Podcasting Conference For Education Exceeds Expectations
The Before, During and After the First HigherEd PodCon in Chicago
What do podcasts and higher education have in common? At first glance, the two demographics seem to share little in the way of shared interests. However, that’s not what the organizers behind HigherEd PodCon thought when they put together an entire conference combining higher education and podcasts into a single day of panels and networking sessions throughout an over nine hour time period on July 12.
One reason for putting on the conference according to Joe Sallusito was to create a sense of community in the higher education and podcasting spaces. For Sallusito and people like Dean Hoke of EduAlliance Group, there was still the matter of how to break the conference down while still keeping that core theme of community. The three tracks: “Strategy, Growth & Discovery,” “Content and Production” and “Tech, Tools & Analytics” can be found in some form in many podcasting events like Podcast Movement. An unfortunate side effect of having the conference take place within a single day was the trade off of having to choose which panel you wanted to see more during a 30 minute time slot. In addition to the panels, there were also 15 minute networking events in the main area of the conference at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Student Center East Building. “They’re really going to have to choose carefully,” Sallusito said in an interview a couple days before the conference began. He added that thanks to the turnout this year, more days would be incorporated into future HigherEd PodCon conferences. However, nothing like location or dates have been discussed as of yet
But what is a higher education podcast? For Joe, a higher ed podcast is “either generated by a university or an independent podcaster whose main audience is going to be higher education professionals.” This includes admissions, alumni relations, faculty, staff, students and more. The number of people attending the conference varied by their academic institution and region. The top three spots by state were California, Illinois and Utah; Ensign College, BYU and Purdue by school. Community colleges were also represented with Howard Community College and Cuyahoga Community College in Maryland and Ohio, respectively, as the top two spots in that category. Statistics comes from Dean Hoke.
Podcast and Panel Stats
While on the subject of statistics, one of the top pieces of information attendees took away with them was that the focus on download numbers were going away. Or, as one of the speakers — Matt Abrahams of the “Think Fast Talk Smart” podcast — said in one of the opening panels: “It’s a melting ice cube.” That idea stuck with both Steve Foerster of Success Learning and Katie DeFiore of Penn State.
Later that day, two of the event’s organizers — Greg Oldring and Neil McPhedran — put on a panel explaining why this is using the statistics available from Apple, Spotify, Amazon and Podcast Addict. In short, they separated followers, plays, listens and downloads from each other and explained how not all are created equal.
Equity in Networking and Learning
While it's hard to determine the quality of a panel as it is so subjective, one aspect of the conference proved beneficial for everyone. Scattered throughout the day were three events which allowed people a break between panels and a chance to network.
Some people have more background in podcasting than others. Dee Patel from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business said one of the reasons she attended was to find out more about the current landscape of podcasting in higher education. Patel works in Marketing and Communications at the university and wants to “stay ahead of the game and … helping the podcasters that I’m tasked to help with to put their best foot forward.”
Patel adds that the Wharton School is starting a Wharton podcast network to elevate the faculty brand and the research they do into more digestible bites. “Very few people are going to read a 25-page paper,” Patel says. In addition to promoting faculty work, podcasting is great for enrollment. Students who see a professor has a podcast are more likely to be interested in that instructor as a person. It gives the faculty some humanity and lets them discuss their interests in a different and more engaging way.
Podcasting as College Sporting Event?
When some people think higher education, rankings are at the top of most of their minds. It’s the prestige of knowing the school you’re attending is ivy league. Perhaps more apparent to the general public than the academic bragging rights inherent in ranking high on a list is college sports. Sports are a big deal and sports at the college level are no different. This creates competition and rivalry that can affect people’s everyday lives.
The podcasting ecosystem is in its adolescent stages. The difference between podcasting’s puberty and humanities is that the former doesn’t have hormones as a guiding factor. Combining these two disciplines — higher education and podcasting — would seem like a recipe for disaster. Funnily enough, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Greg Oldring gives an example of a time on the Continuing Studies podcast when recruiters from Harvard and Yale law schools collaborated to talk law school admissions at their respective institutions.
Post-Conference Debrief
Co-Organizer, Elvin Freytes said the most difficult part of putting this conference together was the technical aspect of setting up all the audio and video. An aspect he thought would be easy considering the nature of the conference. Something he said he thought would be difficult, but turned out to be easier than expected was the turnout. And in a world where there are more divisions than unity, the future doesn’t look as hopeless for not only higher education but perhaps the world too.
Last but not least, special shoutout to
for acquiring the press pass for me.About the Writer
Michael Bergonzi is the founder of AudioDramaReviews.com — a website and podcast dedicated to reviewing podcast fiction and other stories told through sound. He began the site in 2013 and the podcast in 2018. His reviews can also be found on GreatPods: an aggregator like Rotten Tomatoes for podcast reviews. Michael is also a speculative fiction indie author with an epic fantasy series loosely based in Asian history and mythology and a science fiction novella on giant fighting robots where suicide is a punishment for the next of kin. In his spare time, he’s working on a steampunk story where forensic science is an actual magic system.
This substack is for news in the audio drama/podcast fiction space. If interested in coverage, please send press releases to Michael@audiodramareviews.com.
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