It’s been an exciting last few weeks since the announcement of the Asia Podcast Summit!
What is it?
For the uninitiated, the Asia Podcast Summit, or APS for short, is a gathering of experts who share their insights on the Asian podcasting space – ranging from engineers to hosts to even large companies who have premium data on the podcasting world. (ooo!)
It’s run by MeaVox Live, a podcast consulting and education company based in Singapore!
Though there are many podcasting summits that overlap the region (eg. Podthon, Virtual Podcasting Summit), it’s very rare to see that a summit focused on the Asian podcasting space. I’m personally excited!
Disclaimer: I’m voluntarily helping out with it as the Marketing Lead 🙂
Pretty cool and all, but therein lies a ton of questions especially for a beginner:
- What is a podcasting summit?
- Why should I go to one?
- How do I join? Where do I go? Is it free? (The most important question!)
Let’s try to answer them throughout this article:
What are summits?
Summits are where you can find all the experts gathered in one place. Think of it as a giant seminar, attracting all the greatest minds in order to paint a detailed picture of the topic of your choice.
Podcast summits are essentially a gathering of the best of the best, the cream of the crop – notable names in the podcasting industry for example. Hosts, producers, media company executives, platform representatives: there are a number of descriptions that fit here. To gather them together in one place and give us a chance to listen to their insight is fantastic!
There’s a catch: summits normally tend to be physical. There may be a venue, and attendees have to be present there to listen. We’d have geographical limitations, and the team would need sponsors to help with getting the right place. All the costs will add up with hosting an event physically.
But, Asia Podcast Summit has done it differently!
Introducing: Virtual Summits!
It’s much more inclusive to hold the summit completely online.
Virtual Summits are the same thing as summits, except that, as long as you have a working mobile device, an internet connection and your ticket to joining the event (ps.: sign up here!), you can attend!
Handling it this way is great – as an attendee, you can listen from the comfort of your own home, and not be bothered by other factors like transport and parking. On an online platform, there is much greater control from the hosts’ side – there could be an opportunity to chat with the speakers for example!
At APS, attending the summit is online and free. That means anyone can attend.
How does it work?
For APS, the instructions are as follows:
- Register at: asiapodcastsummit.com with your email
- Check out the speakers’ page for more information on what to expect:
- Before the event, the MeaVox Team will e-mail you a link to the event. Save that link, that’s your ticket!
- During the event, click your link and enjoy the summit!
What to expect?
Here are some of the speakers so far:
- Dave Visaya helps over 50 podcasters consistently release their shows with great quality over his 7 years experience as a podcast producer and consultant. He and his team at Podcast Engineers use the best podcast production practices and top applications to deliver the utmost results to their valued clients.
- Kuti Biazid is the Founder and Principal Trainer of Vocapedia, with 30 years’ experience as a voiceover artist. She has narrated thousands of audio work over the years for TV and radio commercials, documentaries, corporate videos, training manuals etc for a wide range of industries.
- Nikolaj Groenewag is an entrepreneur, AI engineer and podcaster. He’s the co-founder of Cryptogenes, a market research company focused on emerging trends in Fintech. His podcast French Tech Asia Pacific explores and promotes the French entrepreneurial ecosystem of Asia Pacific.
There’s plenty more! You can check them out here.
While you’re in the same place as these experts, there could be a chance to ask them questions, which is great in helping you re-evaluate where you are in your podcasting journey.
For example: you could ask for tips on vocal exercises, and clarity with Kuti, or podcasting recommendations from Dave.
The awesome part is, fellow podcast lovers are there too! APS is built to attract all fans of podcasts, regardless of levels of interest and ability. There’s going to be people interested in starting a podcast, or seasoned podcasters who want to know what’s trending from experts. You could reach out to fellow viewers, share the event etc. and you can find out who’s there as well!
What’s happening now?
Let’s go through these in bullet point form!
- Nominations for the APA are closing by September 22nd! So if you want to send in your show, hurry up because it’s closing soon!
- Initial judging has already started!
- More and more speakers are being announced over time, from different countries and experiences. There’s bound to be something up your alley!
- The team is working hard to get the word out there. It’s always great to have your favourite shows to become nominated and recognised. Plus, you never know if there’s a budding podcaster out there who wants to join the Summit!
- There are already updates about us on Podnews!
A Podlover’s Thoughts
I think it’s amazing to see APS collecting all the people of interest here!
Throughout my attempts at seeing the state of the Asian podcasting space here, there are elements of fragmentation and isolation – podcasters are silo-ed either by their ability in creating podcasts, or that they look to other sources outside of the region for help. There are few unifying bodies that support the creation of podcasts in Asia, and by unifying bodies I mean any form of podcast guild or formal entities that support these. At this time, support is still in its infancy stage.
To get past these barriers, it is imperative (I love to use that word), to get enough heads turning towards the medium. Once there is enough recognisable demand, the opportunities will become visible and more and more entities will start looking at it.
I love seeing efforts towards building this space. MeaVox has already recognised the full potential of podcasting, and how the power of voice will affect general consumption behaviours at least for the next few years. This summit is evidence of that, and so is the Asia Podcast Awards, which I’m covering in another post :).
—Norm
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