… by Lynette Young

I wanted to try something new. No, that’s not right, I wanted to bring back something old. You see, podcasting has been in my blood for seven years, but has been slowly replaced by faster and easier forms of online communication. What used to be a difficult process of writing, recording and publishing audio (or video) for on-demand distribution has been whittled down to simply typing 140 characters or less to express an idea or thought. Luckily in the past few years podcasting as become almost that easy, and has been enjoying a revival of sorts – both with producers and with listeners. To me, it’s more important than ever that people that joined ‘social media’ online be introduced to ‘new media’, including podcasting. As BlogWorld & New Media Expo has seen a bit of controversy lately over the lack of podcasting topics (they are still there – just look for digital publishing) I wanted to help bring the podcasting communities back into the social media arena. After a great talk with the staff at Blog World Expo, the idea for the Podcasting Pavilion was born.

The Podcasting Pavilion presented by Social Media Club local chapters hosted at BlogWorld and New Media Expo was created to act as a BoF (Birds of a Feather) discussion and conversation hub for podcasters (and people interested in what podcasting is & it can do). Ever hear that some of the value of attending a conference is in those ‘hallway meetings’ and chance encounters? Well podcasters – that’s what inspired the Podcasting Pavilion! You will get out of the Pavilion what you put into it – so help us make it great! BlogWorld Expo offers a podcasting track (digital publishing) and lots of social media tracks but the Podcasting Pavilion is meant to offer another take on the conference experience.

The entire purpose of the Podcasting Pavilion is to have a ‘homebase’ for podcasters and provide a bit of structure for those chance hallway encounters. The Pavilion is always available to just hang out and meet other podcasters as well as offering new podcasters a place to get questions answered and meet experts and veterans in the industry. Several podcasts will be recorded right at the Pavilion, so if you’ve ever wanted to see what goes into making a podcast hands-on now is your chance! You might even get a chance to get interviewed for a podcast as well.

Rather than speakers the Pavilion will have ‘facilitators’ – knowledgeable podcasting practitioners that know their way around a RSS feed, microphone and video camera. The Pavilion isn’t a place to hide in the audience and send tweets – you can participate as much (or as little) as you’d like. The topics we are going to cover are below, just keep in mind they are guidelines and suggestions than formal agendas. Of course you are more than welcome to create your own podcasting topics at the Pavilion, this is for the podcasters by the podcasters!

• A to Z Podcasting & Video Podcasting
• Podcasting for Business (B2C / B2B / B2E)
• Building A Podcasting Community
• Podcasting Killed the Radio Star – Music Podcasts
• Podcasting for Creative Types
• Making Money Through Podcasting

If you are interested in helping facilitate any of the topics above, feel free to get in touch with Lynette via email or Twitter and let her know what topics you can help out with. See you at the Podcasting Pavilion!

Lynette Young has been a pioneer in social media since she began blogging in 1997. An expert in podcasting and virtual worlds since 2004, she founded Purple Stripe Productions, a social technology and strategy firm, in 2006. She works with companies and organizations to help them have more meaningful conversations with their customers in new and engaging ways. Lynette is a frequent speaker at conferences around the country. She is an organizer for the Podcamp Philly conference, and is the Program Director for Social Media Club Princeton NJ. Lynette was also inducted into the NJ Social Media Hall of Fame.