Podfest Founder Responds to Concerns Raised on Twitter

We would like to address some criticisms that have been raised by a few folks on Twitter.

Most of these points can be found in Tal Minear’s Medium post.

(Here’s the Link to a folder of Tal’s original post should it ever change)

I want to take the opportunity to address these points so we can have one area where both points of view can be seen for everyone to read for themselves.

The first question Tal raised is about Podfest Global, a completely virtual event that took place on March 1st-5th of 2021.

Here is the first point, “Tickets are surprisingly expensive, given that they don’t pay any of their speakers. The cheapest ticket is $50, and they go all the way up to multiple hundreds for VIP access.”

Our response,

During Covid, Podfest made a concerted effort to make sure anyone around the world had access to the information at hand. Over 88% of our passes were given out free of charge to attendees, making sure money didn’t stand in the way of anyone getting access to the information.

Why then did we use a $50 price point if we gave those passes away complimentary via codes?

We had a completely free pass at a previous virtual event and spammers drove online submissions into our Eventbrite, causing a mess on the back end as we had to delete each one manually out of the system prior to the event starting. Therefore, it was decided that we would have a $50 price point to make sure people had a code and that they came from a trusted source- like a speaker or member of the community.

This helped the Podfest ecosystem, as we could cater to these individuals that went the extra step to register and we could track where they were coming from via the custom codes. This allowed us to shut down any code that might have been put on a spam board out on the internet.

(below screenshot is from our Eventbrite dashboard. You can see the obvious difference between free and paid tickets)

2nd Point on Access to Podfest Content:

As far as the Podfest policy on access to our content, we have had our Pay-It-Forward Program active since 2017 and have given over 18,000+ virtual passes to anyone that is in need of financial assistance.

For In-Person events over the years, we have conservatively given around 1,000+ in-person passes to individuals needing a hand up. Our policy has and will always be that of inclusion to any individuals that need access to the information who are going through financial hardships.

(Below is an example of what our pay-it-forward submissions look like. You can see this email is from 2017 when we originally started the program)

Third Point on Speakers as a Profit Center:

Podfest is a community. As part of that community, we feature our members to share what they have learned with others.

At Podfest Global, we featured over 500 creators as speakers.

Many of whom were speaking for the first time.

I personally met with any speaker who requested support and guidance on presenting to the Podfest community.

There were a handful of speakers who requested further support and help to construct their presentations, and with my blessing, Andrew Weiss, our team member managing Speaker support, offered his private consulting services in the P.S. line of his email to speakers.

Two (2) speakers took him up on this offer and Podfest did not receive any of that money.

Below is a snapshot of my calendar that depicts what our speaker schedule looks like in the weeks prior to the event, helping any presenter properly prepare for Podfest Global. We do not charge for these calls.

ACCESSIBILITY: During the planning for Podfest Global, Caroline Mincks brought to our attention that we were lacking in the area of audio captioning. We listened and immediately implemented a policy that ALL virtual events, starting with this year’s Podfest Global 2021, would have transcriptions for all sessions.

(Here is an email exchange between Andrew and Tal below on making sure to accommodate requests with speakers during Podfest)

It is FALSE for Tal to say, “I got auto-captions enabled for my presentation after several emails of my own, but outside of Audio Drama track, they were noticeably absent.”

Podfest provided this for the entirety of Podfest Global, so much so we had community members doing PSA tutorials so people knew how to turn them off if they so desired.

We also have made it standard for all of our virtual events and are making sure to have these accommodations at our Podfest 2022 hybrid event.

(Below are screenshots of sessions that happened during PodGlobal 2021 virtual event. You can clearly see the closed captions at the bottom. These screenshots are from sessions outside of Audiodrama Con)

(Below are images from our May Virtual Event, called Podfest Masterclass, which happened after Podfest Global, showing that our policy continued for events afterwards and still continues for all our virtual events)

(Below is an image from Podfest Origins which took place in October 2021)

Fourth Point: Accusations of Ableism/Accessibility Inclusion

According to Access Living, “Ableism is the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. At its heart, ableism is rooted in the assumption that disabled people require ‘fixing’ and defines people by their disability.”

We are responding to this comment from Tal’s piece, “The ableism didn’t stop there, though. During the only town hall recording I watched, they wanted the speakers to know that “Miracles can happen at Podfest”- and the example they gave was a speaker standing up from his wheelchair as part of a presentation as if ambulatory wheelchair users do not exist.”

This refers to a podcast called Stem-Talk. At our in-person Podfest Expo 2020 event, we invited a member of Stem-Talk’s research team to showcase medical advancements in science, which is what their podcast focuses on. It was an amazing moment seeing a young man who was fitted with electrodes within his spine stand from his wheelchair. There was no intention of making another person feel less than. It is not what our community is about. It was a representation of the amazing work that podcasts are able to highlight around the world.

I have never ascribed to Ableism as I am someone that, as a child, had to undergo 4 surgeries for my differently formed right ear. We have been open to all people and mindful of their needs. We have and will always make sure that we are inclusive of all individuals and their needs no matter how different they may be.

As someone who is completely deaf in my right ear, who dealt with bullying from a very young age, these concerns have not been taken lightly. (Image of my right ear.)

I would never want another human being for one second to feel discomfort from not feeling welcomed or cared for.

As a child, I was in and out of hospitals with friends that had all kinds of different abilities and we all helped lift each other up and encourage each other.

Fifth Point: NFTS

Our stance on Bitcoin and the adoption of NFT’s:

We believe that financial inclusion in a decentralized monetary system is a huge step in the right direction away from centralized authority.

We also believe that creators are being given more control over their future, being able to create NFT’s. Energy consumption is something that the tech community is addressing in real time and utilizing renewable sources of energy helping negate the impact of energy consumption moving forward. Mining always chases the most efficiently produced power. Mining can and does take advantage of power that would have otherwise been wasted. (Source) (Source)

We’re aware that people disagree with our stance on this, however our approach is always educating our community about updated tools and resources in the industry.

Sixth Point: Native American Heritage Day

Finally, this post was put out on Twitter about Podfest highlighting Native American Heritage Day.

Our Community Manager Ka’Tia Alderman is Native American and asked if it would be ok if she could celebrate her heritage by posting on the Podfest account on the Friday after Thanksgiving when it is “Native American Heritage Day.”

How this was twisted makes us believe that anything Podfest does will be misconstrued as negative by these select individuals.

Please understand that the Podfest team is made up of humans who have been listening to, implementing for, and helping our community of independents all along the way. We know we don’t always get everything right. We’ve also openly welcomed feedback from our community members on how we can do better.

Below is a screenshot of our feedback form. We send these out after almost every event, asking for our community members’ honest feedback so we can improve.

(Below is an email I personally sent to Caroline Mincks a week before PodGlobal was set to start. I never received a reply.)

My intention in writing all of this is to truthfully represent the community that I started back in 2015, the community that has grown one incredible human at a time, a community that supports its fellow members and has grown stronger during an extremely difficult time when we are leaning on each other for positive support.

Podfest is a community that I am proud to be a part of and will continue to grow with love.

Respectfully, Chris Krimitsos