From Deidre:

I went to podcamp Philly this past weekend. (It ran for two days, but I was only able to attend on Saturday.)

PodCamp Philly was my first podcamp and my first “unconference” and it was fantastic.

For those who don’t know, podcamp is a get-together where individuals interested in video, blogging, SEO and other new media topics get together and share knowledge.

Podcamp is organized as an unconference, meaning it self-organizes. Most anyone can sign up to give a presentation. Individuals who sign up for the camp, go to the presentations of their choice.

Also podcamp isn’t just about podcasting. That’s just one of the many, many areas that are covered. This particular event in Philly had an emphasis on search.

I’m surprised (but then again, not really) that the place wasn’t overflowing with executives from the Philadelphia and New York business communities.

Podcamp is a great way to get some solid social media education as well as meet all sorts of interesting people on the frontlines of search, community building and blogging.

And it only cost $20. This is an incredible value.

The highlights for me were:

Wil Reynolds from SEO firm, Seer Interactive. This is a guy who clearly loves search. He brought insight and humor and passion to his presentations. I learned a lot.

Sri Nagubandi and Natalie Yakushev from Vertrue, an affinity and loyalty marketing firm, gave an awesome talk on SEO and social media. Very helpful and inspiring.

Howard Greenstein, social media consultant from NYC, held a session called, “Twitter: Are we just drinking the Kool Aid?” He got the entire classroom, most of whom were ardent tweeters, sharing their experiences. One couple talked about how they met via Twitter and are now engaged. Gionvanni Gallucci from viewzi, a new visual search engine, talked about hiring people off Twitter. Wil Reynolds shared how he figured out fun things to do when he was visiting Chicago—all based on people directing him via Twitter.

The net, net for me is: the next time there’s a podcamp nearby, I’ll be attending and encouraging my social media-curious friends and clients to come along.