It’s the largest podcast conference to hit the UK since 2020.
Members of the podcasting industry from all across the map joined The Podcast Show for a two-day action-packed conference at the Business Design Centre in London, England. It was bustling with a sea of people attending sessions and engaging with exhibitors. This conference surged with energy and offered unique opportunities to engage with this booming market.
From networking to equipment offers, The Podcast Show had everything needed to inform the newbies and excite those already heavily steeped in the podcasting world. It was a plethora of content and competitors in the industry along with top contenders in the space including Amazon Music, YouTube, Spotify, Sony Music, and many more.
The Resonate team crossed the pond to attend The Podcast Show all the way from Louisville, Kentucky. Our team is here to share the highlights and lessons learned from the international event. As an added bonus, we’ve included a brief step-by-step guide on how to navigate a conference as content-heavy as this. Let’s dive in.
The sessions
Sessions expanded on the opportunity that podcasts allow for more diversity, inclusivity, underrepresented talent, and super niche topics. All bases were covered; from content creation, marketing, and launch strategies, along with to recording and equipment recommendations. Below are a few highlights from a few sessions that we attended:
Revealing the Podcast Advertising Market
Attending events like these is a great way to learn how to grow your podcast audience. Everyone starts somewhere, but learning how to reach a global market is every podcaster’s dream.
Industry giants Amazon Music and Wondery discussed how they create engaging content at a local level to reach listeners at a global level. By reaching out to members of your target audience within local boundaries, you can better cater to their interests and convert them to listeners. Specificity in each location is key. The podcast advertising market was a popular topic, especially by mega brands Spotify, Buzzsprout, Adswizz, Dont Skip Media, Saturn Returns, Libysn, and others alike.
Podcasts for Purpose and Storytelling with Meta, Puffin and Good Energy
Tom Austin, Ian McKee, and Hannah Russell taught podcasters how to “sweat the content” to create purposeful storytelling and a well-thought-out season for shows. The biggest lesson here is one we promote to all podcasters: Measuring success from content doesn’t just come from download numbers. Taking a look at listener engagement via social media deems it highest as one of the best marketing tools to measure success and promote content. By personalizing your engagement through quality content, you’ll keep listeners for longer.
Fresh Air Production: Meet the Creator Brands
Fresh Air Productions discussed the opportunity to partner with brands for a more successful series. Essentially, the importance of a brand partnership comes down to the intricacy of the content of your podcast. Intricate and complicated content without a brand partnership would be much more difficult to create engaging content. With that in mind, podcasters can gauge based on the complexity of their value if a brand partnership is right for them.
How to market your podcast to Generation Z
Our very own Brand Manager Isabella Maxey delivered a session on how podcasters can best target Gen Z by creating authentic content. Fun fact from the presentation: Generation Z gets most of their news and political content via social media and podcasts. It was no surprise that politics are heavily saturated in the podcast market, which was unpacked during another session with Grace Blakeley and Dane Baptise hosted by Mehreen Baig in The Role Podcasting Plays in Politics.
Facing the Music: Why Is It So Hard to Use Music in Podcasts
Alexia Bedat of Klaris, Ian Wheeler of The Talkhouse, and Melissa Locker of Nevermind Media discussed the importance of music in storytelling and how difficult it is to license music for podcasts. A change is needed for the infrastructure to reflect what podcasts are and how creators can properly give credit and monetary value to musicians that go beyond the Fair Use Act and a demand to restructure the Copyright Act.
Tech announcements
Exciting tech announcements included Resonate’s very own sister company, Resound.fm. The new company recently launched its beta version of an A.I. podcast editing tool that will automatically take out filler words, therefore cutting editing time in half. You may be wondering, What are filler words? Try out Resound by clicking Here and read more about The Future of Podcasting.
Nomono, a Norwegian company launches the first ever sound capsule, a wireless recording kit that allows for spatial recording with up to 4 speakers along with a cloud-based Nomono web app where all files are stored and allowed for easy editing. Sign up for the waiting list: Here.
Rode announces Rodcaster Pro II with mega improvements. This product will go on sale this summer (2022).
How to navigate The Podcast Show
With thousands of attendees and tons of exhibitors, it can be quite overwhelming to navigate a conference from across the pond.
Here are 10 steps on how to navigate The Podcast Show 2023:
1. Download The Podcast Show app
This app will make it easy to refer to the who, what, where, and when.
2. Listen to the Podcast Playlist
Featured on The Podcast Show app you can see what’s trending and who is being spotlighted.
3. Review the Attendees
It’s good to know who is speaking, their story, and how their expertise can provide opportunity and insight.
4. Session Prep
Schedule out each day with your top 5 sessions. Don’t overbook yourself. Allow time in between sessions. Take breaks. Eat! Drink Water! It’s okay if you can’t see every session you were hoping to attend. Trying to cram everything into your action-packed schedule will only cause stress and/or burnout.
5. Orient Yourself
Once you’ve landed a game plan for each day, review the map and pinpoint where the different stages are in the venue. This will save you stress in between sessions.
6. Brand Exhibit
Don’t overbook yourself with sessions so that you have time to take advantage of the exhibition tour where you can meet professionals in the podcast industry, gain key insight, and maybe get some free merch along the way.
7. Network. Network. Network.
Bring business cards or some type of flare that will make it quick and easy to exchange contact information with anyone you connect with.
8. Happy Hour
If you’re not too exhausted, let the happy hour meet-ups refuel you. This is a much more laid-back way to engage with other creatives or those in the industry.
9. Attend a live session
Live sessions can be interactive and a great opportunity to meet the experts behind a show you admire.
10. Get ready for next year
Conferences are a marathon, not a sprint. Stay attuned for the next podcast show conference on May 24th and 25th of 2023.
Overall Conclusion
All in all, the many sessions were overflowing with key takeaways, current podcast trends along with top of the line technology and equipment recommendations. It was a good sneak peek of what to look forward to in the industry. It provided insight for podcasters just getting started and those who are already in the game. Collaboration is key to any sort of success at conferences like these. It was evident here seeing companies in television, radio, music, and film checking out the buzz and how they can tap into this ever-expanding market.
Check out our recommendations for conferences within the U.S. in our write-up of podcasting events to attend this year.
