Cincinnati’s podcast festival is back for year two, with a new name, a new venue, and a new lineup.
This year’s event is called PoD Discovery(s) and will take place in Rhinegeist’s Brewery’s event spaces in Over-the-Rhine.
The festival also has a new partner in Gwynne Sound, a downtown studio that will enable podcasts to be streamed live.
Last year’s inaugural event was called the Cincinnati Podcast Festival and, this year, the organizers began to think about rebranding to attract a wider audience, asking themselves: “Why would someone jump on a plane in Seattle and come to Cincinnati for this podcast festival?”
Hence the new name, to help highlight its purpose and differentiate from other regional podcast events.
“We’re focusing on risk takers,” says organizer Steve Ramos. “We’re focusing on frontier technology that impacts the world of podcasting. It’s different from what most midsized cities have, which is regional showcases of the best of the podcasts of that area. We do some of that too, but we really focus on creators.”
Year two will move north to The Clubhouse and The Annex, the event spaces at the Elm Street brewery. Memorial Hall, where it was held last year, was a bit too big with nearly 600 seats. Ramos is expecting about 250 people to attend this year.
The addition of Gwynne Sound to the team will enable live streaming and the company will also create a pop-up studio for podcasters in attendance to podcast on the fly.
In another change from year one, the organizers put out a call for entries and received about 50 from various podcasters, largely from around the Midwest, but also from farther away. “Clearly, the community is starting to grow,” Ramos says.
PoD Discovery(s)will kick off on Tuesday, Oct. 22 at Novel Coworking in the Hooper Building on Fourth Street downtown. The evening will begin with some mingling, but the focus will be a PechaKucha night, a series of lightning talks designed for creatives to share their work and ideas. This event will be held from 5–8 p.m.
The main event will take place at Rhinegeist on Wednesday, Oct. 23, from 8 a.m.– 4 p.m. This event will include a series of workshops, panels, presentations, and live performances.
With attendance expected to more than double this year, Ramos anticipates more growth in the future.
“This event will continue to grow and be back in year three, four, five, and beyond,” he says.
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