2020 Retrospective, and what's next
Jump to: PodUK Goes Digital Retrospective What's next for PodUK in 2021?
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Happy New Year! We hope that you're all having as agreeable-a time as it's possible to have at the moment. If you've noticed that things have been quiet around here since PodUK Goes Digital - well, you're right. 2020 hit everyone hard, and team PodUK was no exception . From a personal perspective, it took the wind right out of my sails. This time last year we were gearing up for a fantastic event, with people travelling the world to come and visit us. This year, we're all stuck at home, with no in-person event on the horizon at all. To all of you who are disappointed that come February we won't be back at Millennium Point - we're right there with you. We sincerely wish we could be. That said, fingers crossed for 2022!
As for 2020 itself: PodUK 2020 was one of the highlights of my year (not that it was hard to beat, in the end, but I think it would have been hard to, even had it been a normal year!), and is well covered - you can read the team's retrospective on it here & here. I never really talked about PodUK Goes Digital, so let's do that!
It always feels strange to try and find a silver lining during this pandemic, but one of them was that we were able to collaborate with many new fantastic creators for Digital, from the UK, Europe, and the US! We put together a virtual day of livestreamed performances, panels and workshops led by a whole host of podcasters in aid of raising money for the Birmingham Community Healthcare Charity, and with the help of our guests and our viewers across the world we were able to raise £1373.16! Charity rep Stacey Taylor gave us a breakdown of how your money was used:
iPad accessories
Sensory & communication equipment for Neuro Rehab
Artwork & furniture
10 baby monitors for palliative care
Hand cream for staff
Christmas entertainment
Thank you all so much for helping us achieve this!
A big, big thank you to Stacey Taylor (Birmingham Community Healthcare Charity), Sonic the Comic the Podcast, Tin Can Audio, Zombies Run!, Ben Meredith, Maddy Serle, Kalila Stormfire, Beth Crane, Alan Burgon, Potterless, Travis McElroy, Clint McElroy, Evan Tess, Faith McQuinn, Lory Martinez, Nathan Blades, Sarah Rhea Werner & Mission to Zyxx for coming along for our livestream!
Massive thanks to Sarah Golding, David Devereux, Marguerite Kenner, Amanda McLoughlin & Eric Silver for joining us in the Discord to host virtual workshops!
| Links to credentials for all the above can be found here |
And thank you to everyone who came along for the day, or to catch your favourite podcaster live!
What's Next?
Team PodUK have some goals for the next year - but please remember, these are just goals right now, 2020 was a difficult time and we're only just getting back into the swing of things!
- More Twitch streaming - Since we're all still stuck at home, we want to start streaming weekly, and we're hoping to kick things off soon. We'll be streaming out some of our past panels & podcasts, doing some gaming, and collaborating with the podcasting community! Keep an eye on our Twitter for updates, and follow us over on our Twitch account to be notified whenever we go live!
- A 2021 digital event - We enjoyed PodUK Goes Digital and want to host another similar event this year, especially given that there'll be no in-person event at all. We have a form you can fill out to let us know what sorts of things you'd like to see at our next digital event - check it out here.
| Are you a podcaster? Want to join us on one of our streams? Collaborate with us for an event, or livestream? Just want to chat? Get in touch! |
Other than that, it's difficult to say right now - the pandemic is raging on, of course, and it's hard to say if we'll be able to be up and running even by February 2022, the way things are going in the UK. We can only hope. But in the meantime, we look forward to seeing you online! :)
P.S - Check out the new Rocksalt Events homepage!
- Jess