I’m back in Denver and slowly recovering from a two-week trip. I visited my family and then made my way to Podcast Movement Evolutions which was being held in Chicago-one of my absolute favorite American cities. I don’t attend as many conferences as I used to, I’m always trying to balance the work that I have to do and life in general. I’m also always trying to balance out the many different events that I would like to be a part of and of course manage the expense. Podcast Movement Evolutions made the cut and it was especially important for me attend because I’ve relaunched the Podcasters Getting Paid segment of my Creators Getting Paid newsletter.
I also had the pleasure of being asked to participate on the following panel “Rooted in Community: The Key to Unlocking Your Podcast’s Full Potential” by the wonderful Paulette Erato founder of Latinas in Podcast. It was wonderful to be in community with Paulette, Sasha Willis Co-Owner of WOC Podcasters and Monika Aldarondo founder of Our Latina Lens. We kicked ass if I do say so myself. After every conference or major event that I attend, I share a recap and review. Here’s what I left with after this year’s event.
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Listen to the Episode
Show Notes
Running a large event such as Podcast Movement Evolutions and Podcast Movement is hard. I think it’s important to understand the difference between the two events as I see it and what value I feel I would gain from attending each event.
Podcast Movement Evolutions
This is for the more intermediate/advanced podcaster who is committed to podcasting. They’ve likely monetized part of their work, are building a community and are scaling their work or projects in some way. PME is also a conference heavily attended by industry professionals. If you’re looking to work with a podcast focused company-this is an event that you should attend and connect with people.
Podcast Movement
I love this event! I’ve attended several-my most recent one was Podcast Movement Denver. This is a wonderful event to meet and connect with attendees-primarily independent podcasters many of whom are at the beginner/intermediate stages of podcast growth. More advanced podcasters attending would typically be speakers/session leaders or panelists. This event is great for connecting with tips and strategy, building up your creative energy reserves and being in community with other podcasters. If you’re growing a podcasting community-Podcast Movement is where you want to be. This event is also significantly larger than the Evolutions event.
Podcast Movement Evolutions Chicago
(General Observations)
This year’s event felt a little different. It felt like the energy just wasn’t there. I think that there are a few reasons for this and I think they’re important to reflect on.
- It did feel like there were fewer attendees than before. I don’t know if this is because of the greater uncertainty in the U.S. impacting people’s budgets for conference travel-or, just the timing was such that the lifecycle of an event hits a point where something fresh and new needs to happen-but, this wasn’t as energized a year as previous years.
- The venue was TOO BIG for the number of attendees. While there was plenty of room to hang out, have conversations, etc. I think the ideal size is the venue that was used at the Los Angeles Podcast Movement in 2022.
- Video was the focus…and I found it a bit off-putting. I kept thinking is video being focused on because ad revenue is a clearer business model with video? I actually reflected on the following question “Do You Need Video To Make Money Online” in a recent Creators Getting Paid newsletter. As for video podcasts-I just think they’re talk shows and I like talk shows…I just wish they would be referenced as a talk show.
- Most people left after the second day. It was a three day event. Myself and my fellow amazing, incredible panelists spoke on the third day and I have a lot of thoughts about this. Maybe there shouldn’t be a three day event if there’s not enough content for a full third day-in order to discourage people from leaving early. Or, cut the third day. I won’t ever speak on the last day of an event if it’s a half-day because so few people were there.
- Chicago is always a good time! I will always attend events hosted in this city. I decided to stay at a different hotel at the top of Michigan ave and take the bus down to the conference center. I also ended up with a $200 discount on my room and paid just $345 for 4 nights and 3 days in my own room in the heart of the touristy part of Chicago. I visit the city often and this was a great deal!
The Negatives
I’m going to share some things that I do think could be reworked, thought about for upcoming events.
- The Speaker’s Corner-It was a cordoned off exposed area with pretzels and drinks. It just didn’t feel as hospitable as previous events. Speaker rooms are nice for many reasons. In order to encourage conversation and community between the speakers, a great place to practice our talks/panels and a good place to rest. It’s also a great place for the event sponsors to advertise, share products/tools, etc. It doesn’t have to be a space where people just sit-it could be optimized in different ways that are useful to the event organizers.
- Monetization content-Was heavily focused on ads and I would have loved to see some panels highlighting how creators monetized without ADS.
- Many conference centers aren’t as close to restaurants as one would expect-Could we get a list of restaurants that are close by? Some guidance.
I think what I’m touching on is hospitality. Hosting an event requires a level of hospitality that I feel all large events have to spend A LOT of time working on especially the longer they host an event. There are small gestures of welcome that are important and just sometimes get lost in the mix. Especially because an event such as a large conference has so many moving parts. Please get someone whose primary task is to focus on all those little touch points. Training the onsite team members on things to say to attendees (they were great-this is just an example) Asking in a team meeting-does this space also need headphones because of noise? Will the speaker need a mic in this area? Let’s put together a suggested restaurant and coffee shop list because it’s a nice thing to do. I’ve hosted many events and worked at many events and this experience is something that I’ve been on both sides of.
The Positives
There are always wonderful things that I experience at each event. I thought I would share what those things were for this year’s Podcast Movement Evolutions.
- The People-I had an incredible time meeting wonderful people. They were so warm, welcoming and just fun to meet. The people truly made the event.
- The Headphones-Initially, I wasn’t sure about using them. However, I loved that I could hear everything that the panelists and speakers were saying. Clearly. One weird unexpected outcome was that it did make the entire venue super quiet and changed the atmosphere of the main staging area. That was unexpected.
- Ronan Farrow’s new show “Not a Very Good Murderer”-While I did think that someone else could have interviewed him-I was revited by the topic of his show and wished the interview asked the question “WHY CICI?!”
- Angela Hollowell’s Newsletter session-It was packed and she did an amazing job answering all of the questions that they had.
- Spin Chicago Event-I loved the fact that the event was held 4 blocks from my hotel. I was able to walk over. It was a fantastic time and I truly enjoyed meeting other attendees in a fun, casual space. It was a wonderful, casual venue to host an event and I would visit again.
- Game of Thrones Panel-While I did wish they shared a few more audio clips from the podcast, the insight into crafting and recording an “After the Show” podcast was so fascinating. I did love the audio that was shared.
- The panel that I was on-We rocked it! But, that wouldn’t have happened without Paulette Erato’s organizational skills, focus and energy. Gracias Por todo!
Final Thoughts-Was It Worth It
Each event is a toss up, you never know what’s going to happen. When attending a conference I typically want to do the following: Meet people, grow my brand and earn back the money that I spent to attend. Here’s my breakdown for those specific goals:
- Did I get to meet people-YES! They were wonderful.
- Was I able to grow my brand-Mixed bag-I don’t feel like this event was ideal for that specific goal. I think Podcast Movement would have been better for this goal.
- Will I earn back my financial investment? Luckily, I really didn’t spend a lot on this event. I spent $240 on my round-trip train ticket, $345 on the hotel and $300 (ish) on food. The good was covered by my relatives because they kept giving me money (they don’t see me as often as I would like) So, if I don’t make back what I spent…I’m fine with that.
Would I attend again? I would, but I would be very mindful about the goals that I set for the event. And there was one unexpected outcome. I left really fired up and a little mad. Here’s why-a friend and I ended up in a conversation with a really nice guy who shared how he ended up where he was at. He talked about his background and how he was connected to the job he currently is working because a friend believe in him. Also, that he believed he could do it. My friend and I were blown away by the sheer audacity and bravado he had. By the way, yes he was and he was very nice. I thought about how much I believe in the creators in my Creators Getting Paid community and how often many of these amazing people would voice doubt about their gifts, about their brilliance and expertise. How much energy I spend uplifting them and thinking I believe in them so much but I can’t get THEM to believe in themselves. That’s self-work. Anyway that’s it for now. Thoughts?
