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by Online Editor | Scotlandon Jun 25 |
PubCamp Melbourne: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The technology is just a platform people, a tool to enable some forms of interaction. Let's not imbue it with the kind of mystic properties that got technological determinists of old into trouble. Without the really inspiring ideas, the incendiary thoughts that drive innovation, the candid asides that remind us all that we're just so and so many humans trying to communicate with each other and make a living out of it, without human thought, Twitter would be silent. So let's make sure the content is the focus and the form is just an enabler of new and more exciting conversations that help drive the human part.
Presentations
With all respect to those who took the plunge and did what most of us loathe - stand up in front of a crowd and expose our ideas to their judgement - some of the speakers dropped the ball, and if I have to be the one to say it, then I'm cool with that. Overly long presentations (some of the least judicious button work I've ever witnessed), ill-thought out analogies and frameworks, occasional epic fail PowerPoint moments (Presentation Zen anyone?), and some just plain bizarre sentiment. Can someone please let me know when the 'taste internet' kicks in, because I want o be in the business of working for Cadbury's when it does? I am the paradigm? John and Paul made more sense with I am the Walrus!
Please, if you're going to turn up to a conference to speak about Web 2.0, consider the terminology you're going to use and the tone of the presentation, if only for your own sake. Hell, I'm not the one on my own behind the lectern, but if I was (and I have been before) I'd at least think about the way the audience speaks when I was planning my talk. We are not 'The Blog People', we're people with something to say, and in case you think I'm just being a semantic pedant, consider turning up at a newspaper conference and addressing a room full of journalists as 'The Newspaper People'. Not the same thing? Perhaps, but talking to your audience as though they are in a petri dish and part of an anthropology dissertation isn't likely to endear yourself to the crowd.
For me, there was too much debate about who would 'win' in the war over advertising dollars, and too little genuine insight into new revenue models that might be emerging. Thoughtful practitioners are trying to meet the changing consumption needs of shifting demographics in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, and if that means a micro-payments platform that avoids advertisers entirely, then that's what it means.
As Tamir from FRANk Media kindly pointed out, the media landscape is changing rapidly, so to imagine that the advertising landscape will somehow look identical to the way it does now is tantamount to severe delusion. Some of the revenue models that will lead the way in the future may not even be on our radars yet, but if we spend our time arguing over whether subscription models or eyeballs-to-advertisers-based models will win out, we're missing the bigger picture.
The Ugly
Fortunately there was little that was genuinely ugly about PubCamp Melbourne. Perhaps the lack of biscuits? Oh, wait, I know. Missing out on the prize draw because I was chatting to @candysnap kind of sucked, but come on people - an iPod? Seriously, who doesn't already have an iPod? Can we get a door prize that we actually want? (Bitter? Moi? Well, maybe just a little ...)
Seriously though, many thanks to iTechne's Jed White and all involved for bringing together the community around this event. I look forward to catching up with as many of you as possible some time soon.
If you want to check out any of the other coverage that the Melbourne events has received, both online and offline, check out the links below.
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I wasn't at Melbourne PubCamp but it believe this review could have been cut and pasted for the Sydney event. Spot on summary and analysis in my opinion.
I couldn't agree more on the debate re: old v new media. It drove me to post my own rant after Sydney.
Having said that...the participants and audience for this event are really at the bleeding edge of Web 2.0 ad social media thinking in Australia and so there is bound to be some rough and ready debate. While many of us believe in this technology and direction, lets face it, its still emerging and
far from perfect.
But there are some amazing opportunities and many of these thinkers will be right there in the thick of it.
Craig Wilson
itechne levelled the playing ground by providing an open opportunity for everyone to get involved, and will do it again - as a FREE event to anyone wanting to attend (and yes, Im part of itechne as if you couldnt have guessed without this disclosure).
Marketing magazine is not putting on the Advertising and Media Summit 2008, we are working with them to bring our registered members the benefit of a $200 discount from the actual cost. I would think that this initiative would actually be seen as a step in the right direction by those 'average interested parties' (whoever this ill-defined group are supposed to be).
Relative to a free conference such as iTechne's PubCamp, I agree the price seems high. But then comparing the two events - as I think you intend to do by juxtaposing your positive discussion of one with your denigration of the other - seems rather irresponsible, especially considering the relative scope of both.
I don't have to defend the Advertising and Media Summit 2008 - I haven't seen their balance sheet and they don't pay my salary. But you don't have to be an accountant to realise that bringing in the chief creative officers of Time Warner and Goodby Silverstein & Partners from the US, as well as Harold Mitchell and 25 other presenters over two days has costs associated with it, for good or bad.
I also think you may have missed one of the key points in my post about PubCamp. This is not a bun fight between some evil axis of 'paid media' and the ground-levelling 'free media'. Both sides of this debate would do well to put down their fistfuls of mud and engage in reasoned discussion of the complex debate around the emergence of 'gift economies' alongside the existing paid-for content models.
Reducing this interesting and engaging area to some binary bitch-off between two entrenched enemies is woefully reductive and serves none of the parties involved. While there is demand for this model of content delivery, there will be those willing to build a business around the supply. To claim that attendees of the summit will somehow be incapable of critically engaging with the topics to be discussed is laughable at best, and downright insulting at worst.
Please @mediamum, go back and read my review of the Melbourne PubCamp event. You will find that I had plenty of positives to take away from the event. That said, I also think that the purpose of attending these events is to critically engage with the materials presented, and if sometimes this means that opinions will be given that not all agree with, then so much the better.
To claim that Marketing magazine is led by 'such people' is, I'm afraid, nonsense in the most wonderful Learian sense. As an existing masthead with over 20 years of history, Marketing faces the same challenge as many print publishers at the moment. Because our primary objective is to continue to provide valued (and yes, at times, even paid-for) content to marketers across Australia, we decided to invest heavily in this website as a completely free and open resource.
Considering the lengthy and (I thought) engaging discussion we shared at PubCamp based around the value you claimed to have gleaned from the pages of our magazine over the years in relation to your teaching, I found your comments here somewhat bizarre.
Let's lose the dogma @mediamum, roll up our sleeves and get stuck into the debate. You'll no doubt be disappointed to hear that I will be at the Advertising and Media Summit. As part of our ongoing commitment to bringing marketers valuable content, we'll be interviewing the speakers and getting them to provide their insights on camera and on this site.
Oh, and did I mention that the videos will be free?
Marketing is about marketing and commercial growth. Its not about saving the whales!
I think events like PubCamp and the Summit are completely different beasts and the world needs both of them.
PubCamp is an alternative approach. It tries to bring together a community around the future of media, partly as a conversation and percolator for ideas and new faces, and involves a different set of voices and perspectives to something like ADMA or Ad:Tech or the Advertising and Media Summit.
It is not any sort of replacement for them, however.
I know how tough it is to put on a free event. Theyre free to attend, not to run. The folks at the traditional event companies are running them as a business and have every right to charge for the valuable content and information they provide. And there is clearly a good market for them.
PubCamp is just an attempt to try something different, not replace the other worthwhile events that are out there covering different topics in different ways.
Cheers,
Jed
Or, better still, that will let us bring in some pizzas or something, or charge more reasonable amounts for food. Rydges was better than the Marriott in Sydney though - the Marriott was going to charge us $1350 for chips and nuts on top of the drinks bill. Goodness only knows what they would have charged us there to add biscuits! :)
I have worked with enough ad-serving systems myself to know that there is no question whatsoever that this would have been an accident of the ad serving software on the website. But you gotta admit when things like that happens it looks pretty bad and gives completely the wrong impression.
Anyway, glad to have had you had the event and thanks for the comments and coverage. As much as just about everyone disagrees on which speakers and panelists they liked or found valuable (it was a very diverse audience), the feedback about the value of running PubCamp has been close to 100% positive (with David there being the only exception I can find so far).
The mission of the event is to foster understanding and dialogue between social and digital media, technologists, traditional media and publishers, commercial new media and futurists, and create a shared community of practitioners around the people who will create the media landscape of the future. As it stands today there are real gulfs between those groups, and PubCamp is primarily an attempt to get a conversation and meeting of minds going between them. Thats a tough challenge, but Im hoping that the feedback from the first two events can help make the future ones even better, and that its a step in the right direction.
Cheers,
Jed
I respect your views and opinion, since thats what blogs are all about. But I think youre off the mark on your assessment of the panel. I totally disagree that putting so-called "old media" up in front of the "new media" audience was a "recipe for disaster," as you put it.
How many times have you heard a boring panel where everyone agreed with each other and simply sang the same old tune that everyone in the audience was expecting? Panels are meant to be dynamic and controversial. This panel delivered on that level precisely because of the dynamic Jed injected via the choice of speakers.
Theres a second, more important reason why I thought it was a success. Yes, this is an age-old debate. But as someone whos spent a long time in both print and digital media, I can tell you there are many digital natives in this world who are very quick to overlook (or spend time understanding) the publishing lessons learnt by traditional media. If you want to make money or be successful with digital media youd be a complete fool to ignore the basic lessons in good publishing that have been honed by "old media" over the decades. Disagree with them, sure. But first make sure you understand at a deep level why you disagree, then make your argument. Some of the angst that cropped up at PubCamp Sydney, for example, I felt were uninformed and purely emotional arguments.
So I thought the panel was a great chance to butt heads and learn something new on both sides of the fence. Judging by sparks that have continued to fly, Id suggest it was hugely successful.
Finally, if youll excuse the blatant plug and want to have another listen, an edited version of the panel features as this weeks episode of my AFR/MIS podcast, The Scoop: misaustralia.com/thescoop
Firstly, the new v trad media debate was initially amusing to me but then mystifying as the passion levels rose. Its an evolving media landscape folks. There isn't necessarily a right and wrong camp. Both forms of media are interesting and both are imperfect. As a marketer, both are useful.
I could probably say the same thing about the "paid seminar v free seminar" debate. Both useful, both stimulating and both imperfect.
At the end of the day the true judge of who was right and wrong is the market. People vote with their feet and wallets.
One last observation. I enjoyed PubCamp and would attend the next event, but found it curious that less than 100 people (by my rough count) attended the Sydney event. This was for a free event in a city of almost 4 million. I would have thought here would have been more bums on seats.
@mediamum - its all good. I just wanted to clarify our relationship to the Advertising and Media Summit and to make clear my position on the paid-for/free content debate (if we really have to legitimise it as a debate at all).
@jedwhite - thanks for your thoughtful comments. I agree, theres space for paid-for events and free events, and its not a case of one winning out over the other. The work iTechne put into the smoothly-run Melbourne PubCamp event was evident and I especially enjoyed the mixed format of panel and unconference sessions. Ill be looking forward to the next iTechne event, so make sure you keep us informed and well let people know through our calendar.
Also, I totally take your point about the criticisms around PubCamp appearing next to advertisements for the Advertising and Media Summit being potentially misleading. Once again, I think this is more the case if people subscribe to an either/or view of paid-for/free events, but well chalk this one up to experience.
Ad serving online continues to be a fun and challenging space to be working in, so its nice to know that when situations like this arise, there is space for the community to debate it. Cheers for your thoughts @mediamum and @jedwhite.
Look, I agree by your criteria that the panel was a success - it was dynamic and controversial. But I guess my question is then what is the overall goal here? To get people who disagree with each other in the same room so they can ... shock horror, disagree?
I agree that some of the arguments at PubCamp were a little angsty, and that this doesn't really help to drive reasoned debate. In fact, in my review post that is precisely the point I make about people fighting over terms like 'old' and 'new' media as if we somehow have to decide between them. As I said in the review, this is a "futile and ultimately rather boring confrontation," and I call for more reasoned and challenging debate.
But there's a bit of a problem here: perhaps engineering a deliberately controversial panel and then expecting nothing but reasoned debate is a bit of a zero-sum game. Ultimately we're in agreement though - less bickering and more challenging debate is the goal, and it's here that I defer to @jedwhite's last post above. It's a tough challenge, but nice to have people such as yourself and the iTechne crew stepping up to that challenge.
As for posting the edited panel discussion AFR/MIS podcast link, more power to you. I have added it to the hyperlinks at the end of this original article so that people may continue to follow the content and make their own minds up about the debate.
Scanning the comments I saw someone mentioned the Web 2.0-heavy audience, and perhaps this is where my frustration came from; if the conference had been pitched at us, nobody speaking (again excepting Trib & Bronwen Clune) would have had any idea what the hell we were on about. When the technological and creative capital is weighed heavier in the listeners than the speakers, in my book something is amiss. Again I am speaking about what i would have deemed valuable, and while yes it is monetarily free, you are asking people to pay with time. As we all know, we can earn more money, we cannot get those hours back, and it is to be respected as much as the almighty dollar.
Hats off to Itechne however for putting it on in the first place, credit where credit is due.
Keep sharing such important posts.
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