Chance the Rapper’s iconic Grammy wins this past week, along with his outspoken affection towards Chicago, may have brought a welcome spotlight to the city’s creative industry.
But Chicago has always had a flourishing community of music creatives, who see definite advantages in working out of the Windy City rather than New York or Los Angeles. And you don’t have to take our word for it - just head over to the 700-plus episode recordings available at Chicago-made Dynasty Podcasts, the city’s first and longest running music podcast which focuses entirely on local acts.
In 2015, Dynasty celebrated its ten year anniversary of producing podcasts with a ten hour live stream. And now, next month, they will reach another milestone: Five years of having branched out into organizing live “industry panels," workshops and educational programming with experts from Chicago’s creative and entrepreneurial scenes. These industry panel are produced in collaboration with Chicago-based label/production company Future Factory, and the last panel, “How To Make It In Chicago's Creative Industries,” brought in 3,200 RSVP's -- with attendees filling two floors of The Tank at the Chicago Athletic Association.
Jaime Black and Mikul Wing are the duo behind the podcasts and the live panels. Black, founder and host of the podcast, is also an adjunct professor of business and entrepreneurship at Columbia College Chicago. Wing, one third of the group Autograf, (playing Coachella for the second time this coming April), co-presents the panels via Future Factory.
Our goal is to bring together the Chicago creative community
“Having focused on music, culture, and nightlife, we’ve also gone on to host panels on topics such as women in technology and collegiate entrepreneurship as well," Black noted in an interview with Chicago Inno. "Our goal is to bring together the Chicago creative community, with panelists who can motivate and connect. And we hope people will continue coming out to support and learn."
Likening podcasting to entrepreneurship -- considering the role audience engagement and storytelling techniques have to play in both -- Dynasty has also been involved with #ChicagoMADE efforts to highlight the city’s creative industry at SXSW, which Black will be attending for the eighth time this year. As a professor, he is especially focused on encouraging the next generation of creative entrepreneurs -- students -- which is a big part of why the panel events are kept completely free to attend.
Dynasty’s next panel at the Chicago Athletic Association, on March 1st, will be centered on how to create content that connects and feature participation from Vincent Martell (VAM), Cole Bennett (Lyrical Lemonade), Emily Dahlquist (Canvas) and Sam Bailey (Brown Girls web series).
(Image via Dynasty Podcasts)
(Note: This article has been updated to reflect that the industry panels are a joint collaboration between Dynasty Podcasts and Future Factory.)
