Podcasters Across Borders

This year’s conference will include a music festival consisting of two bands on each of Friday June 22 and Saturday June 23. The headliners have been confirmed, opening acts are pending confirmation.

Look for the lineup to be announced here to coincide with this week’s episode of the Canadian Podcast Buffet, due out Thursday, April 19th.

Don’t forget that the Holiday Inn Kingston Waterfront (the event hotel), is offering conference registrants a rate for the nights of June 22 and 23, 2007. The rate is CDN$155/night (2 double beds, no smoking) and goes under the name “Podcasters Across Borders“. You must book your room at the conference rate directly with the hotel before May 22, 2007.

If you are looking at saving money on accommodations and don’t mind a long walk or paying for two cab rides each day, Queen’s University Victoria Hall (residence) has allocated a block of rooms for conference attendees at a rate option. The options are:

• single room $55.65 (+tax) incl. breakfast voucher
• double room $70.00 (+tax) incl. 2 breakfast vouchers

We have been slowly seeking sponsorship for Podcasters Across Borders 2007. It’s not something that we’re particularly comfortable doing. The fact is, we believe in PAB and we are willing to invest personal funds to account for any shortfalls (as we did last year) and to keep registration costs modest — we would obviously rather not be on the hook financially.

All of this has led us to think carefully about sponsorship. It isn’t about funds; it’s about trust relationships for which there is value for all parties. It’s about value, integrity and credibility — not just our own, or that of the event, but the community as a whole. We owe it to the community to offer value to our sponsors and treat them with respect so that the experience is good for the sponsors and the attendees, and we owe it to the registrants to give them great value for their investment in the conference. A good experience for the sponsors means that they may consider it worthwhile to entertain other opportunities within the community; a good experience for the community means that PAB is a great event that’s worth attending. If we mishandle the relationships, we burn bridges and opportunities for everyone that may follow.

In our view, sponsorship of PAB is an endorsement of the event and everyone who is a part of it — the organizers and participants — it’s not just about collecting money and saying thank you.

Here is where people are coming from (so far) for PAB2007…

CANADA: Victoria (BC), Vancouver (BC), Surrey (BC), Port Moody (BC), Calgary (AB), Ottawa (ON), Ilderton (ON), Kingston (ON), Mississauga (ON), Guelph (ON), Scarborough (ON), Sault Ste. Marie (ON), Oakville (ON), Stittsville (ON), Ajax (ON), Toronto (ON), Balderson (ON), Fergus (ON), Stratford (ON), Carleton Place (ON), Midland (ON), Barrie (ON), Deux-Montagnes (QC), Montreal (QC), Oka (QC), Ste Adele (QC), Pictou (NS)

USA: Kensington (MD), McKinney (TX), Buffalo (NY), Naperville (IL), Jackson (TN)

ARGENTINA: Rosario (SF)

UK: Blackpool (LA)

In anticipation of the conference, Bruce Murray from the Zedcast has written a guide for first-time attendees..

Barry from Barry from Barrie (who happens to be from Barrie) has created a PAB2007 countdown widget. I just installed it on my Mac, and it’s very nice!

Here’s what it looks like:

Nice, eh? You can download it here:

PAB2007 Widget

(This is supplied as-is. We assume no responsibility for this widget, it may even cause an arm to grow out of your forehead, that’s really not our problem.)