The Conference, Captured

 

The annual conference is next week in Denver and we couldn’t be more excited for the amazing program lined up. Of course not everyone’s able to attend the conference, and everyone at the conference won’t be able to attend every session they want. So we’re relying on speakers (and anyone else they can recruit to help them!) to share their session materials and outcomes with the full MCN community before, during and after the conference. And not just presentation slides, but blog posts, audio recordings or video captures, twitter stories, Facebook and Instagram live, handouts and links to resource, whatever can be put together!

web browser with MCN's youtube channel home page

Over the past several years, MCN has audio recorded most sessions and shared them on YouTube. It’s a great way to catch sessions you missed, or to follow up on sessions you attended. Still, most recordings get only modest use. So we’re looking for better ways of capturing and sharing conference content and will be developing new strategies and systems for that over the next few years. In the meantime however, Denver …

For all you speakers out there, we’re asking you take the lead in capturing your session in whatever way you think best. We imagine that might simply be slides for some of you, but others might prefer to share a list of resources and links. Some of you might like to do a blog post after the fact, or ask a friend in the audience to take (or draw) notes they can share. If you’re technically savvy, or at least technically adventurous, you might want to take a shot at recording yourself either in audio or video. However, you do it, we love it and want to see it.

Speakers, check out our capturing tips below and send what you can, when you can to [email protected]. See you next week!

Speaker Tips & Tricks

Slides

Since you probably make them anyway, slides can be an easy way to share your presentation. You can post yours on SlideShare or Speaker Deck. If you used Google Slides just make that link public and call it a day. Or consider using Notist, which allows you to add related links and social media posts, and also lets people see your slide notes, which can help otherwise sparse slides make sense to someone not lucky enough to have heard you in person. In fact you might consider simply exporting your slides with the notes, and sharing it as a PDF.

Handouts

Did you give out a handout in your session? Did your slide deck include a slide full of links to related resources? Throw those into a Google Doc, or make them into a PDF and put them in Dropbox to share that way.

Blog posts

Still have a blog or personal site somewhere? Consider posting a write-up of your session and maybe some downloads for the slides and links to related resources or even your other talks. Don’t have a site of your own? Medium has your number, and it can be an easy solution. Like for the series of posts from last February’s MCNx London.

Audio recordings

Here’s one we’re going to try. Buy or borrow an inexpensive lavalier microphone, and record yourself! Plug it into your phone with Voice Memos (iPhone) or Voice Recorder (Android), or directly into your computer, and hit record. With or without some basic editing afterward, the resulting audio file can be shared on SoundCloud or as a direct download from Google Drive or Dropbox.

Screen capture

Depending on how you’re going to present, you might try a screen capture of your session with a free tool like Screencast-o-matic. This may not work easily if you’re using slides in presenter mode, but if you’re simply mirroring your display to show slides, or browser windows, or a pdf, you can capture all or part of the screen along with the audio to make a webinar-like video of your session. Add in an inexpensive lavalier mic for better sound. Post it to YouTube or Vimeo when you’re done.

Video recordings

Okay, this is next level but you could try video recording yourself, or you could recruit a friend to help. Set your phone up in the front row or on the projector table with a portable tripod, add in a lavalier mic with a looong cord for better sound quality if you can, and hit record. This will work best if you can find an angle that shows you and your slides relatively clearly. The resulting masterpiece can be posted to YouTube or Vimeo. If you add a list of highlight moments with timestamps into the description field, YouTube will even create a clickable index for you.

Whatever you create, send it to [email protected] and we’ll help share it out. #musetech fame awaits!

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