Seven Takeaways from the Podcast Show London 2024

First of all, Wow! What a show. This was my second year at The Podcast Show London, and I have to say, it didn't disappoint.

The Podcast Show is always a great place to catch up with all my old friends in the industry (and make a load of new ones.) We all spend so much time grinding that we don't get a chance to get away from our microphones that often. Going out to see each other in person and sharing a drink or a meal makes all the difference. I already can't wait until the next one.

Now that I've had a chance to recover and sleep on everything, I thought I would put together some observations.

AI is Everywhere

Everyone is using AI at some point in their workflow. This won't be a massive surprise to anyone, but what was interesting is how it's being used. The most interesting uses of AI I found are around production automation and efficiency. More than one person walked me through multi-stage workflows made up of tools like Make, ChatGPT, Midjourney, Canva, Adobe, Castmagic, Captivate , ElevenLabs and HeyGen, all connected via complex API chains. Putting in the time, money and effort to build these workflows once means that they can now focus their time on recording great content. All that's needed to do to publish, sometimes in multiple languages, is to simply drop the show file in a shared folder, and that's it - minutes later, a show is live. Upping my automation game for season two of my show is definitely on my roadmap now.

Everyone is Doing Production

lt seemed like every podcaster I spoke to was also doing some sort of paid production work for other people to earn cash to support their shows. Even though podcasting can be done for (virtually) no money, we still have to eat, and there's an opportunity cost associated with the time we all spend recording, editing, promoting, going to shows, etc., and we need to cover this cost somehow. I wonder if we'll start seeing groups of podcasters coming together and forming small agencies or networks to start to share the costs and find more clients. I guess we'll see what happens by the next show.

We're Finding Clever Ways to Monetise

Following on from above, the people who are working on other shows are finding some massively creative ways to attract sponsors and deliver new and exciting services. Two people in particular come to mind - one very large and one very small - who have definitely been using their creativity to come up with unique (clever?) ways to monetise their activities. I know that's a massive tease, but I won't divulge their secrets since I told them I wouldn't, but suffice to say, we'll probably see some interesting case studies coming through the events over the next few years.

Even the Big Shows Struggle for Guests

Fearne Cotton, among others, openly discussed the fact that even she struggles to get all the guests she wants on her Top 10 show. I have to admit, that made me feel a lot better about myself. We're all out there grinding for the best people we can find, no matter how big or small we are.

Equal Representation

To my untrained eye, the ratio between men and women seemed about even. If anything, there may have been more women. Is that progress? I don't know. I'm not sure what the numbers were like last year. Maybe we'll get some actual stats from the organisers in the next few weeks so we can see what the actual split was like?

Smaller is Better

Even though there were approximately 10k people attending, there seemed to be many fewer exhibitors at the show this year, but that wasn't a bad thing. It left more opportunities for networking and attending the various seminars and presentations. For me, the networking aspect of the show is the most important part. It's where we can work together to share ideas, strategies and tactics to grow and be more successful. Having fewer distractions from companies focused on selling us things made everything a bit easier.

Less Swag

I've noticed this trend across several shows in different business verticals. It's not something specific to podcasting, but there was definitely a lack of good swag and free stuff.

I assume it's a side effect of our extremely tight economic conditions, but I can't say that I'm totally disappointed. The last thing I need is another water bottle.

That said, I did manage to win a random draw put on by Music Radio Creative and beyerdynamic and scored a pair of the most excellent DT 770 Pro headphones! I also managed to convince Shure UK and Riverside.fm to let go of a branded t-shirt or two, so the event wasn't a total loss.

BONUS: Dancing is for the Young

I was never good at dancing in the first place, but as I get older, I've realised I need to stop. Thankfully, there aren't any pictures of that.

So what?

I feel totally energised and ready to attack the next year with some new ideas for monetising and growing my show. Now I just need to execute.

See you next year!