When I started hearing about PodCamp Ottawa 2008, I did not made any plans to attend. My weekend have been ectic these days and I had just assumed I wouldn’t be able to make it. (This is what happen when you expect a kid!) When Sunday arrived and I realized I had no plans, I packed my things, jumped in my car and drove to the National Art Centre. I got there in time to have a small chat with @jmigneault, then PodCamp started.

For those who don’t know what PodCamps are, here it is, in a nutshell. PodCamps are anti-conferences; a meeting of people interested in podcasting and new media, web 2.0 and social networking. The meeting is pretty informal; no chairs are provided so we all sit or lay on the floor in a large circle. There is a schedule, and proposed topics for discussion, but anybody is allowed to talk, ask questions, and bring topics as he sees fit. We all formed one big circle, but there was really no problems if a group would have wanted to start a 2nd circle to discuss other topics. The focus is on people, not marketing and technology (although you can talk about marketing and technology.) It’s time to meet people, share ideas and fill-up on motivation, energy and… pizza.

The day started with a discussion about the power of sharing ideas by @jeffparks from IAConsultants. We discussed around the fact that you cannot put a price tag to the human relationships and that, in the end, this is probably what matters the most.

During the day, we also discussed about what you can do « beyound RSS »; other forms of delivery for podcasts, from Facebook updates to email subscribtions. We exchanged ideas on how to monetize your podcast. Since you can’t have a PodCamp without talking about terminology, we also complained about the word podcast but, as Charles Hodgson pointed out, words are democratic; People choose what word they use. Words are as strong as the number of people using them. I was very interested to hear what people had to say about delivering bilingual content.

I, who never win a thing, got the first pick from a box full of Griffin goodies that @bobgoyetche had managed to get as a sponsor for the event. I picked the PowerMate, a cool USB gadget you can use to control the audio volume of your computer, but can also configure to do a bunch of other things (like jump from one window to the next, eject a disk, etc.) You can’t have to many blinking lights on your desk.

The side discussions were very instructive. Other than learning that @jmigneault was born in the same town as I was, @bobgoyetche gave me some very interesting tips on how to use the Zoom H4 which, incidently, is apparently often confused with a taser in international airports.

On an unrelated note, I started counting the number of iPhones there… Approximately one every two people had one. That made me wish I had one, espacially now that I learn you could use it with the Apple wireless keyboard I was talking to you about the other day (That’s if you jail-break the phone, actually…)

I want to thank everybody who was there for their authenticity, motivation and discussions. It was a blast. Special thanks to @markblevis, @bobgoyetche and Maurizio for organizing the event. I don’t think I will be able to make it to PodCamp Toronto in February, but I’ll try to make it to PAB 2009. In the meantime, I’ll try to use all that creative energy to record a podcast this week. Until then, you can listen to the last show, if you understand French.

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Podcast by Alexandre Lemieux