Over the weekend I helped organize LaidOffCamp NY, an event where people rallied around "doing it ourselves", drawing expertise from all over and pooling it together. In ultra light conferences (and most others), the richest resource is the group of people attending. Expertise is everywhere. The trick is pulling it together.
NPR ran a story yesterday that shows how Mark Johnson tapped expertise from all over. Instead of bringing musicians to the studio, he brought the studio to musicians. From Roger Ridley who played on the streets of Santa Monica, to Grandpa Elliot on the streets of New Orleans, to a tribe of Zuni Indians, Johnson enabled them to collaborate on the same songs remotely, on-site, by bringing all of the tracks and tools to them.
The result is a collection that's stirring not only for the way music can bring people together, but also for how it was made -- connecting experts and their voices in ways they likely would never have done themselves.