Thoughts from PodCamp Ireland

I spent the weekend in Kilkenny at PodCamp Ireland and although I tend to go to a lot of networking events, it was great to get out and meet real people involved in social media in Ireland

I’ll be profiling quite a few of the people I met in the coming weeks (there are some great content examples) but in the mean time a big thanks goes out to Krishna De, Ken McGuire and Bernie Goldbach for organising the event. I had a great chat to Ken about Kilkenny Music and his plans for the future – exciting stuff.

Just a few of the interesting people I met

As always the best stuff happens away from the talks and presentations – in the corridors between talks and, of course, at the bar later …

Over lunch I met with Cathy Fitzgerald from Artlinks, Paul Brennan from Ormonde Internet Solutions and Nicola Brown – who’s felting blog and photo content is helping her make the move from part time to full time soon.

The first speaker of the day was the engaging Deborah Hadley – another future case study hopefully – who has, in a few short months, used her recipes blog to help create a thriving small business. She even supplied the brownies for the event – go buy some now.

Between random conversations and checking into the hotel I also managed to catch amongst others, Darragh Doyle’s Advice for Blog Beginners, Sabrina Dent’s How to Pimp Your Own Ride Without Making the Internet Hate You and Brendan Hughes on the Business of Social Media.

I also managed to shoehorn in conversations with Katherine Nolan (whose LidlTreats site has gained national press coverage despite being created on a ‘whim’), and Julie Momboisse from the Temple Bar Cultural Trust. A big thank you as well to Jason Roe who kindly introduced me to just about everyone he knew – which was just about everyone.

Totes

As you might expect the post-Podcamp drinks lasted into the small hours a fact made all the more interesting by my drinking buddies for the evening; Conor Lynch from Connector.ie (well worth a visit), the globe trotting Mary Nolan from JuiceCaster and Martha Rotter from Microsoft, proving the ‘evil empire’ isn’t quite so evil after all.

What I learned at Podcamp

1. Social media needs to be social. Get offline, meet people, go to events. The people I met were engaging and passionate about what they’re doing. It’s about people, not technology.
2. Ask questions. No matter how experienced (or not) you are you can always learn more – and people love to help.
3. “Totes” is a word I need to use more – ideally accompanied by a high five

You’ll find plenty of pics from Podcamp at pix.ie.

Were you at Podcamp too?

Then get in touch! You can drop me an email or post your comments below.

Tagged as: artlinks.ie, bernie goldbach, brendan hughes, cathy fitzgerald, clasheen, connector.ie, conor lynch, darragh doyle, deborah hadley, jason roe, juicecaster, julie momboisse, katherine nolan, ken mcguire, kilkenny music, krishna de, lidltreats, martha rotter, mary nolan, microsoft, nicola brown, paul brennan, pix.ie, podcamp, podcamp ireland, sabrina dent, tast.ie, temple bar cultural trust