My family gave me the gift of pocket video in the form of a Flip Ultra HD.

You’ll see in the coming days the fruits of this new prized possetion as I embark on a new journey of video blogging.  Today, I picked up some more kit that I’ll be talking about that soon enough (camera support systems that will allow me to posts

1.) These camps are not about you, they are not about your company!

At some point you need to learn to leave your soap box at home – come to share, but not to preach or pitch! Even if your company is a sponsor of the said camp – no one is there to hear about you! Pitching your company or hard selling your widget is a cardinal sin that will (or should) get  you booted from most of these meetings.

These camps are all about the community, if you feel that you can help someone with your widget – you should ask them to talk about that at a later date, get their contact information and tell them you can talk sales later.  The important thing is to talk about the topic – and you can do this without selling your product!

2.) These camps are not for you to show off your power point skills.

These camps are about starting public discussions and not a place for you to talk to the back wall as you show your slides.  Community is the focus and public conversation is key – you’re not leading a talk, but shaping the conversation as a discussion facilitator.  If you have screen shots of what you know is going to be brought up or if you’re talking about a case study and have slides that’s one thing – but please don’t just talk along with your 20 – 30 slides and not involve the room with discussion (especially after lunch – as it will become a snooze fest!)

3.) Tweet, Live Blog & Interact on the meetings Live Stream
(take Photo & Videos too)

Most people show up to these events and they look like they have no clue as to what’s going on outside of that little room they ended up in.  I keep saying this but it’s about community – so while at an event, become the live blogger for the rest of the world (who’s not in that room) and tell us all what we’re missing out in.  Many of the break out sessions that I’ve been involved in evolved as people would join in via Cover-It-Live or Twitter with other questions an comments.  Also if you’re taking photos – don’t just shoot crowd shots, be sure to get in close and make sure that you tag your photos so people can find out who was there.

4.) Bring your business cards

I’m always shocked at the amount of people who come to networking events and don’t bring any means of sharing their contact information with those that they meet.  This seems rather old school, but it’s still a necessity! There’s nothing like trying to land a client or make a meaningful contact by writing down your contact information on a scrap piece of paper!  Is that really the best way to transmit your brand?!

5.) Stay on topic with the conference

If you are attending a conference that is central to a specific topic you have to remember that everyone else is there to talk and learn about that topic – please don’t focus on tangents that can could lead to you being able to pitch your business.  User generated conferences work best when there is a central vision and goal, a singleness of thought and everyone can add their perceptive to – if you come with a hidden agenda to talk about something else (i.e. yourself or your business) you will stick out like a sore thumb and hopefully asked to leave the event.

So there it is, my 5 tips to get the most out of user generated conferences (BarCamps). Follow these tips to make your experience and the experience of those around you a pleasurable and worthwhile!  I know that this is a short list and there I must have left something out – please add to the conversation by making a comment here on the post…  Please don’t hold anything back (except for profanity – my Mom reads my blog so keep it clean).

Additional Resources

Link to great stuff concerning BarCamp:

BarCamp.org – Find upcoming camps in your area / in your country
The Rules of BarCamp – A must read page – don’t follow these, and you’ll be “That Guy”
The Pocket Guide to “Organize A Local Bar Camp”

Photos used in post:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/franzlife/ / CC BY 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monsieurlui/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lox/ / CC BY 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/ / CC BY 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffmcneill/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71737580@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Step One

If you are going to change your name, don’t register the new account using a different email address.  This was my first main mistake thinking that I’d have my 3800 followers happly jump ship with me!  There’s a handy dandy little tool in your settings panel of twitter that allows you to check to see if a name is available – if it is, then you can change it and leave ALL of your followers in tact, along with all of your @reply’s, DM’s and Favorites…  What I did was the first stupid step in 48 hours of true pain.

Step Two

Never tell your followers that they should follow your new account, and then un-follow your old one…  Man, What the Heck was I thinking on that one!

Step Three

Beg forgiveness – and move on…

After some long hard thinking and frustration of hitting the Twitter limit and being dark on twitter for nearly 48 hours… (which sucked BTW) I decided to delete the @bradparler account on twitter – and change the old (@big_b_rad) account to @brad_parler until I can grab up @bradparler. If you are going to change your account – do so in the settings panel of twitter – and then go back and grab up the old one to point to the new one… I discovered that someone could have registered @big_b_rad only hours after my change… So “I” got it and pointed it to the new account.

Photos used in post:

twitter icon (for Fluid) by seyDoggy

After spending last night on The Free Monday Phone-in with Rich Currie (@RichCurrie on twitter) talking about branding, and also growing so very tired of trying to explain how to find me on twitter, “it’s big b rad with underscores between…  never mind. I decided to re-brand my twitter presence to be my name @bradparler.  This has proven to be more of a head ache than I thought and I’ve hit a following wall – most likely a safety guard from allowing people to follow 1,000 people in a 24 hour window, but when you have 3,700 followers that you’re trying to migrate like a huge exodus it’s not a fun wall to hit.

If you’re presently following @big_b_rad I humbly ask that you please follow @bradparler and unfollow @big_b_rad to help me get this migration done.  My hope is that they (Twitter Support) will extend some grace to me and convert my account for me as I didn’t do it correctly.  I by mistake when ahead and registered the new account with a separate email address, instead of going into my settings and making the change on the original account.  Lesson learned – don’t make the jump until you know what you’re doing!

Please learn from my mistake – Start with the Right Brand from the Beginning!

Also, why am I not using @poweredproduction – it’s too long for twitter.

Photos used in post:

Power Breakfast with Bob Steel by James Willamor

My Dream for this Blog

I plan on writing from my heart, so if it’s too personal I’ll apologizes once here, but that’s it. As you’ll get to know me you’ll realize that I’m super passionate about media and technology, it’s always been a massive part of my life! I plan on being transparent, not holding anything back (unless for the sake of not hurting someone else). I plan on not just showing you what I’m working on, but how I’ve done the work that I’m doing – and if necessary, I’ll answer the question, and receive your feedback regarding the project. I plan on creating community, and in the process of community I plan on being accessible. This is not a blog from a man behind a curtain, I’m a real guy – a Father of three, I have an awesome wife, and I have a life.

My current dreams

Presently I’m working at such a non-stop, break neck pace that I’ve had to pull away at time and remind my self what it is that I want! I carry a Molskine Journal that I try to track the things that I reflect about, my thoughts and things that I know that I should keep in mind. Presently it’s being filled with incites from a book that I’m reading on and off again (as I make time for such). In the process of stopping and gaining some perspective – I’d have to be that my dream is to create media that demands a response – that requires the viewer to reflect and ask the questions that I’ve been asking my self. I’ve also realized that in order to do this, it’s going to require some tools, and this is where I’ve messed up in the past.

I’ve been watching the landscape of what’s been going on in technology for years, and on occasion I’ve been able to be blessed by having management that’s understood that you have to invest in equipment and technology. But for the most part I’ve been forced to use old half broke, out dated, and often abused gear to get my projects done. I’ve set my sights on going Full HD (1080p) and might move to 2k eventually, but not any time soon! I’ve compiled a list for a two camera setup (adding a second B camera when necessary). Why? Cause you have to dream! Do I plan on making that call to B&H? You bet, I have faith that very soon I’ll be able to offer an entire level of production that I’ve dreamed about, but until then – I have to knock out projects, and keep getting things done.

I urge you, figure out what brings you joy – and drop what you have to in order to follow your dreams!

bp

Next time I think that I’ll write on inspiration… Until then, what are your dreams?

Photos used in post:
One day I’ll fly away by Julianne.hide

Yesterday, Chad Hurley (YouTube’s co-founder) was quoted, “The online video advertising market will emerge a winner from the global economic downturn as firms seek cheaper and more precise ways to promote their products…  The market for online video is reaching critical mass. Some of these audiences are similar in size to what you can reach in television programming..”  (Read Entire Article)

It’s reported that YouTube.com receives 15 hours of content every minute, and that rate is on the rise (yeah I’d call that critical mass!)  As a marketer or a someone who wants to get an idea to a large audience  you should see this a critical tipping point and target online video as the next weapon in your marketing campaign!

Photos Used in Post:
YouTube Generation by Jonsson // Production by Sheriffmitchell

It’s Time to Get Agressive

No one is going to show up one day with every single resource that you’d need to get a project done!  You have to take charge, shut out all of the negitive voices that will tell you that you can’t, and just get started.  I have found over the last few months that having Twitter / TweetDeck on all day makes for some fun – but I had to ask myself, “Am I really getting everything that I could have done?”  I think that you know what the answer is on that one.   Shut out the things that keep you from doing what you love – pause, the things that will distract you from focus and get going!!!

Once I asked if there’s anything that I could do, and received a response that was rather curt was an off-the-cuff brush off, but instead of taking offence I took it to heart; I was told – “Just be awesome.” So I’ve decided to do just that – the shape and way that this site is now.  If you’re here for the first time, then you get to grow with me in teh Awesomeness!

Moving forward:

We will start to explore the ways that you can start making media that maters, even with no budget, or a really low budget.
Be looking for tags like <$20 or <$50 — these tags will give you an idea of what kind of budget that you’ll need to do what I’m going to talk about.

My Question to you:

If you are not using video now, why not?  What’s stopping you??