Verbalism

PodcastCon UK 2005 - Wow!

Well, it happened and I'm still in a weird, slightly surreal, post-conference haze.

PodcastCon UK 2005 took place yesterday and turned out to be quite some conference and quite some night out afterwards! Personally, I've never been to a conference I've enjoyed more.

The sheer excitement, enthusiasm and passion that was buzzing from every corner was palpable and I'm kind of missing it already! Meeting so many people for the first time and yet feeling you were instantly among friends was a phenomenal experience. I met loads of people, but still wished by the end that I'd had the chance to talk to more.

A few personal highlights, from many, included:

• putting faces to the voices and the sheer pleasure of meeting old friends none of whom I'd met before;
• meeting Colskee ... one of my personal favourites in the world of podcasting and the mysterious Mr OrangeWelly;
• Martin's AV skills;
• the wifi in the hotel working;
• Milverton Wallace's presentation on podcasting to reach out to communities and in education;
• Mark's picture and wallpaper;
• all the talk about whether or not mainstream media 'got it', and seeing Dana Pressman from Be so clearly 'getting it';
• someone managing to find a table for 40 in a Soho restaurant in London on a Saturday night ...

.... and there is much, much more ... but I ought to get some sleep shortly!

It's going to take me a few days yet before I'm coherent enough to blog about some of the fascinating discussions, insights and ideas that the conference generated. What I'm sure of right now, however, is that there's a great future for podcasting and a great future for the community it has engendered.

Verbalism Podcast #1 - Stormhoek and other stories

Download Verb1.mp3 This is my first podcast on Verbalism.  Just wanted a chance to talk about a few things that interest me once in a while.  So expect some more of these occasionally.

Left click to stream, or right click to download the mp3 file direct.

Verbalism #1 includes:

• a live Stormhoek wine tasting and some thoughts on Hugh MacLeod's blogospheric marketing techniques;
• excitement about PodcastCon UK 2005 on 17th September, and;
• an ode to Electromancer.com.

Music is all from Electromancer.com and includes:

• Raining Colours by Torchomatic, and;
• Rainbow Ande by Artur Rong.

Be There ... PodcastCon UK 2005

Well, I'm delighted to say that the UK's first ISP to provide a 24 meg broadband connection, Be, has agreed to sponsor PodcastCon UK 2005. It really means we should be able to pull off a great conference that I for one am really, really looking forward to.

Quite apart from anything else it'll be very interesting to have almost the whole UK podcasting scene in one place - the community spirit, but equally the sheer diversity of the people involved both as listeners and producers, is sure to make it a superb experience.

But there is something interesting going on here beyond a conference and a sponsorship. Be are very much a perfect partner for podcasting, but clearly also represent the beginning of a new wave of high speed broadband connections which will extend internet content and, as a consequence, radically change the way the traditional broadcast media have to act in order to hold on to audiences.

In fact rumblings from the future are already being heard in the present. Channel 4 has announced that it will stream all of its content live over the internet. TiVo has launched a service that allows US viewers to download shows via the web before they hit the TV. And Blowing Smoke is a new film that you'll see first online.

Interesting times.

PodcastCon UK Update

Very much a hive of activity around PodcastCon UK 2005 at the moment.  I'm sure there'll be some more exciting news springing forth about the conference in the next few weeks.  It really is beginning to shape up very nicely indeed!

Talking of which Neil has done a fantastic job with this:

Wikis & The Hugh Page

Wikipedia brings together a global network of amateur Doctor Johnson's to create an extraordinary resource and wonderful example of what wikis can achieve.  Of all the social media tools available to us, I think wikis are one of the most useful, particularly when it comes to pooling knowledge, sharing resources and soliciting input.

Hugh McLeod over at gapingvoid.com has come up with some very interesting, practical uses on The Hugh Page which includes an opportunity to edit the Hughtrain, a Cluetrain-inspired manifesto.  No less interesting are two further wikis, one for listing blogging, social media and digital events, confabs and conferences, the other a listing of social media guns to hire.  Both are well worth exploring and contributing to as I have done already to let people know about PodcastCon UK 2005.

Europe's First Podcast Conference?

Thanks to Paul Nicholls and a group of UK podcasters at BritCaster.com, including yours truly, Europe's first (I think) conference on podcasting is to take place on Saturday 17 September at the Berners Hotel, just off Oxford Street in central London.  If you're interested, do sign up at the PodcastCon UK 2005 wiki as soon as you can because spaces are limited.

It's all shaping up very nicely and we've secured some great speakers including: James Cridland who is head of strategic development at Virgin Radio, one of the first mainstream radio stations to adopt podcasting in the UK and either Chris Kimber, head of radio interactive, or someone else from the BBC's team that has been closely involved in the Corporation's rapid adoption of podcasting. 

We may even have secured a live link into the conference with someone very special in the world of podcasting ... more on that later.

There'll also be facilitated, 'unconference' style discussions on all sorts of topics and issues related to podcasting as this new technology moves into its second year. 

More importantly than that it'll be a fantastic opportunity for podcasters, listeners and anyone interested in podcasting to get together and have a good time! Virtually every UK podcaster will be there and we'd love to see some European or even US podcasters joining the party too. 

If you're able to get to London in September, we'll make sure you'll be given a warm welcome, so don't forget to sign up!

More later ...