Podcamp Nashville – Part 2

In Part 1, I wrote about my flight to Nashville and hanging on Friday afternoon with my good friend Ben.

I got up early on Saturday and caught a cab down to the Cadillac Ranch for Podcamp Nashville. This is the third year for the podcamp and from talking to some of the organizers it has gotten bigger each year. The organizers also hold a Bar Camp in the fall which has gotten bigger every time.

The day started with taking a cab from my hotel to the Cadillac Ranch in downtown Nashville.  The Cadillac Ranch is a huge club in the center of the 2 story buildng, but  there are also at least 5 or 6 smaller clubs off of the main room.  The sessions were in the smaller rooms.

Since I am from DC, and this is in Nashville, I have to admit that I was a little concerned about how I would be received because I went in not knowing anyone.  I didn’t think I would end up dead in a ditch or anything, but it was very apparent walking through the door that the Nashville tech community was tight.   My initial concern was quickly disproven as I was greeted very warmly by the registration team and was given my  ”swag bag” by a helpful, friendly, and adorable young lady.

I got prepared for the first session which to my dismay was cancelled because the presenter was sick.  It was then that I met someone that totally made me  feel like a rockstar and worthy of living up to the first rule of podcamp: “that everyone is a rockstar!”  Lucas is one of the organizers and was MC of the day.  He, and the many other people I met during the day made me feel very welcome.  It was pretty interesting that when I told people I was from DC, almost everyone made mention of the massive amount of snow we had this winter.

I really learned alot at  most of the sessions I went to.  There were sessions on WordPress, SEO, Newsletters and social media.  I met Cliff from Podcast Answerman and attended his session.  His session was good, but because I have listened to his podcast for so long, I pretty much knew everything he was talking about.

One really cool thing that happened was meeting Mike and Brian from the Concert Blast podcast.  I have been listening to them for years, actually they were among the first podcasts I listened to.  When you listen to Concert Blast, you can tell that these guys have lots of fun and love what they do.  I’ll tell you, I just met them for the first time and after talking for a couple of minutes, it felt like I’ve known them forever.  That is probably the biggest lesson I learned from the podcamp.

Based on this experience, I am going to start talking around am see if it would be possible to do our own Podcamp DC.  From talking to Lucas and some of the other Podcamp Nashville organizer’s, I know that help is only a phone call away.

On the way home, on the plane I sat behind the band Selah, and sat next to their Tour Manager.  It was really cool talking to him.  I had met Selah before at GMA, but they meet so many people I’m sure they didn’t remember me.  It was fun to meet them all over again though..

GMA Music Week as I used to know it may be history, but that’s just fine with me.  I now have Podcamp Nashville to look forward to.  I  do love going to Nashville and Podcamp Nashville is going to be my annual trip to the Music City Mecca.  Even though I live 12 hours away by car, and I’m not an everyday member of the Nashville tech community, everyone I met there made me feel like I was a part of it, and that what I had to say counted, and THAT was more connected than I ever felt at GMA, with a couple of exceptions being my great friends from Canada.

Oh, and my session was about Using Music In Your Podcast.  I had about 25-30 people and we had a great time.  I’m in touch with a couple of people that sat in on my session, which is awesome.  Hopefully, next year I’m not scheduled the same time as Mitch..

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