Streaming at the Oscars

Did you watch that woman during the Oscars spew an f-bomb while accepting her Academy Award? I may be old-fashioned, but should a woman (or man) dressed in impeccable formal attire be spouting curse words? It really stunned me. Sadly, it was the most interesting part of my night since I watched the whole boring show. The entire program, from the lackluster performances to the juvenile hosts, did not keep any of my attention. Did you feel the same way?

If so, maybe you should have tuned into the Academy Award’s LIVE stream of the event. Did you know that you could watch 360 degree coverage LIVE of all the spaces in the Kodak Theater during Oscar night, including backstage and the green room? This year, watching ABC’s stream in conjunction with the actual TV broadcast was an important media opportunity for viewers like me who wanted more action. This was likely a lot more interesting than watching that stage performance of those “beginner” talents as hosts. It’s my humble opinion that their stars are not bright enough to host this event in the company of the legends they recognized. I am old enough to remember legends like Bob Hope who hosted the Awards—funny, little irreverent AND always elegant.

Would you rather watch the LIVE streams of impromptu celebrity behavior  or suffer through the speeches and commercials?  I think I’ll be streaming next year —maybe while watching the show on TV.  I’d love to hear your opinions on this. Perhaps you’ll agree that the most entertaining place for a camera would have been to watch a LIVE stream in the living room of the parents of the potty-mouthed, f-bomb-droppin’ woman. Good stuff! You agree?

Marty Dunne is executive vice president of sales for InterCall. His commitment to working and playing hard results in his ability to lead a fast-paced, energetic, goal-achieving environment with over 325 field sales members in 26 offices in North America. Because Marty has worked for InterCall since 1994, he has been involved in virtually every development of conferencing’s life cycle. People often attribute Marty as the guidepost of InterCall’s street reputation, inspiring the most passionate and high-energy sales team in the industry.

Keeping My New Year's Resolutions

As another year ends and a new one begins, I’m usually motivated to kick it off with a resolution or two. The resolutions usually involve some form of working out/eating healthy, getting organized, trying to save more money, etc. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks that way. According to The Daily Press, the top 10 resolutions are: to diet, quit smoking, exercise, quit drinking, stop procrastinating, save money, go to church, wake up early, stop cursing and read the newspaper.

I tend to be super motivated about my resolutions for about a month and then they are quickly forgotten. This year I’m going to try and change it up. In the past, my resolutions have always been targeted more on my personal life and not my professional life. They are also goals that span the entire year. So in 2011, I’m going to focus on making month long, professional resolutions.

In January I’m focusing on starting the year on a positive note. First, and probably most important, I’m planning to spend time recognizing my team and their accomplishments! When we look forward to a new year, it’s usually all about what we are going to do for that year, what we can change, how we can be successful. I think it’s important to reflect on the year that just ended and recognize the amazing accomplishments that made it so successful. My team of 20 is very geographically dispersed, and because I prefer to communicate this type of message live as opposed to in an email, we tend to get creative in how we do this while using our audio and web conferencing services.

I really like to keep the calls fun and active, since this is usually the only time we all get together throughout the year. Two years ago I had each person send me a fact about themselves that no one else knew. I then created polling questions listing the fact and giving five people to choose from. Each of the team members had to guess who the fact was about. It was a quick activity that had some pretty funny outcomes. Last year, I had everyone send in something that they accomplished personally within that year, which ranged from getting married to participating in marathons to moving into a new house and more. I put those facts into the first five slides of the presentation and had them on automatic cycle for the participants to read as they joined the call. This year we’re going to use streaming. All my team members have web cams, so we’ll be able to actually see each other while we’re on the call and can toggle our cameras back and forth depending on who’s presenting at the time. I think it will be great for all of us to put faces and voices together!

So that gets me through January, and I’m vowing to not forget about my resolutions this year. What other monthly professional goals can I set for myself?  I’d love to hear what some of you are doing so I can replicate or build off of those. Please comment below!  Happy New Year!

Nicole Scheel is the Director of Training, and the “Tips & Training Blogger”. Nicole has been in training with InterCall for eleven years and currently manages our internal and customer training departments, also known as InterCall University. Nicole has her Masters in Training & Development from Roosevelt University. When she's not training someone, you can find Nicole volunteering in her community.

Beating Cannibals with Text Messages and Twitter

When we first approached event producers to try webcasting, they called us cannibals.

Fearing that us ‘streamers’ would eat up their live attendance figures, marketing folks and trade show planners kept us at arm’s length and asked, “Why would our audience show up to the physical event if they can just watch it from home?” But then along came the recession, bringing with it budget cuts and travel restrictions, and we suddenly got along famously.

Now at the end of 2010, it’s difficult to find any live conference or corporate gathering that isn’t streamed as well.

But when you have two audiences—one in the room and one that’s separated by thousands of miles watching on a 17” monitor—how can you possibly keep them both involved? How can a live presenter encourage interaction between the virtual and physical worlds?

Working with our sister company, Televox, the InterCall streaming development team took advantage of a tool that is already in everyone’s pocket to truly pioneer some new “hybrid” technology: By using regular cell phones to send text message questions and respond to live polls, physical attendees and virtual attendees can both weigh in, seamlessly taking part in the presentation together. The presenters, the physical audience and the virtual attendees all work together, blurring the technological divide.

This past Wednesday, we hosted a hybrid event for a major pharmaceutical client. We streamed a live presentation from a studio in San Francisco to approximately 3000 live viewers gathered together at over 160 restaurants across the country. Interspersing the presentation with several viewer polls, all attendees were able to vote with their cell phones and respond directly to the presenters, making for an unparalleled level of engagement in the event.

Since we also integrated Twitter with the InterCall Streaming platform only a few months ago, we’re seeing those truly connected folks taking advantage of webcasting like never before! During our own Unified Communications panel in September, we saw conversations starting on Twitter and then rolling into our live panel discussion, while users texted questions and voted on live polls directly on their screens. Clients have recently been requesting the SMS and Twitter integration for events as varied as corporate updates, product launches, promotional trade shows and even a financial webcast! Creativity in marketing (and growing trust in the virtual audience) is really changing the business of meeting planners.

So what’s our next step? What else are you doing to merge the physical meeting and the virtual event?

Andrew Parker is a senior marketing manager for Streaming and Event Services at InterCall. Working between the product, promotional and production teams, Andrew has experienced every facet of the webcasting and virtual event industry as it has grown into a must-have business technology. Outside of InterCall, Andrew likes live music, good food and exploring New York City by bicycle.

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