Maybe it’s because I’m a bit myopic socially, or maybe it’s because I’m so busy, but I did not realize how many hard-core social media buffs there are in Pittsburgh. Podcamp 4 was an education in that regard all by itself.
I decided to go to Podcamp on a whim after seeing that almost all the tickets were sold out. I expected a small tech seminar with the same old info. I honestly thought it would be more of a networking opportunity than anything else. I have never been so wrong.
I came late (as always) on Saturday and sat in on the second half of a talk given by the guys from the Wrestling Mayhem Show which centered around different podcasting technologies and opportunities as well as the kickbacks these particular lucky guys got for doing their podcasts on beer and such. (You can imagine the tasty nature of these kickbacks.)
Next up was lunch that consisted of Franktuary hot-dogs. Franktuary has a rather large presence on Twitter which made them even more perfect caterer for this event.
Next was a really exciting presentation by Priya Narasimhan of YinzCam. She told us all about the great things she and a team of CMU students have been doing with the Penguins to enhance fan’s experience at Pens games, and how that same technology translated gracefully into iBurgh, the first iPhone app for government interaction. It was really informative and quite motivational to hear about her success.
Last but definitely not least was a talk given by Virginia Montanez and her “butler” Mike Woycheck who run the blog Thatschurch.com, and amazing blog about ‘Burgh life that I am completely and totally hooked on. She had a lot of interesting things to say about living a double life (since she was writing incognito for so long) and some surprisingly technical tips about taking down your blog discreetly and entirely so that no one can bust your cover.
I (sadly) missed Sunday’s sessions due to illness, but I’ll definitely be going back next year.