What brings you to Tech Cocktail?
I'm actually a part of a company that's sponsoring the event, LiquidTalk Networks, so we're here to meet a bunch of Chicagoans who are interested in corporate podcasting, and technology companies that we haven't met yet. We're trying to make some introductions.

What is corporate podcasting?
LiquidTalk acts as a service for clients that are interested in doing podcasting, but aren't really sure how to go about the entire process. We'll meet with them, write a transcript, we'll bring them into the studio, hire voice actors, do the whole process: sound editing, mixing. Then we'll tag it, compile it, and present it to them in a nice format. We'll do the whole process for them without the whole worry and stress of, "How do I do a podcast?"

What are corporations using podcasting for?
Probably the biggest this is employee education or communications. What we've found from our clients is that they want to communicate information in a podcast format but they're not sure how to do that. Whether or not they want to put that on a PDA: that's one of the possibilities. Some of our clients like to put that information on their iPods and listen to that while they're traveling, free time, downtime. They can consume corporate content while away from the office.

Is this used mostly for internal communications?
It's a lot of informal learning. We like to think that we complement the learning management system that already exists as a company. We'll take your corporate content, we'll convert it into a podcast friendly format, and then allow you to download that onto your PDA. We do work well with other systems and transfer employee knowledge from a sales manager or administrator to employee.

What is an example of a customer you have?
Pharmaceuticals is our number one vertical right now. They have a lot of mobile employees across the country. They have a lot of content that constantly needs updating. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to put that information in a place where they can get it instantly and have it constantly updated. We host a web portal. The drug reps can have that downloaded to their video iPod, and then take that with the to the doctor and show that to the doctor as they detail them on a new drug, a new technique; you name it. And they can also use a self-authoring tool where they can record information themselves and podcast it instantaneously. Pharmaceuticals, medical devices, that's our main area and that's probably the best client example we have right now.

What is your revenue model?
It's similar to like a Blackberry. It depends on the number of users. We charge an initial setup fee and there is an amount per user that I'd relate to a cell phone plan where you have your ongoing maintenance and ongoing new feature fee. It all depends on the amount of users. We're not looking for 50-100 users. We're shooting for multiple of users: 300, 400, 500. You want a large sales force that's spread out where you can't get them information very easily therefore you want the bigger sales force. That's the revenue model and that's how we're setting things up right now.

Has Tech Cocktail been a good event for you?
It's been a very good opportunity. We've had a lot of people come up to us and tell us that "we think this is a great idea and we'd love to talk more." We've had a nice video booth as well set up. We've had some good interviews. And there's tons of people here. I can't imagine - I had no idea how many people would be here. Everyone's very social and having a good time just talking technology and it sounds like podcasting is a very common them for everybody.