Hello, Continuing Studies listeners, welcome to another episode, but this episode we're doing something a little bit different, aren't we? Jen? Yes. I'm really excited about this episode because we have one of the OGs of Continuing Studies podcast, our very first producer, also the Wizard of Higher Ed Pods Directory. And just our friend Gregg. Hi Gregg. Hi Jen. Hi Neil. And hello listener. Wow. Quite the, that's quite the welcome, Jen. I love that. I want you to give me a welcome now.
I'm excited to be me right now even, I'm so excited by that intro. Yeah. That's good. Let's not get 'em too excited here. So today we're just going to spend a couple minutes chatting and updating everyone on Higher Ed PodCon. Which is the first inaugural one, which I'm excited about. And you two have been working tirelessly with a few other great guys. Elvin, Joe. And Dean. Yeah, we are. And we are at a place where we can start to talk about the agenda and some of the speakers as well too.
So we thought we'd just sort of give everyone an update on that. And just to remind you, it's July 12th. In Chicago. It's a jam packed one day event. You're gonna get your money's worth. We've got a lot to cover off. Yeah, I mean, this is a particularly exciting thing and I think for the listeners of this show, it's been talked about so much about community within higher ed podcasters.
And how oftentimes the guests will talk about how lonely an enterprise it is as a podcaster and particularly as a higher ed podcaster. 'Cause oftentimes people are so siloed in their work or they're doing it off the side of their desk or you know, all these sorts of scenarios. And this is a fantastic opportunity now for all these incredible people to come together and learn from one another. So yeah, we're gonna hang out people. It's gonna be great.
And the thing Neil and I also hear a lot is, Neil and I have been going to conferences for the last four years. That's how we met. And in one of the early ones that we were at, there were a few higher ed podcasters. And I remember Neil, you put together a little shindig where it was like we meet up at the one in Denver, a little meetup, and there was only a few of us, but that was their complaint, is that there's not enough podcast information on higher ed pods. So now we're doing it.
We're doing it. So now we've got a website. Now there's a conference that's going on and a fantastic agenda. Neil, you sort of alluded to the agenda that's there. I mean, first up, Matt Abrahams is the keynote speaker, not just one of the great podcasts within higher education, but one of the top podcasts in the world. A huge listenership and a friend of us here on the show. So I'm really excited that Matt is gonna be there and is going to share with us.
And then actually there's a whole bunch of previous guests on this show in the three tracks. Neil, how about you describe the three tracks? Yeah, so we've got three larger tracks and we're gonna run concurrent workshops, is what we're calling them. So the three tracks are, the first one is strategy, growth, and discovery. So really thinking about your podcast from a strategic perspective, tips and strategies to grow it and to get it discovered.
One of the areas in there that we wanna dive into, and we've got a couple people coming to talk about, is how they've built networks at their universities. And I think that's a great way for individual podcasts to create discovery. Everyone joining together, we've interviewed a few people on Continuing Studies and we've talked about that network effect. So, that's one of the areas. The second one is about content and production.
So in this one it's really just sort of getting into different content themes as well as there's a couple of folks coming in that can really talk to the production side of it and sort of getting into the tactics of production. And then the third area is what we're calling tech tools and analytics. The second one from a production perspective is really trying to focus in on the content and driving better and creating efficiency within your content production.
This third one is just even further kind of getting into the weeds here on different tools and technologies you could use. But also Gregg and I are gonna do a session in this one about analytics and really everything but the download, like what are all the things that as a podcaster, as a higher ed podcaster, you can pay attention to beyond the downloads and looking at the different platforms and things that you can get out of those platforms.
And this is what I really like about this particular conference because when I go to the other conferences, everyone talks about growth and they have a quote unquote growth track, but you actually don't learn about growth. And I love the fact that we're taking it back to the basics and actually like going to the things like what are your analytics? And I think that's what a lot of people wanna look at.
Every time, like I remember the very first conference I met you, I went on the growth track and not throwing shade at this guy. Like obviously he's a speaker in in his own right. The growth tactics did not seem attainable to the average person. He was just one of the ones on the floor too talking. And I remember one of his growth tactics, and again, his audience is like beginner podcasters. He's in like the beginner podcaster track and he is like, write a book.
A book is gonna bring attention to your podcast. And I was like, that is a lot of work to write a book. Not everybody is a writer, including myself. And just by writing a book does not guarantee that your brand new podcast is gonna grow. Yeah. I think the other really key part here is that these are all focused on higher education podcasts. So the growth, for example, this is not for monetized podcasts that are looking to grow their downloads so they can get more revenue coming in.
And for some higher education podcasters, it's not growth for the sake of growth. It's like, for an alumni podcast for example, that's about like, how do you grow the engagement within your alumni? So yeah, I think that's the other part that's really key. Yeah, I would just expand on that. This is something that I'm really excited about for this conference.
My favorite conferences I've been to are those where the person who's giving the presentation is basically just the one who's prepared the presentation, but everyone else there also has a great deal of expertise to share. And that's what I really look forward to with this Higher Ed PodCon is that, you know, these are people that are creating podcasts out there.
You know, nobody's got it all figured out, but a lot of us have our corners of things figured out quite well, and we have so much to share with one another. And so, yeah, Neil and I we're gonna have a great presentation, which I feel really confident about right now. I'll be definitely nervous about 10 minutes before, but That's the way it is. But it's, yeah, that's how it goes. But that's gonna be great.
And the thing that I know is that there'll be people in that audience that will have great insights to add and the particulars, like you say, Neil, for a higher education podcast, or this isn't an event for a marketing group in particular where you're trying to drive ad sales. Basically nobody at this conference is gonna be trying to drive ad sales, and that really changes the whole discussion of what a podcast is about. And yeah, this is, this is for you listener.
But people should be thinking that way, regardless of if they're doing it higher ed or to create a podcast. Everyone thinks right away monetization. And there are ways to do it, of course, but I think what we're showing is valuable is like why people use podcasting as a tool for business. You use it for a tool for higher education. There is so much more to it and there's so much richness to it that you just have to figure out like is it for networking? Is it to get my message across?
And I think this is what I like that we're bringing it back to that here in this conference. Yes, totally. So, there's essentially, there'll be four, so as we said, one day there's the keynote, and then we have four different workshop sessions. The nice thing is lunch, we're setting that aside for some networking and perhaps maybe a live recording surprise there from a podcast, like TBD, let's wait and find out. But we've also have, in the afternoon, in the middle of the two session slots.
We've got a networking and so that isn't for everyone to go out and get on their phones, but we are actually going to do a networking exercise. And so the goal, as Gregg said off the top, this is about community. We want us to go away from this one day event and having met a whole bunch of other fellow higher education podcasters. So we are gonna do some networking exercises and I think it's gonna be fun. We've got some really fun ideas.
And then we're gonna end the day with the reception, so more time for, Party! For networking, some drinks and some hors d'oeuvres at the end of the day. So lots on deck there. And it's a Saturday, so I'm sure a lot of us will be staying over the Saturday night and there's also a White Sox game on Sunday, so maybe, you know, we should, we could all go out. We do uh, like a continuing studies as a team building exercise. I think so. So yeah, we're pretty excited.
Details, we'll be continuing to add at HigherEdPodCon.com. Put that link in the show notes. And we had over 32 submissions. for speakers which was incredible for the first time around for an event like that. And from a fantastic diversity of different sizes of universities, like really big institutions with huge budgets and endowments to small universities and colleges, you know, so the big range that way. And a range of different types of podcasts.
You know, some STEM podcasts, alumni, podcasts, you know, like a full range. It's awesome. Student led podcasts. Student led. Yep. So we're gonna be covering, We got it all. That's great. And it's in the Chicago and it's really exciting city as well. So you can tour around the city and go to Higher Ed PodCon. It's a great city. Uh, big question for you guys, 'cause I've never done this. Last time I was there and I kind regret it. Have you ever had like deep dish? Oh, Chicago deep dish pizza.
Yeah. Kat our producer is going no. Our producers in the background going, no, you don't want it. I don't know. I feel like this is something that we need to try. I'm gonna try it. I think Kat has an opinion on pizza that you'll have to come and find out about in Chicago. Yeah, that's another good point too. So who this is for?
It's for the people, you know, like Neil and Jen, the people behind the microphone, but also the people like Kat and myself who are generally on the other side, like, you know, working the controls and you know, the marcom department. Dealing with us divas. Yeah. The divas and those who deal with them, we're all welcome together. We can separate into our groups. Well, let's leave it there.
Another episode, different episode this time, more of an announcement, but we'd really love to see you there and to meet you in person at PodCon in July in Chicago. Looking forward to it. It's gonna be hot.