We’ve all seen live video – sporting events, awards shows, 24-hour news. When you see that little “live” tag in the corner of the screen, you know that what you’re watching is immediate, unpredictable, and sometimes even unscripted. For awards shows and sporting events, it makes you feel like you’re there.
Conference video should feel the same way. Video taping and distributing video of a conference two weeks or a month later is a great way to preserve past conferences or give attendees a refresher course in what they learned, but for those who never attended the conference, a DVD received sometimes months down the road can get buried under paperwork and never watched. A conference is, like an award show or football game, an event best experienced live. That’s why companies are willing to pay for their employees to travel to conferences.
The audience for a conference doesn’t have to be limited to those who can attend in person. A conference with a thousand attendees, unlike a sporting event with millions of viewers across the nation, is small enough to allow interaction with the audience. A speaker might open the floor for questions, or the audience might divide into small groups for brainstorming. With current technology and an experienced A/V crew, a conference can be multicast to any attendee with web access. Multicasting a conference is a process that starts long before the event itself. An A/V company prepares a platform for web streaming and gathers content such as PowerPoint slides and videos the speaker may show. This content is programmed so that slides can be advanced remotely, and the whole show is uploaded to a password-protected server. When a user logs on during the conference, he will see a live feed of the conference, Flash-based PowerPoint slides that advance with the current speaker, and perhaps a reply box for feedback. Replies can serve as a digital “raised hand”, allowing remote attendees to ask questions or provide answers.
But what if it’s one of your speakers who can’t attend? Say he can’t leave the office for more than a day but still wants to contribute. A video crew can meet your speaker anywhere and send a live feed to the conference. With an audience feed coming the other way, your speaker can see raised hands and interact as if he were present at the conference. His PowerPoint slides can even be projected on one screen while his face is on the other. With multiple video feeds, an entire panel could attend remotely.
Video feeds and Flash-based content can turn your conferences into live, interactive events. With a web-based platform attendees can take post-conference assessments, re-watch breakout sessions they missed, or even participate in discussion groups long after leaving the conference room.
5 Comments
It's a great point that your video crew can go anywhere to set up a camera and allow speakers to "attend" the event. My brother is trying to plan a big event for his company this year. I think it's a great idea to make these sorts of plans right now so that in the future the conference will go smoothly.
I completely agree that an event doesn't have to just be for those that can attend live anymore. My sister is getting married in a few months and she wants to live stream the event for those that can't make it. I think it's a great idea because I know some of our family can't make it but they want to see the ceremony and the entertainment.
It’s interesting to read what other people thought about how live video can turn your event into a must see and how it relates to them or their clients, as their perspective could possibly help you in the future.
It's great that you talked about how live streaming services help speakers that cannot attend physically to an event. I think that it's amazing how technology could make it possible that anyone from anywhere in the whole world could give a talk to an audience through a streaming service. Plus, it also works the other way around, making it possible for the audience to watch the speakers from anywhere. I think you did a great job explaining the benefits of live video services for an event.
I agree that live video can help you feel like you're there. My brother's band wants to do a concert, but they are concerned about attendance because of the pandemic. I'll recommend that he gets someone to help him set stuff like live video, as well as promote the event.
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