The Podcast Show 2024 - Day One
Introduction
Last week it was The Podcast Show 2024, which is an international celebration of the podcasting industry attended by visitors from over forty countries with dozens of sessions, keynotes, and exhibitors to check out along with help for creators with The Creator Advice Lab and Pitch Your Podcast over the two days of 21st and 22nd of May 2024! Cluarantonn were there, which is myself and my wife Dawn, as the bridge to podcasting for new podcasters wanting to make a start or advice and for existing podcasters wanting support to focus on what they do best and let us take care of the rest by connecting them with small businesses and freelancers to help bridge the gap to podcasting, you can find out what we do at cluarantonn.com
Journey to London
Preparing for The Podcast Show involved weeks of preparation which included getting our branding together designed by Christelle from The End of Nowhere including getting the panel graphics designed and sourced along with the business cards. We also worked on the website to get everything ready for the show and with just a few days before heading to London we had everything we needed! With everything packed and ready to go on Monday 20th of May we headed to Newcastle station to catch our train to London King's Cross, we had the stand wrapped up, but it was quite large and bulky, but the kind staff allowed is to keep it in the cleaner's cupboard and we all arrived safely to London King's Cross Station!
Newcastle Station
LNER Azuma to London King's Cross
LNER Azuma at London King's Cross
London King's Cross Station
Arrival & Setup
We arrived at The Premier Inn at Islington and briefly took a glimpse around the corner at the Business Design Centre before getting some rest ready for the following day which would be setting up the stand for The Podcast Show! It was early Tuesday morning when we arrived inside to see the Empty Shell Scheme that would be our stand for the next few days! We were one of the few people setting up our own stand, but we were well looked after by those running the show, along with those around us which was great! It took over two hours to get the stand from start to almost there with just the furniture due and a few more adjustments to make it perfect! To help chill out before the next couple of days we headed to Frameless at Marble Arch which is a totally immersive art experience that no photos can do justice to, it is one of those places you just need to visit and see for yourself but was the perfect way to relax and unwind before the start of The Podcast Show the following day!
Premier Inn Islington
Business Design Centre
Stand A5 Empty Shell Scheme
Stand A5 Quarter Way
Stand A5 Half Way
Stand A5 Almost There
Descent to Frameless
Starry Night at Frameless
Day One
We returned for before Day One of The Podcast Show at the Business Design Centre and picked up our passes and ventured inside, this would be the quietest time in the hour before the show inside, but it would be busy with putting the final touches to the stand! We unpacked the pens for all our podcasts from Scottish Murders to RoguePlanetoid Podcast one on side and the Cluarantonn pens on the other which also included some stickers and business cards to give out to people! All the preparation and setup were finally done, and we were ready to start the show! Our day started with a visit from someone making our stand their first stop and were also the first to stop by for us too so that was a great start to the day! The next couple of hours we had a few more people stop by the stand but also gave me a chance to have a look around before being able to head for one of the sessions!
Before Day One at Business Design Centre
Furniture in our Stand
Our Voices Pens
Cluarantonn Pens, Stickers and Business Cards
How can you build a meaningful and lasting career in audio? - Aradhna Tayal Leach with Rob Littlejohn & Imriel Morgan
Aradhna Tayal Leach hosted this session and they run professional training academy at radioacademy.org including having a foot in door training day in Manchester.
Rob Littlejohn said Mixtapes and radio is his life. He got an aerial on his roof for birthday. He won some money and got turntables and realised music was his life got a job packing vinyl for radio stations but didn't get paid but got a box of records instead. Started as mix DJ, then got into podcasting and is now independent again working with Apple Music.
Imriel Morgan started in a very different career working with monkeys in Caribbean, but they also worked in a tech company as a content marketer, they found partner through Tinder and found about podcasts from them and later found about serial where they listened to African American podcasters. They came on board to onboard new talent into podcasts and they started a show British Podcast Award Winning show with Melon and Millennials. They also built a studio at home. Launched new shows and applied this to podcasting but we're one of first podcast marketers and they need to look outside traditional audio roles like audience development event planning etc. Different avenues to get fully immersed in Audio.
Rob says if an audio editor the world is your oyster, we are surrounded by sound, there is a lot of stuff out of radio such as audio design for rides at amusement parks, even airlines have audio. Today is perfect example of networking, people are working on a project or thinking about working on a project, gear up for potential future roles as never know where journey will take you.
Imriel talked about collaboration including their network where people would reach out to them and start a podcast. People were passionate about people putting their content out in the world. They had fallout and host breakdowns in Network, where are gaps. Who should be here who isn't here. How can you open doors, thinks don't always pay as audio isn't industry to be rich in. You can sustain a living if see what know what doing. Micrograms initiative paid by Audible where they give money to start podcasts.
Rob looks for collaborators, understanding mission statement is to understand your audience, if doing VR want them to be interested VR. Knowing what best performance is for takes, understand when make a point like with music, if don't know it can be difficult.
Imriel about podcasts, are doing it if you love it or want to make money, just want to build a community. Can you sustain many episodes over years and will there be innovation to keep excitement going. Should you niche down but be quite broad when covering, come up with many ideas and see what overlaps if just a few then could do a miniseries. Is there a big enough audience to pay you or for commissioner will there be an audience for their bottom line. Commissioners are more challenging, how do you fit into ecosystem. Think about long term, it is slow and need to have realistic expectations about number. Be ready to deliver regularly and consistency.
Rob for consistency is doing a pilot series to not over promise. Just need to start it unless is an audio drama. you can polish it, don't know potential, is it monthly etc. From start you will have a nice show real. Build plane while you are flying it.
Imriel know to build personal brand. Learned about niche audiences about reaching audiences not represented with mainstream media. Got reputation at podcast marketing. Saying yes to everything to see what works, some things really really worked. Keep iterating. Build a Personal brand and do research and leverage skills. There is not one way of doing things, need to apply things in new and novel ways. It is iterative and reputation comes from being consistent.
Rob talked about developing USP, talking about skills, reputation and knowledge. When doing podcast, you are doing a lot of things, if you can do a lot of things well you can execute a project well. If going for higher stuff then are competitive with people at high level, need to build out your portfolio.
Introducing How can you build a meaningful and lasting career in audio?
Getting Ready for How can you build a meaningful and lasting career in audio?
How can you build a meaningful and lasting career in audio with Imriel and Rob
How can you build a meaningful and lasting career in audio with Rob and Imriel
More Stand Visitors & Creator Advice Lab
After returning to the stand there were more people coming by and many who had stopped by while I was away at the session so there was no time for any other sessions but instead was great to see those who were looking for advice about starting their podcast, or those who had one already to see how we could help them with small businesses and freelancers who were also stopping by to speak to us! We also had visits from some familiar faces including Christelle who designed our stand who was able to see it in person for the first time all together! It was great to speak to everyone who stopped by but we'd also volunteered to give some advice to podcasters at the Creator Advice Lab in the Creator's Village, which we took a sneak peek at before the show, giving our advice to people such as starting a parenting podcast or how to promote and grow an Archers companion podcast and I really enjoyed the experience of helping people there and the people helping out at the event were so friendly and helpful too and managed to find an extra person I could help before our session was over! We also spoke to a few people who had arranged to chat with us before the event but the first day was coming to the end and after a few more people stopped by and before long it was time to stop for the day and headed back to the nearby hotel to rest before coming back for Day Two!
Outside our Stand
Creators Village
Creator Advice Lab Entrance - Before the Show
Creator Advice Lab Area - Before the Show
Creator Advice Lab
Creator Advice Lab Area with Dawn