My team has had a few days to reflect on BlogWorld and New Media Expo Los Angeles which wrapped up Sunday.. While attendance may been at all time highs, it was not because the new media folks where at the show. In years past we would be swamped from the beginning of the show, to show close. This year we had a 2.5 hours rush then very lite traffic.
Surveying badges, Central California was in the house sadly though very few out of state badges. The new media folks that where at the show where largely either speakers or folks from the local area. It’s pretty frustrating as we know there are 1000’s of new media creators out their yet they are not coming to the show. This is not the first year we have seen a decline last year traffic was down, but traffic this year was simply horrible.
I am not sure what the answer is, or where we go from here, but my team has to go where the media creators are in the future! The team at BlogWorld has worked hard and the bloggers have turned out in mass but the podcasting community has abandoned this show.
You know what a continuing frustration this has been for us Todd. You also know I am definitely largely to blame for our lack of outreach this year in particular. However we did have more for podcasters on the show floor than ever this year, with Wevideo (first time exhibitor) LibSyn (first time exhibitor), NewTek (first time exhibitor) .TV (first time exhibitor) Stickam, Sticher Radio (first time exhibitor) and of course Raw Voice / Blubrry. There are a couple of other video companies I am leaving out.
We also held a podcasting townhall on Saturday and will be releasing that audio shortly. We are 100% committed to building what podcasters are looking for and I think that discussion was very helpful in accomplishing that.
Sorry to hear that you weren’t happy with the turnout! I think that something to consider is that the lines are blurring. A lot of bloggers are now podcasting, even if they call themselves bloggers first and podcasters second. Some aren’t even calling themselves podcasters at all, even though they work with audio. (I met one attendee who said that she records audio posts, but when I said, “so, you’re a podcaster?” she answered no.) In any case, I know everyone at BlogWorld loved having at least a few podcasters there and definitely welcome your input as to how to convince more to come in the future!
I would have been there if we weren’t still recovering from the chaos of marriage and moving (and needing to catch up on all the billable work that didn’t get done while we were getting married and moving). And I know of some others who were attending conferences elsewhere that were inconveniently scheduled at the same time.
Plus, of course, there’s the fact that many people avoid flying these days. LA is still within driving distance for me; I’m not likely to go anywhere that requires the choice of being groped or irradiated by the TSA unless I’m paid to do so or a family member is dying.
But as to whether there’s another conference podcasters attend, my guesses would be Podcamp Boston and Podcamp Toronto, even though those events have less of a focus on podcasting than some of us might like. And still, I’m guessing, most of the attendees will be comparatively local. People don’t travel the way they did.