A QUICK J-TEXT from Nadya piqued my interest. After "a super depressing dinner" in Amsterdam, she wrote, "So I'm sitting between one of the people that worked on inventing the compact disc, the sales director of Google NL, the CFO of UPC the cable company, and no one can really TALK to each other, nor are they at all in touch with what I would call the creative industry. I asked them if they had seen any of the talks, and they say no, and that they think there is no new generation of thinkers or visionaries."
I sometimes get the same feelings at paid conferences--until I hover around coffee chats and introduce myself in casual settings. Nonetheless, I have felt the same attitude noted by Nadya when attending events where the principal speakers or the marquee attendees had no interest in those attending the event. The problem with most typically commercial conferences is the assumption taken by main speakers that the only valuable flow of information starts at the microphone and trickles into the audience. Another typical reaction by some speakers is that they really don't have the time to read more blogs or to engage in lively social networks. Not so at Podcamp Ireland. If you fancy learning how some of the most creative people in Ireland connect to enhance their practise, you should set aside Saturday the 29th of September to see some of the faces worth reading regularly. But if you're unable to journey to Kilkenny, you can catch the enthusiasm in the photostream, in the podcamp Jaiku channel, and in the podcasts that will follow. And you should also think about reading one of the "79" creative essays.
