Many thanks to all of the very kind people at UGA for hosting my students and many others from various colleges and universities around the southeast. UGA’s Kaye Sweetser (so this is mass communication?) and Karen Russell (Teaching PR) had their students in top form putting on this conference. Also, thanks to Phil Gomes, Erin Caldwell and the many Edelman PR pros that came all the way down to help us all.

I took seven Auburn students and I’m thinking they had a pretty good experience, too.

The UGA students did a wonderful job putting on the project. Didn’t see a glitch or hiccup in the whole day’s events. Congrats!

During the conference, class activities for students were discussed. Podcasting (both video & audio) was one such experiential activity. The video and audio below are examples I created yesterday.

First, the video was recorded with an inexpensive video camera from Flip Video and features UGA PR student Jenny Reid.

Second, there are two audio podcasts using Utterz. I like their easy-to-use podcasting service.

Utterz is a simple free process which allows you to call a number (1-712-432-6666) to make a recording. Your account recognizes your phone number and posts your recording to your account. You may also send videos and photos to your account by emailing them to go@utterz.com.

To see the three examples of podcasts (2 audio, 1 video), check out the rest of the post …

Here is a simple Utterz audio player. They offer different options to embed or link to the audio/video files. This is the interview with UGA student Jenny Reid. Visit Utterz.com to see/hear the audio with video attached. This audio is with UGA student Jenny Reid.

And, finally, this is the Utter with educators and a photo attached.

After all, students out there pitching and working on a campaign … hey, ya’ gotta pitch in and support them.

The Edelman Digital Bootcamp is taking place at UGA on Saturday, March 1, 2008. Details are available here, at their Web page. Lindsey shared that, as of this recording, several non-UGA student slots are still available. Also, several more faculty slots are open. The registration fee is very reasonable and the benefits are, in my opinion, quite worth the trip.

Our own alum, Erin Caldwell, is the lead for this conference – a joint effort between Edelman and UGA’s Grady College. Erin is a Senior Account Executive in the Edelman Washington, D. C. office. We’re quite proud of her.

To get you up to date on the event, here are a couple of good links for you:

• Edelman Digital Bootcamp (EDB) — Agenda & Other Resources
• Blog for the Edelman Digital Bootcamp
• Kaye Sweetser, UGA – so this is mass communication?
• Karen Russell, UGA – Teaching PR
• Twitter / EDB_erin
• Flickr: Photos from edelmandigitalbootcamp

Lindsey was a joy to interview. She’s active in many blogs, just check out her Blogger profile to see them all.

Photo: From a previous project (not the EDB project), Lindsey is pictured above, second from the right. That undergraduate research team included (l-r) Kristen Smith, Amy Chandler, Laura Jakstadt, Rachel Turner, Lindsey Loughman and Heather Wrye. (Source: Grady News)

The interview is below. It is 18.9 mb and runs 19:45.   We’ve upgraded to the latest Podpress software, so … click the Play button below (and a player will appear) or Play in Popup, or download it. Whatever makes ya’ happy.