P-Camp 2010

A day at Silicon Valley P-Camp…very refreshing.

P-Camp is a free information-exchange event for product managers. This year's event was held at Yahoo headquarters in Silicon Valley. There were many hundreds of PMs there…kind of a scary thing, when you think about it. I can't imagine that more product managers have ever been packed into one room.

The beauty of this event is that it exists for everyone's benefit. The attitude is that if we all get better at what we do, then it's good for all. Never mind that there were many competitors there - in a way, we're all in this together. Product management is hard, so we might as well learn all we can from each other. It works.

Oh, and it's free.

P-Camp features class-type sessions that are chosen by the attendees. People propose sessions online, and attendees vote on which ones they want. The winners are given one-hour time slots, with 6-8 sessions at once. Topics ranged widely, from" PM Productivity" to "How Agile Changes PM Processes" to "Why would anyone want to hire YOU?". Every session I attended was useful - some were practical, others mind-opening.

It's free because organizations like SVPMA, Pragmatic Marketing, 280 Group and ZigZag Marketing have an enlightened self interest in promoting product management excellence, and have donated money to support this. Yet there is remarkably little self-promotion. It's about the community of product managers, and they really get it.

I'm already looking forward to next year. I recommend P-Camp to anyone who is involved in any aspect of product management. Not going seems unthinkable.

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