Archive for the 'Podcasting Events' Category

Podcasters Across Borders, a Canadian podcasting unconference, has announced its schedule for the 2008 event, being held June 20-22 in Kingston, Ontario:

Friday, June 20, 2008

• 1:00pm Video production workshop (Bob Goyetche and Mark Blevis)
• 2:00pm Social (Media) Science (Dave Brodbeck)
• 3:00pm Community: Why It���s the ONLY thing that matters (Whitney Hoffman)
• 7:30pm PAB2008 Kick-off (Bob Goyetche and Mark Blevis)

Saturday, June 21, 2008

• 9:00am Private in Public: An actor���s approach to podcasting (Tim Coyne)
• 10:00am Creating Audiodrama (Sage Tyrtle)
• 11:00am M?�nage a Trois: Forums, podcasts and community (Marko Kulik)
• 1:00pm Feeding the Hungry by Feeding Google: A case study (Michelle Sullivan)
• 2:00pm Learning from The Beatles (Sylvain Grand���maison)
• 3:00pm Hosting Secrets From the Book of Tod (Tod Maffin)
• 4:00pm What Are the Limits? (John Meadows and Scarborough Dude)

Sunday, June 22, 2008

• 9:00am Time, Space, Media, Messages and Your Podcast (Jay Moonah)
• 10:00am What Public Broadcasters Can Learn from Podcasters, and Vice-Versa (Dan Misener and Nora Young)
• 11:00am Good Hosting: We���re not talking about your Internet Provider (Jack Ward)
• 11:40am You Shall Know Us By Our Velocity: Making sense of it all (Neil Gorman)

Details are available at the PAB site.

Sessions from last fall’s Podcast and New Media Expo (PNME) continue to be released via Gigavox Media’s Podcast Academy site. The latest session is of interest to any podcaster who wants or needs to include music in their episodes. “Music Licensing for Podcasts and New Media” covers a lot of ground in under an hour. (And I can’t stress strongly enough how important it is to at least listen and consider some of the issues brought up in this podcast.)

Panelists include Personal Life Media’s Tim Bratton (formerly of the Rhapsody music service), podcaster and attorney Colette Vogele (co author of the Creative Commons’ Podcasting Legal Guide), Kevin Arnold (also formerly of Rhapsody, presently IODA/Promonet), and (Peermusic) Jonathan Kehl.

The discussion begins with a basic explanation of the four different types of music licensing rights (performance, mechanical, master use, synchronization rights) and defines copyright and legal terms podcasters should know and understand. Colette Vogele gives a sobering view of what can happen if you don’t “play” by the copyright rules. Podsafe and indie music alternatives are discussed, as well.

The audio of the session is available here.

Podcaster and author Leesa Barnes is organizing a virtual Social Media Telesummit, with sessions taking place February 20 - 29. Dozens of talks are being presented throughout the Summit, by such podcasting and new media figures as Paul Colligan, The Engaging Brand’s Anna Farmery from the UK, Australian government science video podcaster Kylie Johnson, and virtual podcast event organizer Penny Haynes.

Barnes’ book, Podcasting for Profit, published last fall, is an overview of business podcasting: who should consider creating a podcast, how to do it, and how to use the podcast to build your profitable business.
I caught up with Leesa earlier today, to find out more about the event.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about what will be going on.

Leesa Barnes: It is an eight-day virtual event that’s geared to teach business owners and business leaders how to use social media as a business tool. I am finding that many people think that Facebook and MySpace and blogs and podcasts are simply just a way to find old classmates, or swap songs and recipes, but all of these media can be effective sales tools. As a virtual event, even if you aren’t there at the live Summit session, you can gain access to the recordings later on.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: What inspired you to create this event?

Leesa Barnes: I’ve been to a lot of events in the past couple years, and spent a lot to travel to conferences. There are so many more things I’d like to attend, but for a variety of reasons, can’t be there in person every time. I realized this is the case for many of us. I wanted to give participants the opportunity to participate and hear cutting edge sm information, regardless of their location and ability to travel. This is targeted at the small businessperson who is interested in social media as something other than a playground, but doesn’t have a big marketing budget.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about the subject matter. Looks like there are a lot of sessions over the next week.

Leesa Barnes: The Summit is going to introduce people to 4 things: How to find new clients, how to make money, how to create a personal brand, and how to create an ideal lifestyle. Some of the topics include using video marketing to attract clients; using SecondLife to build business; Paul Colligan is giving a talk on five ways to sell content you once gave away for free; Scott Allen has a session on how to price, position, and promote your social media services.

People can choose different levels of participation. The cheapest option is $197 and gives people access to the session handouts, live sessions and recordings, but streaming only. Other options get you sessions delivered afterward on your choice of CD or on a pre-loaded mp3 player and greater access to the content and presenters during and after the Summit.

Rob Walch, co-organizer of PodCamp Midwest, facilitated a group discussion on “Promoting Your Podcast.”

About twenty participants discussed inexpensive & effective ideas for self-promotion, including:

1. create a cool podcast name
2. you need good 300 x 300 “album” artwork
3. business cards - with white on back for writing notes
4. drop lifting
5. interview bloggers in your subject area
6. be interviewed by other podcasters and bloggers in your subject area
7. search for conversations about you, about your subject area
8. promos - make them for others, ask others to share theirs w/you
9. befriend teenagers (treat them like adults, and they’ll be loyal forever)
10. play feedback from listeners on your show

Ed Roberts (photo, right), KC Weather Podcast, and music podcast, Looking Out The Window, led a PodCamp Midwest session called “Join the Conversation: (Ed Roberts is not the guy who invented the Altair computer, nor the guy who founded the disability movement and caused wheelchair-accessible parking spaces to be made availalbe)

The New Media Triangle (barriers to entry for media) Production/Distribution/Marketing. We’re breaking down those barriers - production via our inexpensive computers. Distribution: we have the Internet. Marketing: people can do word of mouth promotion.

Engaging people is what it’s all about: (cool video “Free Hugs” guy)

Lessons about conversation: People have ben reluctant to step out and communicate, folks don’t even know their close neighbors. But, once one person begins to engage others, more people feel less hesitant to join in. People become willing to champion your conversation, your agenda.

Getting involved in the conversation has benefits beyond just your own issue or program.

“Google is your friend” - do ego-surfing to see where people are talking about you (Google yourself). Find conversations already happening about your topic. Join in. Google Alerts will come and bring those mentions and conversations to you. Google Analytics can show you statistics for traffic and who is visiting your website.

“Social Media is your friend” Use Twitter to engage people in conversation- search Twitter, and other social networking, social media sites, to find other people with similar interests, and engage with them.

“RSS is your friend :)” - Technorati, a blog aggregator, can track changes in feeds around the world, and you can subscribe to that search, and feed it into your feed reader. Tweetscan.com can also do this. EveryZing.com used to be called PodZinger and searches audio files which it has indexed. (demonstrated using a search of “Ed Roberts” - search yielded his last 2 weather podcasts, and a mention on CC Chapman’s Accident Hash. Very cool.).

So many ways to find where and how people are talking on the Internet. But we need to be cognizant of living in the fishbowl, only talking to other people in your little insular circle of friends. Be sure to look at communities outside your online bubble, outside your echo chamber.

Include listeners’ comments and voicemails *in* your show, and that encourages people to interact with the show, and with you, contributing ideas and content.

While Rob Walch gave a Podcasting 101 session in the big auditorium, at today’s PodCamp Midwest, Brady Goodman (right) presented a session for more seasoned podcasters, “Podcasting Like a Pro.”

He has a longtime background in radio, and decided he’d learn about podcasting, and poker, by creating the “Ante Up” podcast three years ago. It did well and got attention from professional poker players as well as mainstream media. Here’s an unedited nearly-liveblog of the session:
“Whether you’re a podcaster or the BBC, to a listener, the storefront looks the same.”

“Content is key - when you’re doing your podcast, know what you’re going to talk about, you can’t be over-prepared. Feedburner has about 200,000 podcasts, you have to have good stuff to talk about. Be focused.

“Equipment - you can be as fancy or as simple as you want. All you need, at minimum, is the gear that comes with your computer But if you want to sound like a pro, you need to process your audio (either when you create, or after when you edit). You can get a processor for like $80 at Guitar Center.

“For microphones, higher end ones are often XLR, which your computer doesn’t have a jack for. You can get an “mbox” which has xlr inputs and a firewire output to connect to your computer. And that comes with ProTools, which is fantastic.

“You can do interviews - if content is key, having other people talk about their expertise is great, but you’ll need equipment to record phone conversations. One pc of eqip is THAT2, which takes a telephone signal and records it.

“Recording software: Audacity is free, and there are many forums online to learn and talk about editing. ProTools is great editing software.

“Some websites let you create podcasts remotely, like BlogTalkRadio. Skype is an internet phone program you can use for making and recording (with another program) calls. LibSyn is another good place to look for hosting and publishing your podcast.

“Be prepared, don’t waste time with intros if you don’t have to have them.

“Production quality: if your content is good, you want to sound even better. Use music beds, check out CC for good free music. Add interviews, process your audio, normalize it, don’t freak me out with an extra loud noise. Use relevant sound effects and background noise, *if* it’s relevant to the content. As you grow your audience, include them and their input/feedback on the podcast. That will encourage more listeners to also contribute and interact. Consider adding a voicemail system so listeners can leave you a message - which you can add to our podcast.

“Making money with your podcast: sell podcast sponsorships. You don’t have to get a bunch of money outof your podcast, but it’d be nice to pay for your cool new microphone. Trade promos and ads with other podcasters to get more listeners. Offer your podcast as a feature on other websites that are related to your content. PodTrac.com is a big website for podcast advertising.

Just a quick reminder to our midwestern friends that PodCamp Midwest is tomorrow, Saturday, February 16, from 9am - 5 pm at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus, 12600 Quivira Road, in Overland Park. Elisabeth from Podcasting News is planning to attend. If you are coming to PodCamp, please track her down and say hello.

PodCamp is a participant-led, user-generated unconference, in which the attendees set the agenda and lead the sessions. Since the first PodCamp (in Boston in 2006), dozens of PodCamps have been held all over the world, with attendance ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of participants. Topics range from Podcasting 101 to advanced topics of monetization and listener interaction. This PodCamp promises a special focus on podcasting in education, in addition to a wide range of general-interest podcasting sessions.

PodCamp Midwest is coming up next weekend, February 16, 2008, in the Kansas City metro suburb of Overland Park, Kansas.

The PodCamp gatherings, organized by podcasting volunteers around the world, are new media community unconferences. Attendees/ participants set the agenda and self-organize sessions on topics of their choosing. Since the first PodCamp Boston in September 2006, dozens of these unconferences have been organized around the world, with attendance ranging from a few dozen in Copenhagen to hundreds of participants in New York and Boston.

Yesterday, we caught up with PodCamp Midwest co-organizer, Rob Walch, to find out more about the PodCamp in our old hometown. Rob said:

“We are trying something a little different with this PodCamp. This PodCamp is co-sponsored by the KU School of Journalism. It is nice to see one of the top journalism schools in the nation take an active interest in podcasting.

“As far as planned presentations go - John Ong will lead one on How to Podcast using Garageband. There is also a Basic and Advanced session on Podcasting with WordPress and others - We are still looking for more people to sign up to do presentations.

“We’ve organized it into 4 subject-area “tracks”:
1. Podcasting How to’s
2. Education and Journalism issues with regards to Podcasting
3. Misc - open track anything goes.
4. Group discussions - in the spirit of Bar Camp - you enter the room -
you are part of the conversation. No presentations in this track - just discussions.”

All are welcome to register for PodCamp, whether you are an experienced blogger, podcaster, video producer, or just interested in finding out more about creating or enjoying podcasts and new media.

We’ll be at PodCamp Midwest. If you are going to be there, or if you want to set up a time to talk about your particular podcast or new media project please let us know.

The third annual Podcasters Across Borders is still several months away, but podcaster and event co-host Mark Blevis has let us know that early (discounted) registration for PAB2008 will be taking place for one week only, today through Saturday, February 2.

PAB2008 is happening June 20-22, 2008 in Kingston, Ontario (Canada). The cost of registration includes three days of workshops and sessions, social events, lunch, a boat cruise and more. Conference space is limited to 160 participants, but Blevis encourages podcasters to bring their families to Kingston, “a great family-oriented town,” for a vacation. As such, the boat cruise event at PAB is open to PAB families.

The early registration is available this week only, at the rate of CDN$90. For those who miss early registration, regular registration will open on March 15, 2008 at a rate of CDN$125/perso.

Information on the past two years’ conferences is available on the Podcasters Across Borders website. From there, you can view a summary of attendees and speaking sessions. There is also a catalog of (publicly available) recorded sessions from PAB2006 and PAB2007. You can email the conference organizers at podcastersacrossbordersat gmail dot com with any questions.

The Association for Downloadable Media has invited its members to an ADM committee update meeting/conference call being held during this week’s MacWorld. All ADM members are encouraged to participate on the call.

The Association for Downloadable Media is an industry association focused on providing advertising and audience measurement standards for episodic and downloadable media (like podcasts).

Here are the meeting details:

Thursday, January 17 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern

Concurrent in-person locations:
San Francisco
Kiptronic offices
605 Market Street, Suite 1400

New York City
Porter Novelli offices
75 Varick St. (corner of Varick & Canal)
6th Floor

Remote Access through Blog Talk Radio

BlogTalkRadio’s VP John C. Havens will be moderating the call and also bringing up the text chat. Remote participants will be able to enter questions/thoughts via text chat.