Wednesday April 11, 2007
     
  Podcamp NYC.  
 

I've entered the New Yorker Hotel on Eighth Avenue and the lobby is filled with people doing whatever it is they are doing and I walk to the concierge and say:

"Where do I find Podcamp NYC?"

The woman wearing the New Yorker Hotel uniform (dark sports jacket/orange vest combo) smiles and says:

"Second floor.  Up those stairs."

I say: 

"Thank you."

I walk up the stairs to the second floor and when I'm on the second floor I tell a man sitting behind a portable table my name:

"Norm Augustinus." 

He says:

"I just need you to put your initials next to your name." 

While the man looks for my name I walk maybe four steps to my left and look down and I can see the lobby on the first floor.  I'm leaning over the railing when the man says:

"You're thee Norm Augustinus."

"Uh huh," I say.

"I'm so glad I got to meet you," he says then pointing to where I should put my initials.

"Say fuck," he says.

"Fuck."

I've put my initials next to my name and walk maybe three steps to the table where the creator of MyChingo sits. 

He says:

"I'm Michael."

I say:

"Norm."

He tells me that PodGlo (their table is on the other side of the room directly across from him) is kinda his competitor at the unconference and about how Adam Curry was once interested in purchasing MyChingo.

I say: 

"I made you a song once and left it on your audio comment system but you deleted it." 

He says:

"Make another and I won't delete it."

A little more walking and I'm at the Podango table.

"We sift through all the lousy podcasts and find the best and then you don't have to do it," says the smiling confident woman.

I say:

"Who decides which ones are lousy?"   

She looks at the people around her and they look at her and then she looks back at me and says:

"Our Directors."

"Are the earbuds with your logo on them free?" I say.        

After a little more walking I'm standing alongside a big titted woman pushing a podcast called Anything But Monday.  She has long yellow hair and is wearing a fancy printed tee-shirt and she is telling everyone (and anyone) that walks by their table that they're the, "Funniest show on the net and it's only $7.99 a month." 

Dr. Kathleen P. King author and professor at Fordham University is only a few steps from the "Funniest show on the net." 

"We're going to raffle off this mp3 player," she says, "Or you can buy one for only $29.99.  It comes with earbuds and a USB cable."

It's maybe the cheapest mp3 player I've ever seen.  It looks like something you'd win at a carnival only worse and there's an advertisement for Fordham University printed on the back of the unit.
 
"Would you like to buy one of my books," she says.      

I say:

"Nice meeting you professor."

On the way to the Grand Ballroom I pass a woman that keeps saying, "Official Podcamp tee-shirts $10."

Near the elevator (en route to the third floor where all the presentations are going on) I say to a woman who is also waiting:

"Are you a podcaster?"

"Of course," she says, "Los Angeles."

I say:

"You make recordings and people that you never met want to hear these recordings?"

She says:

"Pardon?"

"Like when you were a kid making recordings on a cassette player for your mom?"

She says:

"I have over 100,000 downloads every month."

I say:

"You're from California?  Have you heard of Dan Klass or Tim Coyne?"

"The deceased Nazi hunter?"

"Dan Klass isn't a Nazi hunter," I say.

"Bayer Aspirin buys time in my cast," she says then walking away.

On the third and fourth floor there are people in rooms talking about podcasting and they are experts and they have overhead projectors and laptops and microphones and big sheets of paper and they are holding black marker pencils and they are in rooms called:  Chelsea or Kips Bay or Soho or Central Park or Sutton Place (100 talks, twelve different rooms). 

"Women have a chance to be truly free for the first time in history," says Lynette Young (Women in Podcasting).  "Let your voice be heard ladies."

She talks about her site, Lynetteradio.com a lot.

In another room Jason Van Orden tells his three attendees how best to promote their podcast.  "Networking is key," he says.

He talks about his site, Jasonvanorden.com a lot, too.

According to the organizers the expected turnout is massive (up to 1300 people.  They'll probably use this number as a viable reason to charge a fee next year) but I see only a handful of people (or none at all) in any of the assigned rooms and I'm hoping Madge Weinstein is where she's supposed to be but when I get to the Village at 11:15 a.m., (her room-Freedom of Expression in Podcasting) she's not there.

This conference needed Madge. 

Perhaps the best part of the entire unconference is the walk up and down the small staircase between the third and fourth floor.  It was creepy and dark and real and somehow reminded me of an attraction at Universal Studios.

On the way out of the hotel I stop at the concierge and ask for the toilet key card and then go down an escalator to the basement. Inside the bathroom there's a big mirror.  While I'm washing my hands I'm looking at myself in the mirror and while I'm looking I say aloud:

It's good to be around people.  You're around people.  Inhale through your nose and exhale out your mouth while at the same time counting to ten.  I'm proud of you, Norm.

"Thank you," I say then handing the concierge the door key card.

Lucky for me there was a White Castle only a few hundred feet from the New Yorker hotel.
-According to John C. Havens approximately half of the registered 1300 made an appearance at Podcamp NYC. 


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