Podcast Movement

Podcast Movement has been the largest podcasting conference in North America for over a decade. The 2026 flagship moves to New York City for the first time, hosted at Terminal 5 in Manhattan from September 14-18, 2026 — timed with the IAB Upfront.

The conference draws thousands of attendees: indie podcasters, network executives, ad sales teams, platform reps from Spotify and YouTube, gear vendors, and adtech companies. Programming spans dozens of tracks from beginner how-to sessions to deep monetization talks to creator-only invite events.

There's also Podcast Movement Evolutions, the smaller spring event, which in 2026 took place at SXSW in Austin from March 13-15 at Skybox on 6th Street, free to register and open to everyone. The reason to go is the people: this is where deals get done and partnerships start.

The reason not to go is the cost — passes, travel, and hotels in NYC for a September week add up fast. If you're a hobbyist or solo creator, you'll probably get more value from a virtual conference. If your business depends on podcast revenue, it's hard to skip.

The 2025 to 2026 NYC move was framed as a deliberate alignment with the broader media industry calendar, since IAB Upfront and various ad-buying cycles run through Manhattan in September. That's good if you're trying to take meetings with platforms and networks during the same trip, less so if NYC's general cost-of-conference week feels excessive compared to Dallas's previous edition. Terminal 5 is the venue — capacity around 3,000 — so this will feel meaningfully different from convention-center editions of past years.