A Podcasters Review Of Podcon - The Podcast Report

In 2010, I attended a little conference called Vidcon. The purpose was to bring content producers and audiences together. I went and was blown away. One of my first thoughts was when is PodCon going to happen. PodCon happened last year in December of 2017. 

I was a sponsor, and there was a great crowdfunding campaign. I wanted to be there, but something came up and I couldn't make it. Fortunately, Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting was there, and he is here today to share his review of PodCon. His review is insightful and encouraging. It is about the business of podcasting as well as the growth of podcasting.   

Tip of the Week: 

The world of connected speakers is exciting with so many big companies in the game or coming to the game. Podcasters want their shows available on these speakers, but do you have a title that is easy to say. Do you have a title for your podcast that doesn't sound like similar podcasts? The better the chance that the smart speaker can hear and understand what your podcast is, the better the chance that your customer will find you.  

A Podcasters Review Of PodCon with Dave Jackson: 

• [03:17] I have known and loved Dave Jackson forever. This month I was supposed to go to PodCon, but wasn't able to attend. Fortunately, Dave Jackson went and is here to give his review of the event. 
• [05:27] Dave encountered his first cosplay. Floors upon floors of people in costumes from elves ears to knights in shining tin foil. 
• [06:20] Fiction podcasts were a whole new world for Dave. This is a super tight knit community that Dave wasn't a part of. There were probably a thousand people (according to Dave's estimate) in the room.  
• [07:53] How there were hundreds of people in costume. Cosplay is an eye opening world of podcasting that Dave wasn't familiar with.  
• [09:13] The cosplay people were very creative there was an area where you could draw on a wall and another area where you could play a board game of some type. There also had to be a raffle for a meet and greet because it was so popular.  
• [10:56] How the scope of podcasting is so much bigger than we thought it was.  
• [12:25] There were a lot of young people who were really into these shows, and there were a lot of females in the group. Dave was impressed with open, tight-knit, and creative these people were.  
• [14:14] Dave quit asking if they were podcasters and started asking if they were content creators.  
• [15:03] The original podcasters wanted to sound like the radio. The new podcasters are about stories and taking it into another new area that we haven't thought about.  
• [15:44] Dave is super excited, because if he found this one community there is probably another community he hasn't discovered.This creates more potential content creators and listeners, and we need more listeners to stay in scale with the amount of podcasts created. 
• [17:29] People were excited about and talking about the McElroys and Welcome to Night Vale. These people were treated like rock stars when they were announced.  
• [20:09] Is this an event that business podcasters would go to? There were a couple of business podcasts like a podcasting 101 course, but they recommended SoundCloud and a Blue Yeti Microphone. Their monetization mostly focused on Patreon. This group wasn't business people.  
• [22:22] The event was probably like a Lollapalooza. Maybe there won't be giant conventions for everyone, instead their will be smaller niche events.  
• [23:17] Tom Merritt's Patreon page. He does the Daily Tech News Show and generates $240,000 a year on Patreon. 
• [24:30] Dave would recommend that LibSyn goes next year. There were maybe 400 people in the how to podcast class. There were enough curious people that it wold be worth going to.  
• [25:22] This was a niche podcast event with hype, excitement, and power. Paul missed this because he went to a fundraiser for Alice Cooper and was in a room with a bunch of rock stars.  
• [26:30] PodCon was really well run, and the growth will be interesting to see. It's up to them to keep it niche or make it more about podcasting.  
• [28:09] How Paul has so much respect for the Green brothers. He is definitely going to try and attend next year.  
• [29:28] The more people are talking about podcasts, the more the industry grows. We are all in the business of creating content to inspire our audience.  

Links and Resources: 

• Podcast App Worksheet 
• The School of Podcasting 
• VidCon 
• PodCon 
• LibSyn 
• New Media Expo 
• Podfest 
• Dragoncon 
• Comic Con 
• Cosplay 
• McElroy Shows 
• Welcome to Night Vale 
• Hank Green 
• SoundCloud  
• Patreon 
• Tom Merritt Patreon Page 
• Social Media Marketing World 
• Podcast Movement 

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