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09.19.05
A
Bright Future For UK Podcasting
 By
Neville Hobson
A tremendous success - that's my judgment of PodcastCon UK which took place in
London on Saturday.
Europe's first conference on podcasting
saw 120 or so people gathered together to present, talk, mix and get to know each
other in an atmosphere of keen excitement. A massive tip of the hat to the four
organizers who put together this groundbreaking event - Paul
Nicholls, Adrian Pegg, Alex
Bellinger and Neil Dixon.
I met so many people with great thinking and ideas, some I know already or whose
podcasts I listen to, others who I met for the first time, including Nicole
Simon, David Davis, Richard
Byrom, Leanne Byrom, Chris
Ritke, Chris Skinner, Richard
Vobes, Mark Hunter, Ben
Metcalfe, Lloyd Davis, Ewan
Spence, Mike Mills, Chris
Smith, Marit Hendriks, Jay
Pond-Jones and Blugg. Loads of
others, too - fleeting chats in the breaks and in the pub after the event.
If PodcastCon UK signifies anything,
it's that there is absolutely no shortage of creative ideas, imagination, energy
and enthusiasm about podcasting as an entertainment and business tool. Conversations
with people were simply idea streams - if only two or three of the things I heard
about on Saturday come to fruition, there is a very bright future for the development
of this medium in the UK.
Lots of posts and photos already online. Brian
Condon posted a good concise
summary of most of the presentations including mine. My few photos are here
on Flickr.
I presented on the business potential of podcasting. A PDF of my presentation
is available for download
(1.5Mb) plus the podcast
clips MP3 (3.3Mb) I played as part of the presentation, which has samples
from podcasts by General
Motors, US Air Force, Warner
Bros, NASA,
IBM
and Virgin Atlantic.
Chris Kimber of BBC Radio and James
Cridland of Virgin Radio had some
very interesting things to say in their presentations. I'll be posting commentary
on that in the next day or so.
I was also impressed with Be, the new
UK broadband company and the prime sponsor. Rather, impressed with Dana
Pressman, Be's managing director, for her highly professional and credible
sponsor's presentation. She came across very clearly indeed as the leader of a
company who understands this particular audience and their needs. And a very nice
gesture - Be had run a
competition at the conference with the prize being a year's free 24-meg internet
access for the lucky winner. There were three finalists. So she announced each
would get the prize. How to win firm friends and influence!
Also, check out Oculas that was on display - a sort of a high-tech capsule or
pod that you can get into and shut yourself away from the world and relax yourself
with the aid of some cool gadgets inside. That description doesn't do it justice
at all, though. Neither does the photo I took (in the Flickr set). Visit their
website for details. And if you fly British
Airways this month, check out page 17 in the September edition of BA's Business
Life magazine - I was flipping the pages on my flight back to Amsterdam today
and there is a feature on Oculas.
And last but not least, I didn't see any of the expected Playboy
bunnies...
About
the Author:
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevOn
blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
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