Earlier this week, I travelled down to Virginia Beach, VA to participate in the first United States Coast Guard PodCamp which took place on November 18, 2009. It was a great event where, in the spirit of social media, people connected, shared and learned.
There were so many highlights of the day but for the sake of crafting a post that doesn’t go on forever, I’ve limited my self to the five (5) below.
- Connecting. The main reason I travelled down to VA to participate in PodCamp was to meet face to face a number of people that I’ve been building online friendships over the past few years. While I’m a strong advocate for social media, there’s nothing more effective at building relationships than shaking a hand, sharing a meal or learning from each other. And it’s always great to catch up with my friend and fellow Weekly Leader contributor Mario Vittone.
- Being part of something new. While the PodCamp concept has been around for a while (as measured in social media years), this was the first USCG PodCamp. In fact, it was the first PodCamp organized by any of the US military services. It’s always fun to be part of something new and exciting and PodCamp USCG did not disappoint. Kudos to Ben Strong, Katie Hood, Peter Stinson and Ryan Erickson for doing all of the heavy lifting to get the program ship shape and underway.
- TSA’s Blogger Bob – It’s always valuable to get perspectives and learn from people outside your organization or system. One of USCG PodCamp’s guest speakers was the Transportation Safety Administration’s (TSA) Blogger Bob and it was fascinating to hear him tell the TSA social media story. It’s amazing how one guy with a small team and strong organizational support can have such a dramatic effect on the public persona and online brand of a large government agency. This is social media in action.
- Re-enlistment. Chief Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski, a public affairs officer in the Pacific Northwest and strong social media advocate, decided to re-enlist in the Coast Guard during the PodCamp and arranged to have an officer that he met through social media swear him. It was a great reminder that this is more than just a job to the men and women in the Coast Guard. Cool idea, well done. Congratulations and great success to Paul!
- Weekly Leader Podcast Leadership and Social Media Roundtable – We thought it would be fun, and hopefully instructive to participants, to actually record an episode of the Weekly Leader Podcast while at PodCamp. We had an impressive group of individuals from a wide range of areas in the Coast Guard who were willing to share their thoughts and experiences around the topic of leadership and social media. It was an incredible opportunity that we were not going to miss and you shouldn’t either! So make sure you listen to the Weekly Leader podcast episode 27.
Ben Strong, Peter Stinson, Beverly Howard, Daren Lewis, Katie Hood, Mario Vittone, Kathy Nash, Steve Flowers, Dan Taylor
USCG PodCamp was run parallel to the USCG Innovation Expo which appears to be a perfect fit. It was a great event that offers a lot of promise for the future. I’m already looking forward to the US Coast Guard’s second annual PodCamp next November and if you are in the Coast Guard, maritime industry or Tampa, FL area, you should too!
[...] USCG PodCamp was a great success and I’ve written a post on it over at seaz.me. (Five Highlights of USCG PodCamp). If you are in the Coast Guard, maritime industry or just interest in learning more or sharing [...]
[...] The US Coast Guard is doing a great job experimenting with social media and nobody does it better than AMVER’s Ben and Bev. They, along with a few other Guardians organized the USCG’s 1st Annual (?) PodCamp a few weeks ago and it was a great success. Here’s a link to my post about 5 highlights of the event. [...]