Recently we had the chance to implement this approach — I call it Conference Engagement 2.0 — with our very first corporate client: Working Mother Media (WMM) and Diversity Best Practices (DBP.) WMM produces a wide-array on conferences including the one we covered called Network and Affinity Leadership Conference.

In the day before the conference, I co-taught a half-day “Social Media Engagement” Workshop with Jennifer Brown, CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting. Workshop participants — who came from major corporations like Toyota and Dayton Hudson — then gained hands-on experience capturing more than 100 interviews the following day. One of the resulting video summaries was finished and ready for its premier at the closing plenary. (Don’t expect to learn what affinity groups are or do from this video — it is intended for audiences already acquainted with the purpose of affinity groups in corporate America.)

Based on the success of this effort at NALC, PhilanthroMedia is developing a partnership with Jennifer Brown Consulting to focus these services in conferences dealing with workforce leadership and diversity issues.

I expect to see a great deal of growth in this cost-effective approach to both expanding conference engagement and crowdsourcing conference content. Here’s why…

Old School: Experts are those who spoke behind podiums or sat on panels. Conference Engagement 2.0: The collective wisdom of conference attendees far exceeds that of designated presenters.

Old School: Attendees pay for the privilege of hearing experts. Conference Engagement 2.0: Attendees are eager for opportunities to position themselves as experts.

Old School: Writers, photographers and videographers are paid to create content. Conference Engagement 2.0: Conference attendees are willing to pay for opportunities to hone their new media skills and the privilege of creating content that is broadly distributed.

Old School: There is little reason to check back with the organizers website until next year. Conference Engagement 2.0: Content captured during the conference drives traffic to the organizers website for viral content that can be shared attendees to extend learnings.

Old School: Competition for sponsor dollars is tough. Conference Engagement 2.0: Sponsors are more demanding than ever – including opportunities to be positioned next to compelling and credible content and conversations.

If this sort of approach seems of interest for your next conference, let’s engage!

Maybe it hasn’t always been that way.  Maybe our members were selected for their positions precisely because of they demonstrated an openness to change — since change is the one constant in today’s communication landscape.  Or maybe the rate of change has given more of us permission to admit what we don’t know, to seek guidance from brethren who might, to celebrate each small victory we see our peers achieve.

Changes in the larger media landscape are clearly beyond our control.   What is within our control — and what Teresa Detrich of The Lumina Foundation reminded me in a recent diavlog — is our commitment to advancing communications innovation over the long haul.  Senior execs may not grasp the imperative to align communications and program strategy as quickly as we would like, but they will.  And as they do, philanthropy’s impact will grow.

We need gatherings like the upcoming Communications Network conference in Los Angeles in order to help one another keep this faith.  We just produced a short video that makes our collective appeal more than apparent because it features video interviews captured by our Gorilla Engagement Team at last year’s Network conference as well as clips from diavlogs with several of our members.

I come from a Southern Baptist tradition where everyone is encouraged to bring at least one person with them to Vacation Bible School.  If you feel moved, forward this video to someone you know who might need a little encouragement.  Lord knows we are all in this together…

Originally published on The Communications Network blog.

That’s why PhilanthroMedia has spent the past year pioneering what we call Conference Engagement 2.0. Our best test case occurred over the summer and fall of 2009, when the Communications Network engaged us to implement an effort that would increase engagement among attendees at its annual conference, held October 14-16 at the Ford Foundation in NYC.

The goals were to provide: a.) Hands-on experience with Conference 2.0 technologies/approaches that would enable members to better understand how to promote interactivity at their own gatherings. b.) Opportunities for Squad members to interact with their fellow conference attendees, and to network in a productive way. c.) Content that could be used to continue dialogue after the conference was concluded, as well as to involve those who were unable to attend this sold-out gathering.

The experiment was widely lauded as a success and we have since launched components of this approach with OSI-Baltimore and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Want to know how we did it and what we learned? Check out the resources and evaluation materials which the Communications Network has made available here.

Our most recent engagement was with the National Conference on Citizenship which held its annual gathering at the Library of Congress on September 9, 2009.  Leading up to their conference, NCoC already had big hits in the media world, with such resources as the New York Times and the Huffington Post taking note.  Given this fact, Pm had to figure out how to be a video partner that would keep the media ball rolling.  After grounding ourselves in the issues, and pouring over America’s Civic Health Index, we came to the event ready to produce a variety of new media projects that would tell NCoC’s story, and engage an audience that was already captivated.

Live Video Streaming- Pm had a video director on-site at the Library of Congress, directing a live 3-camera feed of the conference, which went out onto the web (and was recorded for archival purposes). With over 500 live hits, the stream doubled the number of “attendants” by giving full access to people who weren’t able to attend the event live.

Summary Video- NCoC requested Pm make a video that would sum up the energy and dialogue of their conference for those who weren’t there. Our team of socially-active film editors pulled together a summary video, distilling 15 hours of tape into a four-minute piece, before the staff returned to their office the next morning.

YouTube Clips- We put together a library of nine clips that we posted on a custom, Pm-built NCoC YouTube site. NCoC volunteers worked with us to choose the most effective and dynamic parts of the conference to share with the public. What’s more, we turned these around within 12 hours of the event, so that NCoC was able to catch people’s attention while the conference was still fresh in their minds. Check out this example of Micah Sifry of Personal Democracy Forum speaking at the conference.

Custom Content for Participants- In order to gain placement of NCoC’s message on the sites of partner organizations, we produced custom videos that featured that organization’s leader as the star. This technique helped to get NCoC’s name out there, and encouraged cross-posting of conference content. Win-win? We think so. Below is an example, wherein Barbara Bush speaks for Global Health Corps.

The Right Attitude- The Pm team is made up of activists who believe in the power of non-profits and foundations, and have worked for years in a variety of grass-roots organizations. We care about NCoC’s goals, and wanted to create new media that would help spread their message, through any (and every) means necessary.  Here’s what NCoC Program Director Kristen Cambell had to say: “I told PhilanthroMedia our vision, and they turned it into a video strategy that not only integrated our overall communication objectives, but improved upon them. They worked quickly without sacrificing quality, and produced quality without breaking my budget. We found them insightful, accommodating, professional, and efficient.”

In a flash, we reorganized our original plans and started shooting individual interviews.  In little more than a half hour, we questioned more than 13 members of Congress on what they were doing to advance policies benefiting the Middle Class.  (Below you’ll find one from Rep. Marcy Kaptur on how JP Morgan Chase has taken advantage of the financial crisis.)

What Pm was blown away by was the fact that folks who said they didn’t have time stay for a ceremony, did end up waiting for their chance to get in front of the video camera.  Within hours we loaded the best on YouTube.

Often we evaluate the need for video coverage by the number of “hits,” but simply having cameras at your event can transform the way participants respond.  We’re not saying it’s not a little cheesy/creepy, but Congress members aren’t the only ones who like to get caught on camera (and might be willing to say something compelling about your issue for the opportunity).

PhilanthroMedia’s Scott Riehs helped Ford Communications staff videotape more than 20 interviews in which program officers were asked to describe the work of their “most courageous grantees.” The interviews were then edited and immediately made available, via an interactive Google Map platform that Ford developed, on computer kiosks placed throughout the building.

Ford’s Director of Communications, Alfred Ironside, noted, “We want to acclimate our staff to using video more and, I have to say, we found them quite energized by the chance to tell stories about the courage of their grantees. ”

PhilanthroMedia’s Dana Variano and Alan Smith also spent the week capturing footage that resulted in a video highlights summary (an excerpt of which is featured below) shared with participants at a plenary session late in the week. “While we created the highlights video strictly for fun, the final product speaks to the passion, diversity and thoughtfulness of our people.” As such, Alfred noted, “It is definitely something that can also be adapted for our website.”

According to PhilanthroMedia’s President, Susan Herr, “Ford is breaking new ground on several levels. First, they are experimenting with the potential of web video, as well as augmenting it with tools like Google Maps. Second, they are mining the incredibly rich perspectives of program officers whose insights are often limited to write-ups in foundation board books. Third, they recognize the imperative to get content out quickly, while also cognizant of how staff might repurpose it for a variety of uses.”

That’s Andrea Batista Schlesinger, head of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI), commenting in the New York Times (December 14, 2007) on MayorTV, a web video series PhilanthroMedia proudly produced at her request.

With support from provided to DMI from The Nation, PhilanthroMedia’s president, Susan Herr, traveled the country over ten days capturing exclusive interviews.  As a film crew of one, Susan simultaneously shot and conducted the interviews.  Then she uploaded the videos to the web, enabling NYC-based DMI staff to script footage conveying perspectives offered by these urban leaders.

According to Susan “Andrea isn’t content to pitch the news media and passively wait for them to respond — she’s out generating top-notch coverage that speaks directly to her audience and becomes worthy of highly-coveted coverage from the Times.”

During the U.S. Conference of Mayors held in Miami in May, DMI conducted an additional 12 interviews with mayors, bringing the number of mayors interviewed to 23.  From Boston to Buffalo to Atlanta to Miami to LA to Rochester to Gainesville – MayorTV served to challenge 2008 presidential candidates: Start talking about cities.

In addition to coverage in the New York Times, Pm footage was also featured in an episode of UpClose with Bill Ritter, produced by WABC New York, when he interviewed Andrea about MayorTV.

One way, as demonstrated by this episode of “Dialogue for Donors,” is to capture insights from participants and noted leaders during the course of the conference.

In this case, Susan Herr conducted spontaneous interviews at the 2007 Council on Foundations Conference with foundation CEO’s including  Ford’s Susan Berresford, San Francisco Foundation’s Sandra Hernandez, COF’s Steve Gunderson, Rochester Area Community Foundation’s Jennifer Leonard, Heinz’s Max King, Knight’s Alberto Ibarguen, and Association of Small Foundation’s Tim Walter.  (While we couldn’t grab Melinda Gates, pictured above, the episode included a cameo.   Key word searches for her have generated top traffic from the episode to the PhilanthroMedia.org blog.)

Forgive us for all the name dropping, but when the COF’s “This Week in Philanthropy” ran a link to the episode, it generated more than 6,500 views on the strength of those names.  Is there a role for on-the-spot coverage at your next conference?