Webinars, Webcasts, and Demos - Oh My! » General

How to Add Video to your Marketing Mix – Live Panel Discussion

Bill — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:13:25 +0000

If you are in San Jose – San Francisco Bay Area come join us in Sunnyvale February 10th for ‘Integrating Video into your Marketing Plan‘. We are excited to have been invited by the SVAMA to participate in the panel discussion. Other panelists include representatives from Adobe, AdobeTV and Oracle. This is a very high-powered panel of marketing and production experts, and we should have a fun and far-ranging discussion of both how to create video and use it effectively.

Check out this invitation video created by our moderator, Jeff Severtson:

This event is being held at Detati Communications, which has a beautiful facility for shooting photos or video. Come check it out. For more details, and to register online, visit http://www.svama.org/site/event_details/91.

See you there!

Bill

Live Conference Recordings

Bill — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:41:59 +0000

In addition to our commercial work webcasting live conferences, we also record the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association’s panel events for on-demand viewing.

The SVAMA makes these archives available to the public from their website (pictured below). You can view the event clips on YouTube by clicking here or on the website image.

Is Adobe Flash really dead? What You Need to Know About HTML 5.

Bill — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:32:34 +0000

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.

Webcast Service Provider – 50 Words or Less!

Bill — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:55:09 +0000

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.

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

How much time should I spend creating my presentation?

Bill — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:51:48 +0000

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.

Coreography launches new site

Bill — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:35:05 +0000

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…

Webinar Search

Bill — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:48:52 +0000

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!

Green Webcasting

Bill — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:11:26 +0000

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…

How We Implemented GTD

Bill — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:11:05 +0000

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

‘Getting Things Done’ Leads to Better Webinars!

Bill — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:00:55 +0000

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 -

(1) there will be one or more people who don’t make the rehearsal and

(2) those that are there are often multi-tasking and distracted.

When someone misses the rehearsal it actually impacts everyone. Beyond the last minute technology and system access questions that can add to the tension right before a live event, all the panelists miss out on reviewing the entire slide deck and hearing the other panelists key points. This helps each panelist understand how their message helps support the overall presentation message. Its also a great opportunity to practice your delivery out loud and get feedback in a safe environment.

I fully understand multi-tasking and am guilty of it myself. But when your presenting, its really important that you have a clear mind so that you bring focus to your presentation and listen to what the other presenters are saying. I often hear this referred to as staying ‘in the moment’.

The impact of multi-tasking is obvious and easy to fix, but the impact of ‘mental clutter’ is just as great. Most of us juggle hundred’s of tasks each day in our work and family life. This is where an organization system like GTD can immediately help, It prevents those random, nagging thoughts (“Did Sue send my the booked order numbers for our board meeting tonight? Did Jim get the signed P.O. from Worthington? Was I supposed to give the kids lunch money today?) from cropping up in the middle of your presentation.

I know there are many different organization methods out there, and which one is best will depend on your likes/dislikes and style of working. But whichever method you choose, work it so that you clear your mind and bring focus to your presentations.

OK, so maybe I did go a bit over the top with this posting title! But I did get you thinking.

What method do you use to stay organized and focused?

Bill