PCM creative in action

SMA Conference 'on the ground' 2013

I was delighted to receive permission to do my 'thang' at this years Stage Management Association Conference. This is the video media collection. The livestream elements were a minor technology miricle as the venue was below ground in a concrete cage! I managed to find a seat (and was just one seat) with 3G reception. The quality in places drops out but considering the circumstances I'm amazed I was able to stream at all!

2013 Opening address, Keynote and Panel

2013 Are Life & Stagemanagement Compatible?

Storify round up from the day itself

Interviews

In the foyer a selection of industry services were in attendence I was able to chat to Chris Paul and Craig Barnnett as well as Equity's Stagemanagement Councillor Adam Burns.

Its a balance. This was a conference I had an interest in attending. Some sessions I made no media. Being audience and amplifier needs thought. What to capture and what to experience. It's a rare opportunity to spand the day with fellow stagemanagers. I'm looking forward to SMAconf 2014.

Related articles

How it went down #SMAconf 2013

How it went down #SMAconf 2013

I always attack an event with high expectations of getting the best content I can for the intended audience. When livestreaming is involved that tends to be an online audience who for what ever reason is unable to attend. The real-time media, that is capture and post content with no or minimal post production is my objective favouring instagram and audioboo today Vine has found a place in my toolset.Not forgetting of course Bambuser for live streaming and why I'll explain.

SMA Daffodils

Today was an expenses only gig which I agree to only for specific clients. As an ex board member of the SMA and a desire to engage with the services providing sponsorship to the conference I wasn't taking a fee. A genuine networking opportunity in my eyes. Anyone interested, it would have been £380 plus travel, accommodation and expenses. This is 'On the Ground' at its most risky. With no preparation on a basic day rate, I had been following the #SMAconf tag and @SMAssoc account on Twitter so wasn't totally in the dark, and only an email exchange with the organisers for internet provision enquiries I had determined that internet was unlikely. But I had no idea where in the building this would apply. As it turned out the main conference address was taking place in an underground cinema space constructed from concrete. Oh Joy! and sure enough no wifi and no internet ports. Fortunately the zero expectation of a mobile signal proved the salvation of the livestream as in certain locations I did indeed catch a strong 3G signal. Enter the magnificence of Bambuser.

Bambuser is a mobile app which enable live streaming of events directly to the web. It's web interface enables an external camera and independent audio source to be used as well as providing a time stamped chat time line using the in app IM (Instant Messaging) facility. This is achieved using a laptop and for best results a hard wired ethernet connection negotiated with the venues IT team. In a worse case scenario (this was a worse case scenario) with a strong 3G signal a mobile phone can be used relying on the video and audio from the phone itself. This meant I had no audioboo, instagram or vine capabilities. I have yet to review the stream but I think the online audience (there seemed to be 4 at anyone time) got the buzz. As one tweet put it

"Amazing #SMAConf session on work/life balance being streamed at ow.ly/j3Z8u. Great to hear so many SMs experiences." via @NickHaymanSM

Some people do live blog. A skill I wish I possessed. My skill is to relay media and with a little more forward planning engage an audience who are unable to be there in the flesh but have time to set aside to spend a little time as part of the online audience.

Collecting the tweets from @SMAssoc and the #SMAconf tag was RebelMouse.

For a overview of the day and interviews captured off line take a look at the event's Storify.

OK now I do have to off set this with a paying gig! Any takers?

 

Posted with Blogsy

Jubilee round up and reflection

Activities at PCM & FibreCamp seem to have been punctuated by the UK's Jubilee festivities. So I got out my little boat to join in the festivities. I had hoped to follow along on Twitter but although the tweets tumbled down my screen there was no officially curated stream. There was little engagement from the mainstream stream media in the wider social digital consciousness.

I was wondering if my twitter spiddy sense was a miss but it seems it wasn't only me who experienced this frustration. 

Why has the BBC chosen to leave Twitter out in the cold for Queen's Jubilee coverage? | The Drum po.st/k3YLiy

— Jamie Riddell (@jamieriddell) June 5, 2012

Why is there a need for a curated stream? I finally ended up tracking Jubilee, DiamondJubilee, Jubilee Nottingham, Jubilee Sneinton across Twitter and dipping in to ZeeBox on my iPad.

There was lots of shouting but no coherent conversation or chat.

I've returned from Audiences Europe's final "Extending the Margins" program event which was the international element of Rotterdam Festivals' Performing Arts Congress. FibreCamp's Phil Campbell has headed to the US taking a road trip from Tampa Florida to New York for Blog World Expo 2012.

'On the ground' is a phrase we both use when working on projects out of the Lace Market House office and studio. The aim and objective of these outings is to share an experience, offer a perspective to an event, capture it's essence and reflect on the content presented to stimulate engagement and generate interest. This is for both those who attend and those who did not. The collected media consequently provides a picture and record of the moments, people and presentations that took place 'On the Ground'

Why didn't people attend?

There are multiple reasons.

• Previous work commitments
• Lack of finances
• Alternative priorities
• Geographic or physical access ability
• Employment position
• Family

Social technologies and its resulting media published in real-time across digital channels such as Facebook, Twitter, or niche social network is relatively inexpensive and 'Extends the margin' of engagement exponentially, reaching an audience unprecedented prior to the emergence Of Social Media.

Mass media is lazy, passive with ease of access leading to consumer apathy. (ZeeBox is a great antidote to this with its related content links and twitter filter but there is no voice.) It is also expensive and it's production mechanism expensive. Comprehensive coverage be it mainstream production or our 'on the ground' insights require planning and preparation before the delivery of the experience.

That's what I'm thinking on.

Back to work tomorrow.

Without Wall... the art of conversation curation

Without Walls #notttuesday May 2012

View more presentations from PCM creative media

Four days before May's Notttuesday I was asked to talk. A subject of my choosing. I wanted to show a piece of my self and offer an insight in to what PCM has be up to, on-line community development and real-time engagement. Late in to the night ideas bounced around ably fielded by @danielroseart and @philcampbell.

It became an opportunity to reflect on the recent work PCM has supported and helped to grow. 

The condensed presentation from 28 slides is available above. The key points which I attempted to reinforce with the network example slides guided the flow of my delivery.

Architects Journal, Pilot Theatre's Shift Happens, Get Amb:IT:ion, Audiences Europe, Lace Market House and The National Theatre of Wales being drawn upon to illustrate conversational input to social media audience development.

I finished the session without taking questions. Glancing round the room and not wanting to break the tone I suggested beer and continued conversation. I thought it went quite well.

I seem to have another two talks coming up. A workshop on Internet Safety for a Brownie pack and a fringe session at Equity's Annual Representative Conference to lead a discussion focused on the organisation's website usability, adoption and development.

May concludes "On the Ground" with Audiences Europe in Rotterdam for Audiences Inside/Out

PCM in pictures - 2011

Open publication - Free publishing - More caron lyon

Why being "on the ground" with social media matters.

This might be a tad controversial. Bloggers avert your eyes.

Live blogging while PCM is "on the ground" involes very little typing of more than 140 characters at a time. The transcription and live typing disturbs me slightly and seems to be emerging from congenitally non dyslexic unfortunates. We do not live in a world of text. I'm not saying it doesn't have a place but stenographers are experts in this field and reporters need to at least listen to the speaker before forming a critical opinion. Conference channeling though a blogger, plugged in to a laptop is all kinds of wrong.

I've delivered a talk commisioned by Sylwia Presley of nfpVoice and Oxford Girl Geek Diners twice now called Beyond Text. How blogging can be more than text. Below are the rough notes. The first time this was delivered over Skype so I had the opportunity of a cue sheet. "Beyond Text" will feature in my next set of PCM Master Classes.

Developing a practice of media making for the social web and making sense of the miltitude of ambient streams is a craft. You can't say for certain how anyone percieves a conversation stream or who is watching a tagged stream. It's not just about volume and clarity as with aural listening but also interperative there is no intonation apart from punctuation, no emotional tones. The only certainty is the sound of your own voice heard by you.

I am not a writer, a journalist or reporter. Text is not my primary social medium. If I'm honest textual content of not my strongest suit. This doesn't hinder me however as I am a curator, an aggregator and connector my strengths come to the fore when media is habitually generated. It's Glimpses, responses, snapshots and moments a remote audience want to see. The ambient content, the buzz delegates conjur, the excitement and inspiration that explodes from the conference hall, from the session rooms, from the break-out spaces. 

To capture the habitual and the ambient you need to prepare the net. Even with a butterfly net you still need to know where the butterflies will be. Its also a good idea to know what spicies you intend to showcase. My stategy outline template is Plan, Prepare, Capture, Review, Report. The set up is invaluable.

Blogging is a reflective medium. Text documents action. Real time action demands snapshots, streams and conversation. The experience 'on the ground' is what you pay for, to BE there. The role of an event blogger or online media curator is to host the digital divide to provide an experience of comparable interest. 

I was asked recently to "come and blog" and "can you blog live on our website". I can't report on an event before it's taken place or even as it's taking place. If it is purely a archival process to kill two birds with one stone it has a role but to engage social media specialists the conversation is key before, during and after an event. 

What this blog post is trying to say is that social media for events, especially with a PCM "on the ground" team should be intergrated in to your over all planning infastructure. I've plotted an interweaving social media support structure and would love to share it in all it's glory. But then you wouldn't need me! I am going to use it a a tool of help event organisers. You'll have to wait just a litttle while.

 

Defining PCM services - On the Ground

I'm creative a series of 'in perspective' short presentation to help everyone understand what PCM has to offer. The real-time presence at events support availible is ecclectic and all PCM clients are unique. This is the first looking at the real-time event presence offered called On the Ground. What do you think?

This is early days, a work in progress. The URL in the presentation is not yet live and the QR code resolves to the PCM main website. Eventually the QR will take you to the On the Ground page with resourses and case studies, the current 'On the Ground' project and latest PCM & me.dm activity.

PCM in perspective - 'on the ground' on Prezi

Institute of Fundraising - Resources and Reflection

I often research a topic before meeting a client. Not every seed germinates. But I figure the infomation will come in hand, especially if its a secor or industry I'd like to work within. Primarily I'm a resource provider and project facilitator so I guess fundraising is a niche I'm attracted to. I've never really done any direct campaigning but I've taken part in a fair few sponsored events, supported Red Nose Day, Children in Need and regualarly donate to Green Peace and NSPCC. I do avoid on the street charity subscription teams in the same way I give Big Issue sellers and market researchers a wide birth. When I'm in town I'm more often than not passing through on a work erands.

Ok the point! After a day at the Institute of Fundraising's 2011 National Convention I remembered some research I'd done for a client the year before. At this years convention there was an interest in the potential of social media, it's associated technology, platforms and tools to compliment and support fundraising activity with some great examples. Mobile in particular encouraging what I come to call 'ambient participation' was of interest to many, the most potent and easy to adopt being QR codes. A QR code opens up the opportunity for printed media and digital displays to connect directly to a donation page via a mobile devise. Intergrated with a mobile payment mechanism this 'ambient participation' (catching people at a moment of engagement while out and about) has great value. 

Being 'on the ground' for this event as a blogger was quite liberating as a practitioner. I got to make media. As PCM's organiser I spend much of my time at events serveying the crowd, maintaining a schedule and liasing with the venue or event team. Having a second blogger, a highly capable one (@philcampbell) has made the PCM 'on the ground' events and projects I have been engaged with possible. I had a great time at #IOFNC. 

I loved NFP Voice's use of QR codes. Voice's Head of Client Servcies and Strategy, Sylwia Presley invited Phil and I to cover the event. Here are their t-shirts, postcards and exhibition stand. The stand was inspired. I've never known how to tackle delivering a stand for PCM but now I know. Breathtakingly simple.

A selection of fundraising-online resources and articles from previous research.

Social Networks (and widgets) for Community Building, Taking Action and/or Fundraising - http://www.wearemedia.org/Tactical+Track+Module+5 

Raise Money on Facebook: Four Fundraising Applications You Need to Know About - http://www.nten.org/blog/2007/09/27/raise-money-on-facebook-four-fundraising-applications-you-need-to-know-about 

Video Tutorial: How To Embed A Social Or Fundraising Widget Into Your Facebook Page http://johnhaydon.com/2009/01/embed-social-fundraising-widget-facebook-page/ 

Online Platforms
Fundraising widgets for webs, blogs and social networking sites.  

  www.justgiving.com - About Just Giving 

When we created the company in 1999, our dream was to enable any charity, however small, to use the web to raise money at very low cost. Almost no one believed it could be done. Nearly ten years later, we are proud to have become the leading online platform for charity giving, helping over 8,000 member charities raise more than £450 million.

BringLight.com

A central hub for charities to post information about themselves and get donations. All listed charities are certified.

http://www.pincgiving.com/

Providing the leading technology platform for Chief Philanthropic Officers to engage and inspire ~ Helping corporations and charities achieve their philanthropic goals  Donate to the charity of your choice in Canada, USA, UK and Australia; put the power of giving on your organization's website; create a peer to peer fundraising campaign or access millions of dollars in grant money.  ALL in the currency of your choice.

http://www.kickstarter.com/

Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers... 

http://www.chipin.com/

ChipIn’s mission is to make it easy to collect money. We enable users to organize group payments and fundraisers (”ChipIns”) in a quick, easy, and secure way. We also make it simple for organizers to publicize their ChipIns, by providing powerful fundraising widgets that can be embedded in social media.

http://www.firstgiving.com/

Start raising money with a fundraising page. You can make your own fundraising page on Firstgiving to raise money for any nonprofit organization. Email your page to friends, family and colleagues, who donate by credit or debit card in an easy, secure online transaction.

 

Before Treshnish - IOFNC : 'on the ground'

Sometime I wish I could paint. I have just returned from the most serene escape on the Isle of Mull. It wasn't easy to blog... see my Extreme Blogging post.

I wrote: No wifi, No phone signal, a sheep bleats in the distant, the sea swells, the birds chirp. The last rays of the sun pierce the clouds falling on the sea creating a pool of gold as mist rolls in. 8.50pm and I sit at the picnic table to write. Alone with my LiveScribe pen and notebook. My week leading up to my holiday was not so serene.

Monday 4th July I was in London at the IOFNC Institute of Fundraising National Convention. 

Sylwia Presley who I followed on twitter before listening to an Ethics of the Web talk she delivered at MCL2 (Media Camp London 2) invited PCM to blog at this event. PCM projects (currently Phil Campbell @philcampbell and myself Caron Lyon @pcmcreative) are hoping to develop an 'on the ground' real time media making service for events so this opportunity to do what we excel at, capturing expectation, experience, the buzz 'on the ground' that makes an event so special. We interact with the people coming together to learn from and meet with like-minded professionals before they scattering to apply new knowledge to the organisation they have come from.

Over the 3 days around 2,000 (estimate) charity and fundraisers came together at London's Metropol Hotel with over 200 seminars and keynotes delivered by a congregation of speakers excelling in there this fields.

View more presentations from JustGiving

 

IOFNC - How to Optimise Online Fundraising

There were session firing off all around the convention centre. I took the opportunity to catch this one delivered by Joanne Warner and Jamie Parkins. Essentially fundraising using social tools. They kindly uploaded the slide presentation to SlideShare. I also captured a snippit of the audio while I was in the room. It is the last 10 mins before the Q&A.

It covered

• Twitter bucket lists
• Getting developers on board early
• Thinking of the end user
• Multiple channels of engagement
• Accept and be prepared for change
• API-control of the user experience
• Optimizing sign in and sign up
• SMS technology
• Mobile participation
• Apps are expensive
• Take part in the conversation

...and that was just the big I notated!

More 'on the ground' media

37 IOFNC AudioBoos - 
contributors 

Sylwiapresley
nickinoxford
philcampbell
pcmcreative

66 IOFNC Instagrams

831 IOFNC pictures shared on Flickr

 

Bloggers corner was real treat having a spot to call homebase. Great to be 'on the ground'.

I'm with Phil 'on the ground' at Phil Campbell