As I was preparing for an interview about the upcoming Podcamp here in Connecticut, I thought about how I would describe a good podcamp and a great podcamp and I think it reflects some important things about podcamps.

A good podcamp is one where everyone comes away having learned something new. This reflects something very important about my philosophy of podcamps. A good podcamp does not have people coming in to do presentations. Presentations are done by self professed experts trying to tell other people something important that they’ve learned. There are places for presentations, but I don’t think podcamps are one of them. Presentations reflect a major problem in so much of online media today. Everyone wants to talk, and no one wants to listen. A good podcamp is one where everyone goes to listen and learn. They go there to participate and share their thoughts as others do the same thing. This is why a good podcamp is one where everyone comes away having learned something new.

A great podcamp is one where people discover ideas that haven’t been thought about before. To a certain extent, there is a common belief that if you can think of doing something online, someone else has already thought of it. There is probably a lot of truth to this, which is why a great podcamp might be a rarity. Yet when people gather to share ideas, there is always the possibility that a couple ideas get shared in such a way that a new idea can emerge out of them, that none of the people sharing ideas had ever thought of. These experiences can be truly wonderful and can be what can make a podcamp great.

Recently those of us planning PodcampCT have been sharing metaphors for podcamp. Joe Cascio described it as a giant potluck dinner. When everyone comes to a giant potluck dinner, they have the opportunity to taste something new. Everyone can taste, or learn, something new, if they come not only to show off their own food but also sample other foods.

I described it as a giant brainstorming session. These brainstorming sessions are where new ideas emerge. To combine my metaphor with Joe’s, a great podcamp is one where everyone comes to the potluck dinner and tries something new, and then the magic happens. Someone gets the idea to combine recipes that different people have brought to create a whole new recipe. This new recipe is what makes a podcamp great.

PodcampCT is coming up in October in New Haven. There will be other podcamps coming up over the next few months. Will you go to a podcamp? Will you try something new to you? Will you brainstorm with other campers and come up with something new to everyone?

Podcamps, try them, you’ll like them.