Apple has made a lot of noise recently with its decision not to support Flash on the iPad,  supporting HTML 5 playback instead.  There has been finger-pointing between Apple and Adobe relative to the performance aspects of Flash versus HTML 5, which requires browser support to work.  Some pundits are even stating that Flash is dead!  But a closer look makes us think otherwise.

First, third party testing shows that where Flash can access GPU-based hardware acceleration (i.e. Windows), its performance is equal to HTML 5 and MPEG4. (Read more about the test at the  Streaming Learning Center.)  Its clear Apple has its own agenda here, and only time will tell if consumer complaints over flash support will move Apple to open its platform.

Second, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,  still with 50%+ market share across all versions, does not support HTML 5 – this includes the most current version Internet Explorer 8 shipping with Windows 7.  So HTML 5 playback is not an option for these users.

Finally, since Adobe Flash penetration still exceeds 99%, Flash is going to continue to be the preferred video playback medium on the web for the foreseeable future.  Long-term Flash dominance is not as clear as mobile devices become increasingly important, but any change will be gradual.

If reaching Apple iPhone and iPad users now is critical, encode your on-demand content in MPEG4/H.264 format and it should playback fine.  The HTML 5 specification, still in draft, does not yet support live streaming. For now you will need to use a proprietary client to stream live to iPhone and iPad devices.

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We get most of our business through positive word-of-mouth from our customers,  but you still need a presence on the key industry sites. We just purchased a small advertisement space (about 1/8 page) in Streaming Media Sourcebook that most likely will be dwarfed in size by other advertisements. (For reference, here is an example. We are limited to 50 words.)

So what’s the best way to use this small space.  Here are three options we are considering. Your thoughts welcome!

WEBCAST SERVICE PROVIDER  - FIRST OPTION

Coreography Live and On-Demand Webcasts

Coreography delivers high-quality, trouble-free live and on-demand webcasts. Our clients include leading multi-nationals and SME’s in the United States and Europe.

Managed Enterprise Webcasting Solutions | HD Webcasts | Videoconference Broadcasts | Skype Interviews | Simulated Live Events | Prerecorded Video Insertion | PowerPoint Integration

Learn More
http://www.coreography.com/sm/blog.php

WEBCAST SERVICE PROVIDER - SECOND OPTION

Coreography Live and On-Demand Webcasts

Why such a small ad? We put our money into people and technology so we can offer high-quality, trouble-free webcasts and webinars at a reasonable price. Our clients include both multi-nationals and SME’s in the United States and Europe that see the value in our approach.

Learn More
http://www.coreography.com/sm/blog.php

WEBCAST SERVICE PROVIDER - THIRD OPTION

Coreography Live and On-Demand Webcasts

Coreography delivers high-quality, trouble-free live and on-demand webcasts and web seminars. Our clients include leading multi-nationals and SME’s in the United States and Europe. We offer Managed Enterprise Webcasting Solutions, HD Event Webcasts, Videoconference and Skype Broadcasts with PowerPoint, and more.

Learn More
http://www.coreography.com/sm/blog.php

Tags: Business.

The question “How much time do I need?”  comes up alot in the context of preparing for a webinar.  What tends to happen is the presenter has a slide deck in hand and they wait until the week before to really start considering the audience needs and reviewing the content.  It’s not until the webinar practice session a few days before the presentation that they see what others are presenting and get any feedback on their slides.  Due to time constraints, there is only time for slides corrections.  So how much time should you spend on presentation creation?

Presentation authority Nancy Duarte, author of the book Slideology and principal at Duarte Design (clients include Apple, Cisco, and Al Gore among many others),  puts it this way;

“The amount of time required to develop a presentation is directly proportional to how high the stakes are.”

Duarte goes on to provide this guidance:

• 6-20 Hours Research & collect input from the web, colleagues, and the industry
• 1 hour Build an audience-needs map
• 2 hours Generate ideas via sticky notes
• 1 hour Organize the ideas
• 1 hour Have colleagues critique or collaborate around the impact the ideas will have on the audience
• 2 hours Sketch a structure and/or a storyboard
• 20-60 hours Build the slides in a presentation application
• 3 hours Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse (in the shower, on the treadmill, or during your commute)

Total Time: 36-90 hours

At first glance this may sound like too much time, but when we started tracking our own content development time for new presentations we found this to be fairly accurate. When you already have a presentation, tailoring it for a specific audience will eliminate some of the up-front time, and in many cases you will be able to re-use slides/slide layout with only minor modifications.  Still, you will be looking at 30 hours to put together a quality presentation and be comfortable with its delivery.

Tags: create a presentation, create a webinar, effective presentations, LinkedIn, PowerPoint, practice, storytelling, time, web seminar, Webcasts, webinar, webinars.

Perhaps not nearly as historical as our President’s inauguration today, but worth noting nonetheless. We have just launched a new look on our web site with improved, simplified content navigation.

Out with the old…

2008 Coreography Web Site

In with the new…

New Coreography Web Site

Let us know what you think…

Tags: coreography.

Webinars. You know they are out there, but inevitably when the topic in question becomes a priority for you, you just can’t find them. Google is your first stop, but the results are just lost in the mass of content they provide. You may visit key industry hubs, but you wonder if your missing anything.

For you there is now a solution:  Webinar Today – the webinar search engine.

Webinar Today Search

We have been busy compiling an index of web seminars, starting with security, storage, marketing, and VOIP.  We invite you to try it out and see what you think.

If you know of webinars that should be added to this index, please suggest them by following the link at the bottom of the page.  As long as they are educational and informational, we will add them to the index.

Now we consider this a beta release, but please let us know what you think!

Tags: LinkedIn, search, Web Seminars, Webcasts.

Web seminars and webcasting are inherently green, eco-friendly communications since they eliminate the need for people to travel to events and eliminate the consumption of paper-based hand-outs, datasheets, and other collateral.

As an event management and production company, we do use alot of workstations and server infrastructure to provide redundant and scalable events. To do our part to better protect the environment, we have joined CarbonFund as a partner.

One small step…

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This post is in response to a few questions that came up offline related to GTD and how we implemented this approach.

For the past decade I have primarily used Outlook to manage my activities. However, when I reached 1000 emails in my inbox, some of which were 12 months old, I knew I had to change. My organization system was failing me.

There are a wealth of resources and fans of the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology online. (For the uninitiated, visit Wikipedia for a good overview.)

I’m convinced that the developers at Google had GTD in mind when they designed Gmail.  We use Google Apps for email and I don’t miss Outlook at all. We also selected a web-based tool, Nozbe, that implements this methodology and gives us access to tasks and projects from any computer, anytime. It works on our iPhones too. I highly recommend it.

GTD and these tools make us better event managers and presenters.

Here are some good resources and blogs that go further on this topic:

David Allen’s Official GTD Blog

Merlin Mann’s 43Folders

Zen Habits GTD Resource List

Nozbe

Happy browsing!

Bill

Tags: business practice, event management, GTD.

David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) is a must-read for anyone who has that nagging feeling at the end of the workday that they forgot something.  GTD is an organization system that helps you better manage your time and increase your productivity.

Are you wondering just how this is going to improve your webinars and presentations?

One of the services we offer is professional management of web seminars. As part of our service, we provide a practice session and make time for the event coordinators and panelists to rehearse.

We see two things happen -

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Business, event management, GTD, practice, Web Seminars.

Running any business has its challenges, but perhaps the number one challenge is time.   That’s been my reason for not blogging.

We have been active in our local organizations, like our local chapter of the American Marketing Association,  and have built a good local business because of it.   Yet increasingly all the best conversations are happening online, and its about time we participated.

So with this quick post we have started. No buzz or whistles on this blog,  but I hope to add a common-sense voice, a few fresh ideas, and practical knowledge of the audio-video-presentation space to the online marketing conversation.

Best wishes,

Bill

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