After much deliberation, Sylvain and I have decided to take our time preparing a Podcamp Montreal to ensure that it will be of the quality you’ve come to appreciate from past editions. Podcamp Montreal has known great success since it launched back in 2008, thanks to the participation of many volunteers and the support of excellent sponsors.

The volunteers of Podcamp Montreal will see you in the Spring of 2012. Until then, you can follow us her, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Those who can’t bear the thought of going through autumn without their Podcamp fix should consider attending Podcamp Boston, the birthplace of all podcamps! The event will be held September 24th and 25th 2011.

See you soon!

You must have rubbed elbows with them at Podcamp Montreal 2010. They were on site to greet and guide you, and worked behind the scenes on all the tiny details that make a successful event. They may be the next generation of bloggers and podcasters — indeed several are are already active in the social media space.

Who were those masked men (and women)? Some were  students of the maîtrise en gestion du commerce électronique de l’Université de Sherbrooke, others were speakers who wanted to give a little extra, and others where participants who pitched in to help.

We want to send a special thank you out to (from left to right) Thoma Daneau (speaker), Maxime St-Jean Bergeron, François Bernard-Sévigny, Amine Chemchaoui, Charley Rabec, Maxime Trudel (special mention for outstanding intiative), Emmanuel Chila (who wants to become a PodCamp Montreal speaker one day), Antoine Lamarre and Simon Galarneau.

And for the women: Claudine Gagnon, Aurélie Guellil and Karine Champagne (thanks to her, our numbers were strong).

Absent from the photo: Michaël Bergeron, Mathieu Laferrière, Mathieu Lavallée ( MédiaCamp organiser) and Patrick M. Lozeau (speaker)

Dear volunteers, to you we dedicate this little ditty by a band called Les ptits coucous : Merci aux bénévoles!

photo credit: Eva Blue

It’s official. PodCamp Montreal is a success. We had 384 participants on site, and 731 unique visitors checking out our live stream throughout the weekend. While our American friends were more likely to follow us on the livestream this year, we were thrilled to attract a greater number of locals to this year’s event, given that our mission is to encourage and promote the use of social media by Montrealers. Our schedule was nicely divided between French and English presentations, and the Montreal sun came out to grace us with its presence, which is always nice when you’re sitting on the great terrasse at l’UQAM’s Design School where PodCamp was held for a second consecutive year.

Bob Goyetche by Eva Blue

PodCamp Montreal is a labour of love that doesn’t happen overnight. The organising committee has been working tirelessly since spring on sponsorship, communications and logistics, not to mention climbing into bed together to produce a rockin’ promotional video. The sacrifices we make for social media!

It’s been great to get all your positive feedback and suggestions for next year. Thanks for coming, for supporting the development of social media in Montreal and hope to see you in 2010!

Those of you who are still beating yourselves up over having missed a great presentation might be in luck. Laurent Maisonnave and his band of merry men, Christian Aubry et Guillaume Marin, have made video archives available for your viewing pleasure. Two of the four rooms were documented, so head over to Ustream to relive the PodCamp Montreal 2009 magic.

It should tide you over until next year.

Here is your cheat sheet for the weekend’s event, beginning tonight. Enjoy!

Friday September 18^th

8 p.m. – La Quincaillerie, 980 Rachel Street East (corner Boyer)

9 p.m. – Tribute to Renée Wathelet at La Quincaillerie

Should you get a craving for poutine, check out La Banquise, 994 Rachel Street East. You’re sure to find a few friends trying out this Quebec delicacy at this 24-hour joint.

Saturday September 19^th

9 a.m. PodCamp Montreal registration opens

UQAM Design Centre
1440 rue Sanguinet

10 a.m. PodCamp Montreal sessions begin

12 p.m. Lunch break (check out the great restaurants in the area)

1:30 p.m. PodCamp Montreal afternoon sessions begin

4:30 p.m. PodCamp Montreal Day 1 sessions end

7:30 p.m. MolsonCoors PodCamp Montreal party at Oven Bar Piztro, 330 Saint Catherine Street East

Sunday September 20^th

9 a.m. PodCamp Montreal Day 2 registration opens

10 a.m. PodCamp Montreal sessions begin

12 p.m. Lunch break

1:30 p.m. PodCamp Montreal afternoon sessions begin

4:30 p.m. PodCamp Montreal ends

If you’re speaking this weekend and have posted a promotional post on your blog that you don’t see linked from the official schedule, please email me at ms@michellesullivan.ca . We want to be sure to send you some link love but, especially want everyone planning their PodCamp Montreal weekend to know what your session will be all about.

Like that writer, it would seem we’re too close to our event to realize that not everyone knows what a PodCamp actually is. I was speaking with someone yesterday who was sure that it was only for podcasters. Ooops!

Good news: it’s not. Inspired by the BarCamp movement, a podcamp is an open social media conference that focuses on blogging, microblogging, podcasting, vidcasting, wikis and other social networks. If you’re interested in social media in any shape or form, then PodCamp Montreal is for you. Last year’s topics included:

• The New New Music – Fans, Community And What Business Can Learn From An Industry In Peril (Mitch Joel and David Usher)
• Using Twitter to Build and Monitor Your Personal Brand (Adele McAlear)
• Microblogging and Podcasting : How Can They Work Together (Evan Prodromou)

PodCamp is an international movement. The cradle of podcamp civilisation may be in Boston, MA, but PodCamps have since sprung up in cities and countries as far flung as CapeTown, Perth and Ireland. There’s even a PodCamp Barcelona happening the same weekend as PodCamp Montreal.

Here are the ‘rules’ of a PodCamp, as defined by PodCamp creators Chris Brogan and Chris Penn:

1. All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
2. All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
3. All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
4. All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet – if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else. It’s not like you have to get your money’s worth!
5. The event must be new-media focused – blogging, podcasting, video on the net.
6. The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.

Source : PodCamp Community Unconferences wiki

Presenting the “PodCamp for Dummies” guide, Montreal edition. (Not that you’re a dummy. No. Really. We luv you!)

1. Sign up to participate at PodCamp Montreal. It’s free!
2. Send us your conference proposal. And yes, it has to be about social media.
3. Be patient… no… more patient… yes… that’s it… wait for the schedule to be announced (this will likely happen about 2 weeks prior to the event)
4. Party with your roomies / your girlfriend / your boyfriend when you get the confirmation that your proposal has been accepted by the organising committee. Party even if it isn’t accepted and come to PodCamp anyway. It’s worth it.
5. Tweet (or Identi.ca) like a madman / woman to tell the world that you’ll be speaking at PodCamp Montreal. Don’t forget to fit that all-important hashtag, #pcmtl, in your 140 character limit.
6. Start to panic. Now that you’ve bragged all over town (or Twitter/Identica) you’ll have to deliver the goods.
7. Prepare your presentation, which should be about 30 minutes long, leaving 15 minutes for all those questions and congratulatory remarks your talk is sure to inspire. There will be a 15 minute window between presentations so that people have time to move between rooms as needed.
8. If you want to use visual aids, you’ll need to bring your own laptop. If you’re a Mac user, you’ll also need to bring your thing-a-ma-bob (you know what I mean) so that your Mac can connect to our projectors. Each room will be equipped with a projector and a sound system.
9. If you don’t want to be filmed for our live webcast, you’ll need to let us know by email at info@pcmtl.com asap. You should know, however, that all your fans in London, Sydney and Johannesburg will be mightily disappointed.
10. All presentations are subject to live-blogging, live Tweeting / Identica-ing and sound recording by people in the room. We don’t control the animals. There might be so many flashes going off that you feel like the paparazzi has invaded PodCamp. Think about that when you’re picking out your PodCamp outfit. Remember, your mother or significant other may be watching!

Whatever you do, don’t forget to take the time to network. On top of all the great content being shared between the four walls of our conference rooms, there are fantastic discussions and passionate people to meet in the hallways and hidden corners of the PodCamp Montreal venue. Take advantage of them.

Thanks to PH Carmichæl for suggesting this blogpost.

The conference sign up form is also available. Be sure to fill out this second form if you’d like to speak at Podcamp Montreal in 2009. If you conference description is longer than 255 characters, you’ll have to email it to info@pcmtl.org.

We manage the schedule a little differently than other podcamps, given the bilingual nature of our event. We try to maintain a linguistic equilibrium by offering at least one conference in French at all times. And the subject has to be social media related, of course.

Due to the high demand, we are closing registration at 383, which includes the latest registrants. Anyone on this list who is not attending, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone who will be joining us.