Matt Deegan

Great Radio Events

I think the radio industry is changing at a great speed. What we do in it, how it works, how to get on - it's all a flux. My personal belief is that if you want to stay employed as well as get on, you need to learn about how the radio world is changing, what the opportunities are, and how your skills need to shift.

The only person that can really help your career development, is you.

It's part of the reason that James and I created Next Radio. It's a radio conference for practitioners - a fun one, and one that we've tried to keep relevant and cheap - it's only £99. It'll be coming back later this year. You can watch videos from previous years and suggest a speaker for this year on our website.

It's not just our event that's relatively new to the calendar. There's two new events that provide specialist knowledge for two different subsets of our industry. Like Next Radio, they've created excellent line-us and are ridiculously cheap, bearing in mind what the knowledge you learn could give you. They're also on the same day - the 18th May!

Jockfest is an event by Radio Today designed for presenters. It's got a great schedule, from Programme Director tips to how to make more money from audio and a good line-up of speakers from Simon Hirst to Jon Holmes and David Lloyd to Robin Banks. You can find out more at the Jockfest website. Tickets are priced £99

Sound Women, the organisation that raises the profile of women in radio and their achievements, is organising their first Sound Women Festival. It's got sessions varying from Imposter Syndrome to how to get a good work/life balance. There's some great speakers too, from Fi Glover and Anita Anand to Angie Greaves. Tickets start from £25.

I think both of these events are great initiatives and definitely a worthwhile way to spend a day.

2 comments

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  1. Rob Czkowski ·

    " My personal belief is that if you want to stay employed as well as get on, you need to learn about how the radio world is changing, what the opportunities are, and how your skills need to shift"

    Meaning that the hundreds forced out of the industry due to networking and cost-cutting somehow only have themselves to blame for not 'keeping up'? That's pretty insulting, not to mention patronising, Matt. I'm surprised at you.

  2. Matt Deegan ·

    That perhaps came over blunter than I had intended.

    What I was trying to describe was that things like cost cutting and networking are out of the control of most people who work in radio. What they can control is making sure they've got a modern skill set and understand the opportunities that now exist. That way, should they be victims of how radio companies are changing, then they'll be in a better position to quickly get re-employed.