Networking and Navigating Industry Events: Tips from the Pros - PCI 411

0:00 Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mike Dell, the VP of customer relations here at Blueberry. And last week, we spent the the entire week in Washington DC attending the podcast movement conference. The conference went pretty well. We met a lot of people, and I'm sure a lot of you that are listening today, if we saw you there, yeah, good good to see you. And, Yeah. I caught the the airplane crud on the way home, so I don't sound the same. But, anyway, we're gonna rerun an episode that we did early last year about, why you might wanna attend an industry conference. You know, not just a podcast conference, but, something in your niche. So without further ado, here is this week's episode.

0:49 The game plan's gonna change, so be flexible. The best conversations are often in the hallways or in even the after evening events where you're having those deep intimate conversations where you can you can spend thirty minutes chit chatting about stuff and, meeting your, you know, your heroes and fans and at the same time, really getting this up and close personal information that you probably wouldn't otherwise. You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochran, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting with all the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting.

1:35 Welcome. Let's dive in. This is Todd Cochran, CEO and cofounder of Blueberry Podcasting. I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist here at Blueberry. And I'm Mike Dell, VP of customer relations here at Blueberry. Today, we're discussing the advantages and maybe some disadvantages of attending industry events for your podcast. So, really, the question of the day is, should you go to industry events related to your show topic? Notice we didn't say about podcast events. We said related to your show topic, and I have pretty strong feelings about this. I I'm probably one of the few that well, at least I've done this many, many times.

2:19 Yeah. I've done that as well, you know, with, certain things, but a lot of my podcasting has kind of been about podcasting. So I guess it's not exactly the same. But, I for a while there, I did that fast food history one, and I actually went to a, chili dog contest downstate. So, I mean, you know, that's an industry event, and I got some listeners out of it. And I think it really depends on your on your content too. And, you know, do you have an industry wide event that you can attend? And most, you know, I I think there's a convention or trade show almost for anything. You know, I've been to a variety events. I've been to, DragonCon. I've been to CES. I've been to NAB. You know, I've been to a variety of different events that surround some of my show content, and some of it's kinda supplementary as well. But, again, I know a lot of podcasters focus on going to podcasting events, which is fine.

3:19 But at the same time, I think if you're trying to grow your show, surrounding yourself with people in your content space is probably pretty important. And there's also some advantages here in doing so. One of my, goals was to get a press pass in the early days to go to CES and and really was never an open event for anyone that was a blogger or a podcaster. So I it took a little took about a year for me to get recognized enough to be able to have not only the traffic volume to my website because sometimes they ask about that and some other key questions. You're gonna ask about what you wrote about or what you talked about and some examples, but I was able to get a press pass for CES back in two thousand and five. It was pretty exciting.

4:06 Yeah. That's definitely something that that is nice. You know, I went to CES with with you guys a couple of times and, you know, to help out with production. And, you know, over the years, you got better and better spots on the floor for a broadcast booth and, you know, you you became one of the press, one of the the experts in that field. By the way, we got all three of us here today. Say hi, Mackenzie. Hi there. You know, going to the events that aren't podcast specific can sometimes be my favorites of the year. I love going to the Podcast Central ones because it's fun to catch up and meet all these creators and people that are passionate about these topics. But, it can be really refreshing to see how someone outside of the podcast community can view what we're doing or, you know, be totally new and confused by it. And I think it's helpful. Something good to do to, see if you're staying on the right track.

5:08 You know, I remember when we first started going to events, we really did not know what to expect. And the first year, we just walked around with, the ability to do audio interviews and we decided that was probably not enough. And the following year, we came back with, with a camera and was able to do interviews and booths and talk to different people. It just gave people a different perspective. It's not so much that anymore. You can walk in almost with a cell phone and do a interview these days and it would probably be considered the norm. But I remember one of the events I walked into this little, little brand new company called GoPro and, that was our first year exhibiting and they had, I don't know, at that time, maybe they had a twenty by twenty booth that wasn't very big and they were literally getting, you know, people were kind of ignoring them to a certain extent. When that, when that first GoPro came out, it obviously wasn't the best camera, but it was definitely something unique. And I remember doing interview with them and I was like one of three press people that actually gave them video coverage from that event. And I earned really from that encounter alone a lifetime friendship with the, GoPro team. I, you know, today if I walk into a GoPro booth and there's key people around there that that know who I am, I'm just like kind of almost escorted into the back and, you know, offered a cocktail and, you know, now they're in a hundred

6:38 by hundred booths and, you know, everyone wants to talk to them. So there's advantages of talking to people within the industry that may be new or are trying to build a business in the space that you're you're covering. It was just one of those things. And really my goal for attending industry events was really the ability to build authority. I was a tech blogger, not a good one. And by doing the podcast and covering tech content in an audio and visual way, it really opened up and gave me the ability to grow audience that was kind of outside of the normal consumption group because we were able to attract new listeners to the show by really having these high profile interviews with companies.

7:24 And what really drove the new subscribers was those companies actually linked back to the content that we had written about them in the interview that we had posted. So not only did we get backlink love from the vendors, we also had vice presidents and presidents and directors of marketing that we had talked to were pushing people to listen to those interviews, which ultimately drove traffic and build authority for the website and for my podcast. So it really was a watershed moment for me to understand the value of going to an industry event, but that can lead then into a whole bunch of different opportunities. And Mike and Mackenzie, you both you've spoke at different events.

8:13 Just by going to industry podcasting events, you've been asked to speak. What are some of the other reasons why you should attend? The biggest one for me is networking. That's where you're gonna be able to meet the like minded people for either your topic specifically that you're podcasting about or just podcasting in general. Like, whenever I go to these events, it's just so nice to see that people are excited to see other people and just everyone is so open to the idea of meeting someone else. That's my biggest thing. How about you, Mike? You'll go into podcast specific ones or other ones. It's it's simply the meeting the you know, meeting people and being able to connect with people and speaking. You know, that's another thing. You know, you you're the the more you do it, the if you got some topic to talk about you know, they're always looking for speakers. You know, some of them are more competitive than others, but, you know, it's really a a good thing to, you know, build your authority. And listening to speakers, that's the other thing. You know, there's certain ones I like to go to whenever I go to any events, you know, because I wanna hear some different perspectives on the industry that I'm going to or or whatever. But again, meeting the people is is is still the biggest one. Networking, like Mackenzie said.

9:33 One of the things that happened with with my progression of going to industry events, and I use CES as kind of the story behind why I think industry events are important, is the first year I went with another podcaster, like I said, and we just walked the floor and did interviews. And the second year, we came back with between the two of us, we had a camera, and we did, interviews, just walking floor. Again, things that we thought were interesting. As that progressed, we started to build a team, and these were members of the Tech Podcast Network folks that actually were participating in, creating content as as a group. And what was fun was we'd have four or five different podcasters there and a couple of their support people and and over time this this entourage, podcasters grew, it got pretty big and I think the peak we maybe have twenty two or twenty three people at an event. So what happened with us is we were given the opportunity to do one of the first lives from CES and, there are these multimillion dollar boosts there.

10:44 And that year, NBC Universal was getting ready for the Lake Placid Olympic games. And they had this, I mean, beautiful, beautiful multimillion dollar set, and they told us that we could use their set for ninety minutes to basically livestream and have guests come up on the stage. And and when we executed that, there's a whole story about that execution and how it went, but we had forty five thousand people watching the ten or so interviews we did in ninety minutes on this livestream. And it was it was an amazing, a really, really an amazing event. And then following that we took that data and we went back to the CEA and say, see look what we did with just ninety minutes, being live and exposing our audiences to this show And the following year, they gave us free booth space and it was really back in the nosebleed seats in the South Hall at South Las Vegas. Upper or something.

11:46 Yeah. And I mean, it was really like the farthest booth you could matter of fact, we were the last booth in the corner And we did a couple of years there building our cred, and then, ultimately, we got moved. For those that know Las Vegas Convention Center, we got moved just outside the taxi stand inside the building of North Hall and had a Primo spot. We were there for three or four years. And then ultimately what has happened now is we are actually given quite a bit of space and several broadcast towers between two different sections of the building. We don't have to bring our, we don't have to hire security, we're given free internet, we're given the space, all we really do is have to get ourselves and our gear there and what that has really opened up is this opportunity once a year to really interview about two hundred different companies and grab information that can lead to sponsorships, that can lead to further engagement down the year as you're trying to create more content for your show and you get on their mailing list so that you know about their announcements, it just opened up for us. And again, it wasn't just one podcast, it was multiples of us that were teamed up. And, Mike, like you said, you had came and assisted one year or or two. I can't remember, but the thing about it was was that we all shared that content as a collective, so we didn't have to do it by ourselves.

13:10 And everyone was responsible for their own little thing. I had one person booking appointments, another person that was in charge of, like, setting up the the the broadcast area. So you're able to accomplish a lot with a team and that's something you can do as well. If you're a podcaster, you have two or three friends that are have like minded content, maybe team up together. But so what's some of the stuff folks can expect when they go to an industry event? My first event, I think what I was surprised by the most was the long hours. The first thing that you can, that you'll see is it's probably gonna be, you know, a variation of the eight hours that you're used to working, but it's such a, confusing day if you've never been to this event before or you're just, you know, getting used to talking to people at booths because so much of going to an event is the expo hall if they have one. So the long hours for sure and the three of us, Todd, you taught me right away that, if you're doing a booth, wear comfortable shoes and stay on the carpet if you can.

14:15 Yeah. That's the thing. And, you know, and the on those CES trips that I went on, we were what breakfast call was at six in the morning, and we were broadcasting by eight in the morning at the booth, and we stayed there till, what, five at night or or even later sometimes. And then we would have after events. So we'd have to go to all these other after events. And, you know, we come dragging into the hotel at ten o'clock just to turn around and do it at six. So, you know, it can be a long day depending on what you're covering, at that event. They're tiring in the best way. Yeah. It's well worth it, but it's and it's fun, but dang. And and I always say though, Vegas events, you don't if people say, oh, did you gamble? Did you have a good time? You go see shows and you kinda like, no.

15:00 We didn't have time. You barely have time to eat. Right. You know, and I think too is what I end up finding no matter what event it is it is is there's lots of new information. And one of my goals going to an event let's say I'm gonna go to a session at an event, is I just look for one nugget, one nugget out of a speech and if I or out of a presentation. If I get one nugget, then by the end of that event, maybe I've attended six or seven sessions. I have six or seven nuggets to come home with because otherwise you're just overwhelmed because there's so much new information. And I always recommend if it's a trade show you're going to go to be educated on, always sign up for that digital passport too so that you're able to get the digital content afterwards or go rereview a session you sat in and to repick up stuff that you may have missed.

15:51 There's lots of inspiration. You come off these events really kind of like on this inspiration high and you're excited, but it is truly a fire hose event. So you have to take it in little small bites to be able to really put that information to good use later. And if you're there to create content, then there's the whole job of post producing and getting those articles and interviews up online, which for us when Yeah. If you're trying to go live, you know, or or close to live same day coverage, then, you know, you figure you got some time in the in the editing booth or, you know, your laptop in your room or something. So Well, we we learned it was impossible, and it it that'd actually take us six weeks to get all the interviews published because you didn't wanna publish more than one or two a day just because you're feeding the RSS feed all this new stuff, and you're reach you're hitting your audience pretty heavy. So I actually set up a special podcast, actual I call it, Geek and Essential special media events, and it's its own podcast to be able to feed that that draconian amount of content into because there could be two hundred interviews that get posted over what you've collected in a five day period.

17:02 I added about a hundred of them for one year for you. It's it's it's a lot of work to do that and then do the blog post and everything else. So you may not, you know, your your experience will be different, but we were going out for a mass mass amount of content. You may just go and get ten interviews. So don't think you have to go out and do two hundred, but the key thing is is to get quality ones that will feed Google, feed your show, and help you build audience. That's really what it's all about for these. And that's what I use the industry events for is building audience. I always tell people that conferences are a marathon, not a sprint. Oh, that's right. The the days will catch up with you. You're gonna be simultaneously inspired and motivated to do something new and also utterly confused on how to do it, or you just figured it out, and that's the exciting part. Yeah. You I I feel like at this point, I can spot a newbie at a conference, like, a mile away. Or if someone comes up to me and I can just tell that they're like, I know I should be here getting this information, but I don't know what I'm actually supposed to be doing.

18:09 Yeah. Or sometimes they don't even know what to ask. Mhmm. They're there maybe having done no pre work. And I always think it's important if you're gonna go to an event, take a look at the vendors, make a list of those that you wanna talk to, think about the questions you want to ask them, and at the same time, you know, pick out a handful of topics that you may wanna attend as far as sessions goes. But here's the thing I've always told people. Once you hit the ground, it's like, the opening moments of any event. Things the game plan's gonna change, so be flexible. The best conversations are often in the hallways or in even the after evening events where you're having those deep intimate conversations where you can you can spend thirty minutes chit chatting about stuff and, meeting your, you know, your heroes and fans. And at the same time, really getting this up and close personal information that you probably wouldn't otherwise.

19:08 Yeah. One thing I would caution people about, and I've made this mistake, so I know. On the after events, don't overdo it. There's a lot of booze flying around. There's a lot you know, you you could party till, you know, daylight. And, man, I'll tell you, there's nothing worse than coming in in the morning to a conference and not feeling very good. So watch that stuff, you know, and then, you know, also depending on, you know, whatever, you don't you don't wanna start talking about stuff you really shouldn't be talking about in public, which has happened, which is kinda interesting for those of us who don't overindulge. Yeah. And Vegas can be an event too where you're definitely gonna wanna have as much water or twice as much water as you do any type of adult beverage, just because it is so dry and most of us are not used to, especially if you're going to Vegas, not used to the the arid conditions there. Other cities aren't as bad, but Vegas in particular is Yeah. And there's a lot of conferences in Vegas. So Yep. So hydrate, hydrate, hydrate as much as you can and, wash your hands often too.

20:18 Bring a phone charger, bring a water bottle. It's it can get it to be a lot. Yeah. For sure. And and I think too is the thing with now we're in post COVID. I think people are more cognizant of, you know, touching their face and all that stuff. But I think too is, you know, having a little hand sanitizer on you is always a good idea just because you are meeting so many people and you might be fist bumping or elbow bumping, but, you'll always wanna have that hand sanitizer available to, you know, to to keep yourself healthy. And then, you know, the the last thing we wanted to kinda talk about is podcast specific industry events. You know, you as a podcaster, podcast creator, you might wanna check out one of these, Podfest down in Florida, Podcast Movement twice a year in different different locations, that kind of thing. The podcast specific events, it's they all have their own personality, I've noticed. Like, Podfest seems to be a little more newbie, new podcasters, and and people just curious about podcasting, whereas Podcast Movement Evolutions is more of an industry thing. It is a lot more businesses and and things like that, but there's always a mix of both. I I I've never been to evolutions until this year. And, you know, it it seems to me that that that's more upscale as far as the people that show up there. But, again, you know, there are a bit of everybody, and it doesn't hurt to go to one of those events. The three of us

21:50 have gone to just a bunch of these things. The podcast movement event that'll be happening in Colorado later this year is one that is, probably the the biggest event of the year, as far as numbers goes, and we'll have probably the biggest variety of of creators. But there's lots of events that could be happening locally. I recommend you, you know, stay attuned of, podcast insider at podcast insider dot com to to look for upcoming events that we'll be at. But also just search for podcasting events twenty twenty three or whatever year this may be that you're listening to this topic, and you will be able to find the events that are happening maybe in your local area where you don't necessarily have to get on an airplane and go someplace to, to hang out with some podcasters.

22:36 For sure. And there's a you know, there's some local groups as well that, you know, you look on Eventbrite and there's other places you can look meetup dot com, I think it is, or whatever that, one was. But we used to have one in Columbus all the time. That kinda went away with COVID, but there's they're just all over the place. So there are local podcaster groups, so search them out. You know, that way you can meet other creators because sometimes this can be kinda lonely, you know, especially if you're a solo podcaster. So think about an industry event related to your show topic. I think you'll get a lot out of it. Start with something close and then maybe decide to go to a national event. I think we got it covered. Just we're excited to see you at events later this year and stop by the booth.

23:22 Thanks for joining us. Come back next week. And in the meantime, head to podcast insider dot com for more information, to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. To check out our latest suite of services and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast, visit blueberry dot com. That's Blueberry without the e's.