Two Words: "Open Bar."

The first day of PodCamp was a success on several levels.

For the tech people, there was a wealth of information. There's no way you could be here for 45 minutes and NOT improve your podcast. From an artistic, organizational or tech standpoint, everyone has tips and is willing to share them.

For the schmoozers, this has been an orgy of meet-and-greeting. I have more business cards in my suitcase now than I would have gathered in a year of schmoozing otherwise. Everyone here LOVES to podcast and LOVES to make their (and your) podcast better. I sense no sabotage, no bitterness, no dismissiveness from peer to peer because, hey, we're all in this together and you might know something I don't, so... let's talk.

And, of course, for the alcoholics, there was an open bar last night, courtesy of Jeff Pulver.

Full disclosure: I accidentally arranged that open bar.

On Thursday afternoon, Erik Schark sent out press releases to a few blogs, including Jeff Pulver's. Jeff contacted Erik back and invited him to a conference in Boston next week (VON - Video on the Net). Erik forwarded that email to me, I emailed Jeff and said I was already coming to Boston for PodCamp, and then I put Jeff in touch with Chris Brogan, one of the PodCamp organizers.

Suddenly, Chris and I were invited to VON -- a $2,000 ticket -- for free.

Jeff said he'd be in Boston on Saturday evening. Chris invited him to drink with us at Grand Canal. Jeff took him up on the offer and then trumped it by opening the bar to PodCamp attendees.

Suddenly, 200 geeks were drinking A LOT.

My favorite moment: a party bus pulled up outside the bar midway through the night. Out poured a gaggle of (attractive) women who flooded the place -- either a birthday or bachelorette party, I wasn't sure.

"Jeff," I say,"there's a bachelorette party coming in here. This bar should not be open."

"Wait," says Jeff, looking around. "Is it a bachelor party or a bachelorette party?"

"Bachelorette," I say.

"Keep it open," says Jeff. "Let's see what happens."

** More information, links, etc., as I regain my sanity. **

(For pics of the whole event, check out Steve Garfield's blog at Flickr.)