It’s been about a week since I attended Podcast Movement 2023 held in Denver. For the past 4 or 5 years I’ve been in the habit of alternating the years that I attend conferences that I feel are important for my growth as a content creator. Podcast Movement is one of those events and I was excited to spend a week with friends who were in town, to geek out about podcasting, share my expertise and learn from the experts.
The event was hosted at the Gaylord Rockies hotel which is out by Denver International Airport and technically in Aurora, Colorado. Happily public transit was free in most of Colorado during the months of July and August so I didn’t have to pay to get to the venue. But the distance from my house did remind me why I hate commuting. One of my friends kindly offered to let me stay in the extra bed in their room and I took them up on that offer only to be woken up by the infamous 4:00 am fire alarm-honestly, that was hilarious.
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Listen to the Episode
My Podcast Movement 2023 Denver review.
Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this review please not that the feedback is given with the idea that it improves upcoming events. I’ve hosted in person events both for my own personal brand and in my former career and it’s really hard to keep 30 people happy, let alone thousands of people. I do reviews of every important industry event that I attend in the different spaces that I belong to.
- Networking-I don’t know what it was about this year’s event but the networking and connections that I made this year and the quality of the interactions were truly incredible. Perhaps it was the fact that I was able to see people that I’d met at previous events and have better conversations and attendees were a lot more approachable overall.
- Industry teams were significantly easier and warmer in their interactions with me. There was only one team that was painful to speak with but other folks said the same thing about this team. I really appreciated that industry teams were a heck of a lot more approachable than in previous podcasting events that I’ve attended.
- Business Opportunities-When I attend in person events I’m also often looking to partner with brands, collaborate with other creators and generate interest and excitement around what I’m working on. In the case of this event-I was looking to generate awareness of my project “Podcasters Getting Paid” Which is undergoing a slight rebrand over Labor Day Weekend. I was able to identify 3 companies that I can pitch and hopefully mov forward with in some type of partnership or collaboration. One of those brands gave a verbal “yes” to a partnership during the event.
- Content-I still attend conferences for the content and I truly enjoyed the sessions that I attended. Here are a few of the sessions that I enjoyed the most.
- How Your Podcast Can Help Change Legislation-I also got to meet Erica Cobb the host of The Comeback and co-host of Daily Blast Live (which is filmed out of Denver)
- How to Make Money Podcasting without Ads-Of course I’m going to shoutout the session that I ran and I received some great feedback as well.
- From the Field to the Feed: Creating a Limited Series Investigative Podcast-Jarid and Priscilla Watson discussed their investigative series Derailment Disaster: Crisis in East Palestine
- Beyond Transactions: Embracing the Power of Personal Relationships-I loved this panel especially when I realized that I’d hung out with and had the most random conversation with one of the panelists at Podcast Movement Las Vegas this year.
- 7 Lessons From Leading Podcast Subscription Programs-David Stern shared some great insights from his experiences growing subscription programs.
- Unique Spaces creating maximum impact-I often talk about the importance of making large events smaller. This could be done by taking yoga in the morning, saying yes to a coffee hangout or happy hour or in the case of the Gaylord Rockies-enjoying the lazy river with a small group of friends. I wanted to bring up three spaces that really did this for me.
- Braindates-These were spaces that allowed creators to share their expertise and answer questions from a small group of attendees. Basically, it was an organized “pick your brain” I very, very rarely do “pick your brains” but, I love saying “yes” to something like this because I was able to connect with several people at the same time and they got to meet one another too. By the way, my Braindate was about growing a Newsletter.
- Listening Tour with The Qube-Ana DeShawn founder of The Qube designed this brilliant experience. It makes sense that as podcast hosts we should be creating impactful audio experiences for the work that we’re doing. This listening experience highlight the content that Ana is creating and it was incredible.
- BIPOC Podcast Creators-Fabulous co-founders Maribel Quezada Smith and Tangia Al-awaji Estrada hosted two amazing events during Podcast Movement. The first was a lunch and networking event. I met incredible folks, there were giveaways and they truly FED US and I loved it. I’m also using the spices that were in the thank you gift boxes for attendees.
- BIPOC Podcast Creators Audio Flavor Social-This event made me so happy because national events focused on creators of Color are very rarely hosted in Denver. I was so proud to be on panel with creators of Color from Denver doing impactful creative work. This event was a beautiful way to end the week. If you live in Arizona or are able visit-there is another Audio Flavor Event being hosted in October. Get your tickets now.
- I’ve also recorded a podcast episode about why I support Black and Brown Content Creator Events and You Should Too and why they’re so important and the purpose that they serve.
- Unofficial Meetups-The Colorado podcasting community is ridiculously huge LOL! I love the fact that Seth Silver and his team have done such a great job of rallying us to meetup throughout the year.
- Social Events-I especially loved the Beer Garden event because it was an opportunity to leave the venue.
What Could Be Improved
- Avoid having sessions in the Expo Hall-I had a really difficult time hearing the wonderful sessions because they were hosted in the Expo Hall and held at the same time. It was challenging to present in that space as well. I would love to have the majority of our content in rooms so that there’s enough seating for the sessions and so that people can truly be “present” for what the people are sharing.
- Consult with more local experts-I love John Denver as much as the next Denverite but playing Rocky Mountain High on Loop when we have: The Flobots, India Arie, One Republic, The Fray, Earth Wind and Fire (Phillip Bailey) and Devotchka as musical choices to choose from drove me crazy. And Jack Harlow just dropped a song called “Denver”
- Communicate when venues aren’t in the direct downtown area-it has to be communicated to attendees often so that they can plan accordingly. While I did share that the venue was far from downtown in the content that I created on my platform since March-I’m just one person. There’s no way that all of the attendees would have heard about that. I would do live Q & As with a local so that attendees can prepare and design their event making the necessary travel adjustments with the distance in mind.
- Offsite tours-To be honest, this could literally be an affiliate play on behalf of Podcast Movement. They could recommend tours that attendees could take. In Denver’s case, attendees could have taken the shuttle from the venue to the train (a 5 minute) ride and then gotten off at Denver’s Union Station to connect with their tour guides. It was a shame that there wasn’t a tour of Rocky Mountain National Park, day trip to Boulder or walk around Denver prior to the event start date.
- Relaxation Lounge and Arcade-I’m obsessed with the relaxation lounge and the arcade area. BUT, people didn’t realize that it was there. Again, this space would have been great in a room with team members directing people to the lounge. I also didn’t hear announcements about either one. Please bring these back every single year. Love it so much.
Some final thoughts
Per usual, I loved meeting the Podcast Movement team and supporting crew. They were calm, kind and welcoming.
- Puppies-They were so dang cute. I had to remove myself from the puppy area because the Black and Grey one was going to end up in my home.
- Thank you for the coffee! I especially enjoy meeting the team that IHeartRadio brings in for their coffee activation. What a cool business model for that coffee shop (they contract with events in addition to having a bricks and mortar location in New Jersey)
- If you’re a podcaster trying to connect with industry professionals-Podcast Movement and Podcast Movement Evolutions in particular-are great event for that.
- As an attendee your next event starts now-Reach out to people in your content space, other podcasters, etc. Be of service in the community. Don’t wait until March the week before you show up for Podcast Movement Evolutions in Los Angeles to beginning connecting with people or August right before the event happens in Washington D.C.
- Thank you to Podcast Movement for supporting my work via a partnership earlier this year.
I leave you with the final question…
Podcasting is limited to your vision and action. What does the upcoming year look like as it relates to your vision for the work that you’re doing. Dream big and I look forward to supporting you and seeing you at Podcast Movement.