podcast-movement-2019

For five days a shining beacon of podcasting pierced the blanket of August humidity gripping Orlando, FL. Thousands of podcasters flocked to attend the gargantuan 2019 iteration of Podcast Movement, a four day industry conference built “by podcasters, for podcasters.” Since its Kickstarter-funded first conference in 2014, Podcast Movement has shown little signs of slowing, including this year’s biggest addition: A dedicated audio drama track. 

As both a lover of audio drama and a producer myself, I did my best to cover as much of this inaugural effort (organized by fellow critics Wil Williams and Elena Fernández Collins) as possible while still sampling what Podcast Movement had to offer overall. Also yes, for anyone who wasn’t there, I will talk about the free beer and puppies you were seeing pictures of on Twitter. But first I need to make an important distinction. 

Conference vs. Convention

As mentioned in my review of PodX back in June, the formal death of Podcon created a power vacuum in the con circuit. Hundreds of podcasters and podcast fans who were already slotting away money for a Podcon 3 that will never be began looking at the current offerings that aren’t generic nerd-culture cons that happen to have a couple of podcasting panels. PodcastCon (née PodX) and PodFest Multimedia Expo are the frontrunning conventions I know exist as of this writing. 

Conventions traditionally are far more focused on being fun events more so than truly educational experiences. The 10:00 a.m. Sunday block of Podcon 2 pictured above demonstrates this perfectly. In the same time slot there are two creator chats (10 fans selected by lottery get to go sit in a room with a creator and talk for an hour), three live podcasts, a celebrity meet and greet, a meetup, two “for fun” panels on interesting topics, and one educational panel meant to attract people already producing podcasts who want to up their next game. Given the distribution of content, it’s easy to see the organizers are targeting a significant percentage of fans who want to see their favorite podcasters doing fun stuff with a much smaller contingent of industry-minded folk who want to learn more about the industry. 

Then there’s the industry conference, which is effectively a mirror image of what one expects from a convention. As the above screenshot of the 11:30 a.m. Wednesday slot at Podcast Movement 2019 shows, not a lot there for the casual fan. Oh, also there are seven more panels that didn’t fit in this screenshot. The one not-shop-talk event happening in this time slot is a live production of Potterless.at the main stage. Where Podcon scheduled a sole industry panel in a slot for the stragglers, conferences flip the script. 

With this increased focus on industry development comes a higher premium for tickets. While PodX’s pro badge topped out at $200 at the door, walking into Podcast Movement day-of and getting the cheapest possible badge costs $599 USD before tax. It should be noted early access starts at a significant discount and slowly increases as the clock ticks down (after the keynote announcement that Podcast Movement 2020 would take place in Dallas a new booth opened up to sell registration for next year’s conference at a large discount). With this higher premium comes a far bigger experience.

The Size of Podcast Movement

It’s difficult to truly express the size of Podcast Movement, but the outcome of a goofy game played during keynotes comes close. Just before the final keynote presentation the night’s host projected a url for audience members to submit one word they felt described Podcast Movement so far. As votes came in a tag cloud grew on the giant screens, some words growing as they got multiple votes. The initial cloud mainly contained playful words like “puppies” and “educational.” Soon though, one word quickly grew and remained the most-voted option for the few moments the tag cloud was on screen: Overwhelming. 

During rare moments when all rooms were running with panels and Q&As simultaneously, Podcast Movement generated 12 hours of recording per real-world hour, all filmed and recorded by a platoon of technicians for attendees with standard and pro passes (as well as $200 Virtual Ticket holders) to later revisit panels they didn’t get to attend in person. I had the highest level of access a badge could allow and I still have a significant portion of the conference to consume. I’ll just be doing it 800 miles from the convention center from the comfort of my home. 

PodX’s featured guest list topped out under 56, supplemented with a dozen or so not-featured guest speakers not listed on the website. Podcon 2 rocked just under 50 featured guests. Smaller conventions and conferences sometimes fall for the trap of inviting a handful of big names and shoehorning them into as many panels as possible. Podcast Movement 2019 had – by my manual count of speakers in the official app (which probably missed a couple) – 370 speakers hosting panels, fireside chats, and live shows across four days.

Oh, and the centerpiece to all this education was a massive expo hall packed to the gills with everything from brand new startup apps trying to revolutionize podcasting to industry-changing giants like Spotify and Google. Microphone companies were doing their best to show how good their hyper-sensitive equipment sounds in an echo-filled expo hall. Other companies pulled off quirky stunt-events. 

Audioboom erected a Casefile-themed bank heist escape room. PodcastOne’s Launchpad podcast host set up a small fenced-in area filled with puppies next to a tap dispensing free beer. This area in particular was crowded for obvious reasons, though one has to wonder if it truly worked as a marketing stunt, as most people I’ve talked to about the exhibit after the fact only remember the puppies. Some were genuinely surprised to hear the booth was a podcast hosting platform.

The Speedbumps

Save for a few small annoyances early on the convention seemed to run like clockwork with minimal problems. The biggest grievances came during early badge pickup. As soon as the doors to the main stage area opened and hundreds of podcasters filed into their respective lines, some well-meaning staff were trying to move lines faster by asking people to have identification out before they reached the front of the line. Not only could one pick up a badge with their confirmation number or a QR code in their email inbox, asking specifically for ID effectively asked any trans attendees who’d not legally had their name changed to have a not-great conversation with the person handing out badges. 

Then there were the temporary rooms. As one can see in Elena Fernández Collins’ tweeted photo above, the audio drama track was located in one of six presentation rooms without ceilings, just open boxes constructed out of temporary ten foot walls. Problem is, that tan wall behind the panelists is a dividing wall between the expo hall and the massive main stage. Noise pollution from panels next door and main stage events made it difficult to hear speakers if one wasn’t in the front row (where one could hear them anyway without amplification). This made things difficult to hear at random portions of the audio drama track. I suspect the audio won’t be an issue in the remote access versions as the speaker’s microphones likely weren’t sensitive enough to pick up the pollution, but in the moment it was rough going.

The Location 

Here it comes, the least creative comment about Podcast Movement 2019: Florida in August isn’t great. It’s tropical storm season, which means between staccato downpours the humidity just sticks to everything. It only goes away at night. Even being in an air conditioned building isn’t much respite if one is near a window. Orlando is the first time I’ve ever noticeably sweat while sitting at a gate in an airport. I’m from southern Indiana where humidity and 90+ degree heat during the summer isn’t uncommon, but a landlocked subtropical location like Orlando is out of this world

Weatherspark’s average humidity rating for Orlando’s humidity in August is literally the word “oppressive.” Stepping outside was stepping into soup, and for a conference hosted in a $250+ per-night luxury hotel that meant a lot of muggy walks from busses and Lyfts back to one’s room at an Airbnb or cheap hotel (shoutout to the Day’s Inn with an iHop in the parking lot on International Drive for being $56 a night and not terrifying). 

The conference itself was never hot (save for the time the fire alarm was pulled and everyone who was dressed to be in air conditioning all day had to go stand outside) but I was still meeting people from colder climates who were having a rough time of it. Something to consider for next year when the conference moves to Texas. Once again I return to my soap box shouting “the midwest is cheap to fly to, cheap to stay in, and the weather isn’t terrifying.” Yeah, nobody lives here if it isn’t Chicago, but it’s also possible to step outside without wearing a swimsuit and feel pretty good. 

The Positives

All technical and location-based issues aside, Podcast Movement was phenomenal. A well-oiled machine that threw several different demographics of the podcasting industry into a room and forced them to recognize there’s more than the niche you specifically work in. Single-host chat show producers got to see fully produced fiction podcasts are, y’know, a thing. Fiction podcasters got to experience more of the business-y side of the industry, both in podcast content and actual business tips. Apps we’d never heard of got thousands of people’s passing glance. PM is basically a blender designed to destroy preconceived notions about the industry. 

There were a handful of presentations that felt intentionally watered-down with a quiet implication the audience could easily learn more by listening to the presenter’s podcast and/or buying the book they just so happen to have written about this very topic. That said, I know firsthand its difficult to cram every bit of advice on a topic into a single hour once you get in front of an audience and are trying to match the energy of the room. One good laugh line or one bad bit of audience participation can delete whole swaths of info from one’s head while they’re on stage, so it’s hard to discern what’s my inherent cynicism against “buy my book” business mentality and what’s just the mental cost of doing a talk at a convention where almost everything on the marketing or monetization track played to full rooms. 

This year marked the first fiction keynote, hosted by Lauren Shippen, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Shippen’s talk was primarily focused on highlighting her own mis-steps and awkward moments while producing The Bright Sessions. She spoke to the importance of humility, checking one’s own pride enough to not be above re-writing scenes the day of recording. It may have been the final of three keynotes, dooming it to have a significantly smaller audience as hungry attendees slowly filed out to grab dinner, but those who stayed were treated to an earnest examination of what it takes to be a good director. 

Full color tri-folded printed schedules were provided upon check-in (which I lost before snapping a picture, unfortunately) and an official app that was actually good. While events like Podcon 2 relied on users downloading an app for a convention schedule website they’ll never use again or keeping a hard-to-navigate schedule page open in a web browser, Podcast Movement went the extra mile to roll out something all-inclusive on both Apple and Android devices. Panel times, bus schedules, maps of the convention area, the ability to chat with fellow attendees, and even a list of unofficial meetups. 

The speaker lounge served as a welcome respite from the sensory overload of quick-walking through crowds of schmoozing podcasters to get to the next panel. A room where mega-popular stars quietly chat with chill indie podcasters over an oddly delicious bowl of catered oatmeal (there was both brown sugar and raisins, the catering wasn’t screwing around!). I can’t say I would’ve specifically chosen to pay the Pro pass premium to have access but having experienced the lounge I know I would actively miss it at future conferences. 

Badge pickup was positioned next to a table ladened with buttons. Some had different numbers representing how many Podcast Movements the wearer had attended, some were just the Florida-ified version of the logo, but most importantly there were tons of pronoun buttons. On its face this is a relatively inexpensive thing for Podcast Movement as a conference to provide but having actual on-brand merch that fits with the badge itself is so satisfying and legitimizing. Taking pronouns beyond self-made stickers and third-party buttons also helps normalize the practice, which I can’t support enough. Good going, PM organizers. 

Then there were the parties. Oh, the parties. While I didn’t attend most of them due to being completely sapped of energy after hours of live-tweeting panels, it is worth noting the upshot of having tons of organized events with free shuttles to and from the host hotel. Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Spotify, everyone was throwing parties of varying degrees of exclusivity. Attendees had no shortage of organized networking opportunities. Even at the event organized specifically for speakers (a breakout panel room was cleared of chairs and three open bars were set up) the initial clusters of podcasts who knew each other gradually dispersed into the crowd as the booze flowed and socializing kicked into high gear. 

Then there was the audio drama track. I won’t be giving a play-by-play as myself and several colleagues already did that with session live-tweets (if there’s an audio drama panel you like the look of just search its title and #PM19, you’ll probably get a live tweet thread back). The individual panels themselves were phenomenal but the thing I want to address is the fact that they exist in the first place. Fiction gets a rough gig in the podcasting industry. Unless a TV writer for a pop culture website happens to see a press release from a huge pre-existing name like Night Vale Presents, there’s not many people reporting on the industry who think much has happened in fiction since The Thrilling Adventure Hour. 

In an ecosystem where a fiction podcast has to be one of the most successful podcasts to get recognition, or where famous fiction podcasters are invited to conferences/conventions purely to sit on generic panels about social media or live show organization, this audio drama track at Podcast Movement makes a statement. Fiction isn’t an outlier, it’s here and it has something to say. Things have developed since the first 25-ish episodes of Welcome to Night Vale we all listened to back in 2014. 

I had every bit of faith in Wil Williams and Elena Fernández Collins’ abilities to organize this track and I was still blown away by the diversity of experiences shared during those four days in Orlando. When fiction does get a moment in the sun, it’s usually Rich Straight White Person #928 who barely interacts with the industry outside of tweeting out new episode links. The audio drama fiction track took that lack of diversity and engagement and booted it out into the hot, humid Orlando air, never to be seen again.

Final Thoughts

The two podcast conventions I attended in 2019 demonstrated just how many enthusiastic fans and talented creators there are in the industry. Podcast Movement went that next step further in showing how much of an industry there really is. Conferences aren’t for everyone, and definitely shouldn’t be attended expecting to scratch the same itch as hanging out with friends at a convention. Everyone is busy, everyone is out to learn, and there definitely aren’t goofy panels in which four random podcasters talk about wacky relatives. The industry is fast evolving and places like Podcast Movement are going to be where the rubber meets the road in figuring out how to adapt and grow along with it.