Capture the great work you do – End of the Day for June 28, 2014

Originally published as part of the End of the Day series for My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Today we attended a great Meetup on robotics at the same place (NTMA Training Center in Santa Fe Springs) where Joseph competed in his school BattleBots tournaments. Organizer, Richard Loehnig, brought in experienced roboticist, Dr. Jason Bardis — creator of several BattleBots for hobby and the BattleBots television show, including Dr. Inferno, Jr. It was a great talk that covered Dr. Bardis’ experience with robots from his initial hobbyist forays to helps build the robot arms for the Curiosity Mars Rover and more.

It was a great talk, but something else struck me as even more important. NTMA, Richard and Brad took great pains to stream the talk and record it for future viewing. This was a perfect example of what we should all be doing when organize, host or create great content. We had about 40 people in the room with us today, but there is a potential audience of thousands on the Internet, where this video can live on forever. Why would you NOT capture such great content? Every time I see that happen I consider it such a great waste of information and also a waste of the presenters and organizers time. It may be a one time event, but video can continue to work towards your goals 24/7 for the foreseeable future.

NTMA robotics meetup

Brad recording and streaming today’s robotics presentation

You don’t have to go all out, like the NTMA folks did today. I counted at least 4 video cameras as well as the live stream and a high quality audio recording. If you have nothing else, use your iPhone, your iPad, your Android tablet whatever you have at hand. If you are doing video, find a way to prop up the device, so the video is as smooth as possible. For me, though, capturing the content is far more important than professional quality video. Yes, make it as easy to watch and hear as possible, but first, capture it!

For myself, I have a variety of ways of capturing content when I am out and about. I have my iPhone, of course, Rosanne’s iPad, an HD camcorder with external mice and a tripod, a still camera that also takes video, Joseph’s iPhone and even an ancient iRiver IFP audio recorder that I can press into service, if needed. I am sure you have plenty of devices in your own kit that could also be used — if you only took the time to do it.

If you are hosting an event, record it so you can share it on your own web site and social media channels and also offer it up to your speaker for their own usage. If you are speaking or presenting, always come prepared to record yourself so that you gave content to use later. In many cases, you can offer this back to your organizer so they have something to share, even if they didn’t think of recording it themselves. Set a good example and capture everything you do. Encourage others to do it, too. I know there is a lot of content I would have liked to see, if only the speaker, the musician, the presenter, the performer would have taken the time to capture it.

You can join NTMA for future robotics Meetup by joining their Meetup group at the SoCal Combat Robotics Meetup site.

Watch the entire live stream recording using the embedded video below or directly from the RobotRevo Twitch.TV Channel

Watch live video from RobotRevo on TwitchTV

Previously on End of the Day:

Careers in New Media

Helping to Build New Careers in New Media

Capture the great work you do – End of the Day for June 28, 2014

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