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Portable Media Expo wrap-up
Yesterday Michelle asked me when I was going to write something here again. I said, “Tomorrow. I want to write about Portable Media Expo.”
“Isn’t it a little late for that?” she asked.
Then I realized it’s been a week already. Holy smokes.
Red eyes
I returned from Ontario, California to my apartment around 5 am last Sunday morning. It had been nine hours since Traci and I arrived at the airport the previous day. (We were trying to get on an earlier flight back to Chicago, but there were none to be had.)
Taking a red-eye back from California was a fitting end to my trip. I’d been up late, up early, on the go, and on my feet the whole weekend and I was exhausted.
(Not that I really should complain. By way of comparison, consider Dick. He spent Thursday in San Francisco, then got back to Chicago at 5 am the next morning — and then put in a full day at work. That’s dedication.)
The show
All the overnight flights and late nights were worth it, because the show was awesome. The excitement and enthusiasm of everybody in attendance was beyond compare for me. (Maybe the 2001 Mac World, where Jobs intro’d the Titatium Powerbook, could compare. Maybe.)
Podcasting is only a year old, but the medium has catapulted into the spotlight in nearly every way. Big media are embracing it, big corporations are trying to monetize it, and lots of people are doing it. The growth is spectacular — FeedBurner alone manages 25,000 podcasts.
It’s a young media revolution, and it feels good to be a part of it. FeedBurner was very well-received at the show, mainly for our role as a free (but critical) enabler of podcasts. Tons of people stopped by and signed the poster — it’s covered in literally hundreds of signatures.
We got to speak directly with podcasters, fellow toolsmiths, curious onlookers, members of the press, and everyone in between. As a designer, this kind of face-to-face time with the people that use our application was invaluable to me. Each question, comment, suggestion and concern contains lessons about what to change, what not to change, what to tweak and what to totally rethink.
We’re listening. Keep your ideas and questions coming.
The record of somewhat questionable permanency
If you missed the show (or just want to relive the memories), try some of these places:
Flickr: Traci and I posted a bunch of pictures (hers, mine), and there’s always tag mining. Try: portablemediaexpo, podcastexpo, pme, pme05
Interviews with me!: Chaz Rough, Rocket15 and Dave Jackson’s School of Podcasting (MP3 link)
Blog searches: Technorati, IceRocket, Feedster
Until next time…
Thanks for caring, and watch for bandwidth spikes!