I have to hand it to Mark Blevis, Bob Goyetche and everyone who helped out with, or sponsored Podcasters Across Borders 2010.
They worked together to put on a fantastic conference experience. Not only were there fantastic keynote speakers, but the participants who gave short JOLT! presentations were amazing – from Andrea Ross‘ emotional speech to Julien Smith‘s closing message “When in doubt, have cultists attack”; and everyone else in between.
My only regret was having to miss the last JOLT! and keynote to catch a train back to Toronto…
Here’s my summary of things I learned or observed at PAB 2010 – in 12 points.
Good content is about:
- Creativity – do something a little different.
- Following some rules while breaking some others – don’t think because one thing works for someone else, you need to do the same.
- Emotion & resonance – connect with your audience on an emotional level, and leave them wanting to think about what you’ve shown them.
- Allowing your audience to participate – I don’t just mean direct participation through comments. Leave some loose ends, inspire thought and discussion, make your ideas portable and let your audience remix them.
Strong communities are about:
- Shared experiences
- Common interests
- Trust
- Reliability and meeting (or exceeding) expectations
(It’s very clear by the number of people who travel to attend PAB that it’s a strong community)
Amazing conferences are about:
- Great speakers
- Great company
- Great food & drink
- A great river cruise never hurts
(PAB 2010 had all of these things)
Thanks again! I had a great time, met wonderful people, spent time with good friends and I can’t wait to do it again next year.
This is a fantastic summary and I’m really honoured the conference had such an impact. It was great meeting you, albeit briefly. I’m looking forward to our next opportunity to meet and chat.
Thanks Mark. I too looking forward to talking again. You worked really hard to organize everything and it was your opportunity to spend time with your family and close friends.
Next year I’ll bring my guitar (and get back into practice, so I can play along)!
Great post. Makes me wish I had gone. I’d be curious to see how you will take your new learned knowledge and apply it to your projects. Anything thoughts? Maybe you can help inspire me to start podcasting!
Thanks Christopher. It’s too bad you couldn’t make it.
I’ve got some things in mind. I recently started another project blogging about my experiences as a student of shaolin martial arts, and I’d like to start adding some audio and video content of my own there (http://torontoshaolin.wordpress.com). Over time it may shift from a text blog with occasional audio/video to a regular podcast. We’ll see how it goes.