PodCamp Toronto 2008 has come and gone and it didn’t not disappoint. All my expectations were surpassed. I learned a lot, met up with a few old friends and made new ones. Best of all, I came out of it with A LOT of ideas for my podcasts and future ones, too

I won’t go into detail (secrecy is so much fun!) however I am really excited about my ideas and can’t wait to get started on them. Why are there only 24 hours in a day?

There was lots of Twitter love this year and some truly useful sessions (just like last year). The sessions I attended were:

Social Media & Networking Starter Guide by Chris Brogan
I already know about social media and networking but I’d never pass up a chance to hear Chris Brogan speak. His enthusiasm for community is contagious and you always learn something new no matter how much you think you know ;)

Living On The Cloud - how I have (mostly) given up desktop applications by Tommy Vallier. His presentation made me want to run out and get the MacBook Air (despite my PowerBook) and move to a cloud (with real estate prices these days…).

Soundwalking and Creative Listening by Victoria Fenner struck a chord with me because audio art is another passion of mine.

Podcasting your Passion: How to be Creatively Motivated by Steve Saylor really got me excited about being a creator. I’ll definitely be talking about his presentation on my next SpudCast.

Stand up and Breath! Vocal Techniques for Podcasting by John Meadows applied techniques singers use to podcasting. Brilliant!

Who’s Listening? How to avoid 3 big communication mistakes and boost your audience at the same time by PJ Wade was a joy to sit in. PJ’s enthusiasm for creative business planning was a perfect fit for fine tuning your podcast to your audience.

Open Source Podcast Production Tools by John Meadows and Sean McGaughey was a fun comedy show and educational. Edutainment!

Wikis: the what, where, how and why by Martin Cleaver gave me a whole new perspective on planning uses for wikis. Martin is also the organiser for Toronto Wiki Tuesdays.

The last session was a panel discussion on ooVoo moderated by Jay Moonah, Mitch Canter in Nashville, Laura Fitton in Boston, Mitch Joel in Montreal and Andrea Vascellari in Finland!

I also participated in the Q&A panel discussion about social networking in The Mentor’s Lounge moderated by Tommy Vallier which I recorded for the upcoming episode of my Stuttering is Cool podcast.

All sessions were streamed live on the Internet and will soon be archived for viewing on the PodCamp Toronto 2008 video archive page. I will have to the chance to see all the sessions I missed!

A great, big thanks to all the orgsanizers of PodCamp Toronto.  I didn’t take many photos (too much learning going on!) however they are posted on my Flickr page.

PodCamp Toronto 2008 was just as fantastic as last year’s. I have a lot of things to write about however for now I want to direct your attention to an interview of me by John Meadows of his brilliant On The Log podcast (which looks into the future from a rear view mirror).

We talked about if using the computer to make art counts as art. Doesn’t the computer do the art for you? I love the name of this episode: The Pen is Mightier than the Plug-in?

John Meadows also presented “Stand Up and Breathe! Vocal Techniques for Podcasting ” at PodCamp Toronto 2008. The video archive of it should be available here soon.

I received my first order of MOO cards tonight! I made them for my Stuttering is Cool podcast and I must say, I am very, very impressed with their quality and attention to detail! I’ll post photos of what I mean when I receive my second order which I placed a few day later. That order is for my danielerossi.ca site which I plan on handing them out at PodCamp Toronto on the weekend of February 23.

PodCamp Toronto 2008 will be happening on February 23 and 24^th at the Rogers Communications Centre at Ryerson University. I am very excited that it’s happening again— I had a great time and learned a lot from people who share the same interest in podcasting as me and I made a lot of contacts and new friends*.

I registered as soon as I heard it had been announced (I’m #20 on the list of registrants). Take a look and it will come to as no surprise to you that I’ve listed superspud.com as my website as well as another site called stutteringiscool.com.

Stuttering is cool is the name of my new podcast which was soft launched a few weeks ago. Regular listeners to my SpudCast will remember episode 9 where I devoted an entire episode about my stuttering (a stuttering podcaster? WTF?!). Now it has grown into a podcast of its own! You can check it out at stutteringiscool.com.

*Same thing happens at Podcasters Across Borders. Next one takes place on June 20-22, 2008. Not to be missed!

Episode number 12 is now up and it’s all about my passion for creativity. Innovative creativity. Being different creativity. Strategic creativity.  No matter what you call it, no matter the type, it’s all creative coolness.

And I’m excited to say that I’m changing the focus of my podcast to reflect this.

I also talk about pronouncing my name, my push for Facebook-like employee directories at work with photos, Nuit Blanche in Toronto aaaaaand I give you a challenge.

SpudCast #12 - Creativity and where to find it

Technorati Tags: creativity, social media, nuit blanche, Toronto, spud cast, podcast

Recording outside on a windy day is not a good way to record a show, let me tell you! So instead of re-recording it, I decided to keep it and set it as an example to all of you :)

On this show, I talk about cartoons again with my friends, Carmine and Joanne. Or is it, Joanne and Carmine?

Click this stunningly beautiful long link to hear the show!

Technorati Tags: cartoons, animation, podcasting, spudcast

No, I didn’t actually catch a spy (though that would have increased my cool factor quite a bit). I recorded this show while a spy numbers transmission was playing over my shortwave radio! Spy numbers are safely assumed to be secret radio transmissions sent from intelligence agencies all over the world to secret agents all over the world. And shortwave listeners all over the world listen to these mysterious transmissions and try to figure out who’s behind all this.

Technorati Tags: spy numbers, shortwave, spudcast

On twitter today, community builder extraordinaire Chris Brogan asked everyone on his Twitter list to show off their screengrabs.  On an earlier post he asked artists to show off their desktop wallpaper designed by them.

Mr. Brogan, sir, the above his my desktop wallpaper desinged by me :) The cartoon character is named Franky Banky and he will be starring in my upcoming comic book which I have also begun podcasting about.

Technorati Tags: Chris Brogan, desktop wallpaper, twitter

I hate it.

I really, really, really, really, really, REALLY wish Adobe made a Mac version of Audition. THAT was the best audio program I have ever used. Audition was intuitive. Audition was money well spent. Totally worth it. Didn’t mind the high price.

Audition lives up to “you get what you pay for”. I no like.

For instance, I have a nice wav file of my podcast’s first episode. Converting it to an mp3 in Audition is a breeze.  In Audacity, no matter which setting I use (96-210kps), I sound like I have a cold. I had to resort to copying it into iTunes to convert it to a 96kps mp3. Maybe I’ll try 128 to see if the file size increases much.
Everyone seems to rave about Audacity. I just can’t see why.  Though, I’m open to being enlightened, I really need to fork some money over for a real audio program.

As for my podcast, actually, there are 2! And a 3rd in the future.  The first one is a revival of SpudCast which I faded last year. I’ve redeveloped into talking about my adventures in writing, drawing and publishing a comic book. I also plan on talking about my other drawing and online branding adventures.

The other podcast is called The Laughing Podcast. I’ll talk about that in a future post once I have my first episode uploaded.

And the third will be revealed once I get content!

I’ll list the rss feed and stuff in my next blog post.

Technorati Tags: SpudCast, Audacity, Audition, podcasting, podcast

I just registered for the Podcasters Across Borders happening June 22-24th. I’ll also be starting my new podcasts (note the plural) so I plan on doing some recording. I won’t reveal what my podcasts will be about as I want to have a few shows recorded first.

Although I am a little concerned about driving 3 hours all by myself (never did that before and also I’ve never been to Kingston), I am excited to meet up with fellow podcasters and social media gurus and checking out Mitch Joel’s “Marketing Toolkit” seminar, Hugh McGuire’s “How Podcasting Will Save The World” (I missed his seminar at PodCamp Toronto), and “Storytelling for Podcasts” by Sonya Buyting (who just added me to her Twitter!). Slight hint about what one of my podcasts will be about…

I am also looking forward to having an opportunity to saying thanks to Melinda who does the My Marylin podcast as it is one of my favourite shows to listen. And of course, the king of community building, Chris Brogan.

This is the place to be if you have a podcast, thinking of starting one up, or just like podcasts and social media in general or are curious to know more about it.

Technorati Tags: Podcasters Across Borders, PAB2007