I always knew that Birmingham was a nice place, but I was a bit dubious about spending an entire weekend there. I suppose it was just natural laziness. As it happens, I’m really glad that I did attend the first Podcamp UK It was superbly organized, in a very low key way, by John Buckley and others, and the venue was great.
There were to many good things to recount them all (and I’ve written the teachers who were there elsewhere). However, I think that two unconference sessions that worked very well were conducted by Alex Bellinger of Smallbizpod and Chris Vallance of Radio 5’s pods and blogs. They said relatively little and got the rest of the room to contribute as much as possible.
Alex’s session on ways to make money out of podcasting produced a variety of ideas - selling additional materials for an educational podcast, licensing content to third parties to be re-branded and re-used elsewhere, merchandise, and of course sponsorship. It seems to me that right now the UK podcasts with sponsors all cover business one way or another, even if their audiences aren’t necessary that vast.
Podcasters here are selling sponsorship and the basis of how targeted and influential their niche audience is - rather than on numbers of downloads. This is surely valid, but I think it’s going to take a while before a wider group of advertisers is convinced enough to stump up cash.
Chris’s session was really an audio workshop - he very modestly said that he’s learned a lot from podcaster and tries to implement what he’s picked up in Radio 5 broadcasts - a kind of natural, authentic, but maybe a bit rough round the edges feel. But above all, he was stressing a sensitivity to natural sounds.
It’s true, as Chris said, that a professional radio person can feel the weight of the corporation bearing down saying “conform”. But I also think it’s true that there are innovative radio producers and innovative podcasters. It takes all sorts.
When I was a producer the World Service, my presenter Roger White and I used to do a weekly business program with the stodgy name “Global Business”. The name gives an idea of how the managers who set it up envisaged it turning out - long boring interviews with CEOs of Multinationals, Economists, and Management Consultants. We just ignored the hint.
We did all sorts of stuff which I think podcasters do now - including a panel of listeners from all over the world who took part by phone, packages mixed pretty much on location, me fluffing my words in my slots, and Roger taking the piss out of me. We had a sig tune which at the time was considered very out of fashion. The tone was very informal. I also used all the freelance reporters that other programmes considered to be amateurish, but who I thought were creative, individual, and had real talent.
The powers-that-be didn’t quite know what to do with it - it broke all the rules but they couldn’t deny that it was entertaining. So they just cut and cut its budget, until eventually the department surrendered it to rival part of the BBC - and it became the sister programme of Radio 4’s In Business, which is of course very, very slick - and I would say formulaic. In Business has a much greater reputation than Global Business did - but I honestly believe that our programme was a lot more authentic.
Well I’ve digressed from podcamp, but sometimes you just have to let your thoughts wonder. That’s what a blog is for.
Just time to say that I really enjoyed talking to Neville Hobson, who is a true gentleman of the internet, and a great podcaster. I take my hat off to all the innovative things that he does with Shel on For Immediate Release. I did confirm that Neville’s a smoker, and I’m convinced that the dreaded weed does help cultivate a great broadcasting voice. Mind you, after all the free beers at the bar (thanks to the sponsors), my voice on Sunday morning had a certain gravel that it usually lacks.
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