I’m freshly returned from the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, put on by Tim Bourquin and team (I have a video interview coming soon). It was a blend of feelings, my experience, and I’m going to start unthreading those feelings here, and continue as I find time to add to the conversation.
The Event Itself
I think Tim Bourquin and team can feel proud. They had a great attendance (over 2500?), and got podcasting’s top talent to speak at their presentations. There was an expo floor with some innovation and talent ( Blip.tv and Podcast Ready and Podzinger and Feedburner, to name a few). And there were ecosystem vendors like guys from Shure and M-Audio and that kind of thing, too. 
The Beercast
My favorite event was unscripted. Greg Narain and Chris Heuer and I went out to Circle K and picked up some frosty carbonated beverages and a cowboy hat and put on a Beercast in the Microsoft / AMD beanbag chair room. (Video coming soon). We had a great bunch of folks come by, and it really seemed to make people feel like “part of something” to be part of it.
The People
( I realize that I don’t have enough photos of my new friends from these events. I have lots of video clips of you, but I’ll fix this later, the photo deficit. )
The people were what mattered to me. No slam to Bourquin and the presenters (some of who are my friends), but I enjoyed the hell out of meeting people, and I missed several sessions to go engage in important conversations with folks I’d met at PodCamp or Video On the Net or both.
First person that comes to mind was Michael Bailey, president of Mobasoft (maker of the My Chingo talkback software). He was this great, steady person who made me feel very confident. He even wore his PodCamp shirt. Thanks, Mike. I saw Greg Narain again, and Greg Cangialosi. I saw Eric Olson of FeedBurner, and Chris Heuer. I talked with Giovanni and John Blue, and Dan York, and another trillion people I’m going to forget to name, but who mattered very much to talk with.
This event marks the third show in a row I’ve attended that I could hang out with Andrew Baron, and the second with Rudy and Casey. I was *soooooo* happy I could hang out for the first time with Steve and Zadi, who were both just as amazing as all the folks I’m meeting from the video community. And I had a hell of a time on that long van ride down and back to L.A. with Robert Scoble and Joanne Colan riding in the back, navigating. Mike and Dina from Blip.tv were as superheroic as ever, and hey wait: I’ve seen both of THEM at 3 shows in a row, too! Whoa.
Oh, I had a great talk and walk with Jim and Charley and Chris from The Clip Show. They were super fun, and I intend to do more with them over the next several months. They inspired a great Awkward Moments clip that I’m going to get filmed. You still should’ve left that party early, fellas. I’m not kidding.
I had a nice little drinks and apps chat with Michael and Justin and Eric and (please, I can’t remember the names of your lady team members) from Gimp.tv, as well as Hayden Black, Kip from NBC LA, Eric Olson, Julian Smith, and Michael Bailey. That was a really wonderful moment to me.
I had a great time with Angela Epstein, Heidi Miller, Gray, Vic PodCaster, Jake Luddington, and truly a dozen more folks when we got some drinks together in the hotel bar.
Some of my best meetings were totally impromptu. I met Shelley Santoro Jones from Discovery Channel and spent some great time with her. I met and spent a moment with Denise Howell, and took a neat (brief) car ride with Eric Rice. This was the greatness of the event.
Brief starstruck moments involved: Craig Syverson, Bre Pettis, David Prager, but I think I got over those quickly. Bre hugs harder than any man or woman I have EVER met. (And Katrina told him she liked his ladybug robot over the phone, which made him do this kind of happy dancey thing when he heard that).
Another whole post is coming, because I just can’t possible cover this all in one shot, and I want to give the other post its due as well.
If I hung out with you at PME, I’m so glad we hung out. If I saw you and chatted a little, but it was brief, I’m so very sorry. I tried hard to spend time with everyone, and I found myself running out of time. You’re still amazing. No, really. : )
For those of you I called and screamed into the phone that they should be here (like Chris and Justin), I meant it. Damn. I wanted some of the other PodCamp heroes to roll into town.
There’s lots of video coming, but I’m probably going to post that on another site. Give me a little while, and I’ll get that other post going.
So, great show. I need to connect with more folks at different shows as well.
Related posts:
