Thursday, September 27, 2007

What's the Best Approach to Networking at the Expo?

Just hopped out of the shower and am preparing to meet coworker Davina at some point tonight, plus I plan on heading to the "Welcome to the Expo Party, Party" in suite 1312 of my hotel in about 45 minutes or so.

I've been using these down hours -- when I should be napping, but I'm wired -- to do some research about what's going on this weekend. I've contacted Adam Christianson of The Maccast -- "the show for Mac geeks, by Mac geeks" -- and he's agreed to speak with me tomorrow morning at the iProng booth. Hopefully he won't be too distracted by the gaggles of geek fans that will surely be surrounding him. Hey, I enjoy his show, so I'll be one of them.

I also hope to run into Cali Lewis from GeekBrief TV, who I believe will be holding court at the Premiumcast.com booth, as well as the Podfather, who arrives either tomorrow or Saturday, though pulling him aside seems like it would be a real challenge.

As I've been researching meetups and writing emails and listening to podcasts, I continue to wonder what I've been wondering for the past several weeks: What should I ask podcasters if and when I get a chance to pick their brains? Obviously, I hope to get a lot out of the seminars and keynotes, but I want to make the best of any opportunity I get to speak to my favorite podcasters, or to podcasters and techies I've never heard of before. As hobbyists, I'm not expecting them to have grand ideas about newspaper Web sites -- in fact, they in many ways represent the opposition to old media, or at least are a great example of how people can provide and package content in ways old media is failing to -- but I'd love to get their take on what they'd like to see, in a perfect world. What should newspapers be doing as they attempt to work with this new medium? What would pique their interest about an old media podcast, if it were done well? What makes a good podcast, anyway? How can we catch up? Can we catch up?

Of course, there are tons of other questions, both general and specific, mostly about content (although I hope to pick up on the technical and possibly the marketing side, too, if at all possible). I'll be brainstorming some more questions this evening, and I hope Davina has some suggestions, too. I'm not sure if our paths will converge a lot this weekend, but I'd be disappointed if they don't.

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