I have spent the past few days in Orlando, Florida at a podcasting event called Podfest.
This was a three day event, and as I said it was all about podcasting.
I have to say that Chris Krimitsos and crew put on a great event. It was well organized, with some great speakers, and really did run very smooth.
There were some great speakers that I enjoyed listening to. Some I knew from previous events, and many I did not know, but enjoyed meeting and getting to know.
They say you can tell the quality of an event by the quality of the attendees. Using that saying as a guide I thought it was an interesting fact that 3 of the 12 members of the Academy Of Podcasters Hall of Fame were at the event. In attendance was Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central, Danny Pena of Gamertag Radio, and myself. If you think about it that is 25% of the members of the Hall Of Fame. Now that's not too shabby at all.
I think Chris was expecting around 500 people to attend. While it was a really a nice size crowd, I am not sure he quite reached his goal of 500 people.
One of the events scheduled during Podfest was the premier of the documentary Messengers. In case you have not guessed already this was a movie about podcasting.
I thought the movie was very well done. There were some really great Podcasters in the movie talking about their enjoyment of podcasting, and how podcasting had effected their lives.
I really enjoyed the appearance by Rob Walch who has the Today in IOS Podcast. I really did laughed out loud when he gave Leo Laporte a little jab with his net cast comment during the movie.
Dave Jackson of School Of Podcasting Fame brought me to my knees several times with his comments and one liners. His keynote speech during the event was also excellent.
Don't get me wrong, this movie was not a comedy. It was quite the opposite being a serious documentary about podcasting, but had many great moments and quotes. It had serious moments, and some funny moments.
The vendor tables were limited, but I think that was more because of the limited space the location had to offer, and not because of the events capability to bring in vendors.
I was amazed at how many of the people I met were thinking about producing a podcast. They came to the event to find out more information, and learn the steps involved.
It was great to see so many people thinking about moving into the world of Podcasting, and starting their own podcast. When I see so much growth in podcasting it just gets me excited.
I spoke on a Keynote Panel with Glenn Herbert, Cale Nelson, Kimberly Falker, and Ryan Gray about building podcast networks. I really enjoyed speaking on this panel, and the opportunity to meet the other great panelists.
The location for the event was at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando which was a great choice. Since this was a resort hotel it really did provide a great back drop for the event.
My wife came with me to Orlando and completely enjoyed hanging out at the pool. She enjoyed the local shopping, and especially enjoyed the local discount mall. I am very happy it was a discount mall.
Since the location was in Orlando we stayed an extra day, and took in Disney's Animal Kingdom. That made for a great final day, and turned the trip into a mini vacation for us.
All in all I have to say it was a well run event, and I would love to be invited back. I would recommend Podfest to anyone interested in learning more about Podcasting. It would be hard to go wrong attending this event.
I always enjoy talking with other Podcasters. I have to admit I love networking at the events I attend. I really enjoy the networking way more that the seminars. I really get so many great ideas from my networking efforts.
I have several new ideas mulling around in my brain that I am going to start working on thanks to Podfest. One of which is to start creating audio books from my podcast episodes.
To find out more about this great event go to Podfest.US.
My next speaking gig is about monetizing your podcast, which will be in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World. I hope to see you there.
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