More than 70 attendees at PodFest Cairo 2021 - Virtual

PodFest Cairo 2021 - Virtual, Egypt and Africa’s first podcasting conference, took place on Sunday, March 7, 2021 on Zoom. The event was hosted by AUC’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC) and provided simultaneous translation.

The two-and-a-half hour event brought together Egypt’s podcast listeners and creators. The line-up featured keynote speaker Linah Mohmmad from the Washington Post’s Post Reports Podcast, who spoke about growing up in Jordan before moving to Texas and her introduction to audio via National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S. Mohammed ended her segment by discussing her recent audio essay, “Bachelorette in Arlington” that was published on This American Life.

Other sessions included “The Road to a Successful Podcast” with Noran Morsi, host and producer of the recently launched Egyptian Streets Podcast along with Heba Shunbo, the host of Mommy’s Happy Hour Podcast, which launched last year. They spoke of the successes and challenges they’ve experienced with their new podcasts.

In the session “Telling Narratives in Arabic,” Tala Eissa from Sowt spoke of the challenges of de-centering English when it comes to podcasting. Several local podcasts and podcasters were spotlighted in one of the last segments of the event. PodFest Cairo 2021 - Virtual concluded with several rounds of speed networking, a chance for the attendees to mingle and get to know each other in a short period of time.

Kim Fox, the founder and conference organizer says, “The podcasting scene is growing in Cairo and Egypt and we want to continue to share resources to encourage the production of podcasts.” The PodFest Cairo team is available for consultations.

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PodFest Cairo, Egypt and Africa’s first podcasting conference featured conversations focused on producing podcasts in English and Arabic.