Media Camp London 3 - part 1
January 05, 2010
In mid December before the seasonal mayhem took hold I traveled down to London for MediaCampLondon3. Since meeting MediaCamp's instigator Chris Hambly in Second Life in the summer of 2007, helping out with a virtual music event and offering my assistance to MediaCampBucks this social media phenomenon has grown so it seems exponentially. MediaCampbucks's online comings and goings was the reason I joined Twitter. Time passes and here I am at the end of 2009 at MediaCampLondon3.
Working as I do very often as a communications bridge between online platforms and real world events I tend to think about end user/audience experience a lot. Are they getting an interesting and tangible stream of content and comments? Is their voice being heard and questions engaged? Following an event online is never as good as being there in the flesh but when needs must someone like me connecting conversations and not just operating tech is the best a remote delegate can expect.
Sociable Media
The down side to this is I find it hard to turn that off. I want to share the wonder, value and freedom the web can provide. I kind of assume that anyone following me fall in to two categories, those interested in what I do to learn and develop their own social media practice and those interested in what I do ( and most importantly would consider working with me or recommending me to their networks.) Which ever camp you fall in to I hope you glean value from my efforts. I follow people online in social space for these reasons too. It's personal. Another thing I enjoy about social media, people.
Through out the Amb:IT:ion Roadshows I was frequently asked "How can anyone listen properly to speakers and constantly twitter (live blog or engage in streaming chat)? You can't be paying full attention." And the answer was "You are absolutely correct, you can't." What you have to ask your self is what you want out of an event. Are you there as a delegate, just for you or are you there to amplify the event to your networks or workplace? Two different experiences and approaches with different objectives.
Within PCM creative's 7 roads of social media this would fall under either "Personal Development" or "Establishing yourself as an authority". MediaCampLondon for me was Personal Development. Its a great benchmark for me as my big social media journey away from web design was ignited by Chris Hambly's MediaCamps. Attending MediaCampLondon 3 was (in my mind) unashamedly about me.
No Tech? !!
First I decided no tech! Huh! MediaCamp and no tech? As a pure "in the flesh" delegate the immersion and absorption of knowledge is the goal. A very close sub goal is to meet old and new, interesting, like-minded, inspirational people as well as meeting digital contacts in the flesh. No tech required. Notes? Well the capture devise of preference. For me this is still my trusty paper and pen. As a pure delegate a supply of quick draw business cards strictly rationed is essential too. Supply and demand!
But I did want to blog. This is amplifying territory. I wanted some images, I wanted to capture the unique vibe always present at MediaCamp. Finally I decided...no twitter. Twitter on the #mcl3 tag would look after its self this is about reflective blogging not sound bite attention grabbing, link sharing, authority building. Capturing media and using it, getting it in to a usable format is often my biggest stumbling block. MP4 to audio MP3 mainly. So how to capture without distraction?
One thing I've learnt from previous mediacamps is that you can't see every thing. I've tried and end up experiencing nothing to it's fullest. I planned whose sessions I wanted to sit in on, included time for chit chat and also presented my own session. Being an unconference means the schedule is open for anyone to run a session. I do love to share!
I started my day with "Lighten Up, Baby" an open discussion about the somber seriousness of social media and its need to get over itself and well... Lighten Up! Lloyd Davis running the session kept it very informal and I know intelligent things were said ...on reflection I found it hard to retain details enough to blog. Conversations to have, people to meet. I took a few photos but left it at that. For recall factor decidedly disappointing.
Advanced Cat Herding
Next on my schedule was "Advanced Cat Herding" with Benjamin Ellis. A quirky team collaboration and management perspective session injecting fun, inspirational and valuable insights in to managing a successful team.
So...How to capture without distraction? I decided to audio record this session getting Ben's permission to record I captured the session on my Nokia5800. Downloaded the MP4 file to my PC. Converted it to MP3 using www.youconvertit.com which delivered the converted file to my email inbox where I uploaded it to my www.Podbean.com account for syndication before using the "embed a single track player" to include it here for you.
Advanced Cat Herding - Benjamin Ellis
Ben was kind enough to make his slideshow available on Slideshare too. Yehay for social media sharing sites!
Lunch!