The combination of small video cameras, laptop edits and online video means more than just changing existing industries such as newspapers and TV stations to more efficient ways of making the product.
It also opens the door for whole new businesses that never existed before.
Like Themorningafter.tv
Conceived more than a year ago by our partner in Brussels, Ernest Bujok, Morningaftertv is striking in its simplicity and elegance.
How many times is there a major party or corporate event?
Bulgari, the jeweler for example, kicks off their new Fifth Avenue store with a million dollar party at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The American Dental Association has its annual convention in Las Vegas where more than 10,000 dentists attend.
These are massive, once a year, or sometimes once-in-a-lifetime gatherings. Many people come, but many others cannot.
We ‘capture the moment‘ for the clients. We dispatch a handful of our best videojournalists to the event, equipped with their small digital cameras and laptops. Then they fan out and film the event like a news crew, cut a series of 30-second to 2-minute video clips on the event – major speakers, who was attending, awards, new products, tables.
We cut the videos overnight on laptops and, the next morning, post them on our website.
They are then available as ‘viral video’ that can be emailed to those who attended, those who didn’t and those who might just be interested.
Easy, fast and elegant.
The business has proven so successful in Brussels that we are now opening a second branch in London, under the direction of our partner Andrew Slavin.
We already have some major clients lined up, and we’re heading to London for our first event at The British Museum in two weeks.
If it works in London, (and we’re pretty sure it will), we’ll be looking for partner in the US as well.
5 Comments
Cliff Etzel September 05, 2007
Steve – excellent response.
steve September 04, 2007
Having worked on several major conventions and meetings as a video producer I can add that it is generally the larger, better funded conventions and meetings that have an A/V component, and it is often tied in with the staging company. There are thousands and thousands of smaller meetings that do not include an A/V crew that could benefit from the service that Michael is proposing.
Nino September 04, 2007
Michael, I don’t give names of my clients but if you do a search under Conventions, meeting and events planners you’ll find hundreds of companies worldwide. You are a good salesman you know how to get into the door. They are usually very good listeners if you can come up with everything that can give them an advantage over the competition and make money for them. It’s a very competitive business, many of the travel agencies that have lost most of their business to the internet are now concentrating on meeting planning, that’s where the money is right now. NY is a hot market.
rosenblumtv September 04, 2007
Well that’s great Nino.
I am glad to hear that this is a viable business. We’ve been very successful in Belgium and look towards big success in the Netherlands and England as well. Why don’t you forward me the name of the company your worked for in Orlando and maybe I can structure a partnership with them for Europe.
Nino September 04, 2007
Michael, you know how I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think your partner in Brussels is about a decade behind schedule. We’ve been doing these projects for a long time, even before the internet when the videos were used in a CCTV during the convention. As technology evolved so were the services. Today in the Orlando area there are at least a dozen companies offering convention video services. Orlando has the second larges number of conventions after Las Vegas and its big business here for everybody in productions. In addition to Orlando and Las Vegas I’ve done these convention video projects in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Each convention, even the smallest one are organized by meeting and convention planners. The first thing that these planners do is to initiate a web site for the event or upgrade the site from the previous year. These sites are usually packed with information that will include everything that attendees or exhibitors must know to make it a smooth and rewarding event. These sites normally remain active until next year convention. After the convention is over the sites serve as references guide for product’s information and contact for that specific industry. Meeting and convention planners also offer different levels of video services determined by the allocated budgets. I’ve done these events with Sony F900 HD camera down to small Sony Z1 HDV. In all the events we also have an editor with a laptop or a better set-up if necessary in one room and he will do editing all day long and into the evening if necessary. Graphics, logo and music tracks are prepared in advance. Every hour or after a planned segment the cameramen will sent the tape to the room where it will be edited in various programs. The finished videos are continuously uploaded to the event web site as well as podcasted. Often viewers will be able to see in the afternoon highlights of the convention that took place the same morning. These video are indented mainly for those who can not attend the event but still need to be informed about the introduction of new products.
We also have done similar projects for several Museums but the good money for this type of work is in conventions and incentive group meetings.