Good things growing at Podcamp Montreal

We have attended a couple Podcamp “unconferences” in the past year, and have been so impressed with the content & attendees. For those of you not familiar, Podcamp is based on the Barcamp model – a global series of user generated conferences where the sessions are like workshops, and they abide by the Law of Two Feet – meaning that if you’re not finding value in a session you’re free to get up and leave at any time without judgment. We attended Podcamp Toronto last February and Podcamp Boston in August – they were both well-organized and allowed us to meet a ton of entrepreneurs/startups and attend many insightful sessions. On the weekend we attended our first Podcamp Montreal, and were just as impressed – the venue was perfect, the sessions were relevant and diverse, and the crowd was vibrant and interesting. See below for our recap of the event – hopefully it will give you a glimpse into the great time we had, and encourage you to attend a Podcamp in your area:

Day 1

We attended several interesting sessions on Day 1, including Kim Vallée‘s session on Top Tips for Better Blogging; Daniele Rossi’s session on Connecting with your Peeps (a great look at podcasting for niche communities – in his case, people who stutter); and CT Moore’s session on Sex, Trust and Transparency: What would Donald Draper blog (for the Mad Men fan in everyone – check out his slides here).

Adele McAlear before her session

There were two sessions that got us thinking about our place within the entrepreneurship/online community. First was Adele McAlear’s session on Death and Digital Legacy in Social Media. This is a seldom discussed topic – what happens to your accounts if you suddenly pass away? Should you leave your passwords to your online persona with a trust friend/family member just in case? And what does mourning look like in a world where someone lives on in the online world even after they’ve left the physical world? This was an especially sensitive topic as Montreal blogger Renée Wathelet was found murdered in her Mexico apartment on Thursday morning and had many close friends in the local community. As an entrepreneur it’s an important topic to consider, especially if your business is online – you may be the only person who has access to your business information and online presence.

Julien Smith during his session

The second was Julien Smith’s session on Whatever. Julien is a consultant, speaker and author (he co-authored the book Trust Agents with Chris Brogan). He began his session by asking “Why are you here?” and gave the audience three options: you (meaning you’re there for your own motivations – to learn and grow as an individual); them (you’re there 100% for the community – to support them and learn from them); and the game (you understand the power of a network and are there to expand yours and make connections). At first everyone had to choose one of the three options, both with eyes open and eyes closed – when everyone had their eyes closed Julien noted that most people raised their hand for the game, but with their eyes open the majority chose them. This was an interesting exercise because it highlighted the different motivations people have for being involved in social media. We think it’s usually a mix of all three – you’re involved to grow as a person, to support the community, and to further your business and grow your network. As an entrepreneur you have to bo concerned with all three – you need both personal growth, a supportive community and a strong network to succeed. Blogger Dave Fleet wrote a great post about this session – read it here.

Day 2

On Sunday we attended two sessions before heading back to Toronto – first was Alexandre Enkerli’s session on “What’s so social about social media?” and then co-organizer Sylvain Grand’Maison’s session called “S*** I should bring to your attention.” Sylvain gave a relevant, humourous and insightful session about some of the current trends in social media, startups and podcasting. Some of his top lessons:

• It’s better to have a small audience of passionate people than a large audience that doesn’t care about your company
• It’s hard to understand the motivations of people on the Internet – there will always be spammers and people who are there for the wrong reasons, so try to surround yourself with people who are genuine
• There’s no right or wrong way to use social media – explore, and find the right way it can work for you and your startup
• Be cognizant of the information you’re putting out there as an entrepreneur – your business card is now Google

Podcamp attendees in the lobby

You can check out our set of Flickr photos here. Huge thanks to the organizing committee of Podcamp, including friends Laurent LaSalle and Sylvain Grand’Maison, and to Molson for hosting Saturday night’s social. To find a Podcamp in your area or to look into organizing one in your city visit the Podcamp wiki.