Kupferman “Never Dreamed” She Podcasts Live “Would Sell Out at Over 650 Tickets”

To say that the recent She Podcasts Live conference was a success would be like saying that podcasting seems to be catching on.

Co-organizer Jessica Kupferman had, “expectations… that it would be small, and we could wow the attendees we got and then build from there. I never dreamed it would sell out at over 650 tickets!”

The impetus for putting on yet another podcasting event was, “It became obvious that our community wanted time together at other podcasting conferences, and our meetups just weren’t enough. We were being asked to do a conference for years, and finally it just became time,” Kupferman said.

In other words, while there are plenty of meetups and conferences nowadays for podcasters to attend, the industry was still lacking a female-only event. “The industry has one other podcasting event for women, Werk It, which focuses on women who work for podcasting companies and larger media corporations. There was nothing focused on independent women podcasters, and that’s who Elsie (Escobar) and I support the most. We needed our own space to learn the things that matter to us, and Elsie and I were humbled and honored to provide it.”

Even the location was a hit.

“I wanted to choose a city that hadn’t been inhabited by a national podcast conference previously and somewhere close to Elsie, and somewhere I’d never been,” Kupferman said. “Atlanta hit all three! There is a very rich podcasting community we were able to tap into, but we didn’t know that before we chose it.”

Make no mistake, though. Putting on an event of this magnitude is not for the faint of heart.

“I have this weird arrogance in thinking that if I’ve done one thing, the unknown thing can’t be so bad,” Kupferman said. “I’ve planned weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs so I assumed this was a larger extension of that. This happens to me often, where I think a seemingly overwhelming task isn’t as hard as it seems, and before I know it, I’m knee-deep in a new project. It’s almost always NOT what I thought it would be, but nonetheless I’ve been successful in executing regardless. I was nervous about what I didn’t know, but having (Podfest Multimedia Expo Founder) Chris Krimitsos as a partner really smoothed out any worries I had pre-event.”

As for a second edition of She Podcasts Live in 2020?

“I would love to hold it in a place with really pretty and serene ambiance, and add lots of things we couldn’t this year,” Kupferman said. “I really want the women to have lots of social time in addition to learning time, and I’d love to have a bit more communal programming. We are hoping to attract about 1000 for next year but I’d be thrilled with more! The more women attend, the more stories are told, and the more lives are changed, hopefully for the better.”