Well, that’s over. We had a great event! It mostly went off without a hitch. Only two no-show speakers this year and they both had legitimate excuses. We used eventday for registration and check-in, and having the rep scanning bar codes at the door meant attendee badges were printed on-the-spot and ready before they made it to the desk. Only issue there was a downloaded file vs. online access to an updated database so many late-registers couldn’t be scanned, but with just a few lines of information the badges printed out really fast.

We tried being a little greener, with the on-the-spot badges instead of pre-printing. We had a couple of monitors up with the schedules (also available on our website) instead of ending up with a ton of leftover printed schedules and programs.

We had give-aways in almost every session. We had great Q&A panels on writing, podcasting, and video (and something else I forget). I don’t have an exact body count yet but I estimate a little over 200 people came.

It was an awesome event.

Saturday morning started out with the announcement about The LAST PodcampAZ t-shirts. We’ve changed the name of our event to TechPHX. There were ongoing problems with using the Podcamp name (and rules) plus we’ve often found when explaining podcamp people get bogged down by the “pod” part and don’t understand that we’ve become a real ALL relevant media unconference.

And we announced we’re looking for new blood to be on the committee. We want to grow.

So watch for TechPHX information in the future.

You know I’m on the planning committee. You know you really want to go. So go read this post and find out the latest news! The time to register is now.

All right fine, I’ll give you the highlights. We have lots of speakers including Evo Terra, the fabulous Amy Donohue, and we even have some local TV news fame speaking, 3-TV’s Carey Pena!  Who would want to miss that? Make sure you check back on Friday because that is when the final schedule will be set in stone and you can plan your two days of awesome accordingly.

And please share that post with anyone and everyone. Thanks EVER so much!

Nominate here

One of the reasons we love PodcampAZ so much is the endless supply of information. We also realize that the term “media” is growing up, and always expanding. No one rolls their eyes at using Facebook anymore to promote, because everyone links to Facebook! Many companies and freelancers make social media success less of a guessing game and more of a science, but there are many mediums within the realm that are getting less attention than they should.

Right now you’re thinking “Yeah! I want to hear more about ______!”  
So how do we geeks, let alone anyone who isn’t on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Foursquare, learn about all of these new or under-represented technologies? How do they merge their existing skills with new ideas and make life even more awesome than it all ready is?

They ask you, and your friends. We all use a form of media in some way, or you wouldn’t be reading this now. And we bet you know someone who uses it in an innovative way that we all want to know about. They might not even realize there’s a place to share what they know.

Please help us get all of these questions answered all in one weekend at PodcampAZ 2011 on November 12-13.

Nominate yourself, your work buddy, Twitter or Facebook friend, or even your sister to help out. Each speaker will receive our undying gratitude, an audience eager to learn and a chance to learn from other successful, charming people just like them.

Guess what I’m volunteering for again this year? And I’m asking for your help. Read this post. Better yet, read it and then copy/paste in your blog to pass on the info:

PodCampAZ, now in its 5th year, is pretty awesome, but we need people like you to let everyone else know. We’ll have FOUR genius panels, TWO parties and ONE new feature that’s NEVER BEEN ATTEMPTED at PodCampAZ before.

If you’re new, fret not. We’ll still be offering intro to podcasting, blogging, social media and any other kind of relevant media we can come up with – think everything but TV and Radio – along with a host of volunteers whose sole purpose is to teach others.

New or experienced, you can help us out. Post this to your blog, Facebook notes page or in an email to all your friends. Tell them to pre-register, nominate speakers or volunteer.

PodCampAZ 2011 will be held November 12-13, from 9am(ish) to 3pm(ish) at the University for Advancing Technology.

See you there!

PodCampAZ 2011

November 12-13, University of Advancing Technology

9am to 3pm

Pre-register – http://podcampaz.org/register/

Speaker nomination - http://podcampaz.org/speakers/

Volunteer - http://podcampaz.org/volunteer/

You know, even if you’re not interested it would really be nice if you could pass along this information to anyone you think might be. I’ll be on the podcasting genius panel (stop laughing) and it will be more fun the more people show up.

I’m getting involved more. I’ve always been on the PodcampAZ planning team, but I recently joined the Ignite Phoenix crew and started volunteering at Gangplank. And yesterday I went out with ImprovAZ on their Fake Protest Flash Mob. It was awesome!

You know, last week we hit 100° but yesterday was so friggin’ cold we only hung out there for about a half hour. There were so many of us we split up and fake protested on two separate corners. Some people have no sense of humor, but we did get at least half the cars going by to honk – or at least smile and wave. I didn’t want to stop!

I’m currently editing one podcast and helping someone else put their audiobook together, so “work” is going well. And Sheila, Evo and I are working on a new project now that Evo@11 is over. I haven’t actually put an episode together yet, but we’re getting there. This project is a bit more involved than a regular podcast.

I’m officially going to Vegas for my birthday. I invited my daughter-in-law Krystal to go with me and apparently that meant Max and Casey could go as well. Fine, they can wander off and do guy stuff. Poor Ginnie isn’t old enough, so we had to promise another trip in November when she turns 21. I have a couple more girlfriends meeting me up there and have invited (SNOWCALLA!) even more so I might end up with a real party. I’ll be there April 29th through Sunday.

I’m also officially going to Balticon Memorial Day weekend. All my podcasting friends go and I’ve missed the fun too many times. Flight’s pre-paid, admission’s pre-paid, so now I just have to pay for a room (roommate Evo?) and food/drink.

Then there’s SkepchickCon, June 30-July 3. That’s not official. It really depends on my finances after those first two trips. Another fun drive up to Minneapolis but I’m pretty sure I’d have a place to stay (AGAIN, SNOWCALLA!) so it’s just gas, food, and convention costs. That’s a maybe.

And I’d like to go back to TAM. TAM 9 is in Vegas mid July, but I’d be just as happy hanging out outside of the actual meeting. It’s so expensive to attend and I don’t want to press my luck by asking for a freebie again this year.

I think that’s it for now. Crap, I forgot I had eggs boiling and all the water boiled away. I have NO attention span.

Last weekend I had my first ever blue screen of death.

Spent the entire weekend dicking with this PC, finally figured out how to do an emergency backup (because stupid me NEVER backs up anything – duh!) and had to do a factory restore. Great.

Though I saved all my pictures and files, I lost everything else. Music, work, games, etc.I thought because my work files (mp3s and wav files) were in documents, when I gave up my music apparently the whole Windows 7 cross-referencing stupid shit ignored all my work files too. Fuckity fuck fuck.

Oh well.

I’m up and running now, just in time for PodcampAZ (today and tomorrow) and to work on my presentation for Ignite Phoenix After Hours – a pilot program for Ignite presentation that aren’t quite PG-13 enough for regular Ignites. My presentation is Fuckin’ Asthma, the trials and tribulations of dealing with severe asthma and the difficulties it presents with your sex life. What every normal breathing person should keep in mind when attempting a one-night-stand with an asthmatic. It can be done.

My submission (*snerk*) was selected so now (another first) I have to put out. I’m working on it, but time is a crunch with my PodcampAZ focus this weekend and Thanksgiving coming up. Wish me luck.

So that’s why I haven’t posted here. I’ve been so busy with those two events and trying to restore everything I needed, and plus I couldn’t figure out how to log in here. My illustrious web guy has our dashboard logins slightly different than the average wordpress blog.

You remember this post where I bitched about what a PITA is it when some people drop the ball on volunteer commitments?

This is sort of like that. This time I want to slap people who can’t be bothered to RSVP properly. Let me ‘splain how I do it.

1. I get an invitation (usually through Facebook or email) for an event.
2. I peruse my calendar for conflicts (yes, I has them) and decide which I want to attend.
3. I check the appropriate box on the invite.

See, simple. Takes oh I dunno, 30 seconds. And then, and THEN… each Sunday I go over my calendar and make sure I know which/what/where I’m going for the week ahead. I make final decisions about conflicts and go back and make sure the hosts have my final decision.

Oh sure, sometimes I get right up to the last minute and change my mind. I have to babysit or I’m having breathing issues. I still take that moment to go and change my answer on the RSVP.

I don’t say I’m going and then NOT SHOW UP.

I don’t say I’m NOT going and then drop by.

Well, to be honest I may have done the above but I seriously TRY NOT TO. Why? Because it’s RUDE AS HELL.

I’m the scheduler for #evfn and we invite over 250 people every week. Last event we had:

• 11 people said yes
• 17 people said maybe
• 53 people said no
• 241 people didn’t answer
• 9 people actually showed up

You know, I don’t really care if you come or not. That’s totally up to you. My problem is these venues want to know what to expect. They always always ask “how many people are you expecting?”  And I have to respond with “der-dee-der I dunno, could be anywhere from 10 to 40!” like a dumbass. Because my people usually don’t RSVP properly.

I’m on the planning committee for PodcampAZ. We KNOW from past experience there will be several hundred attendees. It’s in a month and as of now we have around 70 people registered, and most of them are committee and speakers. If the only people going are the ones running the thing, why bother having it? Going by the RSVP/Registration numbers maybe we should just call it off. (Here’s that registration link.)

What I’m saying is, show some respect to the people planning your events. Let them know if you’re coming or not ASAP. Answer when asked. Commit to the decision. And if you have to change it at the last minute, let them know that too or pretty soon nobody will bother planning anything around here and you’ll be all alone once again. Or is that just me?

I’d like to personally invite you to this year’s Podcamp AZ on November 20-21. It’s full of cool presenters (like me!) genius panels for WordPress/SEO, Podcasting and Video Blogging questions and plenty of cool giveaways from sponsors that are eager to woo the geek crowd.

But it’s not just for geeks. In fact, my presentation topic will be solely aimed at ALL the non-geeks in the audience and I’ll teach you how to translate geek speak, decipher common acronyms and explain why we are online so much. So join us, geek or not, on the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Did I mention it’s free? Sign up now!

Here’s the details:

what: Podcamp AZ 2010
where: University of Advancing Technology (Baseline and the I-10)
when: November 20-21, 2010 (tentatively 8:30am to 3pm)
who: New media innovators, enthusiasts, participants, and newbies who are interested the role of the internet in interactive communication.
why: It’s two crazy cool days of learning, sharing, and people meeting. And Phoenix metro is gorgeous in November.
how much: FREE

Here’s that registration link.

We know you’ve been waiting at the edge of your seats for us to announce PodCamp AZ. We’ve got the dates and registration is open, so all this awesomeness is officially on!

It’s that time of year again – PodCamp AZ is coming back to the University of Advancing Technology November 20th and 21st! PodCampAZ is a FREE networking media unconference, dedicated to blogging, video blogging, podcasting, social networking, and all other relevant media. Speakers will address emerging trends and best practices on everything from print and radio to mobile, interactive web, and in real life information exchange. During PodCamp sessions, attendees are free to drop in, listen and learn about what is relevant to their needs, or move on to other sessions. You can also become an interactive part of the experience by sharing your knowledge as a speaker or stimulating ideas and asking questions as an active attendee.

New this year are the Genius Panels. We’ve found as-close-to experts as we can find to answer your questions and help you with your WordPress, SEO, Video and Podcasting needs.

If you are an established or aspiring blogger, podcaster, video blogger, or social media advocate and want to meet hundreds of people with the same interests, head over to podcampaz.org to get more information about this exciting event. And above all else, register to attend PodCamp AZ!

Mark your calendars and make your plans, PodCamp AZ 2010 is November 20-21 at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. The last three years have been great, setting a high bar for yet another must-attend event. We’ll be keeping everything that makes PCAZ so awesome, and we have a few new ideas for 2010, which we’ll be revealing as the event gets closer.

The big news now is that registration is open. Don’t wait another second – register today!

PodCampAZ is a FREE networking media unconference, dedicated to blogging, video blogging, podcasting, social networking, and all other relevant media. At the heart of the unconference is the opportunity to have a conversation at large with those innovators which have created a successful blend of relevant media and put it to work for them. Speakers will address emerging trends and best practices on everything from print and radio to mobile, interactive web, and in real life information exchange. During PodCamp sessions, attendees are free to drop in, listen and learn about what is relevant to their needs, and if they choose to, move on to other sessions. You can also become an interactive part of the experience by sharing your knowledge as a speaker or stimulating ideas and asking questions as an active attendee.

If you are an established or aspiring blogger, podcaster, video blogger, or social media advocote and want to meet hundreds of people with the same interests, head over to podcampaz.org to get more information about this exciting event. And above all else, register to attend PodCamp AZ! Speaker sign-up and sponsor opportunities are also here, just let us know that you’re interested when you register, and will start knocking on your email inboxes.

Never been to a PodCamp before, and not sure what it’s about? Check out intro to PodCamp AZ, which talks about the unconference style, and how we do it here in Arizona.

We can’t wait to see you in November – it’s going to be a great PodCamp AZ!