I thought Eric Meyer was in the wrong panel - he’s a CSS maestro above anything else. But he gives lots of presentations and so in that sense, he’s familiar with podcasting events.

I’ve divided the findings into ‘How’ and the ‘Why’. Interestingly they started talking about ‘How’ first.

How to podcast an event

Sound quality.

One common trend I can pick out from this panel and yesterday’s is that there’s a move towards podcasting higher-quality audio. Which doesn’t seem like rocket science to me. It’s more a question of getting the right (read: more expensive) equipment and putting the right people on the scene to record the sound.

The rise of video podcasts

The other trend that this panel seems to agree on, is that more podcasts of events will be video podcasts.

New features

Williams made a pretty plausible suggestion that the next generation of podcasts will be able to have clickable links (to presentation files) as the podcast is playing. The links will display in the video/preview portion of iTunes.

I’ve seen our very own Straits Times (main Singapore newspaper) do that with their audio podcast. The photos change as the newsreader moves on to a new topic.

Legal stuff Copyright issues are also highlighted. You need clearance for music, and permission from the speaker. [Again, not rocket science - at least to me.]

If you’re putting up a commercial podcast, the speaker may want a cut from you. Meyer joked that he has a mortage and a family (two year old daughter), so he needs the money!

Allsop points out that if you podcast an event for free, the audience who paid money to fly in and take time off work to attend the real event, may feel ripped off.

Sherrine shared a real-life example on this. Conversely, the podcast would be useful for those who were unable to attend the event. However, she notes also that those who attend the real event experience more than just the live content. [I’m assuming she’s referring to being able to network with other people and do other stuff that people listening/watching podcasts cannot do.]

If you have sponsors, they may also want a piece of the podcast. Williams says having a podcast increases the value for sponsors.

When to podcast an event

Meyer says podcasting some events may be a waste of bandwidth (ie, if the speaker isn’t that hot).

Meyer put it another way, “Who wants to listen to an hour of me … typing?” (laughter) So it depends on the nature of the event.

May points out that podcasting will be useful when you know there are two great conferences on at the same time (eg SXSW and eTech!).

Allsop had 300,000 downloads for a conference which only had 600 people. He says podcasting has turned an event into something that connects people on a much larger scale.