Servant of Chaos

Pubcamp Sydney in Hindsight

Last week, Jed White from itechne hosted Pubcamp, Sydney - the Web 2.0 media day - bringing the publishing/media world face-to-face with the increasingly vocal and empowered social media/web 2.0 crowd. This week, it was followed up with a Melbourne event.

Broken into a short format presentation style (similar to the approach we took at Interesting South), a variety of speakers provided their take on the current role and the future of media. There was a panel discussion and a debate -- all followed by unconference sessions which allowed participants to actively investigate some of the topics raised during the presentations.

In Sydney the room seemed to divide into two camps. One one side were the new media folks, furiously commenting and conversing via the Twitter "backchannel" -- and on the other the "traditional media" folks who appeared largely unaware of the un-unconference being carried on through Twitter. There seemed to be no middle ground between the two sides -- each holding firm to the belief in their own relevance.

It was, however, during the panel discussion where the Twitter conversation spilled over from the back channel onto the conference room floor. The panel appeared to be populated by people who had spent most of their careers in the publishing industry with no "new media" representative. Stephen Collins summed up the collective Twitter response along the lines of "you don't know what you are talking about". From that point onwards, there was no going back -- with the conversation becoming stuck around the relative merits of "professional" vs "citizen" journalism.

It wasn't, however, until I sat in on Matt Moore's unconference session on value networks that I began to see a way forward. It is not that there is no overlap between the two camps, it is just that there is no shared vocabulary for us to discuss shared areas of interest. And rather than spending our energies debating the relative merits of our own cases, I feel it would be far more productive identifying opportunities where each group could collaborate or experiment together. This, of course, means new ways of identifying and measuring value -- it means new approaches to community and to business.

And while there may well be a long way to go before we see such opportunities come to pass, perhaps Pubcamp is the first, tentative step forward. Next time, I hope to see greater web 2.0/social media representation; getting down and dirty with the business model discussion; less plugs for new services/offerings; discussion on the role of communities; involvement from digital strategists/agencies.

For more detailed coverage of the Sydney event, see Renai LeMay (for the AFR), Craig Wilson and Nic Hodges (let me know if I have missed your coverage). Melbourne has been covered by Ben Barren, Michael Specht, Stephen Mayne.

Pubcamp Sydney Voxpop

Craig Wilson and Gordon Whitehead from Sticky Advertising took some time out at Pubcamp Sydney to probe some members of the audience on the future of media in 2008. Here is the first set of responses ... featuring (in order of appearance Gavin Heaton, Sean Carmody and Markus Hafner).

I am currently writing up a review of the Sydney event, but in the meantime, take a look at Matt Moore's summary or view the twitter stream for yourself. Don't forget, Pubcamp Melbourne next week.

PubCamp - The Web 2.0 Media Day from Sticky Advertising on Vimeo.

Register for PubCamp, Sydney

Ever since I attended my first BarCamp in Sydney I have been thinking that the opportunity for a similar effort focused on digital media, social networking and media would be fantastic.

So with PubCamp - The Web 2.0 Media Day set down for June 18 in Sydney and June 23 in Melbourne, it looks like there will be an afternoon of interesting, unconference-style discussion.

• RSVP for Sydney here
• RSVP for Melbourne here

And as the events run from 3pm in the afternoon, you don't need to take an entire day out of your busy schedule. Go on, what are you waiting for?

Interesting South Debrief In-Brief

  Lauren Brown sketches the speakers 
  Originally uploaded by servantofchaos

The Interesting South gang (Emily Reed, Katie Chatfield, Ian Lyons, Gregg Girling, Matt Moore, Rob Marson, Stig Richards, Tim Longhurst, Gavin Heaton, Lauren Brown) breathed a collective sigh of relief around midnight last night. After months of planning, the presentations all came together in a way that held the sellout crowd in thrall.

Our speakers performed very well in front of a large and curious crowd at the Belvoir Street Theatre. As we started, our MC for the evening, Tim Longhurst asked the audience to turn on their mobile phones and contribute to the conference via Twitter or by SMS direct to his mobile phone.

Mark Bagshaw kicked off the proceedings with an astounding speech about opportunity, challenge, disability and optimism -- setting a very high bar for all who followed. Roger Dennis encouraged us to look at different industries to identify innovative opportunities for our own. Emily Reed investigated, to all our fears, why marriages fail.

A brief interval saw the audience burst into conversation, inspired by the six word biographies they were wearing. The Belvoir Street front of house team were busy watering the thirsty audience and the staff from Wagamama negotiated the jammed foyer as best they could.

Christian Mushenko shared some everyday heroes with us all. Tim Noonan lived up to his reputation, delivering a daring, daunting and slightly saucy discussion about what it means to be the real you. Annalie Killian reminded us that change is the constant in our lives and was followed by Wade Millican who brought us to a central meditative space in the space of minutes. Zoe Horton brought tears to all our eyes as she stepped through the challenges and delicate joys of genetic counselling.

During the next interval we ran the brave Tereasa Trevor through Marlaina Read's presentation on the History of Photography. Marlaina was unable to make it to Sydney to present, but she offered to send the slides, and in the spirit of open source, we called for a volunteer presenter. Tereasa stepped up to the challenge via an SMS to MC, Tim Longhurst.

On returning to the theatre, we were treated to Scott Portelli's awesome images and video of swimming with whales off the coast of Tonga. And then keeping with the animal theme, Ian Johnston asked us whether animals think about what other animals think. Suzanne Dagseven gave an inspiring speech about finding your purpose and escaping the mundane everyday prisons of our own making. Tereasa delivered her own take on Marlaina's presentation and then Stephen Collins explained exactly how Web 2.0 technologies can be used to make real change -- in this case his daughter's school board. Michael Lister stepped us through the intricacies and amusing challenges of bus route design. Russ Tucker introduced us to his Viral Waistcoat and all the people who have worn it (BUT it seems to have gone missing. If you know where it is, please let him know!).

I will put together some deeper thoughts on the presentations as time allows ... but for those who were not able to attend in person, we will share videos and photos as they become available. Thanks to all who participated!

Joseph Jaffe Got Shouty at Ad:Tech

  Joseph Jaffe Got Shouty 
  Originally uploaded by Cam Beck

Joe Jaffe was unable to attend Blogger Social ... but in the spirit of fund raising, his name tag was auctioned off.

It seems that "Joseph Jaffe" has had several sightings at Ad:Tech in San Francisco where the marketing bloggers were out in force thanks to Tim McHale at the Madison Ave Journal. You can check out their coverage all over the web -- and by following the adtech twitter stream.

Thinking on Your Feet with Anil Dash

Just found this great video of Anil Dash thinking on his feet at SXSW (tip of the hat to Angus). Here he is participating in Battle Decks which is a a presentation competition where he has never seen the slides and yet must weave a story around what he sees on the screen. Very impressive.

Call for Speakers -- Interesting South -- May 12

Interesting South
Originally uploaded by cityofsound

While it seems hardly anytime at all since we held the inaugural Interesting South conference, we are already well into planning the next event ...

So, I want you to do TWO things:
1. Come join our Facebook group
2. Mark MAY 12 in your diary!

AND if you feel you would like to contribute to the event as a speaker, check out the Facebook page, download the speakers nomination form (see below) and send it through to me! Looking forward to it!

Download interesting_south_speaker_topic_form.doc

Quick, Register for Blogger Social 08

While I have categorised this under "conferences", it is probably closer to a non-stop series of coffee mornings with alcohol and exotic locations thrown into the mix.

If you have NOT registered as yet and you WOULD like to come and hang out with 50+ marketing bloggers, then you only have a few days left to REGISTER. That's right, registrations close on February 15.

B2B 2.0 -- Free Seminar from MarketingProfs

It is not often that a QUALITY, free conference comes along. But the gang at MarketingProfs have put together a fantastic line-up of marketing professionals for your interactive pleasure. That's right, it is a B2B 2.0 marketing expo -- the location? Wherever you are.

Running for the day on March 5, 2008, the conference will feature a keynote address from David Meerman Scott, discussion panels on social media, research, email marketing and one of my favourite topics, measurement.

It is all FREE. All you need to do is REGISTER.

Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney

Next month, Sydney plays host to the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. Hosted by Ross Dawson's Future Exploration Network, the conference should be a festival of ideas and case studies of what works and what is on the cards in the rundown mishmash of social media and large scale business. There are a wealth of good speakers lining up, and the venue, Luna Park, captures the beauty of Sydney for all our overseas guests. For those of you who are wondering how social media / web 2.0 will play out in the enterprise or in government, this one day conference (February 19, 2008) could well be the best $500 you ever spend.