I recently attended the 2nd Annual Podcast & Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California from 9/29-30. For the aspiring podcaster, it was a great experience to interact with like-minded people. Estimated attendance was 3,000, which was twice as large as in 2005. Coming from the Midwest, it was heavily attended by podcasters from the West Coast. I only ran into one other person from Minnesota.
My sense was that the attendees fell into four camps. First were hobby podcasters (50%). These were people who were podcasting simply for the love of the sport. Second were more mature podcasters (30%) that have been broadcasting for 6-12 months and were exploring was to grow their listenership and attract advertisers. Third, were consultants (15%) trying to offer podcasting services to businesses. Fourth, were corporations (5%) already podcasting or looking at how it can be utilized by their business.
The presenters were a mixed bag. A few that I attended really stood out. Michael Georghegan of GigaVox Media and GrapeRadio.com spoke on Creating Your Own Podcast or Advertise on an Existing Show and Paul Colligan, co-author of the book Business Podcasting Bible, spoke on Seven Proven Strategies to Monetize Your Podcast in 30 Days or Less.
I’ll comment on other things I learned in upcoming entries.
