Bean Blog

Giving up a weekend with my husband and daughters is not an easy thing for me to agree to, especially when it means getting into DC for an 8am start....

I am not what you call a morning person, especially when I don't have my double cappuccino from the Caffeinator.

However, this recent "unconference" gathering of several hundred passionate, creative and energetic public media gurus made for a surprisingly invigorating and fulfilling weekend.

The PublicMediaCamp event had no set schedule or presenters...the idea is that people show up, throw out ideas that they want to discuss, and then folks break out into groups and make things happen. It actually seemed quite structured for a seemingly chaotic method of meeting! 

The topics covered everything from content management tools, kids games and social networking to usability: 

• In a session amusingly entitled "Epic FAIL", users went around the room and shared pub media fiascos: the common thread among initiatives that went awry were the misalignment of tools, audience, marketing tactics 
• PBS Kids is studying the 'passback effect' -- parents placating kids with iPod in cars & restaurants (I am personally guilty of this, but like to think of it as "user testing"!) 
• Drupal CMS suffers from its own success sometimes by setting up client expectations of easy plug-and-play. The reality is that the Drupal license is free, but the developer's cost of customizing it is NOT! 
• NPR's Facebook fan page testing shows one post every hour is ideal (plus, NPR's Facebook fan page postings generates impressive 8% of NPR web traffic) 
• Crowdsourced fundraising success stories - instead of asking donors to give $10, you'll earn way more if you get access to their social networks by inspiring donors to push the fundraising message virally to their friends 
• Usability issues for seniors boggle the mind of younger generations who create online content (for example, some older site visitors are "afraid" to use their mouse's scroll wheel or right click button...really.) 
• The rise of the "citizen journalist" and 24/7 news cycles means that when you're continually engaging the audience, the story is never done 

In addition, I also contributed by chairing a session with long-time friend-of-Bean, Dan Sonnett (Sonnett Media Group). We explored ways that public media and cultural institutions/museums can collaborate to meet shared goals and serve shared communities. Since Bean Creative and Sonnett Media Group both work with cultural institutions and public broadcasters, we were able to engage the audience in some great discussion and best practices about how to encourage folks to explore partnerships. 

There are SO many similarities between public media and museums, such as the struggle to provide a trusted institutional voice versus allowing public commentary; rights management issues; attracting local versus national audiences; fundraising; and how to engage with diverse audiences provides each with learning opportunities. Understanding these similarities provides valuable opportunities to explore meaningful partnerships and sharing of exceptional educational content. 

So, while I missed out on some extra zzzz over the weekend, what I gained was renewed vigor and increased enthusiasm in the work Bean does to help our public media clients strengthen relationships with their communities.