For over a decade now, Pittsburgh has been host to Podcamp Pittsburgh, a weekend long UNconference offering sessions on topics spanning podcasting, blogging, and social media. The company I work for, Libsyn, has sponsored Podcamp Pittsburgh for many years, and this will be my third year speaking there..
This year, I decided to go all out should the organizers allow, and they did. I will be presenting three sessions across Saturday and Sunday. Check out the full schedule here.
Session Title
Podcasting 101/201
Details
Podcasting 101/201 will dig into the basics you need to get your show up and running, and keeping you podcasting. We’ll dig into hardware from microphones to headphones, mixers and accessories, and what you ACTUALLY need. Then we’ll move into the software, RSS feeds, why we need one, and how to get one. Lastly, we’ll put all the pieces together, and prepare for getting our first episodes out the door.
Room
Room 1
Time
11:00am Saturday
Podcasting 301
Podcasting 301 will offer a discussion on all the things you wish you knew regarding podcasting. Getting found in iTunes, does New & Noteworthy actually matter, submitting to other directories (such as Google Play Music), what links to create on your site to up subscriber conversions, and other tips that will help you grow and engage with your audience, and other best practices with regards to creating your content.
Room 1
1:00pm Saturday
Tracking Your Podcast Growth
Tracking Your Podcast Growth will discuss all the numbers we associate with our podcasts, and what those numbers mean. Our stats help us determine if our listenership is growing, where those listeners are coming from, and can affect how we talk about our shows with potential sponsors. Other numbers from social, your website, even your e-mail newsletter can also have an overall impact. We’ll even get into what is worth worrying about, what isn’t, and how often we actually should check our numbers (no need to join stats anonymous).
HUB
10:00am Sunday
If you are in the Pittsburgh area and you are a podcaster at any level, I encourage you to attend Podcamp Pittsburgh, and stop by one of my sessions. One thing I can guarantee after my many years of teaching the technical side of podcasting, you will leave having attended these sessions having a much better idea of how podcasting works, how to deploy what you learn, and how to track your podcasting success.
If you have a question you would love addressed during a session, e-mail krystal@thedrunkentech.com or tweet me at @thedrunkentech. Can’t attend in person? Podcamp Pittsburgh is always streamed live via YouTube, I’ll post the links here and on Twitter once they are available.
There are a few cities out there still running Podcamps, and one of the longest running Podcamps happens to be right in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This past weekend was Podcamp Pittsburgh X.
In case you didn’t know, X stands for 10. That’s 10 Podcamps, over 10 years. I think that’s really amazing. Keeping communities going for any period of time is tough, but for these local groups, to stay together for years takes an amount of dedication not only from the leaders of that community, but from the community itself.
There were a number of awesome sessions, including the keynote by Podcamp Pittsburgh co-founder Justin Kownacki (@justinkownacki) and a great Sunday morning session by the amazing Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan). Now that one, I took tons of notes at.
There were sessions on getting started podcasting, and sessions on social media, and even a session about how to help your jaw and mouth so that the sound you put forth into your mic is better which ultimately leads to less editing time. I, for one, am all about less editing time!
My co-worker, Greg Buretz, did a session on how NOT to break your feed. This session is so good, I think we’re going to turn it into a webinar. It was a bit more technical, but it discussed some of the every day things that producers do that can break their RSS feed. It’s information any podcaster should at least be aware of, even if they have a great host that generates their feed for them.
My session discussed WordPress and podcasting. I focused on the basics of setting up a WordPress site geared specifically to media creators. Interested? Go check it out here. I had a good group and some good questions. I just might have to turn that into a webinar also. 🙂
Some friends from Ohio came into town, Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting and Nick Seuberling from Inside the Jungle both came PCPGHX. It was great to see some out of town friendly faces.
If you are a podcaster, do check your area to see if there any podcamps running. If not, check for podcasting meetups. Many cities have meetups that have been running for a very long time and are a great way to get face to face with the podcast community.
Hope to see you next year for Podcamp Pittsburgh 11!!
Rob Walch usually gives this presentation, and usually with much more polish. But, during Saturday of Podcamp Pittsburgh, 2014, I was asked over and over how one might go mobile while podcasting.
Sooooo….. I threw together a session to fill in one of the open slots on Sunday, and with the help of Dave Mansueto (Bossjock Studio), showed off some of the gear and software that can be helpful when taking your podcast mobile.
At Podcamp Pittsburgh 2014, I offered a session on podcasting using Google Hangouts on Air. If you are unfamiliar, Google HOA is a video solution that allows up to 10 participants (but unlimited viewers) simultaneously which is then streamed.
This session discussed why you might consider using Google Hangouts on Air, especially as a podcaster. I also covered how tos, best practices, and even ran a live HOA. Lastly, we discussed how to take a Google HOA and bring it down to an audio or video that you can repurpose for your podcasting RSS feed to distribute to iTunes and other podcasting distribution points.
