PCWM granted permission to 110

Podcamp Western Mass #5 was held appropriately at the Kittredge Center on the campus of Holyoke Community College.

Michael Kittredge, Class of '73 gave back to the place that granted him to permission to accomplish what he did.

"HCC was there and accepted me. It gave me the important start I needed. For the first time in my life, adults not only gave me permission to follow my interests, they actually encouraged me and spurred me to seek excellence."

Kittredge Center

When folks were asked to declare how many had come to PCWM before, about half the room raised their hands. Which also was confirmed when the other half of the room raised their hands acknowledging that they were newbies! Hopefully, they were following in Kittredge's footsteps and PCWM was the event to enable them to "seek excellence!"

Who was Michael Kittredge?
For those in New England they may recognize the Yankee Candle Company. He founded it.

Christmas 1969. Seventeen-year-old Mike Kittredge, too broke to buy his mother a present, melted some crayons to make her a candle. A neighbor saw it and convinced Mike to sell the candle to her. With that small stake, he bought enough wax to make two candles - one for his mom, and another to sell. That was the birth of Yankee Candle.

Was it important to have some teenagers and students present and participate at PodCamp? Sure, it was.
Will they be as successful as Michael? Time will tell!

artfulness

The art piece hanging in the hallway provided an good setting for the session wall. The artfulness dripped down and spread!

Morriss Partee

Morriss Partee opened the event with an overview of the day and the event logistics.

brightness definitely within the room!

The nature of a podcamp or unconference is to create an overall structure within which flexibility, creativity, and serendipity can occur.

session wall

Many such conversations occurred at the session wall. Where are you going next? Oh really, that sounds good. Maybe they could do that together? Do you think they'll cover that? Do you know the speaker?

The community that is developing in and around PodCamp WesternMass I find special. There is an openness, a willingness to explore. It does help to have had the conference grow gradually. The 110 folks who participated this weekend are about the optimal size for an event like this. Enough variety and diversity. A larger group would force more structure into the logistics and take away from the spontaneity this size can facilitate.

My thanks to all the participants, fellow organizers and of course, especially to the sponsors: you came together learning, sharing and creating a great event!


Links and additional information on my session for Blogging 101 will be are posted separately
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2013/03/pcwm-blogging-101.html

PCWM -> the total experience - priceless!

"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions." - William Allin

As a life long learning, I am always on the lookout for good opportunities. So when PodCamp Western Mass popped up on the radar, I volunteered to help with the Welcome/Registration Desk. @mmpartee asked if I could set up the EventBrite registration and I said yes. I set about learning how to do so and it was relatively easy. I double checked my info, ensuring I had covered all the spelling and grammatical areas that I could and sent it out into the world. I registered myself and it worked nicely. Woot! Woot!

Spreading the word about PodCamp was next on the agenda. I set up posts on Steve's 2 Cents and Franklin Matters to run a couple of times each before the event.

I tweeted a few times. @writerjax set up a social media press release which made it easy to use. EventBrite also has a Twitter and Facebook function built in so you can post to those areas under your account.

The registrations started accumulating and closed the night before the event at 35. Pretty good for a first time event!

A few more registrations on the day off and the event was off and running. Lots of buzz in the main gathering spot. More buzz in each session room. Even more buzz as all came back for lunch.

@mmpartee @tishgrier @writerjax and others set up a nice event. The facility, Open Square, was a rehabilitated old paper mill. How cool is that? The rooms were abuzz with talk of new media where once paper was made!

The sharing and learning continues as folks are posting their reflections, their videos, their pictures.

My quick summary would paraphrase the MasterCard commercial:

• Registration fee to attend PodCamp Western Mass - $20
• Tolls on the MA Pike - FASTLane
• Drive to Holyoke – 90 minutes
• Learning and sharing about blogging, Twitter, and the other social media tools – priceless!

My photo slide show from PodCamp Western Mass can he seen here