Chicago Podcast Day wrapped up a couple hours ago, and I’m elated to say the first-ever event was a success.

The idea became a priority for me when I realized nothing like it existed in Chicago. Beyond that, I felt that the existing national-level podcast conferences were too pricey for the common person to attend … and too bloated to truly connect with the needs of DIY creators. You can’t invite everyone to the party when there’s a velvet rope around it.

The day’s agenda was a breakneck rollout of nine panels and presentations, including Podcasting 101, Creating a Branded Podcast, How in the Hell Do I Make Money from Podcasting, Podcast Law, What Can Digital Audio learn from Traditional Media, What Gear Should I Use, From Word of Mouth to Paid Ads – How to Best Use Social Media, DIY Marketing and Audio Editing Tips & Tricks from a Pro. As compelling and quotable as each session was, I feel like we’ve only begun to scratch the surface.

The audience asked great questions. They took notes. They were engaged from the start. Perhaps most interestingly, the majority rarely wandered away from the stage area, and most stayed for the entire event.

One audience member took it upon himself to gather email addresses from everyone in the room, in an effort to use that list as a way to further the community that was created today. I can’t wait to grow with, and learn from, this new group of creators.

The question I was asked most at the end of the conference was, “when are you doing another one?” The answer to that is as yet unknown, but it’s clear that this needs to be an ongoing thing.

Thank you to my brilliant panelists and presenters, who donated their time and wisdom to build today into something meaningful and informative: Jaime de’Medici, Patrick Brower, Alex Stewart, Chris Lanuti, Lou Carlozo, Ilya Zlatkin, Amy Guth, Todd Ganz, Jill Hopkins, Yuri Lysoivanov, Erik White, Lizzie Baumgartner, Martin Atkins and Dan Levy.

And thanks to the Center for Creative Entrepreneurship, 2112 Creative Industries Incubator, Scott Fetters and Daniel Crane for partnering on Chicago Podcast Day. Everyone from the presenters to the attendees agreed it was the perfect space to hold the event.

Since I was on stage for 70% of the time, I didn’t get many pictures. Because of that, I had to grab the photo below from Mike Vanderbilt, which captured me during one of my favorite Chicago Podcast Day moments. To explain: Chicago traffic was miserable this afternoon, causing one of our presenters to be significantly delayed. The show must go on, as they say… so I “freeformed” for about 15 minutes, enjoying an open conversation with everyone in the room about what information they feel they need in order to be successful in the podcasting space. It was a fantastic chat; the room’s desire to learn best practices, demystify podcasting’s nuances and create meaningful content in the space was palpable.

Let’s do it again in the Fall.