Like to see authors talk about their books? I intercepted this cool website from a CC Chapman twitter post.
WWW.BookTour.com
Pretty cool site- check it out
BookTour
March 12, 2008 By
Books you read?
November 13, 2007 By
I love to read. I usually read a business book then something fun. Today I was reading through my Bloglines feeds and read CC Chapmans Blog. I enjoy reading CC’s blog because he is passionite about life and that is infectious. (above) Here I am at the Podcast Expo standing close to CC. He is third from the right. (photo credit to Franklin McMahon second from the right -not sure how he took the picture since he is in it)
Todays post from CC was one of those ask your friends what they like. So I thought I would answer them and send them off to folks I am interested in finding out what they are reading. If you are not on this list and are reading the blog. I would love to hear what your read! I am always looking for new books. The art of War seems to be coming up. I think I listened to that as an audio book.
The Protocol: Answer 5 questions. Tag 5 book lovers.
The Questions:
1) How many books do you own?
2) What was the last book you read?
3) What was the last book you purchased?
4) What five books are most meaningful to you?
5) What is your most obscure favorite book? Or, favorite most obscure book?
The Answers
1) How many books do you own?
To many to count.
2) What was the last book you read?
Comanche Moon and the last Harry Potter book- reading Made to Stick right now.
3) What was the last book you purchased?
Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers
4) What five books are most meaningful to you?
Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy is my favorite book ever
Close second is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Tie between the Monk who sold his Ferrari and The Alchemist.
The Smoke Jumper Nicolas Evans
5) What is your most obscure favorite book? Or, favorite most obscure book?
Probably the Smoke Jumper. I was was working to be a smoke jumper when I was a firefighter but it wasn’t in the cards for me. 
I am tagging these folks because I am interested in what books they like:
Your it!
chris brogan
Stephanie
Tim Bourquin
Roxanne Darling
Sue Pelletier
Attendance for Events
October 31, 2007 By
PODCAMP BOSTON (Picture is of Austrailia)
Reading through my Bloglines feeds this morning a lot of talk about Podcamp Boston was alive. I gathered it was a great time once again. Lots of learning and conversations going on. They have a passionite community which is having some growing pains. Basically, Podcamp is a free community based event that costs nothing to attend and anyone can speak. They have been held all over the world. The farthest away being Podcamp Perth. The topics are usually about Podcasting but have evolved to Media. They went really big this year in the home of the original podcamp: Boston, Massachusetts having 1,357 people register. I was one of the initial registrants when I heard all the buzz but emailed to say I could not make it. Just not possible to leave work. I did contribute by sending my digital recorder to help record sessions. It is all about the community.
Only 650 of the 1,357 registrants showed up. Still a great crowd for a community based event. Amazing in fact. I think since people saw it was free they initially registered without the normal care and commitment to going to a conference.
I am attending Blogworld next week and after paying my money to go. I am defiantly going.
The podcamp organizers are not the only one who go through this conundrum. In the Dotcom days I was involved in a Ariba B2B world tour. The bottom was dropping out of the dot com craze and we had traveled to Australia and rented the huge Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. (just looked up the event website which is still there) The event was a free one for customers.
They evidently didn’t have any customers down under. The effect was an audience of 100 people in a gi-normous room. Had a giant Rock and Roll stage and a crazy, expensive opening video which showed the CEO and COO in a Rolling stones themed backstage venue acting like rockstars as they walked out from backstage as the reveal for the entrance to the opening keynote. (cool effect earlier in the year) Problem is by the time they got to Australia the COO & President had quit so only one executive walked out. We had also produced this video of sprinter Michael Johnson who came out and did a speech about beating the competition. It was very sad. Our crew was larger than the audience. But we were paid to put it on as best we could. We attempt to use rope and stantions to keep the audience in one area to at least give it a better look for the presenters. (i.e. the people paying us) That did not work.
Non paid events like Podcamp and corporate customer events always have this dark “what if nobody shows” cloud running over their head. You just have to ignore it and move forward. Just like Podcamp will. It is a learning experience. The organizers just have to make that event great even if ten people show up those attendees care, and are passionite enough about the product to come so you need to make their experience the best possible.
Think of the last time you had a party at your house was there a little tiny bit of doubt lurking in the back of your brain nobody would show up?. Podcamp has something special, these types of problems wont go away, it is just part of producing events. Its always changing and evolving. You just have to keep working.
Podcamp founders Chris Penn, Chris Brogan
Photo credit CC_Chapman
Web 2.0 The Fast Changing Landscape.
October 18, 2007 By
Communication is such a key to todays changing landscape. This video shows how fast everything is changing. Take a couple of minutes and watch this video. As i move into another phase of my career belive me I am taking account of this fast moving economy. Yesterday when I had my one year old grandson with me it is amazing how he wants to punch the keyboard keys like his grampa. What will it be like for him in 10 years? What about 20 years? Care to guess?
What do you think? Are you prepared for the future? How are you preparing for the future? Thank you CC Chapman and Chris Penn for passing this link to me. Please pass it on to others who you think might be interested..
Rethinking Social Media
October 11, 2007 By
Sitting in a coffee shop this morning (one of 5 on the block) I had some time to read the blogs I love to follow. Most of which are Social media blogs and audio visual and writing blogs.
I have been following this space through some of the leaders of this developing landscape and market.
Scott Sigler had an interesting twitter post yesterday saying how he cant understand how some people can speak at events or be on panels about social media, podcasts etc when these folks blogs have no comments or no ads to speak of on their podcasts, few listeners or any traffic at all. Yet they bill themselves as consultants. Shouldn’t a consultant be successful at what they consult at? Making money consulting companies where they cant make money themselves, this pissed off Sigler.
He makes a great point though. Also something for folks to take notice of. It is the wild west out there right now in the social media space and not many folks are making a living at it. Lots of books have been written about podcasting and I keep buying them. Yet they all say the same thing. Scott himself is a great writer and audio book podcaster and he has used this space to sell his books. He is a great promoter of his works. (sciencey fictiony) I saw him speak last year at the Podcast expo. He is really confident speaker and works with companies to produce podcasts. I found him to be quite an asshole. Yet, I usually feel that way about people who are smarter and more talented than me. (see Chris Brogan post- asshole or snob = >mike)
I heard on a podcast yesterday while I drove into San Francisco to my Kiva.org meeting about the podcast I produce/host with them www.kivapodcast.com. This Week in Media talked about a writers strike which maybe coming up next year. Alex Lindsay another leader in this space talks about this being a great opening for podcasters and consultants. Again the landscape is shifting. They will need talent, producers and consultants. They also mentioned how people of their age grew up n TV, their parents grew up on TV. Yet, our kids are growing up on computers. If given a choice these kids will head to their computer before they watch TV.
CC Chapman I heard his podcast Managing the Gray yesterday while I was jumping rope. CC who I briefly met at the Podcast expo. (Weird moment – walked up to CC at the Podcast expo and I didn’t know what to say- its weird because I know all about him through his podcast so I didn’t know what to ask < -- can you say dumb shit mike? :)) In CCs podcast he talked about speaking to a group of people at a conference and most of them had such a basic grasp what he was talking about. I also heard Chris Penn say the same thing while he talked to a group of 18 year old students. Chris said almost everyone had a ipod, yet when he asked how many had podcasts downloaded on them nobody in the room raised there hand. They also did not have itunes but all used Limewire. (whole other conversation) CC has just left his position at Crayonville.com. And is now a freelancer. It has been interesting listening to his journey into the freelance world. Sounds like he is getting lots of offers and he is always a good gauge of what is going on. Of course the exposure he has gotten from Podcasting he is a person Scott would concede as a social media consultant and I think might share a stage with. (I am sure they have already)
Another blog I recently have been reading is Tim Streets blog. I like his take on the videocasting space. I still am not sure about the dark glasses but I like his insight into the videocasting world. I always enjoy watching him speak about story and emotions at events. This blog ives you a taste into the French Maid TV guy. He has some great insights into the “whys” of the new landscape in internet video shows.
I feel like I have a good grasp of the social media space just because I have produced a few podcasts and video casts. I have attended many social media meet ups, podcamps and expos. Reading these blogs I mentioned and others, yet this blog which I have been writing since 2003 has a small following. Probably like 20 readers a day. Not that wonderful. And actually pretty sad. But I enjoy it. So the blog will stay- but the podcast is changing. I am going to combine with two other people in our industry – corporate meetings /events folks to do a podcast which will be the thought leader of my particular niche. I have been thinking about doing this for a while but I think they were wary because it was for my company. My plan is to do a podcast that is a stand alone product. Strategy begins.
I also have been commissioned to do a social media initiative for a Hilton hotel. They asked me. So I will not be a consultant I am really just a conduit of the folks above. Plus with social media I can run things by Twitter and get some conversations rolling.
I wonder how many daily readers could make me a consultant? Or how many downloads? The third podcast I produced brought me 150k downloads in 4 months. Yet that was more in the Tim Street realm of content. Maybe I will learn at Rick Calverts Blogworld next month. If you are going or are in the San Francisco Bay Area lets grab a beer, coffee, martini or lunch, dinner and have a chat. I want to learn more about what other folks are doing in this fast moving space.
Photo credit: newrambler
2007 Podcast and Portable Media Expo Wrap Up
October 4, 2007 By
Podcast Expo Keynote
(Note strange secret service guy on right)
After attending the Podcast Academy the next day the Podcast Expo started. It was my third year attending and I have to say the energy was much different. Seemed to be less excitment from the folks attending. The Expo in total is really great experience and if you are interested in podcasting or videocasting it is the place to be.
This year sadly I stayed in the city of Claremont because I waited too long to get a room. And since we have a Doubletree connection I was forced to stay at a Doubletree. (the Ontario Doubletree was sold out) this may be why I felt the energy was lower this year. I do think the move to Las Vegas next year is a good idea. The conference will have to grow with the times and Tim Bourquin has his finger on the pulse of this community.
Here are my highlights and lowlights of the expo.
New interview style keynote is fantastic. Tim is a great interviewer and he brought the best out of the speakers. Lowlights- Line of sight is bad with them sitting in such low couches. The ariwall removal to fit more folks gave it a strange feel. The weird secret service agent walking on the sides handing out envelopes. Where this was obviously a marketng ploy for this guy he stood in my way for a long time and he scared the lady next to me by giving her an envelope. Maybe a little security to punt bozos like this guy. (Note to Tim: I am happy to do this for you next year)
Expo floor-
Highlights- Lots of cool booths. Of course the Tubemogul.com booth- what a great idea for measurement. Plus they are neighbors of mine in Berkeley.
Lowlights- Weird booth lady with enormous breasts who throws her leg on your shoulder. I dont know the company or what it does I was afraid of them. She looked pretty uncomfortable.
- The expo room seems too large, the little expo is lost in the cavernous room. Might be cool to pipe and drape the large areas so the booths on the ends don’t get lost in the expanse. We have done this in the past for events that dont grab as much attndance as when venue is secured. This would bring the walls in for a more intimate feel.
Keynotes- Loved them. Great format. Great guests. No downsides except the general session line of sight problems for the audience. Some sound issues but really great overall.
Sessions
Highlights
Susan Bratton – My favorite speaker. Not sure if this was the same Susan Brattan from the Association of Downloadable Media morning meeting but she sure made a transformation. Her session was fantastic. She dressed like a rockstar and performed like one. If you could not attend then check it out when they release the audio (video?) I took a chance watching her session because Franklin McMahon was speaking at the same time and I really enjoy him and his podcast. But his topic wasn’t something I needed to hear again. I heard he was also fantastic.
Grammar girl- Nice to see someone who is successful telling her story. She is a great speaker and I enjoyed her session. Make sure to catch it on the audio podcast. Actually I have the worst grammar I should subscribe to her podcast now! 
Heidi Miller- Great talk on interviewing. Loved it! She is a great speaker
Kris Smith- This had the most audience participation and I learned a ton. Next year secret cameraman from Beachwalks with Rox do a session or tag team with Kris.
Lowlights- I cant comment on the lowlights because I just walked out of several sessions. One section I could not find anything that interested me. But I headed to the expo floor to explore. The ones I left gave me boring delivery, terrible slides and really not attacking the purpose of the talks
Panels- I am not sure but the panels never seem to work for me. I just read that they are not having them next year which I think is a great idea. Maybe panels could be like meetups afterwards or before. Little adds on like Paul Cooligans Profitable podcasting meetup (just an idea) I really enjoyed that Meetup and that Cooligan is a informative loudmouth. Really smart guy. I enjoy listening to him.
I liked the idea of including Secondlife- I attended the panel but again I don’t think the panels work. Maybe just having one of them speak about it. Like CC Chapman who has the passion to pull it off.
Parties & stuff
Podshow party- I enjoyed meeting Adam Curry. He is a nice man and it was nice he made the effort to come to the Expo. Or did he go to the expo? I am confused still why they arent involved more with the expo more. Seems like a no brainer. But he has to be doing something right becasue of all the funding Podshow recieves. One funny thing, I saw many Ex-podshow people who are alot more friendly these days that they aren’t part of Podshow. If you watch the last installment of Dawn and Drew TV you can probably see why. I also talked with Drew Dombkus for a bit. Really great guy. And of course the Extremepods.com guys were in full party mode.
Concert- This is a great idea. I was surprised how good it sounded. Room is way too big for such a small stage though. Could have used a 1/4 of the room. But it was a lot of fun. Talented acts.
French Maid TV/Culture Catch party/podcast awards- I went into LA to see Bill Mahers HBO show so I missed it. I did see the awards show via Ustream which was fun to be able to see. The comments were horrible in the accompanying chat. Some mean folks out there.
Libsyn Party (Wizard)- Man times have changed. No painted nude girls, no strange tent set up on the bed witha video camera pointed towards it, the party was broken up early. Generally it was nice to see all the folks but it felt like High School. What I remember of High School parties. (man I am getting ancient)
Marriott Bar- Sadly, I spent no time in the bar. I logged one drink n the bar. Maybe this is why I felt less energy. I usually meet a ton of folks in the Marriott bar but since I was in Claremont I didn’t want to drink. Hence staying away from the bars is a good idea for me and my Irish blood. But I read the twitters from my cell phone and it sounds like that was the place to be! What will be the bar of choice next year.
Again the energy seemed a little off this year but it might have just been me. I have a stack of business cards to go through which is always great to reconnect. I look forward to a trip to veg
as next year. Being in the event/meetings business I only get down there well 900 times each year. I wish Tim & Emil the best of luck next year I had a great time and learned a ton.
Whats your passion?
September 13, 2007 By
ADD is something I have been battling with for years. Maybe thats why I have had so many jobs over the years. I always end up wanting more learning and creative stimulation after the job is mastered and it gets into that daily same old thing. Money has not been the answer either. (but it helps ) I can think of the two jobs I have had, that have brought me the most joy and they are my five years as a Firefighter and running Grass Shack Events & Media. Both bring constant creative stimulation and putting out fires on a regular basis. (one literally putting out fires) I am finding lately I need to be even more creative and building sets and coming up with themes just isn’t enough. So I have been interested in Blacksmithing, welding and writing.
I also feel like lately I have a new outlet by way of looking into others passions which has been pretty rewarding. I have been feeding off my twitter/facebook/podcast friends. The passion I see from some folks like Chris Brogan, Franklin McMahon, CC Chapman, David Spark, Phil McKinney, Christopher Penn, John Wall, Jeremiah Owyang and Todd Henry all keep me thinking creatively and keeping in tune about whats going on around me.
And the funny think is I have never met these people in person. Well I had dinner with Phil Mckinney and a beer with Franklin McMahon (but I didn’t know it was him and he was right across from me for a few hours)
What is your passion? Is it in your work or an after work type of activity? Is it family? A hobby? Or is it chasing a ball like Alex above can do all day long?
Crazy days!!!
May 17, 2007 By
So I was invited to another social networking site yesterday. I declined. I need to unplug more lately . Business has picked up and I need to concentrate on doing creative stuff.
I met with my friend Albin yesterday to have breakfast we sat and chatted and caught up. He is an editor and had recently gone to NAB in Las Vegas. We spent some time talking about the red camera and othe topics. The most fun being doing some short films. He has a wacky sense of humor so we maybe a good mix. The bull writers have been busy with Aaron having a baby and Pete getting married soon. So hopefully Albin and a few other friends can do some creative work soon.
When we got back to my house I wanted to show him ustream. I was hinking the possibilities were endless with this new streaming solution. We watched Chris Pirillo who we found to be insanely boring. But, we could see straight up his nose which was luckily clean. The chat room in his stream was packed with smart aleck remarks. Leo laporte was far off in the distance doing MacBreak. But we werent really involved and the picture was bad. Then we ended up watching a stream of a bird feeder which was actually very pleasant. It had sound so you could hear them tweeting. Albins comment was. Why dont you open up the window and listen to your birds? He was so right.
I applaud Chris Pirillo for being an early adopter but content is king. Can you think of a good stream for a video podcast? Or just a regular stream show?
One other thing happened today in my world. I joined this Jpg magazine website a while back. CC Chapman turned me on to it. I uploaded some pictures that I took recently. I have been loving photography (well until our Nikon d80 was stolen) and posting to my Flickr page and to jpg magazine.
I read that 2 of the founders were kind of pushed out of the whole jpg magazine company. Where they were probably naive or didn’t take care of covering their business ass properly. I know they got screwed. I have had it happen to me several times in business. But I have always kept my morals and integrity. Shit does happen and the only thing I could do to support Derek Powazek and http://www.hchamp.com/other/archives/001173.html is delete my jpgmagazine account.
In better news I had two inquiries for programs and our Sayulita vacation is sealed for New Years! I also posted some pictures from past Siemens events.
Podcamp NYC this weekend
April 5, 2007 By
I am totally bummed that I can not make it out to Podcamp NYC this weekend.
It looks like it is a close second to the Podcast New Media Expo in Ontario this year as the must go to podcasting event. But with my moms birthday and Easter it was just not do-able for me. Family comes first. I am amazed at the growth of Podcamp. They have 1000 registered to attend. They even had to move venues. I have been watching the buzz build for months now. Mostly in Second Life, Twitter.com, reading blogs and by listening to podcasts like CC Chapmans, and his gang of merry podcaster friends talking about this event in New York. John Havens, Jason Van Orden and the rest of the Podcamp folks have been doing an excellent job putting this podcamp together.
A few months back I sent John Havens a few bucks for sponsorship and I was pleasantly surprised to find one of the tents in morphums in second life had our Grass Shack Events & Media logo in it. Pretty cool stuff. I asked if I could hang out in the tent and Frans who was working on the booth said of course!
Flamed & confused + New PodShackRadio Podcast
March 2, 2007 By
Yesterday I went through a whirlwind of fun with Meetings Community Forum board in Google forums. I have been enjoying the new media space for the last couple of years. I am a closet nerd. Well not so closeted lately. Blogging (sorta) since 2003. I have been podcasting for the last 2 years: Barking Spider Ranch(podfaded), USP Talk(podfaded), NSheets(podfaded), PodShackRadio, KIVA.org to name a few I have been directly producing all for just fun. I also have been in second life after hearing Eric Rice and CC Chapman speak at the Podcast Academy at Yahoo. I also have been attending the Podcast expo and as many Podcamps, podcast Academy’s as possible. All the while having the best year EVER last year for Grass Shack Events & Media. We tripled our sales. Correlation? I don’t know….
So back to the whirlwind of fun yesterday. I really have enjoyed listening to Managing the Gray podcast. CC Chapman who does this podcast is quite an inspiration to me. He totally gets it and I wanna get it. So I am one of the MTG Sheep in he herd. CC and his company Crayon have a new marketing Meetup in Second life which I attend every Thursday at 6am. (yes its fricken early) I really enjoy listening in and being in the conversation. Because, that’s what it is all about the conversation! Talking to strangers. Don’t listen to what your parents said, talk to strangers! Build your brand! (CCisms) I decided I should start a Meetup in Second life in my office in Second Life for meeting planners and resources that put on meetinsg and conferences, experimental marketers etc. So I invited everyone on the meetings and events forum boards/ g-mail list in the MIM list and the newer MeCo list. I was immediately flamed for marketing. I also had several people stand up for me. Well the meetups have had a total of 6 people come (including friends who aren’t involved with meeting planning) I just thought this would be agreat forum to share ideas in a new fun way. Plus all the meetinsg and events going on in Second Life why wouldnt the RL meeting folks want to see what all the noise is about??? Well obviously some dont want to know.
I scheduled them for 8-9am Thursday mornings so I can attend the Crayonville meetup, go get some coffee and then be there for my meetings meetup. The few that did show I really enjoyed showing the meeting planners who did make it some of second life. We started at the Grass Shack then I took them to Crayon and showed them around. Then off to IBM and other spots of interest.
All in all I am amazed at the pushback from the forum boards. But it was so great to get all the emails and encouragement from the people who “get it”. It is so important to me to try new things – if it is a new way to present material for a conference, a new sort of scrim for staging to something like Second Life.
Sorry for the drawn out post. I would love to hear your comments. I also posted a new Podshackradio of me bantering about this a little. No interview this week. CC Chapman told me in an email that he would do an interview soon. I need to send him a voice comment for his show about all this hubub.
