FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Podango Brings The Podcasting Unconference 2006
to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo

Unconference delivers unkeynote with Robert Scoble and conversations with Mommycast, Paul Colligan, and others

Orem, Utah – August 30, 2006 – Podango, a Web 2.0 company that enables podcast stations that integrate the “live conversations” of blogging with audio conversations to create a more compelling and complete online and offline experience for podcast listeners, today announced it is bringing The Podcasting Unconference 2006 to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo being held September 29 – 30 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California.

“We are excited to deliver a great podcasting unconference at the industry’s hottest podcasting conference,” said Lee Gibbons, CEO, Podango. “Not only is the podcasting market on fire, this is going to be a great show: the Podcast and Portable Media Expo has received Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006. Participants will not be disappointed.”

Podango, a Web 2.0 company that enables podcast stations that integrate the “live conversations” of blogging with audio conversations to create a more compelling and complete online and offline experience for podcast listeners, today announced it is bringing The Podcasting Unconference 2006 to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo being held September 29 – 30 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California.“We are excited to deliver a great podcasting unconference at the industry’s hottest podcasting conference,” said Lee Gibbons, CEO, Podango. “Not only is the podcasting market on fire, this is going to be a great show: the Podcast and Portable Media Expo has received Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006. Participants will not be disappointed.”

Podango, a Web 2.0 company that enables podcast stations that integrate the “live conversations” of blogging with audio conversations to create a more compelling and complete online and offline experience for podcast listeners, today announced it is bringing The Podcasting Unconference 2006 to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo being held September 29 – 30 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California.“We are excited to deliver a great podcasting unconference at the industry’s hottest podcasting conference,” said Lee Gibbons, CEO, Podango. “Not only is the podcasting market on fire, this is going to be a great show: the Podcast and Portable Media Expo has received Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006. Participants will not be disappointed.”

The unconference will feature guru-moderated discussions on specific topics at scheduled times throughout the Expo at Podango’s booth (#301). During sessions, participants will engage in conversations led by podcast luminaries such as Mommycast, David Lawrence, Evo Terra, John Furrier of podtech.net, expo organizer Tim Bourquin, and Paul Colligan. Sessions begin right after the Expo Keynote each day and will last about 30 minutes each, with short breaks in between. For more information about The Podcasting Unconference schedule, go to www.podango.com/unconference.

Commenting on Podango’s plan to bring an Unconference into his Podcast and Portable Media Expo, organizer Tim Bourquin said, “We’re thrilled Podango is doing something unique and unusual in their booth at the Expo. Attendees who visit booth 301 are in for a treat because they’ve done a great job of putting together a top-notch line-up of discussion leaders.”

Unconferences 101

An unconference is an event that leverages and communicates the sum of the expertise of the people in the audience rather than relying just on communicating the expertise of the people on stage. Unconferences do away with the typical moderator/panel/Q&A format. At an unconference, the audience members become the participants, assisted by thought leaders who function as the session moderator.

“People who participate in an unconference usually appreciate the differences in communication patterns between the unconference and that of traditional conferences. They are just more interactive,” commented Gibbons. “It is a remarkable experience, when properly organized; everyone comes away knowing the collective wisdom of the entire group. Everyone just participates and learns at a very high level. In a real sense, it is a great example of what Podango is trying to enable with its podcast station model: many contributors and a rich conversational model, rather than the usual unidirectional push of information.”

About the Expo

Winner of Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006, the 2nd Annual Podcast and Portable Media Expo is the only industry event that brings together influential podcasters, media, corporate executives, and device makers to cover the complete range of business, marketing, and legal issues for audio and video podcasts and portable media.The expo will explore how place and time-shifting technology is changing the business landscape of media. It will also look in-depth at the new trend of individuals participating as media companies and producing content at broadcast quality.

About Podango

Podango, a Web 2.0 company, enables rich community conversations by integrating the “live conversations” of blogging and community forums with the rich communication value of audio and video podcasts to create a complete online and offine experience. The company provides a complete platform that allows the creation of podcast stations, independently owned and run by Station Directors who act as guides, to bring together the best podcasts in their focused area of interest and interact and converse with their subscribers. Each station distributes multiple podcasts and includes community intereaction tools to enable an enhanced community conversation. In addition, the listener can tailor the information they subscribe to, via a custom RSS feed, to participate in the information most relevant to them. For more information, visit www.podango.com or email info@podango.com.

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Contact:
pr@podango.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Podango Unveils Podcast Station Service at
TechCrunch Meet Up

New company to change the podcast experience by delivering free, hosted services for the management of podcast stations    

Orem, Utah – August 28, 2006 – Podango, a Web 2.0 company that integrates the “live conversations” of blogging with audio conversations to create a complete online and offline experience, was unveiled at the TechCrunch Meet Up in Menlo Park, California where 700 people attended to see new Web 2.0 products.
The new company delivers free, hosted services for the management of podcast stations by giving Station Directors, who own their Podango Stations as independent media properties, a complete platform to create and converse with subscribers. Podango’s services benefit the growing number of podcast listeners and viewers by providing:
·         simple, tailored, targeted information delivery
·         a trusted Station Director for each Podango Station that sifts, sorts, and prioritize podcasts
·         moderated services for easy community involvement and contribution
·         consistently high-quality content
·         a steady flow of the best podcasts in their area of interest
“This moment has been a long time in the making,” said Douglas G. Smith, president, Podango. “We have been working hard under the radar to bring podcast solutions to market that we believe will dramatically improve the online and offline experience for the growing number of podcast listeners. We also believe it will greatly enhance monetization opportunities for podcasters and business people looking to leverage the growing podcasting market.”
 

Podango Services
Services provided by Podango available as a beta include:
Castback™— encourages community involvement by providing a simple way for listeners to record their comments about a podcasts and provide it as part of future podcasts.

Podcast Surf™— allows podcast listeners to see and interact with their content. Podcast Surf is supported by a Web page that is automatically created as a companion to the podcasts distributed for every station, showing the podcasts related to each day’s programming. The Podcast Surf page contains a transcription of each podcast, relevant links and references for the important names, places, people, terms, sites, and vendors mentioned in a podcast. It also contains instant access to the community forum, Castbacks, and ratings for each podcast.

Transcriptions—Text transcriptions of podcasts are provided to Station Directors by Podango to greatly increase visitors from search engines, listening from those visitors, and ease on content usage through links.

Marketing—Podango’s marketing services help Station Directors build their audiences through several co-op marketing programs including search engine keyword buys, email programs, affiliate relationships, press releases, blog mentions, natural search engine optimization, sponsor and strategic partner links, and home page spotlighting.

Search Engine Optimization—Podango’s site structure and marketing helps Station Directors aggregate textual content for Podcast Stations and format it so that search engine spiders give higher page rankings. The overall Podango domain traffic and partner links also add to page rankings.

Advertising—provides the tools to profile audiences, measure listenership, and promote ad spot opportunities to a growing set of advertisers.

The Podango Dashboard—The Dashboard gives Station Directors the key metrics they need to in an easy to understand format. The dashboard is constantly updated with marketing, customer, and revenue metrics that can be displayed in daily, weekly, monthly and annual views.

Easy Payment System—handles all the payment side of the business including, collecting revenues, distributions of funds to partnering podcasters, receipts from sponsors, fees from the affiliate program or the payments for traffic generation activities. Payment is a PayPal-style fund distribution system that allows Station Directors to monitor results and activate decisions from the Dashboard.

Podcasting Momentum
Podcasting is a new and exciting market that personalizes the distribution of audio and video information. The term “podcast” comes from combining the terms “iPod,” the name of the world’s most popular MP3 player—the Apple iPod, and the term “broadcast.” Podcasts are delivered or broadcasted to listeners’ personal computers and MP3 devices such as the Apple iPod. 

The rapid acceptance of digital audio devices like the Apple iPod is rapidly fueling the demand for digital audio music and spoken-word content. Apple has sold over 100 million iPods to date. In addition, Microsoft has just announced entrance into this device market with the upcoming Zune product line being released under the XBox brand. These two giants will increase the pace of the feature and value race further driving acceptance and demand for these devices and therefore the content that is played on them.

About TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to new companies, TechCrunch profiles existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new Web space. TechCrunch is featured on CBS News, Technorati 100, Feedster 500, and CNet Top 100 Blogs.

About Podango
Podango, a Web 2.0 company, enables rich community conversations by integrating the “live conversations” of blogging and community forums with the rich communication value of audio and video podcasts to create a complete online and offine experience. The company provides a complete platform that allows the creation of podcast stations, independently owned and run by Station Directors who act as guides, to bring together the best podcasts in their focused area of interest and interact and converse with their subscribers. Each station distributes multiple podcasts and includes community intereaction tools to enable an enhanced community conversation. In addition, the listener can tailor the information they subscribe to, via a custom RSS feed, to participate in the information most relevant to them. For more information, visit www.podango.com or email info@podango.com.
  ###
Contact:
pr@podango.com###Contact:pr@podango.com###Contact:pr@podango.com

###Contact:pr@podango.com