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Podcamp Boston just wrapped up and by all accounts, most people who attended found something valuable in the experience. But I just have to ask, haven’t we all had enough of the “un-conference” thing?

Our company (Podango) has sponsored several of these events. And we do so because we want to be a good citizen of this community. My views here are my own, and not Podango’s views. I have no problem with our sponsorships. But I do have a few concerns and complaints about the un-conference format.

Every one of these I have attended has been poorly organized, full of misinformation, and in general quite frustrating. Things rarely start on time or stay on topic. Presenters with few if any credentials wrangle their way in front of the audience to pitch something or generally send the session down a rat hole. And sometimes, the “UN” or anti-establishment portion of the event becomes the star. People are more interested in counter-culture than new media. Perhaps I am just too old fashioned to get it. But I want the focus to be on good, quality information that’s on topic, helpful, relevant and accurate.
The idea of the long tail does fascinate me. But there is also some value in filters. We go to Borders Book Store because we don’t want to have to sift through all 189,000 books that are published this year to find the 10 - 12 we’ll actually buy. We let the book store buyer decide which are the best, and we pick from those.

By allowing ANYONE who wants to speak a chance at the mic, do we always get the quality we deserve? I followed several live blogging streams from Podcamp Boston and it’s clear to me that SOME of the speakers were not providing accurate information. I’ve seen this at other un-conference events too.
While bad presenters can and do worm their way into a traditional conference environment, it happens much less frequently.

My other concern is over-exposure. At the present time, there are PodCamps scheduled in Arizona, Seattle, Nashville, Toronto, New York, Washington DC, San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta and in January here in San Francisco at Macworld. This doesn’t include several international PodCamps.
In many cases, these events directly compete with other, well-established conferences and training opportunities for new media creators. I am concerned that this is a bit over the top. Do we really need a dozen or more of these conferences every year?

In any event, if you want to go to an unconference, have at it. But remember, don’t believe everything you hear and consider how too many of these conferences can dilute the impact of the message.

Popularity: 55% [?]

Are you coming to Vegas? The Blogworld and New Media Expo is the first legitimate challenger to the Bourquins’ New Media Expo.

I’ll be speaking on Nov 8-9 along with my pals Leo Laporte, Lee Gibbons, Alex Lindsay, Craig Syverson and others.

Here’s my schedule:

From 10:15AM to 11:45AM, on Nov. 8th, Alex Lindsay and I will give a talk called, “Building Your Home Recording Studio.”

Craig Syverson and I will give a talk called “10 Things you Never Knew About Podcasting” on Nov. 9th from 1:30PM to 2:30PM.

Popularity: 57% [?]

I’m very happy to announce that I am executive producing a new podcast by, for and about technology from a female perspective. The show is called GirlsGoneGeek.TV and it’s already made the top 100 on iTunes. An amazing feet for a show that’s just three weeks old.

Check it out at GirlsGoneGeek.tv.

Popularity: 57% [?]

Seth Godin recently wrote a piece about how to build a great web site. I think much of this information is applicable to building a great online show. So, with a hat-tip to Seth, here are some rules for building a great online show.

1. Fire the committee. There needs to be ONE executive producer with the authority to approve or reject ideas for the show. It’s important to take input from a few trusted individuals, but your show ideas has to be YOUR idea.

2. Change the interaction. What makes great SHOWS great is that they are simultaneously effortless and new at the same time.

3. Less. Fewer words, fewer images, fewer characters.

4. What works, works. Theory is irrelevant.

5. Patience. Some shows test great and work great from the start. (Great if you can find one).

6. Measure. If you’re show is not gaining traction after a period of several months, and if your yield is negative… kill it.

7. Insight is good, clever is bad. Deliver real value, not just cool factor.

8. If you use a well-known talent in your show, make sure it’s a person with REAL talent, not just celebrity.

9. One voice, one vision.

10. Don’t settle.

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I spent time in Ontario, CA with about 3000 other folks interested in new media last week.

This was the third annual Expo produced by the Bourquin brothers.

There were bands this year - and more parties (but not as many party goers) and the Association for Downloadable Media held its first meeting.

Lee Gibbons attended on behalf of the 100 or so people who filled out our association survey. He got to speak his piece and it looks like there is a chance that someone other than Susan Bratton will end up controlling the ADM. That’s a good thing in my opinion and means that we might have a shot at making just one association represent us all. I’ll have more on that later.

As for the main business of the show…

I was wearing several hats at the Expo. Our company (Podango) had a large booth at the Expo. From that perspective, the show was a success. We saw lots of people in the booth, acquired new content partners, technology and opportunities to build business. We also established our leadership position in the industry.

We did the same thing we did last year, i.e., we produced an unconference where we had an alternate set of speakers appearing in our booth for three days giving talks about podcasting and new media.

The PNME regular conference track was good, but there were several comments from people visiting our booth that our sessions were better than the ones offered to paying attendees. I’ll leave that for others to decide.

The show floor featured about the same number of booths as last year and about the same number of people seemed to visit the booths. This is a telling fact.

It tells me that the industry has hit a plateau and/or that the Bourquins decision to move the show to Vegas next year was a very good one.

There were very few major announcements at the show compared to last year, and to me, the overall vibe was somewhat diminished. The Libsyn guys were made to wear feathers in their caps and had an odd booth that looked like they were trying to do a Lord of the Rings movie in it. My favorite part of the show was seeing Rob Walsh wearing that getup. http://www.podcast411.com/

I do think we saw an increase in mature podcasters this year. Not old podcasters, but podcasters who had been doing their show for a longer period and who were serious. There were people there making money at this.

Tim Street of the French Maids put it best. He said the people who attended this year were more down to business than out for a party like last year.

Also, everyone seemed to discover the theme that podcasting is dead. (Thanks Michael Geoghegan) I found this very interesting since my pal Leo Laporte talked about this last year at the show, and his remarks were somewhat controversial then. I guess everyone else is seeing the light. The Bourquins have removed the word podcasting from the name of next year’s event. They’re now calling it the “New Media Expo.”

This mirrors my own thinking. Even Paul Colligan (who made fun of me for changing the name of this blog from Podcasting Tricks to Online Media Tips) seems to have jumped on the bandwagon. Of course Paul is a bit slow on the uptake. He was the only one joining us at the Steak 2.0 dinner hosted by Cachefly without an iPhone. And he’s one of nine people in America who seems to be rooting for the Zune!

In all seriousness, I do think that we’re at a turning point. In my opinion, people who call themselves podcasters, need to start thinking of their podcasts as “shows.” And shows are what is important. Distribution models will change. Period. But the shows live on. Create good shows, without regard for how or where they are distributed. Focus on building an audience, no matter where you are. Serve that audience. Tell good stories. Be open and transparent. And everything will work out.

It was a good show, not a great one. We’ll see what happens in November at the first annual Blogworld and New Media Expo.

Popularity: 55% [?]