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Sometimes The Gamble Pays Off - America Here I Come

Posted on February 15, 2006
Filed Under March 06 Mega Trip |

I’ve talked about the planning for the March USA trip previously on the blog. The original impetus was to get to O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology Conference. This grew into doing a bit of podcasting at Etech. And that in turn morphed into The Podcast Network becoming a Media Sponsor for Etech. Now the cost of transatlantic flights meant I had to stay stateside for eight days, so I looked around to see what else I could do.

The end result means my itinery now looks like this..

Los Angeles (March 2nd-6th)
March 4th: The Razzies (covering for The Movie Show)
March 5th: Barcamp LA
San Diego (March 6th-10th)
March 6th-9th: O’Reillys Emerging Technology 2006
Austin (March 10th-15th)
March 10th-14th: SXSW Interactive
San Francisco and Bay Area (March 15th-17th)
Seattle (March 17th-19th)
Las Vegas (March 19th-23rd)
Microsoft Mix06 (March 20th-22nd)

What I find interesting that it’s only now that everything is in place for a successful trip. The flights had to be purchased before I could even confirm attendance at some of the conferences. And then the accomodation needed to be booked (and SXSW beds don’t come cheap) so there was a fair amount of risk in the budget, because neither were there any advertisers signed up at that point in mid January to help the finances.

Well, “risk is our business,” and I went ahead, essentially gambling the budget that with the contacts I had everything would fall into place. The great news now is that all the major pieces are now in place. All the accomodation is sorted, all the conference passes are sorted, all the internal and transatlantic flights are booked, and a title sponsor (who TPN will announce in the next few days) has come on board - I’ll be able to provide them a great audience that’s suitable for their products, and in the advertising revenue will help cover some of the major costs incurred.

Every conference is getting podcasted like crazy, so bookmark The Podcast Network’s Tech Conference Channel and expect a minimum of 40 shows between now and the end of March with all the best from these conferences.

If you’re going to be at any of these events and have some intersting stuff to talk about, or you jsut want to get in touch with me to arrange time to have a coffee, then drop me an email (ewanspence at gmail dot com) and I’ll sort out it. I’m more than happy to fill the diary chock full to meet as many people as possible! Plus there are still sponsorship opportunites to reach a huge number of listeners - email me if you want a rate card.

Comments

3 Responses to “Sometimes The Gamble Pays Off - America Here I Come”

Jim Hughes on February 15th, 2006 14:23

Take some throat/cough sweets, that a lot of talking to do in March.

Have fun!
Martin Little on February 15th, 2006 15:07

Dude, you’re hardcore. There is nothing else to say.
» Ewan Spence; a Scotsman abroad on February 18th, 2006 9:42

[…] Edinburgh blogger, podcaster and kilt wearing puppet carrier Ewan Spence is gearing himself up for the best part of a month in the land of shotgun-toting Vice Presidents. Read about his trip here. […]