This past weekend (3/17-18/07) I attended the first Atlanta PodCamp which was held at Emory University Miller-Ward House, a really cool venue to say the least. I can’t say enough about the quality of this event. The venue, sessions, food, everything was first class. Thanks to Penny Haynes and Amber Rhea for the outstanding job they did organizing and managing everything. And thanks to all of the sponsors who obviously contributed generously because the food was incredible.

I learned everything I need to know about how to produce and deploy a podcast. Plus I met many members of Atlanta’s very interesting podcasting community.

The basic process of creating and publishing a podcast is much simpler than I imagined prior to attending PodCamp. First in order to record a podcast all you need is a computer and an inexpensive USB mic. Logitech 250/350 USB mics were recommended by several speakers…price around $40. Second you need audio editing software. The most often recommended package is an open source application, Audacity, which can be freely downloaded from Sourceforge. Another good editing package (also free) called Wavepad can be downloaded at http://digital businessbooks.com. Finally you need a place to host your edited podcast. The easiest hosting site is Libsyn.com. To market your podcast a good resource is FeedBurner and you must get your podcast registered at ITunes. One last hint you will need Lame Codec in order to save your audio from Audacity to MP3 format. Lame Codec is freely available from Sourceforge. That’s everything you need to get started podcasting. Really a very inexpensive low barrier to entry endeavor…the most important secret to success is the content…which is totally up to you.

I plan to buy a mic and try my first podcast soon. I’ll post it when I do.

Looking forward to the next Atlanta Podcamp.

More Podcast Links:
Georgia Podcast Network
iProng
Listenshare
TalkShoe