85- Attending live Entrepreneur conferences in 2021 and beyond

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In this episode of The Struggling Biz, we discuss the idea of what the year 2021 — and beyond — will hold for live business conferences and events for entrepreneurs and professional specialists. And we especially deal with one case-in-point.

The case study is that of the Podcasting live conference, especially the Podcast Movement conference now scheduled in 2021 — to be exact, it is scheduled to be held in Nashville, Tennessee from August 3-6, 2021, at the Gaylord Hotel.

Since 2014, this conference for Podcasters was a live conference, an inbound event, which grew from 500+ attendees to the 2019 conference that had over 2,000 attendees — and the scheduled 2020 conference (to have been held in Dallas, Texas) with a planned 3,000 attendees. And such was the experiment of this inbound event that the leaders of the conference split the event into two shows — one in Los Angeles in February of 2020 (which I myself did attend) with an expected 1,000 attendees; and the other scheduled in Dallas in August of 2020 (which was rescheduled to October of 2020, and then canceled due to the virus crisis, with a resulting virtual online conference in October of 2020).

And now the word from the web and the tips from the internet conversations of pundits and other professional podcasters is that the conference will most likely be held in August. However, it may be a return to the older conferences — that is, before the split-off of the 2020 schedule. Whereas the February, 2020, conference was called Podcast Movement–Evolutions, which had different scheduled sub-topics, platforms, focus and events, the upcoming 2021 conference may have to “reset” back to the older conference formats, speakers, panels, keynotes and deliver the value to the audience as they had before. So perhaps something of the experimentation did get lost in the virus crisis of 2020.

The question asked now is: Will live events and inbound in-person conferences become the norm again starting in 2021? Well, the experiment will begin next year, as the Podcast Movement team will try their hardest to deliver a live event in Nashville.

For this entrepreneur and podcaster, the value for live events can be seen in the relationship-building and relationship-regeneration that occurs during a live event. In the hallways, in the snack and dining areas, in the hotel lobbies and other rooms at the venue — all of these offer the participant the opportunity to build the VALUE with either the other attendees, or the speakers or the pundits or the exhibitors or potential customers and potential JV partners.

This is what is missing from any virtual conference. And it cannot be replaced by an online event that does not allow the cementing of personal relations in a live setting.

For this podcaster and entrepreneur, the buzz and the value of the in-person relationship is what can make your opportunity appear and sometimes come true for your business. And, as said in my other podcast series, PodcastReporter.com, there can be up to nine elements or aspects that you will miss if you do not participate in a live event, such as the original Podcast Movement conference in 2014. And in one episode, I did highlight the nine things you could miss out if you do not attend and participate in the first conference — and it still holds true today:

And after you listen to this 14-minute episode, you will see that you cannot replace the things you receive from attending this type of in-person event with a substituted virtual online event. Why? Because the inbound event requires human connections and communications and conversations and CHEMISTRY — and these are not possible over the network in Zoom meetings or anything similar.

So, for this podcaster and entrepreneur, I am looking forward to the re-opening of the economy in 2021 and the re-activation of the live events for podcast conferences — especially the Podcast Movement conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Since the last time which I gave a review of such a podcast conference (for the Podcast Movement –Evolutions event in 2020), I am looking forward to providing this entrepreneur show and the PodcastReporter.com podcast show with the review of another live event.

I think that the value will show that these conferences will have podcasters excited to be again with their peers and other like-minded individuals, where all attendees can find VALUE for their businesses once again.

Thank you for your attention.