We've always associated the phrase "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" with the fearsshudderspanictrepidationanxiety options of marriage and cohabitation. Yet now the shortened "Why Buy the Cow?" has been working its way around as the title of a book co-authored by WebEx founder Subrah Iyer in the burgeoning software-as-a-service sector. "Free" may be an exaggeration to make a point, but let's face it: You need to get your head in the clouds - as in cloud computing - to understand the new generation of software application companies and how they're changing the worldwide economic landscape. Pioneers like WebEx and Salesforce.com and a new generation of on-demand upstarts like Upswing CRM are transforming the business landscape.
Tune in to "Best Practice Videos," a series on the use of multimedia communications in the business enterprise. Produced by Interactive Media Strategies, these short videos are chock full of useful data nuggets and they showcase the industry's colorful characters. See the latest video featuring Gary Anderson of Netbriefings. Proclaim is Netbriefings latest product and it's tricked out.
We're not sure what's in the water in Portland but we do know that the colorful kids at Corvent are an interesting bunch. In the world of bland corporate marketing with everyone proclaiming they're the "leading solution" blah blah blah, the folks at Corvent are doing the right thing and telling their customers and prospective partners who they are as people. Real people, with solid educational backgrounds, great work experiences, and personal interests that other people can relate to. Corvent is doing this via Conferencing News' Key People Directory and they've been signing up en masse in the last week.
In that it's Friday and we're still a little tipsy from last night, we figure we'd key in on the personal interests of team Corvent. We find an extreme ice cream eater, a spear fisherman, a Johnny Cash fan, a live mannequin specialist, a musician, a cookie monster, and our favorite, a unicyclist. (Note to Jessica B: anytime you want to race down 5th Avenue, bring it on. Oh, and another thing. We dare you to upload to YouTube a video of you riding your unicycle and proclaiming your company's slogan "Corvent has proven methodologies and personalized solutions for utilizing today’s Web conferencing and collaborative technologies.") Now that will get the message out to the thousands of readers of Conferencing News!
Interactive Media Strategies and Aperio Networks (publisher of Conferencing News) have formed a strategic partnership to develop and promote an online video portal that provides executives advice and best practices on how to evaluate and implement advanced Web Communications technologies for business use. The new series - called Best Practice Videos - features video clips of executives discussing lessons learned during the deployment of online video, webcasting and conferencing technologies in their own organization.
As we embark upon stressful travel and uniting with crazy in-laws we wonder about the viability of turkey dinner served through telepresence we're thankful that...
Conferencing News is the go-to daily publication for buyers, sellers, and partners in the conferencing industry.
The Key People Directory gets visibility and biz dev leads for professionals in conferencing.
EventSpan is the largest search database and syndication network for webcasts and webinars.
The Webinar Wire is providing marketers with tips and techniques for web-based events.
Enterprise Video will soon provide a news and views forum for video applications in business.
Meet James Powers. He's the Chairman, President & CEO of publicly-traded iLinc Communications, Inc. Yesterday, James wrote his first blog post on iLinc's new blog on their corporate website. It's great to see a few audio/video/web conferencing vendors blogging about their company/products/markets instead of simply hosting brochure-like websites with stock photo images of business professionals. Blogging can add a level of authenticity to a company, its people, and products.
As anyone who writes a blog, or has thought about starting a blog knows, it's hard to constantly come up with stuff to write about. That's why Aperio Networks developed a new blogging platform to easily launch community/market blogs where anyone can easily submit a single blog post, or submit multiple posts. You can see two of these community blogs at WebinarWire.com and soon, EnterpriseVideo.com.
Everyone has a blog post in them, but few have the time to write posts everyday. We encourage you to submit your blog post that relate to web events (via the WebinarWire.com) or soon, video commmunications (via EnterpriseVideo.com).
And now a note to iLinc: Congratulations on launching your blog! Now we'd like to hear more about EventPlus and your or your customers' thoughts about the web event space by contributing to the industry dialog at the Webinar Wire.
Question: How can you tell when a product is getting commoditized in a market?
Answer: When new entrants run out of good product names.
Introducing OrcaMeeting from Whaleback Systems. It's a basic audio and web conferencing service. What the connection is between conferencing and killer whales is beyond us. Killer whales remind us of three things:
1) The dirty, smelly water that splashes all over families at SeaWorld in our most unfavorite city in the world: Orlando.
2) Cute cuddly seals.
3) Great white sharks. (Or "shocks" as they say in Boston.)
...But conferencing? Can you imagine hearing at the office, "Oh yeah, let's discuss that in an Orca meeting." Maybe when you dial into the OrcaMeeting bridging service the music-on-hold plays eerie whale calls.
Who knows? Maybe we're wrong and animal-branded conferencing is going to be the new trend. It's well known that affixing a critter to the labels of wine increases sales dramatically. Attention conferencing vendors: quick, go get those web domain names with animals! MonkeyConferencing.com is available!!! And we all know how social and collaborative apes are so the metaphor branding will really resonate, and promo deals like offering a free bunch of bananas at sign-up will yield high conversion rates.
From InterCall: "global-conferencing leader InterCall has created a new online community, GreenConferencing.com, to serve as a guide and forum for workers who want to cut back on environmental impacts, waste and expense. The Website offers a more rational approach to how professionals can cut back on common work practices that contribute more carbon than necessary."
We like this very well designed site. InterCall is on a roll with good corporate branding. But we're surprised that "Green Conferencing" isn't an actual branded audio/web conferencing service. Audio and web conferencing companies are in an extraordinary position to exploit "viral" marketing because their customers invite non-customers to attend their conferences. But what's odd is that most audio conferencing services greet meeting participants with a generic "Welcome to the conferencing center, please enter your passcode..."
Green Conferencing is a memorable brand name that's in tune with our warming earth. As an enviro-branded service, we envision, in just one example, that it could be co-sponsored and promoted by an airline which allows an airline to become a "meeting brand" (virtual or real) and not a C02 emitter with a fleet of jets. And there are other marketing opportunities and innovative partnerships with Green Conferencing. "Green Points" anyone? Awards or recognition programs or carbon offsets for companies or individuals who rack up green points? ...But hey, what do we know? (Well, we must know something: we purchased GreenConferencing.com three years ago and put it up for sale a few months ago; InterCall bought it.)
Anyway, maybe we'll ask the Wise Man about this and more in the forthcoming CN Interview with him. Until then, learn more about carbon-cutting resources you need to green your business at GreenConferencing.com
Ken Molay has joined forces with Aperio Networks, publishers of Conferencing News, and will be the editor of Aperio's Webinar Wire, a new blog covering the web event services market. This online publication will publish blog post contributions from marketers, event producers, analysts, and tech service provider professionals that pertain to the production, promotion, and powering of web events. Ken will remain a consultant with his company, Webinar Success. We're happy to have Ken Molay as editor and contributor to the Webinar Wire, as his independent views and deep knowledge in the web event space will serve our readers well.
We laughed. We cried. We fell asleep. There's a higher bar placed for conferencing, streaming, and rich media communications companies when it comes to marketing on the web. Accordent's YouTube video provides a crisp-looking head of a CEO talking at you with stuff we all know. Watching it makes us count sheep.
Join Interactive Media Strategies for an inside look at the world of corporate video adoption. 
Receive daily CN Alert emails with breaking headlines in the conferencing industry. 
