ProductCamp Seattle versus ProductCamp SoCal

On October 23^rd, I attended ProductCamp Seattle. On November 6^th, I attended ProductCamp SoCal (Southern California), flying down to Orange County to attend.  There were many similarities between the two ProductCamps, and a number of differences. So, which one was better? Read on.

ProductCamp Seattle 2010 marked my second time at a ProductCamp. I attended last year’s as well. It was helpful to know what to expect from one of these “unconferences.” Casual events, unconferences are planned and managed by volunteers. Talks are developed by attendees and proposed for inclusion. The morning of the conference, attendees vote on the various talks. The winners are scheduled for timeslots and rooms. So, you don’t know the actual agenda of the conference until the day of the event. Also, people “vote with their feet” during talks, leaving if they don’t find the talk to be interesting.

I gave three talks at each conference, so I was able to get the perspective of a presenter and an attendee. Both conferences included lots of good presentations about product management, marketing-related topics, mobile, and social media. The people at both events were generally friendly and interesting. There were differences, though.

Venue

This year’s ProductCamp Seattle was held on Microsoft’s campus, in building 92. That meant the conference rooms were all state-of-the-art with a nice projector system for each talk and wireless access for all attendees. The downside is that the facility was rather dark and depressing—especially because it was gray and pouring rain outside. Also, perhaps by accident or because of an insidious Microsoft plot, cell-phone reception was non-existent inside the building. The moment you walked in the door, all bars disappeared. On the other hand the wireless access was excellent.

ProductCamp SoCal was held at Cal State Fullerton’s Mihaylo Hall. The facility was beautiful, aided by a wall of windows through which the California sunshine flowed. The rooms were all modern and equally cheery and bright. They also had projector systems, though I had technical problems with the system for one of my talks. (Likely user-error.) Unlike the Microsoft campus, I got great cell phone reception at Fullerton. However, the wireless kept dropping me, and others I talked with had the same frustration.

Pre-Event Organization

Both camps were organized by volunteers, and I want to thank all of them for their hard work. Both went off well, but overall, I’d say ProductCamp SoCal was better organized. I received emails from both camps. However, from ProductCamp Seattle, I just received their daily digests of the discussions taking place about the camp. They were unattractive and didn’t summarize the most relevant information. From SoCal, I got regular newsletter-style emails with reminders about the event, links to info about hotels and the venue, lists of the latest proposed sessions, etc.  These emails were polished, contained a lot of useful information, and enticed me to click the links.

ProductCamp SoCal handled its speakers differently than ProductCamp Seattle, too. First of all, their website listed the proposed session topics. As a speaker, I could just add my topics through the site, with the title and a description for each.  SoCal used a tool called UserVoice (http://uservoice.com/) to allow attendees to vote on the proposed sessions ahead of time. The vote wasn’t binding, but it gave you an idea of which sessions were likely to be picked the day of the event. That was helpful both as a presenter and as an attendee. (If I could add one thing, it would be the ability for presenters to poll people about their sessions, for instance to learn more about the knowledge or interest of attendees so that you can tailor your talk.)

ProductCamp SoCal also had us send our presentations to them by the day before the event, so they could post them after the conference. They sent good instructions to presenters about what to expect and when to be where the day of the event. Lastly, they had presenters fill out a card online, with the talk’s title, description, and presenter name. By the time I arrived on the day of the conference, the cards we’d filled out were already printed and posted on the walls for voting.

In contrast, for ProductCamp Seattle, we hand-wrote cards on the day of the event and taped them to the wall. I arrived prior to when voting was supposed to start, only to find that people had already posted topics and early arrivers were voting. I quickly scrawled out a title and description for each of my talks and taped them up. Because the cards were all handwritten, some presenters’ cards were easier to read than others. I much prefer the SoCal approach and would highly recommend that ProductCamp Seattle and other camps across the country adopt their system.

Sponsors, Chotchkies, Food, etc

Each event had sponsors who provided funding, etc. for the event. They spent their money differently, however. ProductCamp SoCal gave out reusable bags and t-shirts, along with flyers from the sponsors. We got box lunches from Subway, with a small sandwhich, chips, a cookie, and a soft drink.

ProductCamp Seattle didn’t give away chotckies, but they had a hot buffet for lunch, with a variety of excellent foods. They had free beer and wine at the conference center after the event, whereas the SoCal folks met at a bar across the street, where the drinks were on you.

Sponsors were treated differently as well. In Seattle, the host Dave Manningsmith thanked the sponsors and gave a brief description of each. In Orange County, each sponsor was invited up to talk for five or ten minutes. That included representatives from the University. I thought it was appropriate and nice to give the sponsors the opportunity to talk about themselves, given their donations. It was also informative. I was heartened to hear both the Pragmatic Marketing and ZigZag Marketing representatives say that they are getting more calls from companies wanting to advertise job opportunities—a change from a year ago when most of their calls were from job seekers asking if there were any openings. (Things are starting to turn around a bit, folks.) 

Who’s the most saavy

I specialize in social media, and I was really interested to see how the SoCal community differed. So, who was the most social media saavy, and generally tech-saavy?  I may be biased, but I have to say that Seattle wins on that front.

There were several social media talks at both events, and one or more mobile talks at both ProductCamps. I thought the caliber of the talks was higher in Seattle, though. As someone who participates in the social media community here, I’m aware that people here are quite knowledgeable. I saw that reflected in the conversations and questions. For example, when I gave my talk on Six Steps to a Social Media Strategy, the Seattle folks asked questions about measurement tools, how to sustain the effort, whether there is enough data to really define success criteria for goals, and so on.

In contrast, I found the social media panel at SoCal somewhat wanting. Only one of the panelists seemed to have much experience doing social media consulting. Most of them had done social media as individuals, for their own business. (Though, I will say that there were some audience members who clearly had consulting experience.)  Also, the discussion centered mostly on topics that have been explored ad nausea—why businesses are slow to adopt, why they should let their employees represent them, authenticity, etc.

Another example is that of QR codes.  The mobile talk at ProductCamp SoCal covered QR codes, as did my own talk on 10 Easy Website Changes to Increase WOM and Return Visits. Most attendees at SoCal had never even heard of QR codes. In Seattle, they are passe. Many unconferences here have been using QR codes for at least a year. Most people I encounter in the Seattle community are already familiar with QR codes. Not so in Orange County.

Next Year

If you’re organizing a ProductCamp, I’d highly recommend getting in touch with the ProductCamp SoCal folks to learn how they organized their camp. They did an excellent job with their website, communication, and handling the sessions.  If you want to attend a tech-saavy, cutting-edge ProductCamp, with great food and free drinks afterwards, definitely come to Seattle.

Personally, I’m planning to go to both camps next year.  Seattle’s my city. I love the social media and product management folks here, and enjoy being challenged to keep ahead of the crowd.  As for SoCal, I found the Orange County folks extremely friendly and welcoming. Even though I was only there for one day, the community was so welcoming, that I still get warm feelings thinking of the people I met, like Matthew Gallizzi of Notix, Stacey Harmon of Harmon Enterprises, and Trey Johnson from Creative Directory. I felt very at home, made some great connections, and would love to see everyone again next year. And afterall, who can say no to that California sunshine?