Podonomics

Mesh, Toronto’s Web 2.0 conference, starts tomorrow. It’s sold out, so there’s no tickets left.

I’m leading a session called Podcasting 101. I’m looking forward to it as I’m going to test out a new presentation format. No, I’m talking about new presentation software. Instead, my presentation will be 100% visual and audio only.

Yeah, I know. Nothing new. But for me, it is. So many times, I’ve used slides with text to explain a concept. Anna Farmery and I chatted at length about how odd it is that people who rely on audio and video to make money and promote their businesses turn to such an antiquated approach - in other words, text on powerpoint slides - to present their ideas.

So, as a podcaster, I’m saying goodbye to text and hello to audio & video. Make sense, doesn’t it?

While I work on writing 60% of the 125,000 words for my book in just 10-days, I wanted to remind you that the International Podcasting Expo starts today, April 20th and finishes on April 21st. This is a virtual event. All you need is your computer, Internet access and speakers to listen to all the sessions.

Here’s a lineup of a few topics that will be of interest:

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I’m sitting here at Podcamp NY at an exhibitor table that Chris Penn abandoned me at. I have no clue where he is at this moment, but what I can say is that Podcamp NY is rather much. Lots of people, lots of buzz, lots of activity. Should make for an interesting day.

Tags: podcampnyc

Jason Van Orden provides an excellent summary of the benefits and drawbacks of corporate podcasting based on what he saw and heard at the Corporate Podcasting Summit.

One thing he didn’t mention - Most of the case studies presented at the Summit reported their success as if it were an accident or a freak of nature. I wasn’t happy with that. It bugged me to hear people say:

“Wow, and that was totally unexpected.”

I interviewed the manager of the Butterball Turkey Talk account as to why Butterball chose to publish only 6 episodes. When I asked her what were the results, she gave me concrete numbers. She said they were expecting 5000 downloads and got just under 10,000. There was no apologetic tone in her voice, no hint of surprise. Butterball put together some numbers and evaluated the outcome based on their initial projections.

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I got in around 12:09pm Toronto time. I didn’t know what time it was until I got to the baggage claim area (why don’t airports have big neon clocks all over the place). The flight was uneventful, however, it was a smaller plane so the seats were a bit more cramped.

I typically blog about the sessions when I attend conferences, but decided that offering my thoughts on London culture would prove to be more interesting. Plus, Jason, Paul, Karin and the team at Podcasting News are doing some awesome summaries, so you can just visit their blogs.

Which brings me to my laundry list of the things I liked and didn’t like about London. It’s quite long as I had time on the 8-hour flight to scratch together 4 pages of notes, so skim through now, digest later.

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On the 7-hour flight over the pond on Sunday morning, they showed Goldfinger. I’ve seen the movie a dozen times (who hasn’t) and it helps having my most favourite James Bond starring in the movie - Sean Connery. And I just love the female protagonist’s name - Pussy Galore. The way Connery says her name in the entire movie is just hilarious.

I woke up in time to see the last 20-minutes of the film. If you want to learn how not to design a fight scene for your video podcast, watch the fight scene between Bond and Mr. Hat (don’t remember his character’s name). It’s the most inelegant, unsophisticated and poorly choreographed fight scene I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the reasons it’s so poor:

• There’s no muscial score. Therefore, there’s no clash of cymbals or the croon of violins to set the mood.
• You can hear their patent leather shoes slapping against the wax floor throughout the entire scene.
• The black top hat that Mr. Hat flings off his head towards Bond bounces off the gold bars at one point, however, when Bond throws it towards Mr. Hat, it then sticks in the marble wall.
• The punches looked so pansie.
• When Bond is thrown against the wall by Mr. Hat, he barely gets off the floor.

As for the conference, there was a “fight scene” that took place at the Corporate Podcasting Summit that was actually really good. It was between the guy from Podshow UK who was sitting on a panel and a guy from Podcast User Magazine who was in the audience. I think Paul or Jason will be blogging about it, so keep your eyes peeled on their blogs.

Update - Jason provided an excellent summary.

Tags: corporate podcasting, james bond, goldfinger, 007, sean connery, podshow, paul colligan, jason van orden, podcast user magazine

I’m not making this up, I promise. I mean, I don’t have the imagination strong enough to make these type of things up.

Earlier today, I go to my hotel room and I was locked out. For some reason, the access card that gives me access to my room stopped working.

So, I walk back towards the elevator as there’s a phone on the wall. I pick it up and it connects me right away to the front desk.

So, I say:

“Hi, this is Leesa from Room 100. I’m locked out of my room.”

So, the front desk says:

“Okay, we’ll send someone up. Please wait by your room door.”

So, I head back to my room door and wait. About 5-minutes go by and fully frustrated, I go back towards the elevators to call the front desk on the phone.

“This is Room 100 and I’m still waiting to get into my room.”

To which the woman at the front desk said:

“Oh, security tried to get in touch with you. They called your phone, but you didn’t answer.”

They’re not talking about my cellphone as it doesn’t work here in London (something about not having a SIM card). They were talking about the phone in my locked room. In other words, answer the phone in my locked room and then security would be assured that I was indeed the person that needed my door unlocked.

Like I said, I can’t make this stuff up.

Tags: corporate podcasting, podcasting

I’m flying out in a few days to speak at the Corporate Podcasting Summit in London. It’ll be my first time in London and I’m so looking forward to it. I’m also looking forward to catching up with Paul Colligan, Anna Farmery, Jason Van Orden, and Karin Hogh and to finally meet 2 of my former clients face-to-face, Barbara Bradbury and Claire Raikes.

As I’m preparing for my trip, I’m double checking that everything’s in order. Since this is a corporate conference, I have to leave the jeans at home. So, I’m drycleaning stuff, buying a few things just so I don’t look all “campy” at the conference.

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God, this argument again? Geez, we keep harping on the same problems over and over. When does this end?

Yes, there aren’t alot of women invited to speak at technology events and conferences. So, we create our own associations and conferences where only women can join or speak. And it raises our profiles. To other women.

Then, we pitch lame topics to conference organizers, such as Where are the Women, or How to Hire Women in IT. So, the conference organizer succumbs, puts the sessions on the bill only to have 5 people show up and 4 of them are the panelist.

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How many variations of the word mesh can I use between now and when Mesh begins on May 30th? As many times as I like, baby!

By way of Mathew, registration for Mesh is now open. The event sold out last year and it was wicked mint (thanks for the phrase Chris), so don’t miss your opportunity to attend one of the hypest (did I just use that word?), coolest (I’m stuck in the 80s), and most synergistic event to hit Toronto.

Here’s a quick line-up of the keynotes:

Michael Arrington, founder/editor of TechCrunch.com, Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist.org, Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman Co., Tom Williams, founder of GiveMeaning.com, and Austin Hill, founder of Gifter.org.

Tags: mesh, mesh2007, mathew ingram