Unless you got to Santa Ana College's Digital Media center early on the morning of June 12th, there wasn't a lot of time for networking and coffee before co-MCs Brian Page and Tim Keenan got the event rolling.
Campers put lots of cards on the board, each with a topic they wanted to discuss with other media pros. The rule for posting a topic was that you had to be willing to lead the discussion. Being expert in the topic was not required.
Starting a little after 9:00 AM attendees broke into one of five simultaneous sessions for 45 minutes of collaborating and brainstorming. Posting topics, voting on them and breaking into roundtable discussions was repeated every hour.
Throughout the course of the event, well over a dozen topics were discussed and debated. Subjects ranged from the technology (Panasonic's Tommy James led a meeting on 3D) to creative (Getting the most from your talent was moderated by co-MCs Tim Keenan and Brain Page) to business/marketing (Client Acquisition was moderated by Rod Liggett and Scot Trodick.)
Some of the gatherings that got kudos included: Monetizing Web Video Streaming; Self Publishing and Marketing Your Book; Fix it In Post; SEO techniques; Build Your Own Website; Using Social Networking for Business, and many more. Of course, the main reason evaluation sheets were so complimentary is because participants choose the topics! And Campers are free to come an go from any session, unless of course they're the moderator.
Lunch, like the cost of the registration, was free. But organizers didn't live up to their own standards in this case. Food was on the short side and demand was on the high side. That made for a few unhappy campers. Did a lot of folks show up without RSVPs?
After earlier moderating a session on the creative applications of 3D, including Panasonics new fixed inter-ocular lens 3D camera, Tommy James gave the event's keynote speech. The main TV studio of the Digital Media Center was almost at capacity. James gave his perspective on the direction our industry will take in the future. Essentially he pointed out that we, the media professionals are driving the market.
After lunch was a cash drawing for those that bought a ticket, another breakout session and the giveaway of doorprizes supplied by Creative Media Recording and Adobe. The grand prize was a CS5 Production Premium Suite from Adobe, valued at about $1800. It was won by Maria Tsai, a programmer and web developer from Fullerton.
One aspect of MediaProCamp which MCAI encourages is the posting of notes after the event. Some gatherings are more spontaneous than others and where possible we ask that campers post remembered details as well as any prepared material on the MCAI website, In fact one camper, producer-editor, Laura Smilkstein, came with a prepared list of internet jobsites to share in a meeting. Her topic never got chosen but she's given us this valuable resource to post anyway. If you were there and have some notes to post send the file to our Editor, John Coleman at twinoakscom@cox.net to post.
For more photos of the LA/Orange County chapter's MediaProCamp II, go to the chapter's website http://www.mcai-oc.org/community/ and click on COMMUNITY.
After lunch was a cash drawing for those that bought a ticket, another breakout session and the giveaway of doorprizes supplied by Creative Media Recording and Adobe. The grand prize was a CS5 Production Premium Suite from Adobe, valued at about $1800. It was won by Maria Tsai, a programmer and web developer from Fullerton.
came with a prepared list of internet jobsites to share in a meeting. Her topic never got chosen but she's given us this valuable resource to post anyway. If you were there and have some notes to post send the file to our Editor, John Coleman at 
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