Podfest Expo

Indie podcaster conference

Friendlier and more accessible than Podcast Movement, with a strong indie creator base and lower price point. The 2026 edition ran January 15-18 at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld — its 12th annual event and the longest-running annual in-person podcasting conference in the world. A solid first conference if you're not yet running a podcast business.

Podfest Expo is the longest-running annual in-person podcasting conference in the world, hitting its 12th consecutive year in 2026. The event ran January 15-18, 2026 at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld. The Podfest brand was built around three pillars they repeat often: education, collaboration, and community. The crowd skews indie and small-team — the kind of people running shows in the 1,000-50,000 download range who are looking for tactical workshops, gear vendor demos, and peer networking. Programming covers monetization, video podcasting, AI tools, and audience growth, with a mix of headline keynotes and hands-on workshops. There's also Podfest Global, the virtual extension first run in 2020 that holds a Guinness record for largest virtual podcasting conference. Not the right fit if you want enterprise-level industry conversations or NYC media networking. Strong fit if you're an indie podcaster wanting your first or second conference experience without breaking the bank. The Podfest brand also runs Podfest Global, a virtual extension that first ran in 2020 during the pandemic and holds a Guinness record for largest virtual podcasting conference. There's also a 2026 PodTour bringing smaller regional events to dozens of cities, which is useful if Orlando travel doesn't work for your schedule. The community ethos shows up in things like the after-hours dinners and meetups, which tend to be where the real connections form rather than in the keynote rooms themselves.