What is PodCamp UK?

PodCampUK is a free two-day event bringing all the excitement and ideas and energy of a PodCamp to the UK for the first time. This unique event is taking place on the 1st and 2nd of September at the New Technology Institute in Birmingham, and promises to be a brilliant mix of ideas, technology, live music, free food, great people and much more...

September 1/2 2007 - Birmingham NTI
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PodCamps are meetups for anyone interested in New Media. The first PodCamp was held in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2006, and they are now spreading across the globe, enabling culture, commerce and connections.

The "Pod" in PodCamp comes from podcasting; but you can expect to find anyone at PodCamp, podcasters, video makers, software developers, entrepreneurs, journalists, musicians, social networkers, marketers, producers, publishers, PR firms, educators, actors, writers, boys, broadcasters, girls and Web 2.0 gurus, all using the internet to communicate with shared media.

Some are beginners, some are experts, but all are enthused by what they are doing, redefining the old media landscape and defining a brand new culture.

PodCamp UK is a free event (we never tire of saying that!) - an open door on new media, organised by volunteers who have all experienced Podcamps elsewhere in the world. To pay for the venue for two days with food for all attendees, we now have sponsorship from UK businesses Cheeze, Podcast Nation, Digital Central and Pod3.tv. Nick Saalfeld from Wells Park has very kindly offered to pick up the refreshments & Jeff Pulver has put a tab behind the bar for the Saturday night social.

This is a FIRST - media coverage is bound to increase as we draw nearer to the first weekend in September. Please contact us if you are interested in joining our sponsors, and helping to make Podcamp UK a truly special event.

The event is taking place on the 1st and 2nd of September at the New Technology Institute in Birmingham, England.

Video Streaming Links Up

http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/podcampuk_videostreaming

You can currently find all the links to the seperate "shows" on blogtv listed, we hope to add the rss feeds later on today so you can get the sessions directly. Also as a backup we hope to have a quicktime stream to streamguys at 256kps. We will also be recording to tape and hopefully using hijack pro to store the mp3 side of things for an audio version.

PodCamp UK in Second Life: Stage

Freebies, T-shirts and Streaming Gear!

In a last minute rush everything seems to have come together with the freebie giveaway 100 t-shirts from blogtv arriving - the official streaming pack equipment literally getting here and the condenser mics needed to stream from the 4 rooms. Add to this the awesome Second Life setup and the PodCamp looks to be off to a great start and we have not even opened the doors yet!

We hope to start testing the video streams setup for the sessions around 5pm/6pm GMT tomorrow (Friday) in preparation for the early saturday morning start.

We have also limited supplies of the official PodCampuk t-shirts that will be for sale for £5 each at the event, if you require one please update the wiki so we can allocate one to you ahead of time.

Also, our promotion of the event for people to come and watch virtually has started on blogtv.com - we have prime banner space across all blogtv platforms - we are expecting a great turnout of people viewing the sessions and live stream over the weekend.

PodCamp UK in Second Life

Here is the Second Life URL for Podcamp UK: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Booville%202/67/171/29

If you have Second Life installed, click the link and you'll be taken to Booville where we are hosting the virtual Podcamp UK.

Keep up with the Latest on Twitter!

We have an account setup @ http://twitter.com/podcampuk. We will be releasing the schedule to this twitter account as it happens with links to the video streaming for these feeds too. If you have never used twitter before it is a great way to get information in 140 characters or less - you can even link your mobile phone to your own account and get updates direct to your mobile for free.

We hope to start sending out messages on friday afternoon and for the whole weekend after testing setup at the nti.

The PodCamp UK Hotel!

* Check out this link for hotel information about the evening event and hotel rooms. Remember we get a special rate. The Hotel and Evening Event are in the Same Place RESULT!

* The evening event will start at 8pm with FREE drinks, a live band (Estaban), DJ sets and social get together.

* Single occupancy on a 'Classic' room is priced at £40 per night and is the cheapest option. You should quote the "NTI Rate" for the "PodcampUK Conference" on all bookings to get the special prices. All rates include a full English breakfast.

* The 'Standard' room rate is £50.00 for single occupancy.

*'Superior' rooms are £60.00 for single occupancy.

Attached above are photographs of the bedrooms. The first picture with the mounted television on the wall is The Classic bedroom, followed by Standard and Superior.

Book early to avoid missing out!

Pre Hotel Addition Details

Please see John's post above but here are a few other things you should know about the evening event/hotel rooms (one and the same!)

• the bar tariffs, sample breakfast menu, bar menu - are all linked here to view.
• the building is open 24hrs and a porter will be at the entrance.
• breakfast is available from 7:30 - 9:30am over the weekend.
• loud music must finish by 11pm. There are other guests staying in the accommodation.
• plenty of rooms are still available.
• Reservations - You can call 0121 204 3726 or e-mail. r.biran@aston.ac.uk

Thanks!

Sponsor : Node101

NODE101 is an open source, collaborative project created to teach and spread videoblogging worldwide. From online resources to physical classrooms and ongoing events, the goal of NODE101 is to teach media literacy as a life skill and to change the current media landscape from being a lecture to being a conversation. Of, For and By media makers.

Thanks to Jay Dedman and Ryanne for the donation to podcampuk.com

NTI Pre Testing Setup & Wifi

I visited the birmingham NTI centre this morning in preparation of the event in the next 9 days! - i went to test the wifi capacity that has now been added to the event. I'm pleased to say that on tests it was operating at 6 meg download and 2.5 meg upload - please note this is not dsl but cable so the speed is constant. The speeds are expected to be a little bit faster over the weekend due to less people using the connection at the collage.

A few issues arose this morning regarding the connection however. The internet feed is proxied we will have a leaflet to give out when you arrive to be able to setup your laptop to use this proxy. We tested adium (mac osx) and skype and both of those could be configured for use. We are actively making sure ports are open to access blogtv for streaming and streaming to streamguys for the quicktime feed. Web access is un-effected and is very speedy so text blogging at the event should not be an issue. The reason why the connection is proxied is that the collage has very strict rules about usage of the internet (totally understandable)

Wifi was reported to work in all rooms and is using an brand new airport to deliver the wifi across the rooms.

Sponsors : Blogtv.com & Blip.tv

We have added two more additional sponsors to the mix in the form of blogtv.com (for streaming the event out free of charge to people - no bandwidth restrictions and archival) they also gave us some money for the event - thanks!

Blip.tv have also put together some funds for podcampuk and we are very grateful to mike hudack and his team for stepping up to the plate as we get over closer to the event.

World Exclusive Software Release @ Podcampuk

as part of my session on videoblogging i hope to demo a piece of software as well as others to help newbie vloggers get started. we have the world exclusive to one such application that enables people to do this. more on the schedule.

BT Podshow Show Support!

We are pleased to announce the support of BTPodShow for PodcampUK.

PodShow is a premier social media community, and daily delivers a digital avalanche of the best in audio, video, podcasts, and music on the web. They have been at the forefront of podcasting and new-media since the beginning and continue to produce great shows, new ideas and to promote the creativity and artistry of podcasters, videobloggers, musicians, comedians, independent film makers and the new-media community in general.

There are already many great BTPodShow people giving time and energy to PodcampUK and this show of support is a lovely gesture from all the PodShow family.

Thanks PodShow! See you all at PodcampUK! :)

Evening Event & Hotel

The evening event and hotels are one and the same so it makes a perfect combination for our evening event. Held on campus at aston university the business centre is a great central location and only 5-10 minutes walk from the NTI center (a few pubs on the way i am sure!)

As of this moment there are 150 bedrooms available for the weekend (basically plenty right now for the weekend, friday and saturday if required) and we have agreed a special rate via the NTI. You will need to call reservations on 0121 204 3726 and quote "NTI Rates" - you do not of course have to use the onsite hotel and accommodation - am sure there are many others in birmingham and the surrounding areas.

• classic bedroom, bed and breakfast - £40 inclusive of vat
• standard bedroom, bed and breakfast - £50 inclusive of vat
• superior bedroom, bed and breakfast - £60 inclusive of vat
  

You can see photos of the nti centre and the evening location over here.

We do intend to have a band play for an hour and there is plenty of space for chatting, drinking and i believe they have a restaurant/snack bar type thing cooking food till around 9pm. The building itself is open 24/7 with birmingham central for nightlife just a short walk away.

*update* - one of our attendees has already booked the hotel and found that the price was even better than the price above as she got the "single" rate. i believe she got the superior room at the classic bedroom price. I need to confirm this however.

Pod3.tv Joins PodCamp UK!

With PodcampUK less than one month away, we are delighted to announce that another great sponsor has joined the cause. The latest recruit, comes in the form of the innovative video-podcast and webtv company Pod3.tv.

Created in 2006, Pod3.tv was the brainchild of Neil Fairbrother, who created the 6th fastest growing brand in the UK in 2002 (Langley-based Neos Networks), where he invented Liquid Bandwidth' business-to-business telecoms service. The beautifully designed Pod3.tv succinctly defines their purpose, when it describes the company as a "21st century TV company" that creates "high quality TV-style shows as video podcasts that are commercially sponsored – just like commercial TV."

With content that ranges from the arts and music, to business, documentary, food and drink, gardening, travel and more, Pod3.tv is a forward thinking and highly creative company and as such, is a perfect sponsor for the UK's first ever PodCamp.

This is yet more fantastic news for an event that is rapidly shaping up as the new-media party of the UK summer.

Join us by signing up on the wiki. It's totally free to attend and it's going to be really special!