Archive for August, 2009
Explaining PodCamp to a Four-Year-Old
I’m a member of the Speakers and Sessions committee for PodCamp Pittsburgh 4, and last night we had another incredible planning meeting. We added Virginia Montanez, the blogger formerly known as PittGirl / Jane Pitt to our roster of speakers. She’ll be presenting along with her butler, Mike Woycheck, on a topic I don’t want to disclose yet (mostly because she wants you to guess). It is exciting to work with such a talented group of people to make this community “UnConference” take shape into what may be the best PodCamp Pittsburgh yet.
But it was hard getting out the door last night. My angelic child decided to send me on a guilt trip as I was slipping on my shoes. “Mommy you ALWAYS have meetings and you NEVER stay home and do the things that I WANT TO DO!”
Oh-ho-ho-ho REEEALLLLY? Surely, Child, you are filled to the brim with bologna.
I refrained from diving into the depths of my parental insecurities (“You think I haven’t made sacrifices? Oh, I’ve made sacrifices! Mommy would like to stay home all day with you, too, but it’s nice to have things like toys, and a house, and health insurance, ISN’T IT?!??”) and instead I said “Give me a kiss, because I won’t be home to tuck you in. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about my meeting.”
This morning he was sunny and chipper. Having forgiven me the sin of leaving Daddy in charge of bedtime, he asked me how my meeting was.
“It was good, we made lots of progress, uh, talked about a lot of things last night.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Um, well, we are having a big, BIG meeting in October and we talk about who’s going to come to that meeting, what they’re going to talk about, what we’re going to eat, who’s going to pay for it. It’s kind of like a big party where you go learn stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“People come mostly to learn how to use computers to, um, talk about themselves and talk to each other better.”
“We use the computer together!”
“Yes, we sure do.”
“Who is coming to the party?”
“Lots of people, we hope. We’ve invited lots of people from Pittsburgh and some people from other cities.”
“You should talk about all the fun stuff there is in Pittsburgh.” [Totally not making this up. I think he should go work for VisitPittsburgh.]
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“Like the statues.”
“What statues?”
“All of them. I like the big statues. And the zoo. I like the zoo a lot.”
“Yeah, the zoo is pretty neat! Now go pick out your clothes for school.”
I think one of the best things about being involved with PodCamp is that it has made me as excited as my four-year-old about Pittsburgh. OK, maybe not about statues and the zoo, but about people and technology and potential. This city has a lot of talent, a lot of knowledge, and a lot of resources. PodCamp is not the only local gathering of the tech and social media minds, but I think it will likely draw the broadest audience.
If you are as excited as me, you should definitely register for the event, and maybe even consider presenting at the event. Anyone can submit a presentation idea, and if we like it, and we still have space, we’ll hook you up with 45 minutes in front of a potential audience of 25 folks.
Hope to see you there!
