In the middle of 2017 I had a conversation with a media lawyer about the commonalities and differences between the worlds of live music and promoting boxing.

There was so much to share from this conversation that it led me to creating a podcast series to connect the dots between disciplines and explore the world of live experiences.

I called it ‘Tickets’ – partly to reflect the method of admission to said experiences, and partly in homage to a rather good restaurant in Barcelona of the same name.

Initially my focus was on the media & entertainment world, but through various introductions, happy accidents and my burgeoning curiosity the scope of the series broadened out to include real estate, tourism and sustainability.

Tickets was my first foray into hosting and producing (and editing, curating, marketing…) a podcast.

The learning curve was steep, getting guests took some hustling, and my presenting style was pretty cringe-inducing at first, but I endured. Thanks to some wonderful guests Season 1 finished with 16 episodes and over 12 hours of stories, ideas, learnings from the past, and glimpses into the future.

As I had a big project over the summer it felt like a good time for Tickets to take a break, with a view to coming back in September.

But despite its success I thought that it may be a one season wonder. It was a pretty big undertaking and with so many podcasts out there now was it really worth continuing?

After looking at my own career path’s evolution over the past year or so, I decided it was.

Season 2 of Tickets will be looking at the future of education. At first look this may appear to be a significant departure from season 1 and the podcast’s raison d’etre, but I sense there is a fascinating shift happening – namely the rise ‘edutainment’ and the concept of lifelong learning now being a lifestyle choice.

Live experiences and emerging forms of technology and entertainment are changing the ways we learn, and having touched on these areas in season 1 with the New York Times, Sonar Festival and several others, it feels like a hugely rich and important area to explore further.

Some of the questions we will seek to answer include:

• How can immersive learning experiences be delivered at scale?
• What does the university of the future look like?
• What can the worlds of education and entertainment learn from each other?
• Do experts really make great teachers?
• How will conferences and festivals evolve their learning tracks?
• Could teachers become the next wave of celebrities?

The first wave of guests are now confirmed, and I have plenty of other ideas and conversations ongoing, but I’d love to hear your suggestions for guests. Do leave a response below or send me a message if you have someone in mind.

In the meantime, make sure you subscribe to Tickets via Apple Podcasts, Acast or Stitcher so you’ll be first in line for season 2’s opening episode.