What's the deal with Adam Curry and Tim Bourquin? I just read the Wired article about a feud between the two over the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. Curry is even threatening to do an un-expo event at a nearby hotel.

All of this is so common when events like the Portable Media Expo take a life of their own. The first ever podcasting trade show is expecting more than 2,500 people from 22 countries. It's grown beyond Tim's expectations.

Curry's flaming the trail to the expo with overtures by his spokesman of outright extortion. That's pretty heavy stuff. What it comes down to is Curry's huge presence in the podcasting wold and Bourquin's work to attract sponsors. Curry is not expected to speak at the conference. His company, Podshow.com , is not sponsoring the event.

From Wired:

Although Curry plans to attend the show, he has declined to speak at it or sponsor it. And now he is threatening to hold an impromptu "un-expo" at a nearby hotel, where podcasters may be invited to discuss potential promotional deals with his company, PodShow.com, Curry spokesman Aaron Burcell told Wired News on Tuesday.

"They've been trying to back us into a huge sponsorship by saying we're not supportive of the expo, that we're this and that," Burcell said. "But we have a lot of podcasters who are part of the Portable Media Expo and we've been very supportive. It's not wise to try to extort the company that's been most supportive of the podcasting community."

Burcell accused convention organizer Tim Bourquin of retaliating against Curry for refusing to sponsor the trade show or to speak at it. He also alleged that Bourquin had been bad-mouthing Curry and his company to podcasters who belong to a PodShow stable of talent known as the Pod Squad.

These are forces at play. You have the power of Podshow and Curry's Pod Squad. On the other hand, you have the massive popularity of podcasting and the excellent work Tim has done to put together an event that is drawing international attention.

Curry is popular but he's not a king. He calls himself the "podfather," which can be interpreted as symbolic representation of a mix between organized crime and the Catholic church, which I am still trying to grasp in its meaning and symbolism. But that's for another day.

Bourquin, for his part, is attracting sponsors to participate in an event. This is how he makes money. But the problem is that sometimes the efforts to get quality speakers is clouded by the need to give sponsors their own speaker slots. That's a problem at most conferences. It's a big reason why Dave Winer first organized Bloggercon with the mandate that sponsors were not invited to the game. What results out of all this is a new breed of get togethers that spring up around large events and also form indpendently. BarCamp emerged as an alternative to FooCamp, Tim O'Reilly's annual get together. Other unconferences have emerged, including TagCamp and the most recent Mind Camp.

It's a big game, really. But all in all, the Podcast Expo looks great. And no matter what, this is going to be a conference to remember. And as usual, the side shows will be great entertainment.