Along with the podcast rant I posted earlier this week, I find myself asking more and more people, "Why aren't you recording everything?"
Now, I don't really mean "everything", but day after day I meet people who let their monthly panel discussions, guest speakers, in-house classes and more go unrecorded and unremembered.
With podcasting, there is no reason why your information, your content, needs to remain like a stage play, ephemeral, and seen or heard only once and then gone. This content should be placed on your web site so that it can be located, downloaded and enjoyed by people who want the information. It should be delivered as a podcast so people can subscribe to your feed and bring your message directly into their computers and iPods whenever you have something to say.
We need to break away from the old-fashioned thought that web pages are only for text and pictures. Every non-profit group, every user group, every educational group, every business can benefit from podcasting. These groups generate hours and hours of content every single week that could be used to attract interested people to their web site, their group and their mission.
Recently I was part of a technology conference here in Los Angeles. Despite the fact that this was a high-tech conference and my particular panel was on podcasting, no one had arranged to record the session so it could be released as a podcast. Everyone should have wanted the session recorded. The conference could use the recording as a year-round promotion for next year's show, the panel members could have used the recording as additional material for their shows and the people who couldn't attend the conference due to travel or money issues could have enjoyed a time-delayed hearing of the panel discussion. Everybody wins!
Luckily, at the last minute, I decided to set up my video camera as an audio recorder and captured the session on tape. A day later I had an edited version ready for inclusion in my own podcasts and any others who might want it.
Why, even at a high-tech conference, weren't plans made to capture all this great content and get it out to the people who want and need it? I don't know. We aren't lazy people. We might be a little too busy sometimes, but the benefits to be gained from recording and releasing this content as a podcast are unbelievable. We HAVE to capture it and release or we are wasting our efforts.
With a little initial effort our content, usually lost to the winds, can be out there, on their own, without any further effort on your part, spreading your message to hundreds or perhaps thousands of people.
So, why aren't you recording everything?
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My Word with Douglas E. Welch
