Category: Canada

At the meetup this past Sunday, a thought hit me about podcasting. In its simplicity, podcasts are highly useful in terms of tourism, especially for a majority of us in Vancouver. That doesn’t limit it to those who are anywhere else in the world, but what that small group of us are doing is what makes me think this. A lot of my thoughts here stem from the meetup, so you might find reading that post helpful to get the completely back story.

Take the Vancouver Weekly Underground Podcast, and if that’s a mouthful for you to say, it is to me as well. Let’s examine what they do though. They check out shows at some of the best, underground venues in town. Now, these are acts that don’t get a lot of press, and Dave, for the podcast, equated it to promoting more information about the bands that are listed to be at a certain club, on a certain day and time. So basically, you get a name, and that’s it.

With their podcast, and nearly every other music related podcast out there, they want to give you more about the artist in the hopes that you like them. If you like them, you’ll buy into their music, meaning a ticket to see their show when they play in town. In turn, that artist will be able to pay rent or, more importantly, eat.

Here is where the heart of my idea kicks in. What about that person who listens to or watches your podcast from a thousand miles away? Suddenly, one day, they want to get the hell out of town and go on vacation. Then it hits them. There is this podcast from Vancouver that has been going into all these great venues to see great bands. Said person is going to know where to check out some killer shows while filling Vancouver with their tourist dollars. Screw skiing, they want to rock!

It’s a slight stretch, but that’s just one angle to view it. I know and have met people who ventured up to Vancouver because of Dave Olsen and his Choogle On with Uncleweed. RadioZoom has garnered fans from various parts of the world who are trying or want to visit or move to Vancouver. The Crazy Canucks reaches to hockey fans around the world, so you never know if it’ll be enough to drive them to take a holiday here to catch a game at GM Place. As Dave O would say, we should be getting paid to do Tourism Vancouver‘s job.

When I first heard about a podcast meetup in Vancouver on the Canadian Podcast Buffet, I was pretty interested in checking it out. Then I found out that it was on our anniversary, so the assumption, on my part, was that we were going to miss it. Then Rebecca expressed interest in going, so we decided to venture on down, especially after Mark Blevis offered a free round to the two of us. That’s like dangling a carrot in front of the horse.

You can check out Mark’s pictures here, and Derek’s pictures here.

That’s right. Derek Miller has been recovering well enough from his surgery that he was able to make an appearance. Sadly, he was on pain killers and unable to enjoy in the gallon pitcher of joy, but it was great to have him there.

Photo credit: electricsky (Mark Blevis) on Flickr

It was a really great night. And let me start out by saying that TC Lions is a pretty good location for a meetup like that. And holy crap do they ever have some massive, and I mean massive, pitchers of beer. One gallon jugs, to be precise. That’s 8 pints to one pitcher. We had to send the second one back when Blevis realized exactly what he just ordered for the whole crew. (Side note: I asked if they show Canucks games there on the TV’s, so this might be another location for us to catch a game.)

We did end up having the house lights turn on to shoe us out of there, but I think it’s safe to say that everyone there was having a good time. I pray that my jaw wasn’t that loose to talk people’s ears off, especially when it comes to podcasting.

Now, to recall all of those that I met at this meet up is a daunting task. I know for sure that we met the guys from Foreskin Radio. A true treat, let me tell you, but the content is not for the weak.

Photo credit: penmachine (Derek Miller) on Flickr

And then Jeff from Swimming Up Stream was there with his recording gear, and I think he caught some good liners that you might even hear my voice on his podcast, as long as it turned out alright. Jeff’s got some good, local music from Vancouver, so I give him a hearty thumbs up.

I pretty much monopolized my time with Dave from the Vancouver Weekly Underground Podcast. He’s more of the silent partner to the podcast, but they are doing some good things with their stuff. In fact, we met at the podcast meetup nearly a year ago that Tod Maffin setup. I always find it fascinating to discover more about the local music scene, and this implies the nitty-gritty realms of it. They seem to be on top of it pretty well.

I’ll make a quick mention of some folks who I met but didn’t get much of a chance to talk to at length, of which I apologize. Tiki Bar TV and Far From Subtle Television are some of those folks, but after seeing your stuff, I wish I had. Sean Carruthers from Lab Rats was there as well, and we talked briefly. It wasn’t till we were leaving that I realized who he was and what he’s involved with. Very cool.

Even though we had about 75% turn out from those who signed up(where were Tod Maffin and Kris Krug?), it turned out really well. I don’t think I babbled on too much, and Derek spilled pico de gallo all over my right shoe(cleaned up easily, no worries). All in all, a great time. We have to do this again soon, but let’s not wait for some guy from Ontario to spark another gathering, no offense to Mark Blevis at all. A pleasure meeting him, and he’s a really great guy. However, I think the podcasters of Vancouver should do this more often. (Did I just volunteer myself for something?)

As a regular listener to the Canadian Podcast Buffet, I was excited to hear that Mark Blevis was coming out to Vancouver on a business trip and wanted to conduct a meetup with fellow podcasters. This will be happening at TC Lions Pub on February 25, 2007 at 8:00 PM, in downtown Vancouver. Mark asks that you RSVP for the event at Upcoming.org.

As I mentioned in my post about NorthernVoice, that is the same day as my first year anniversary, so I doubt I will be able to make it. We’ll probably be pretty sauced by then.

Update: Change of plans. We’re in.