  • Brief Hiatus

    This weekend, I’ll be completely off the grid attending the 10th annual New England Warrior Camp. It’ll be a much-needed retreat of study, ninjutsu practice, and meditation, refreshing my head and helping me to refocus and recharge. In the meantime, for great content, be sure to check out the latest episodes of the Marketing Over Coffee Marketing Podcast with me and marketing master practitioner John Wall and the Financial Aid Podcast.

    Catch you on the other side!

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