Every been so blown away you don’t quite know what to say!



I have been reflecting on the events over the last week and all I can say it is a exciting time to be creating a Podcast. I was able to meet a great number of people that I have been listening putting a face to a show was awesome. We all felt like a big family and in many ways we already knew one another. The passion of the event was beyond words. I was very humbled by the number of you that came up said thanks. It was truly humbling.

I will try and break down my thoughts into the each day. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and endured traffic between Los Angeles and Ontario, I had not been at the hotel for 15 minutes when I started running into people that had arrived early for the Podcast Academy I had drinks and some food at the hotel with Doug Kaye and Paul Figiani, I had consulted with Paul for portions of the Audio processing in my book Podcasting The Do it Yourself Guide.

On Thursday the Podcast Academy kicked off at 8am and we basically talked advanced podcasting for the next 9 hours. The feedback has been great and I have a pile of e-mail to deal with

Friday I woke up early and snuck into the ballroom at the Marriott and hung the banners and did some strategic placement of tables etc. Then headed over to the convention center and sat through the keynotes of Leo Laporte and Jason Calaconis. I am not sure I agree with everything Jason says but one point that came through loud and clear from the very beginning was content, content, content. I attended some of the sessions and at some point I will dig through my notes and pass on my thoughts. Then Friday evening of course we had the Podcast awards ceremony. It looked like nearly 500 people attended. Fifteen of the twenty awardees were their so I was able to lighten my suitcase load considerably as we gave out all the trophies and cash awards.

Adam Curry and Leo Laporte were very gracious and I think I found out what it feels like to be a rock star as the camera flashes were going off like crazy.

We also launched Podcaster News Network Friday and the traffic to that site has been amazing. We have some catching up to do and have a bunch of podcasters to add to the network over the next couple of weeks. I think I passed out nearly 1000 business cards along with pens and chatted with countless people.

On Saturday I did a book signing and sold nearly 50 books, connected with a lot of people during that signing and from what I hear all of the authors sold out of the books they had available. Lots of sessions from sponsors of the event but by far the best keynote was on Friday morning by Jason and Leo. Their was a lot of talk about people trying to make money with podcasting and it was obvious that a lot people and companies are trying to still figure it out. I had to laugh that the company that is paying podcasters today did not have a panel spot. Just goes to prove that if you want to have a platform during a convention. You have to pay to play.

Update: 11-15-05 I want to clarify the last two sentences the majority of the panelist that were in the sessions did not have booths nor did they get paid to be their as it is my understanding. Obviously some of the panelist did have booths in the convention center as you would expect but the majority of the panelist did not. The entire crew at TNC Media and in particular Tim Bourqin did a terrific job and we are grateful for the work they did putting the convention together. Also for clarification as Adam got it wrong in hist post, Geek News Central nor Podcast Connect was not in any way a co-organizer of Podcast Expo to suggest such is a travesty

I am sure I will have a lot more to say about this, I am still pretty drained and will get my brain engaged here in the next couple of days.

About Todd Cochrane

Todd Cochrane is the Founder of Geek News Central and host of the Geek News Central Podcast. He is a Podcast Hall of Fame Inductee and was one of the very first podcasters in 2004. He wrote the first book on podcasting, and did many of the early Podcast Advertising deals in the podcasting space. He does two other podcasts in addition to Geek News Central. The New Media Show and Podcast Legends.