I love, love, love all things events and technology. If you can’t tell by my tweets, Facebook posts and all my other social media interactions, I love to talk about events and the tools that help us do what we do better. In June 2011, I partnered with an organization called imbookin to bring you PlannerTech – an event technology showcase. This weekly blog series is going to help continue to expose you to new tools you need to be aware of as an event planner. Also, in case you missed it, PlannerTech could be coming soon to your area!
Today, we’re talking about Mediasite
Your name: Erica St. Angel
Company/Tool Name: Mediasite Events by Sonic Foundry
Website: http://events.sonicfoundry.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?
Two key issues:
1. Not everyone who wants to be at your event can be there.
2. People who are there may want to watch again when they get home, or watch a track they may have missed, or share what they experienced with other colleagues.
While we believe strongly in the power of face to face meetings and events, budget constraints and travel restrictions sometimes make it difficult for many people who want to be onsite to get there.
We provide webcasting services to create hybrid events, virtual conferences and online meetings, so now the remote audience can also join in, get the information they need and further that relationship with your organization and your brand.
What is the best audience for this tool? Corporate events? Social? Other? Large? Small?
We’ve done webcasting for events big and small. As small as one hotel room with an executive presenting for one hour and we record so the onsite attendees can watch on-demand — all the way to multi-track, multi-room live events where we stream hundreds of hours of educational content from a convention center over several days. Most of our clients are associations, corporations and government agencies who host meetings with presentations for education, training or marketing.
What does your tool help event planners do better?
Easily and economically extend face to face events and meetings to people who can’t attend.
Because we use our own webcasting technology, we’ve perfected a system to make hybrid and virtual events worry-free. We equip planners with trained technicians who work onsite to webcast your event. Using our Mediasite webcasting platform, we record the speakers’ audio and video synchronized with their visual aids and instantly stream the presentation over the internet. People can then watch anytime, anywhere. The result is a hybrid event that increases overall attendance, broadens exposure for the event, its sponsors and speakers, and can generate more revenue for the organization.
But our team often works as project managers too, joining forces with your existing production, AV or other service providers to ensure you have all the technical components in place to go live without a hitch.
Webcasting also helps support green meeting initiatives by putting all conference sessions online in real-time, minimizing the need for printed handouts, DVDs/USBs, as well as travel requirements for individuals who attend the webcasted event.
What is the single coolest feature of your product?
We’re mobile! If an event is webcasted with our newest version, Mediasite 6, both remote and onsite attendees can follow along with the presenter from their iPads, iPhones, BlackBerrys or Android devices.
Anything else we need to know?
We go live each month with a free Event Webcasting Best Practices webinar. You can see what’s next and get the archives here.
Related posts:
Tags: BlackBerry, event planning, Facebook, IPad, IPhone, Sonic Foundry, Twitter, Webcast
Pingback: social network