While at Podcamp Hawai’i Eliza and I met a lot of interesting people from all over the globe. One man, Richard Alexander, had a pretty exciting story to tell. You see, he’s into origami. He and his partner, Michael LaFosse, own a studio for working with handmade paper to create stunning works of art.

Richard Alexander, Origamido Studio. International Market Place Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii.

Many of the works by the Origamido team are made with single sheets of paper made from materials that they’ve gotten from all over the globe. A remote desert, materials from Japan, and wood from a rain forest, are only some of the examples I heard Richard speak of. The two photos I’ve included in this post show how realistic their work turns out. Each of these examples, the bat and goldfish, are made from a single sheet of paper. Amazing.

The exciting part of Richard’s story is that they are moving from Haverhill, Massachusetts to Waikiki, Oahu, Hawai’i. Richard’s reason for being at Podcamp was so that he could learn a little bit about New Media, and how he could leverage it to promote their new 2,000 sq. ft. space in the International Market Place in downtown Waikiki.

While Eliza and I (more Eliza than I) were doing laundry at one of the local laundromats, of all things, Richard Alexander walked by. He had just signed the lease on his new space and the laundromat was directly in-between the location of the new space and his apartment. I was eating a Puka dog. Richard, walking by, says: “Colin?”. We were both surprised that we bumped into each other again. He immediately offered to take us over to see the new, completely empty space that he had just signed the lease on. I’m looking forward to returning to see what he and his team end up creating there.

If you get a chance, and are in Waikiki, head down to the International Market Place and visit Origamido on the second-floor. I think you’ll be more than impressed with what they do.

During our stay on Oahu for the Social Media Club Workshop, Podcamp and Wordcamp Hawai’i, and a little leisure time – Eliza and I stayed at the Wyland Waikiki hotel.

This modern hotel showcases some of Wyland’s (whose name is Robert Wyland, by the way) artwork on nearly every surface available. Wall-sized paintings, sculptures, surf boards, and even tile works on the bottom one of the hotel’s pools all show off the creativity of Wyland.

The rooms are a decent size with all of the amenities that you’d come to expect nowadays. Beautiful flat-panel televisions, high beds, and nice bathrooms. Eliza and I had a room with a fridge and a sink (no range to cook on). We both really enjoyed our stay here.

Not that you spend a lot of time in your hotel when you are in Hawai’i, but I still think it is important to find one that suits your lifestyle. The Xbox-filled gaming room suits my lifestyle, though I admit I didn’t end up using it. The bar in the lobby with some of the better tenders I’ve come across, suits my lifestyle. The free wifi throughout the property, does as well.  Though, I must say that only having wired access in the rooms was a bit disappointing.  But Eliza and I quickly took care of that with Mac OS X’s internet connection sharing which is drop dead simple to set up.

Why am I writing about this hotel? Because they were extremely accommodating. They helped out the Podcamp attendees and speakers and also were always on hand when we wanted to chat about the hotel. Something I have never, ever heard of with any other hotel.

And, in the very near future, if you head down to one of the lobby’s two iMacs – you may see Viddler sitting on the desktop ready for you to record your video testimonial for this excellent hotel.

Me, speaking at Podcamp Hawai’i. Credit: Eliza Devroe

I have an awful lot of writing to do. I figured one of the easiest things to start off with, and hopefully get the ball rolling with everything else that I need to write about, would be the photos, videos, tweets, and much more from both Podcamp and Wordcamp Hawai’i.

Oh, did I mention that I learned how to properly spell Hawai’i while I was there?

If you’ve been following the pch08 tag on Flickr, on Twitter, on Viddler, and pretty much everywhere else, you’ll probably have seen these already.  If not… than I just did you a favor.

The visuals tell only part of the story. You’ll have to be there next year ((There will be a next year, right?)) to experience what type of conference the outstanding people in Hawai’i are able to put together.

Source: Podcamp Hawaii: Session: Using video to build community.

In October Eliza and I will be heading to Oahu, Hawaii for a Social Media Summit in Waikiki. Shortly after that we’ll be attending both Podcamp Hawaii and Wordcamp Hawaii.

I don’t think it needs to be said that we’re both looking forward to attending these events.

In November, shortly after our return, I’ll be heading to New York City for Carsonified‘s Future of Web Design conference. I will have some exciting things to talk to developers about, regarding Viddler‘s new Developer Partner Program, and I think FOWD is the perfect venue for these discussions.

Podcamp Philly opened my eyes to a completely different way to help grow Viddler’s community in new directions, and to help me do my job better. Solve the problems of the community you want.

We’ve got an incredible community on Viddler. Loyal, active, bright, and fun people that are willing to help us through our growing pains, partially because we strive to fulfill their requests as we move forward. Listening to and acting on requests is vital to growing a strong and sustainable community.

But what if we’d like to also attract a completely different Viddler? How do you branch out from your core community into a different community? Some may say education is key. Going out and educating ‘that other community’ about your product. This is true, but only partially true. The main strategy should be to strive to help the new community as much as you’ve helped your core community. Figure out the main problems of the new community and adjust to meet their needs.

The typical active Viddler is someone that enjoys conversation and actively participating in community activities. This is a great community to start off with. This will mean that as new ones join the community, it won’t seem inactive, stale, or unwelcoming. But rather they will be immediately accepted as though they’d been there all along.

The typical podcaster is not one of these people. More often than not they are community leaders themselves. They have an audience that they speak and interact with. In order to help podcasters you really need to either become one yourself, or immerse yourself into an event like Podcamp Philly, to really see the daily challenges these producers face. Don’t just speak to this new community, listen to them when they speak. And that is what I tried to do at Podcamp Philly; listen.

“Who is new to Podcasting?” (credit: CC Chapman)

Here are two main points I took away from Podcamp. Neither of these things where revelations to me but both were definitely solidified in my mind as very important points to remember.

1. Even though our technology for “citizen journalism” (or podcasting and videocasting) has improved 100-fold in only a few years, we are still very far away from making this as easy as it could be. Producers, editors, and everyone else involved with creating a really great podcast has a huge learning curve ahead of them when they are first starting out. Once they get rolling they face many daily challenges. They are constantly changing strategies until they find the perfect mix to get their “show” out and into your hands. Once they find that perfect mix they generally stick with what works. This all takes a lot of time and their time is valueable.
2. Most video podcasters do what they do because they love doing it. If your service inhibits that passion in any way, you lose. Sure, a few podcasters are now making a living with their podcast, this doesn’t mean its all business. Podcasters may put up with crappy service to earn a living for a time, but in the long run they’ll end up finding a better way. Be that better way.

I really enjoyed myself at Podcamp Philly. I’m happy that Viddler had the privilege of being one of the sponsors so that everyone in attendence could get all of this information for free. The more people that know how to do a podcast well, the more podcasts we’ll see, plain and simple. I’m looking forward to other Podcamp events in the future (there is one in Boston I might make it to). And I’m really looking forward to next year, when everyone in Philadelphia has had an entire year to learn, grow, and teach even more people about this wonderful world of self-publishing.

Oh, and the parties were great too.