I was very excited about Podcamp Boston held in Cambridge this past weekend. I planned to spend all day Saturday but ended up using "the law of two feet" and bailing at lunch. Why?
At the opening we learned we are all geeks who got picked last for the teams in school. Probably true. But frankly, I hoped to find some social media folks or podcasters who were not so geeky with whom to network. Maybe people who loved surfing or did podcasts about cooking or ballet. One of the sessions asked about who you think about when you hear "location based services" and the answer was @SchneiderMike from allen & gerritsen, the presenters boss I later learned. I'd never heard of him...but super geeky attendees I guess had.
Later I attended Social Media 101 Questions. There were about five people there and no "leader," which is very podcampy. I rasied my issue to blank stares. It seems the folks in attendence wanted to be taught Social Media 101. I think I heard someone recently out of a job say someone else was buiding his LinkedIn profile. Another person, when asked what she wanted out of a session on using podcast interviews for branding, said she wanted to learn the mechanics of podcasting.
The group was very small, far smaller than the several hundred at podcamp Boston 4, which I think is the last one I attended. To be fair, this weekend's venue (Microsoft's Microsoft New England Research & Development Center, aka NERD) was smaller, but it was not the near sell out attendence noted on the website. I guess many folks simply didn't show up.
So, it seems we had "experts" and "total newbies." I was not finding my people; the folks in the middle. And, yes, I did use the law of two feet quite a bit within the event (leaving any session that's not working for you to seek another). I did not have the energy, nor was I sure how to set up my own session. I guess I could have done that.
Still, I did pick up two things worth the price of admission. A session called Breaking the Bell Curve: Standing out in a sea of same by Tamsen McMahon of allen & gerritsen about how to stand out from the crowd was excellent and I learned quite a lot. The other takeaway was from a pretty savvy fellow I met on T as I headed out. He was frank and noted he was heading to lunch but might not return, either. When I described my experience he cited Clayton Christensen's observation that when innovations are new the early adopters are tinkerers and teach themselves. When those same innovations go mainstream potential users expect to do no work. Indeed.
