Josh Sager Media: Creative Technologies Blog

Tomorrow evening kicks off one of Pittsburgh’s biggest technology weekends of the summer. Starting with the Adobe onAir Bus tour Friday night and Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 Friday - Sunday.

The onAir Event is in the Strip and starts at 6:00pm with a keynote from Mike Chambers. The entire evening will be a show and tell for Air application development with Flash, Flex, HTML, and Javascript. Air, one of many new developments to come from Adobe Labs, is a great way to leverage desktop level application features using web technologies. I for one am very excited to have an opportunity to take part in this event. Air approaches web application development from a different perspective. Which will open the door for far more creative and rich desktop level applications.

Make sure to register for the event so the Adobe guys know how much beer and red bull to bring.

Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 is the other big technology event going on this weekend. This years Podcaster Unconference will be at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and already has about 200 registrants. If by chance you have yet to register, go to the Podcamp Pittsburgh website or register at the front tables when you get there.

As usual the 2 days are jam packed with quality sessions from New Media experts coming from all across the country. These internet evangelists are leading the charge to build stronger communities and creatively monetize while educating the masses along the way.

If you have ever thought about creating a blog, podcast, or videocast this is the event for you. If you’re currently creating any of the aforementioned media and want to learn tips, tricks, short cuts, and techniques to improve then this event is for you. If you like Free Hugs… well you get the picture.

Bringing the community together in person for events like these help to start or create new conversations that go far beyond technical issues. It humanizes what we do as we meet the people behind some of the coolest and creative technologies and content on the web. Putting a face to the url name if you will. There is value behind the tangible exchange of concepts, goals, and wisdom. You too can be apart of this exchange and it starts this weekend. I look forward to seeing you there.

Last Friday Pittsburgh was named the most livable city for the 2nd time by Places Rated Almanac. We are the only city to have ever earned the title more than once. Quite an honor for our city.

Typically I would have shrugged my shoulders, made some sort of cynical comment about the recognition and then moved on with my life. But I can’t help but feel pride and excitement about the kudos from non-Pittsburgh media. Over that last 8 months I’ve been apart of a creative community heavily involved in the creative arts and technology scene responsible for podcamp, doughnuts and art, bootcamp, the 24 hour creative marathon, creative treehouse, internet web video, online novels, interactive podcasts, traditional art, etc, etc, etc…

I’m witnessing the rise and excitement of our community first hand. With every event I meet more people who then get involved and pass the energy building momentum for the next meeting, the next event, and things to come. A collective passion is forming into a contagious stimulated community that is empowered to share their skills and imagination with the rest of our region. As this continues to snowball others are taking notice. Pittsburgh was just recently featured in an Associated Press article that was picked up by CNN.com.

The national media is now taking notice of this creatively inspired activity. This is a “Very Big Deal”!

Keep the fire burning, get involved, and make some noise in your community. We did so can you.