PodCamp Midwest is coming up next weekend, February 16, 2008, in the Kansas City metro suburb of Overland Park, Kansas.

The PodCamp gatherings, organized by podcasting volunteers around the world, are new media community unconferences. Attendees/ participants set the agenda and self-organize sessions on topics of their choosing. Since the first PodCamp Boston in September 2006, dozens of these unconferences have been organized around the world, with attendance ranging from a few dozen in Copenhagen to hundreds of participants in New York and Boston.

Yesterday, we caught up with PodCamp Midwest co-organizer, Rob Walch, to find out more about the PodCamp in our old hometown. Rob said:

“We are trying something a little different with this PodCamp. This PodCamp is co-sponsored by the KU School of Journalism. It is nice to see one of the top journalism schools in the nation take an active interest in podcasting.

“As far as planned presentations go – John Ong will lead one on How to Podcast using Garageband. There is also a Basic and Advanced session on Podcasting with WordPress and others – We are still looking for more people to sign up to do presentations.

“We’ve organized it into 4 subject-area “tracks”:
1. Podcasting How to’s
2. Education and Journalism issues with regards to Podcasting
3. Misc – open track anything goes.
4. Group discussions – in the spirit of Bar Camp – you enter the room –
you are part of the conversation. No presentations in this track – just discussions.”

All are welcome to register for PodCamp, whether you are an experienced blogger, podcaster, video producer, or just interested in finding out more about creating or enjoying podcasts and new media.

We’ll be at PodCamp Midwest. If you are going to be there, or if you want to set up a time to talk about your particular podcast or new media project please let us know.