More than a year ago, I hatched an idea about uniting the creative communities around Florida under a common banner at a Creative Summit. We are much closer to such an event now, but still so far away. After doing a dance in several directions, we came up with a Think and Drink.
This Saturday at 5:30, local media producers will gather at Red Light Red Light in Winter Park (map) for perhaps the first event of its kind in Central Forida. 2008 will see the coming of age of many types of new media. Blogging will become a pre-teen; podcasting is no longer a toddler; YouTube even turns 3 this year. As we start to see the hardening and refactoring of several popular and useful services and standards, it becomes more important for the enthusiasts and early adopters to come together to get on common footing and think about the future of media.
Orlando's technology, media and other creative communities have been growing along side each other for the past few years in a collection of several small fast and focused movements. What better way to start a new year than with a gathering with the purpose of setting goals and recording the words of the trend-setters of our community.
We've been setting aside January 5th on our calendars for some time now as a day to share our thoughts and experiences with new media. In December, a few of us got together to discuss what we'd like to get out of a PodCamp or a New Media day. Everyone agreed we should plan to have a much larger and more ambitious event later in the year, perhaps this summer, but a small event would help us get a solid idea about what sorts of topics to discuss and how we sell the event to the community.
BarCamp was a great event that really brought a lot of the community out in force, but the focus on programming made the video people, the podcasters, the storytellers and the writers believe that we could have our own Unconference. Enter this PodCamp Party.
Be sure and hop on the Facebook Group and to add some of your favorite sites and links to the Ma.gnolia Bookmarks Group. We'll make it worth writing home about.
P.S. I'm also trying to plan a "Photowalk" at 3PM for all the photographers and people who might like to take a walk around Winter Park and grab some food before the Happy Hour. Reply via Facebook if you'd like to go.