Just spent the last days two at the European Podcasting Summit in London (19th and 20th March) organised by Anita Yaa Agyeman and her team.
It was a well organised event (by First Conferences) with a great mix of new and traditional media types plus independent podcasters and corporate marketing people. With such a mix you get a variety of views but what I love about the industry is that it is still so new and exciting that everyone is happy to help everyone else. A passion for the subject that transcends potential business rivalry.
It reminds me of the early days of the PC industry. It was full of people who had a vision of a different way to use computers. The energy and enthusiasm was infectious. We were all sharing a vision and a mission. Even those of us working for Lotus (1-2-3 and Notes) actually spoke to the guys from Microsoft. We even worked on of a couple collaborative projects together. As it became big business it maybe lost a lot of that raw passion and energy. That will happen with podcasting some time in the future but in the meantime it will be great fun.
What I did hear and see were end users keen to start to experiment but keep it internal first rather than learn in public. Large companies have the brand to worry about. Risk avoidance is important so would involved Corporate and Legal oversight. What they wanted to hear were ‘authentic’ case studies presented by real people and not agencies. One of the most fun contributions was from Heather Gorringe of Wiggly Wrigglers. She was wonderful. Full of energy and passion. She has a great website, blogs regularly and within days of hearing her first podcast in 2005 started her own. Almost 2 years down the line she attracts 20k people to her weekly podcast and has successfully taken her company international – all the way from her farm in rural Herefordshire.
One other thing that did strike me was just how hard traditional media agencies who spoke at the conference are at understanding what podcasting and social media is all about and what they have to do to completely adapt. They have invested massively in infrastructure and processes to support communication via traditional print and broadcast media. Social media – blogging, audio and video podcasting - does not need so many multiple levels. Even if traditional agencies can learn to work creatively in the new medium (they are smart people so they will either buy-in specialist agencies or talent) the current cost structures just do not work. The traditional agencies are used to working on large budgets. Social media uses the internet, WOM and viral to deliver. There are no commissions and rebates available on something that is free.