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About Click here for a short video overview of ConferenceChannel. Significant events happen all around us as a way of life. Until the recent convergence of technology that allows us to increasingly experience events from a distance, we've been at the mercy of hearing about these events through the second hand reports of others. Conference notes and MP3 audios posted via the internet have given us increased access to information / content, but not to the actual conference experience. Imagine an Internet “channel” that allows people to experience conferences (and other gatherings) without actually attending. In addition to the notes, blog posts and MP3 audio recordings available after many conferences, visitors to ConferenceChannel will get live streaming video of everything from the crowded halls, to the band, to candid interviews with the speakers. Technology such as live video (ustream.tv), archived video (youtube.com), twitter (twitter.com), photo albums (Picasa and Flickr) and aggregated blogs will be used to help people experience the conference in a more personal way from a distance. The technology now exists to help people who are unable to attend conferences to experience more than reading blog notes. Through a programmed series of live video clips and interviews, audio clips, pictures, and blog and twitter reports from attendees, the technology now exists to expand the conference experience to anyone with an internet experience. Through automation and planning, a large quantity of nearly real-time information from a conference can be posted in ways not previously possible. ConferenceChannel seeks to leverage the continuing flow of high-quality, free technologies that instantly connect people from around the globe. Each conference featured via ConferenceChannel will have one or more “internet MCs.” These MCs will facilitate the conference for those participating online. Like a football game with booth announcers, lockerroom announcers, and sideline announcers, several MC’s with video cameras are used throughout the conference facility to provide different perspectives. ConferenceChannel will be programmed like a TV station with pre-defined time slots for different video segments (e.g. interviews with specific speakers, tour of conference facility, glimpse of specific sessions, music, etc). Essentially, an online conference experience will be created much in the way of an Entertainment Tonight type internet show. The online conference programming will be posted and promoted weeks in advance of the conference. Our goal is to see the conference impact expand far beyond those attending while at the same time helping foster increased attendance at the conference in future years. The home page of ConferenceChannel.org will serve like the “guide station” on your cable TV. It will highlight different “channels”, give info from past broadcasts, give highlights of upcoming conferences, have “picture in picture” to show what is currently happening at a conference, etc. We experimented with the technology at the 2008 Exponential Conference in Orlando. We are doing a more extensive pilot at the 2008 WhiteBoard Sessions (www.thewhiteboardsessions.com). We will continue throughout 2008 to experiment and learn. In the short-term, each featured conference will be highlighted on the ConferenceChannel home page and then moved to its own "channel" on the site subsequent to the conference. As the number of featured conferences grows, the home page of ConferenceChannel will emerge more as a guide page pointing users to the appropriate channel (conference page). Our vision is to create and leverage the benefits of a national platform from which a wide range of national conferences can benefit. It is our intent to facilitate the creation of conference specific "channels" that benefit the individual participating conferences. ConferenceChannel will serve as the internet station through which the conference specific channels gain increased visibility, marketing and promotional value. Our dream is to see all the leading national conferences featured via ConferenceChannel.
Copyright 2008 - ConferenceChannel is a ministry of Church Planting Network in partnership
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