An Interview With Tim Bourquin - Founder Podcast Expo

Bourne: How and when did you decide to hold the Expo?

Bourquin: My company has been producing tradeshows and conferences since 1999. We're always on the lookout for new trends and ideas for events. We also have three podcasting sites of our own. In November 2004, I could see that there was a lot of interest in podcasting and many people were asking questions about equipment, growing an audience, etc. When you have a passionate group asking for education and help in a brand-new industry, it's a great opportunity for an event that brings everyone together.

Bourne: How did you get interested in podcasting?

Bourquin: Our company has been doing streaming media sites since 2001. But when we launched EnduranceRadio.com for triathletes, marathon runners and adventure racers, we had a lot of our listeners manually transferring the mp3s of the interviews to their portable devices so they could listen to them as they trained. We were already using an RSS feed to notify them that a new interview had been posted, but they still had to go to the website to listen. When I read about podcasting, we simply added the enclosure code to our RSS feed to automate the delivery of the audio as well. For this particular audience especially, podcasting was awesome because they typically don't listen at their computer. Instead they listen while they are running, cycling or working out. Podcasting the interviews automated the process of getting the content on to their devices so they were very happy with it and adopted it quickly.

Bourne: What three things should every PME attendee know?

Bourquin: 1) We've developed five tracks for the conference this year to meet the needs of everyone attending. We have an entire track just for hobbyists who don't care about business models or making money. But we also have an entire track for corporate podcasters, another for podcast entrepreneurs and one for beginners where we go through everything from A-Z in two days.

2) If they are not ready to sign up for a conference, we have a free option where they can register and attend the keynotes and exhibit hall each day.

3) Some of the best things that happen at conferences like this happen in the hallways and after hours. The conference brings everyone together for two days to exchange ideas, learn about equipment and help each other succeed. It's always great to walk by two podcasters who have been listening to each other for a year and are meeting for the first time. It's one of the best parts of doing the show.

Bourne: What's the biggest mistake most new podcasters make?

Bourquin: Podcasting works best when it delivers content to a niche audience. A common mistake is not defining your audience. The narrower your audience is, the better, because the listeners tend to be more loyal. And advertisers like it because they can reach, with pinpoint accuracy, the exact people they want to through your show.

Bourne: How can attending PME help podcasters?

Bourquin: As podcasters ourselves, we design the conference program to answer the questions we'd like answered. Most of our speakers are not affiliated with a company trying to sell anything and are just passionate about the topic and want to help others. There is something for everyone: beginners to podcast "veterans" and everything in between.

Bourne: What's the future of podcasting?

Bourquin: It's got to get a lot easier to subscribe to and consume podcasts before it goes truly huge. I see a day in the next five years when it will be as easy to "tune in" to a podcast as it is to tune into an FM or AM radio station. As wireless broadband becomes more plentiful and affordable, you'll see content aggregators on devices themselves, including car stereos, allowing listeners to bypass a computer altogether.

Bourne: What's the biggest misconception about podcasting?

Bourquin: Many people still think that most people listen to podcasts on portable devices. Our own surveys and those of others indicate that 50 to 60% of people listen right on their computers, which is fine. We want to provide the content in whatever format they want.

Bourne: What level of experience should podcasters have who attend PME?

Bourquin: The "Podcasting 101" Track is designed so that if someone comes to the show with just a basic idea of what podcasting is, they can leave after the second day ready to start their own. And other tracks have sessions for people who have been doing it for a couple years. So we really do provide something for people at all levels.

Bourne: What podcasts do you listen to?

Bourquin: I'm most interested in the business side of things so I listen to Paul Colligan's MarketingOnlineLive.com and Scott Fletcher's PodcheckReview.com. But I also listen to the guys at BaseballGeeks.com.

Bourne: What are the biggest challenges facing podcasters?

Bourquin: As more and more podcasts come online, it's getting tough to get attention for your podcast when starting from scratch. So it's becoming more important to use the right keywords in the ID3 tags and allow your audience to get your content in multiple ways. We offer a lot of different formats including Windows Media and RealPlayer in addition to the standard mp3 format. We also use paid search to grow the audience.

Bourne: Why locate the PME in Ontario, California?

Bourquin: It's a question we hear now and again. We have it in Ontario, Calif., because many of our attendees are not coming to the show on their employers' expense account. The Marriott is right across the street from the convention center and is $92 a night. All the discount airlines fly into Ontario, California which is three blocks away. It's important to us that it is affordable to come to the Expo, and it wouldn't be for many folks if we held it in San Francisco or New York.

I want to thank Tim for sharing his views about the podcasting and the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. I'd also like to mention that I will be speaking at the PME. I'll speak about attracting and keeping advertisers. Here's a link to my session. I hope to see you there.


For more information on podcasting visit my site PodcastingTricks.com.

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