Productcamp Austin

I attended Productcamp Austin today.  It was a great event.  I learned a lot.  Most of it was pretty high-level.  But I needed that.  I attended discussions outside of my core experience (mostly marketing and product strategy), so high-level was right for me.

It was free for attendees.  So a big thank you goes out to the corporate sponsors:
The AT&T Conference Center
Planview
The 280 Group
Pragmatic Marketing
Lucrum Marketing (headed by a fellow Journyx alum, Tom Evans)
Austin Ventures
MailChimp
Build-a-Sign
Zenoss
ZigZag Marketing
CommonSense

I was especially impressed by a few of the speakers.

Josh Duncan was really fun and engaging.  He is a very good public speaker.  Lots of pictures, jokes, and give-aways.  He had three points, and he gave us a postcard with the three points in napkin-drawing form.  Smart guy.  I've added his blog to my regular read list.

Sharon Drew Morgen was new to the product marketing circuit.  She has been focused on sales training, and she seems to be in the process of adapting her material to suit this market.  Her ideas and insights are quite powerful.  I will be digesting her material for some time to come.  I've added two of her books to my Amazon wishlist.

Jim Foxworthy (President) and many of the Pragmatic Marketing team were there.  Every one I spoke to or heard speak was very knowledgeable.  If you are thinking about a social marketing product management strategy, you should check out this company.  I was able to talk to Jim some, and he certainly seems like someone I would enjoy working with.

Planview bought lunch (yeah!) and held a raffle for an iPad.  I suspect someone who is currently employed will win the iPad, but it was neat to see someone taking this group seriously.

There is an other Productcamp coming in August.  I plan on being there.  I will probably volunteer to help out.  You should come, too, if product management, development, design, or marketing are on your job radar at all.  You can't beat the price.  I've never gotten this level of quality at that price before.