The annual four-day Podcast Movement conference lifted off on Tuesday with an ambitious program of over 60 presentations, panel discussions, and interviews. Alongside those knowledge sessions, many featuring well-recognized podcast personalities, a vibrant exhibitor space held elaborate booths and mini-meeting spaces. The event is being staged at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at the edge of Washington DC.
Three consecutive keynote speeches started the event, after which six tracks of content delivered more information and presentation than any single person could consume.
TC Research
Gabriel Soto, Senior Director of Research, took the stage first with “A True Crime Investigative Special on Podcast Growth Opportunities.” With wit, detail, and metrics from Edison Research survey details, he led the audience through the attributes and storytelling techniques that made True Crime a pioneering and enduring podcast genre.
We learned interesting details of this key podcast type: For one, nearly 50% of listeners are more likely to listen to a Crime podcast if the subject is regional to them. Overall, True Crime remains staggeringly popular: 84% of surveyed Americans have listened to one at some time (that’s 234 million people). One in five fans listen weekly.
Tiny Things
Second, the global entrepreneur Steven Bartlett took the stage — he runs the Diary of a CEO podcast — ranked by Spotiofy as one of the top-ten most popular podcasts in the world. The man is a passionate advocate for building a solid business with relentless testing and achieving an accumulation of very small successes. Bartlett generated buzz in the keynote theater with his strong advocacy of failure — as an inevitable fact of business that should be celebrated for its curative power. (In his 60-person company, there is a Head of Failure position.
Along the line of micro-building of success, Bartlett spoke passionately of the “one percent gain.” (“Our team thinks of all the tiny things we can improve.”) and “a thousand small things done well.”
“Never refer to your show as a podcast. It’s a show.” –Steven Bartlett
Wild Cards and Revelations
In what will certainly be the most personally revealing session at Podcast Movement, NPR radio celebrities Rachel Martin and Ira Glass sustained a lengthy game of Wild Card, bringing to the stage an ongoing feature of Martin’s podcast. Each card asks a personal question about the guest’s like, thoughts, and feelings. Ira Glass was a fully involved participant, delivering lengthy, articulate, revealing answers involving his inner thoughts and emotions. The session stretched this keynote way beyond its scheduled end … we didn’t observe a single person leave the room, and we hope an edited version of this fascinating dialog will be released to the public.