Podcastcon UK, held on September 17th 2005 in London, was Europe's first conference on podcasting. What was originally envisaged as a small meeting in a pub somewhere in England became, in the end, a conference with around 120 guests from countries all over the world. While many thought it was a great success, some have been keeping their thoughts quiet - me included.
It took me some days to reflect on why the weaknesses I found are in fact a clear sign of the conference's success: because it perfectly captured the current state of podcasting.
If you search for podcasting you get over 30 million hits on Google. It is barely a year old and has already entered the mainstream, thanks in part to Apple integrating podcasting into iTunes. Some say the growth period has just started, some say it has already peaked.
If you take a look at the list of speakers (and their topics), and those attending, you'll see many different directions and interests as well: from the very traditional BBC to single podcasters, from businesses exploring podcasting to educational usage, and from dedicated fans to "it is just another tool" users.
Exactly what can be seen in the podosphere: everyone is still trying to figure out what podcasting can or cannot do, what it should or should not be, whether to keep it pure or to make money from it.
Some feel disappointed when companies enter the cozy space, because it makes them feel as if podcasting has lost its innocence and from here on it is just business as usual. There are fights about it. Is it "just another tool" or a special something?
The conference reflected exactly that. It showed the dedicated community of the Britcasters, quite a few attendees who are somehow connected to the BBC, people working in education, the music business, or mainstream media, and business people who are interested in different aspects of podcasting. Be it "how do I" or just "what can I use it for", they were here.
The presentations were as different as the participants and reflected the same dilemma. A little bit of everything and nothing really deep. The one thing everybody was happy with was how well and professional the conference was organized: everything went smoothly, a 'posh venue', good service and working wifi.
I think Ewan Spence summed it up very well in his reflections on the day:
It went well. Really well. Given that (a) this sort of thing hasn't been done before and (b) because of that nobody was really sure what would be good topics to cover, there was a "next year we know exactly what we need to do" to get it right [feeling].
It was a first attempt, and it was a good one. You missed something that day (and evening), if you did not attend. It was a good day to put some faces to the voices, and for starting with fresh energy and thoughts into year two of podcasting. And don't miss Podcastcon 2006.
Additional links:
Alex Williams
Matt May
Nicole Simon
Roland Tanglao
