The West Coast Wrap Up

The PA6 & PNME Wrap Up:

I am back in Baltimore from the PNME Expo 2007. Good times once again out in Ontario, CA. This will be the last time the event will be held in Ontario as event organizer, Tim Bourquin is moving the event to the big time conference town, Las Vegas, NV.

I know there are a lot of mixed feelings about the decision to move the event, in particular because in Ontario, everything is pretty central, and lets face it, there aren’t many distractions (translation = there is not much happening in Ontario, CA).

Most of the action was either taking place at the Marriott across the street from the convention center, or the Doubletree which was behind the convention center. Point being, everyone who was attending was either staying at one of those two hotels or close by surrounding ones. So the sense of community was high, and coordination of dinners, events, parties, etc was relatively easy to pull off.

Some feel that by moving the show to Vegas, that a lot of this vibe will be lost. My personal take, I am all for it, and no, I am not just looking for an excuse to go to Vegas ☺ I feel that Vegas will attract more people, bring more energy (something I felt there was more of last year in my own opinion, or maybe it was a different energy), and new ideas and more opportunity to the conference. Now, I am not in the conference business, but Tim Bourquin knows what he is doing. If he says that he believes the Expo has peaked in its evolution in Ontario, then I am sure he is right.

So, I am OK with saying goodbye to PNME in Ontario, and giving it a warm welcome in lovely Las Vegas, NV in 2008.

Podcast Academy 6:

This last week was a particularly busy week for me due to the multitude of participation. First, on Thursday there was Podcast Academy 6 put on by Michael Geoghegan and Gigavox Media. This event was themed once again for the business / corporate podcaster, or the person who is championing podcasting efforts internally.

I kicked off the event with a 45 min presentation on various corporate podcasting case studies. I was followed by a great cast of speakers on a variety of topics including Dan Klass, Colette Vogele, Paul Colligan, Tim Street, Craig Seyverson, & Chris Brogan and others. You can download my slides here. The event was a success and we also announced the launch of our new book, “The Business Podcasting Book” at PA6.

Podcast & New Media Expo:

On Friday AM, the PNME kicked off with a great keynote, interview style with Tim Bourquin and the founder of Wallstrip, who sold his podcast to CBS for a cool $5 mill. He candidly put things in perspective on his dealings with CBS and his viewpoints on the medium.

Michael Geoghegan kicked things in with his first slide by stating that “Podcasting is Dead” signaling that if you are looking to monetize your content in this space, it is no longer about your podcast and your RSS feed. He is correct in saying that that buzz is LONG over with. Now, it is about really learning how to operate like a content producer in the digital media industry. Again, if you are looking to monetize your content you need to be thinking beyond your show and your feed, there really is so much more to consider. Like running your show or shows like a real business. Many resources were offered to help point content producers in the right direction.

There were plenty of great sessions that I dropped in and out of, and on Friday I also moderated a panel on new media metrics with Paul Vogelzang of Porter Novelli / Mommycast and Matt Snodgrass of Porter Novelli. It went very well, we had a packed room and there were lots of interesting and smart questions.

One thing was clear, the industry is changing, evolving, you could say maturing a bit. Overall I think this is a good thing and next year will prove to be MUCH more interesting.

There is plenty more to write about the expo but I don’t need to cover every minute of my time there. Lots of good people, evolving and maturing companies, deals announced, new faces, old faces, etc. It was great to be out there and to see everyone once again.

Moving Forward:

I emailed Michael Geoghegan after reading his last post, because this part of my post was half baked already, but Michael is quick on the posting☺ He definitely was on the ball on this one.

So, there was a lot of talk about the expo and the future of the expo, and as I sat in the speaker ready room networking with many folks, you couldn’t not hear the talk about how there was an air of change at the event.

First, Geoghegan comes out with “Podcasting is Dead,” plenty of people are talking about the change within the industry, its growing, developing, evolving, etc. Then there was the discussion about whether the name of the expo will change once again, and this time will Tim and his team drop the term “podcast” altogether from the title, and simply call the event the “New Media Expo” moving forward?

Well suffice to say I wasn’t the only one thinking it, and even more interesting is that it is officially true, and has already been announced. Check out the site for 2008 already launched (gotta love a team that’s on the ball).

New Media Expo 2008, Las Vegas, NV. Looking forward to it. Be there next year if you are in the new media space in any way, shape or form, its bound to be more exciting than ever.