Thoughts on PAB 2008

A couple of quick thoughts about my first Podcasters Across Borders:

Jolts

One of the coolest parts of PAB 2008 were the "Jolts", or short 'in-betweener' sessions between the main sessions.

Among the people doing jolts were Tim Coyne, Linda Mills, Todd Tyrtle, Julien Smith, Chris Penn, Chris Brogan, among others.

What I loved about them was that the need to concentrate on time forced the presenters to concentrate their messages. What I also loved about many of them was the unvarnished honesty and willingness to confront emotional issues in front of 80 people.

Not to say the full sessions weren't great, but sometimes the greater the constraint, the greater the creativity necessary to overcome it. Think about a sonnet, or a villanelle, compared to free verse. When you have a VERY well-defined structure, you have to work to fit your words within it. When anything goes, well, anything goes.

Audio drama.

As a longtime fan of radio drama, the discovery that people are (purely for the love of it) doing audio drama was a revelation for me. I am REALLY looking forward to exploring Quirky Nomads and The Sonic Society and using them to find other sources of audio drama.

Pushing the limits

There's a belief that social media (including podcasting) can be a bit of a mutual appreciation society. I was quite happy to see a LOT of viewpoints on some issues get expressed at the conference, from bill C-61 to the M-word (monetization, GASP!).

If you don't have sensitive ears, you can check out Chris Brogan's jolt on that last topic.

Stage fright.

And speaking of Brogan, I owe him thanks for finding some gold in what was a rather unbelievable set of circumstances for me on Saturday night. I, as well as other folks, had decided to participate in the open mic on the boat cruise, but I had a total brain freeze. I couldn't remember lyrics. It was FRICKING HORRIBLE! In the end, I managed to get through a few songs. But man, I felt humiliated.

Until Chris wrote a blog post late that night about how HE saw it. That post reminded me of two things: (1) that you're only the star of the movie of your life in YOUR head; and (2) that few things are as bad as they seem.

And it also reminded me that I need to do some work on that nasty stage fright. Otherwise I'll end up like Streisand or Robbie Robertson, or Carly Simon. Wait a sec. That wouldn't be totally bad. But still.

In the end: a really great conference for me to have attended. I met great people (for the first time face-to-face or for the first time period), and learned some cool new things. Thanks to Mark and Bob and Andrea and Cat for being the driving forces.

Ciao,
Bob.