In the fast-paced world of information technology and social media, conferences have become mainstay.
From SHARE in the 1950’s to today’s Gnomedex, TED, ETech, and others, conferences bring the people who are working with today’s newest technologies together to discuss what’s new, what’s next and what they can do to take it a step further.
The ideas behind podcating, in fact, were first discussed at Dave Winer‘s BloggerCon conferences in 2003 and 2004.
From 2004 to 2005, discussions and sessions about podcasting were often hosted at blogging and IT conferences. Smaller podcasting meet-ups were hosted in bars, restaurants, basements and backyards all over the world. Tod Maffin organized many of Canada’s first podcasting meet-ups. Podcast-specific conferences didn’t appear until 2006. 
The first North American podcasting conference was Podcasters Across Borders, which was held in Kingston, Ontario, June 24-25, 2006.
Following that, PodCamp Boston was an unconference which gathered 200 people to talk and learn about podcasting. 
It was held September 9-10, 2006.
The Podcast & Portable Media Expo 2006 was held in Ontario, California, on September 29, 2006.
Many other podcasting conferences have followed in the footsteps of these trailblazers.
Conferences are a sure sign a new technology is hitting the mainstream. Podcasters from across North America and beyond drove, flew, fundraised and hitchhiked to attend these events.
