General

• What is PodCamp Toronto?

  Pod­Camp Toronto is Canada’s largest free gath­er­ing of cre­ative, tech, and dig­i­tal pro­fes­sion­als. We wel­come a diverse group of par­tic­i­pants to share knowl­edge, learn from each other, and work towards making our­selves and our com­mu­nity better!

• Is PodCamp Toronto truly free?

  Yes, it is 100% free for all reg­is­tered atten­dees. It’s run entirely by vol­un­teers, and thanks to our gen­er­ous spon­sors that cover our costs, we’re able to present this uncon­fer­ence free of charge.

• Can my company sponsor PodCamp Toronto?

  Absolutely, we would love your sup­port! To enquire, please con­tact us at sponsorship@podcamptoronto.com, or check out our spon­sor­ship pack­age here.

• I heard PodCamp Toronto is an “unconference.” What the heck is that?!

  An uncon­fer­ence is a facil­i­tated, participant-driven event cen­tred on a theme or pur­pose (in this case, pod­cast­ing and var­i­ous forms of dig­i­tal media). Because we’re an uncon­fer­ence, we encour­age our par­tic­i­pants to exer­cise the “Law of Two Feet” (see next Q).

• What is the Law of Two Feet?

  Basically, if you’re in a session (or any situation at all, really) where you feel like you’re neither learning nor contributing (or could be learning or contributing more somewhere else), you’re always at liberty to get up and go.

  If you’re a presenter, it’s important to keep this rule in mind; attendants can and will come and go as they please and it’s not (usually) meant as an insult!

• When is PodCamp Toronto?

  Pod­Camp Toronto will run from 8:00am to 6:00pm on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 23 and 9:00am to 6:00pm on Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 24

• Where is PodCamp Toronto taking place?

  Our event takes over the halls of the Rogers Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Cen­tre at Ryer­son Uni­ver­sity. The build­ing is located at 80 Gould Street, Toronto (between Church and Jarvis/Dundas and Gerrard).

• How can I get to PodCamp Toronto?

  There are sev­eral pub­lic tran­sit options avail­able (please refer to the TTC Trip Plan­ner to deter­mine your route). There are also bicy­cle racks on the premises, and there are sev­eral paid park­ing lots in the area. Just be sure to check the weather in advance and plan accordingly!

• I’ll be coming to PodCamp Toronto by car. Is there parking?

  Park­ing is not pro­vided on-site, though there are sev­eral paid lots and some street park­ing avail­able in the imme­di­ate area. Heated under­ground park­ing is avail­able directly across Gould Street under­neath the Metro gro­cery store. To access it, come north from Dun­das up Dal­housie Street (it’s a one way) and the entrance to the garage will be on your right just before you get to Gould.

Social Events

• Is there an after-party for PodCamp Toronto?

  Yes, and all attendees are encouraged join us to network, chat and compare notes from the first day!

  Where: Pacific Junction Hotel 234 – King St E Toronto, On M5A 1K2 Canada
  When: Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 23th (around 6pm or whenever you can join us!)

• Is the party free?

  Thanks to the gen­eros­ity of our spon­sors, the party is free. Food will be pro­vided but is first-come first-served, so be sure to get there early and stay all night! A drink ticket will also be pro­vide for all par­tic­i­pants upon arrival and a cash bar is available.

Speaking

• When is the deadline for submitting sessions?

  Friday, February 1

• When will the schedule be published?

  Monday, February 4

• What kind of sessions are you looking for?

  Please take a look at our Ses­sion Guide for ses­sion types, top­ics, and skill levels. It’s not all about podcasting!

• How do you decide on the final schedule?

  Though final con­sid­er­a­tion is maintained by the Pod­Camp Toronto orga­niz­ing team, we do con­sider the demand for each ses­sion when planning the schedule. We can gauge demand by seeing how many attendees have bookmarked your session. Hint: getting your proposal in early increases the chances of your session getting noticed and bookmarked!

• Can I choose to present on one day over the other?

  Due to the high demand for ses­sions, we can­not guar­an­tee a spe­cific day or time to any speaker. If apply­ing to present at Pod­Camp Toronto, please ensure you’re avail­able to attend both days of the event.

• How do I build my own schedule?

  You can reg­is­ter to build your own per­sonal sched­ule on our Ses­sions page. You’ll see a star next to each ses­sion that has been approved. Please click the star to add ses­sions you’re inter­est­ing in see­ing at Pod­Camp Toronto to your own per­sonal schedule.

• How long are sessions?

  45 min­utes, includ­ing Q&A (if the presenter allows time for it).

  If you’re presenting, vol­un­teers will let you know when you are approach­ing your time limit. We are com­mit­ted to a strict sched­ule, so we thank you in advance for sticking to the schedule. All presenters get the same amount of time, so please don’t cut into anyone else’s!

• What are speakers required to bring?

  Please bring your lap­top and any acces­sories you’d need to hook it up to an HDMI pro­jec­tor. All rooms at Rogers Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Cen­tre are equipped with an HDMI projector/television. We will have a cou­ple adapters on hand, but we can’t ensure one for every presenter.

• Who can present at PodCamp Toronto?

  We wel­come sub­mis­sions from every­one!

  To submit a session idea, please fill out the this form.

• What if I’ve never presented at PodCamp Toronto before?

  Great! The more variety and voices we hear from year to year, the better!

  If you’re feeling unsure, have a read through our Speakers Guide. Hopefully it’ll help you formulate your session idea. Still have questions? Feel free to email our Programming Lead at programming@podcamptoronto.com.

Sponsorship

• Can my company sponsor PodCamp Toronto?

  Absolutely, we would love your sup­port! To enquire, please con­tact us at sponsorship@podcamptoronto.com, or check out our spon­sor­ship pack­age here.

Volunteer

• What kind of volunteer opportunities are there at PodCamp Toronto?

  Pod­Camp Toronto is entirely volunteer driven! We always need enthu­si­as­tic vol­un­teers in a range of areas:
  looking after the reg­is­tra­tion desk, room host­ing and greet­ing atten­dees at our tra­di­tional Sat­ur­day night social. Many pre­vi­ous vol­un­teers have even ended up joining our core orga­niz­ing team! For more details, please con­tact our Vol­un­teer Coor­di­na­tor Samuel at volunteers@podcamptoronto.com.

• Is there a time commitment?

  We don’t have any spe­cific require­ments: sim­ply when­ever you have time! Whether it’s all week­end, one day or one after­noon, any time you can devote would be amazing!

• What do I get out of volunteering?

  What don’t you get?! You’ll be part of Toronto’s coolest dig­i­tal media com­mu­nity, attend some great ses­sions and meet awe­some peo­ple. We make sure vol­un­teers have the oppor­tu­nity to attend sessions and get the most out of it for them­selves too!

  There’s also the oppor­tu­nity to net­work with mar­keters, com­mu­nity man­agers, pod­cast­ers and more. And of course, you’ll get a fine addi­tion to your resume and we’ll most likely be happy to give you a reference!

• OK, great. I want to volunteer at PodCamp Toronto. How can I get involved?!

  We would love to have your sup­port at the event. Shoot an email to our vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor Sam at volunteers@podcamptoronto.com and he’ll get in touch!