Eric Schwartzman will produce a series of his “On the Record Online” podcasts from the Media Relations 2006 conference, April 9-11 in New York. Schwartzman, who conducted post-speaker interviews at the New Communications Forum, will take the same approach at the Media Relations sessions, according to a Bulldog Reporter press release. The podcasts will be available from the Bulldog Reporter website. Presumably, Eric will offer them through his OTRO site, as well.

Neville and I are doing pre-conference podcasts for IABC, and will do some of the same type of podcasting from the June 4-7 conference in Vancouver. (I recorded the first interviews at the Gold Quill Blue Ribbon panel, which chose the international communication competition winners in San Francisco last Friday and Saturday. I grabbed interviews with nearly all the judging teams as well as Gold Quill Chair Marcus Farrar. I have quite a bit of editing to do to turn it into something useful, but I think it’ll offer insight into the work that goes into the awards that are presented at the annual conference.)

I find this application of podcasting to conferences compelling. It provides value to those who can’t make it to the conference without giving away the benefits of attending in person. If anything, the podcasts should make professionals more anxious to attend the conference next year while providing them with some truly worthwhile content from this year’s conference. I wonder when we’ll see non-communication conferences latch on to the same approach.