Using Twebevent for Social Media Meeting

Offline conference or seminars are starting to incorporate online social media networking in real time. In order to do this, a service that allows for real-time video sharing is necessary for people to view the even online in this case. One such website that allows you to do this is Twebevent.com.

Image: SXC.hu

Recently, I interviewed the creator of the website Twebevent and below is the interview. Also, here is a link to a recent Twebevent that was held on September 24, 2009: http://www.twebevent.com/brighttakroi

Why did you create twebevent.com?

We did not feel that webcasts and recorded video were collaborative enough.  There is this great new capability called a TweetChat that is completely collaborative, so we wanted to combine the two.

How does twebevent.com work?

In the current iteration any host fills in a simple form with their event’s title, day, time, intro text, hashtag, and embed.  We take that information and build an event page that shows all the elements together.  A few of the benefits of twebevent over other environments that do Video with chat are

• We run the chat over Twitter
• We let you pick any hashtag you want
• We embed the favorite application of TweetChat rather than building our own and making it sub-optimal.
• We let you embed video (live or recorded) from any source.

Is there a cost for you service? Please share details.

There is no cost for the service.  You can create as many events as you like and you can attend as many events as you like all for free.  We believe there will be a market for creating private labeled channels on twebevent.  A large organization (company or association) might want to corral their events separately with their branding.  We are looking for such an organization to work with us to help develop the requirements for that.  In return, not only will we develop the app to their needs, but we will also give it to them free for a year.

Who are the principals behind twebevent.com and when was it created?

Robert Swanwick is the CEO.  He runs a few businesses including

• Speaker Interactive: which is a service providing white labeled web events and other products designed to enhance a professional speaker’s in-person appearance.
• TweetSets: which is about to go into development.  It will help people group Twitter accounts into topic Sets and then share those Sets
• Twebevent: soft-launched in Late July.  It is available for use, but we expect to start promoting more heavily after the next iteration releases in October. Robert’s partner is a firm in India called InfoMile that does the development.  Ravindra Rudraraju is the principal there.

How can twebevents be used by business owners to grow their brand?

Great Question.  I just submitted an article to One+ magazine on that very topic.  Here is an exerpt from that article.

Everyone has heard of YouTube.  Many have heard of Vimeo, Viddler and other free online video services.  These tools have made video publishing available for the online masses.  Even just a few years ago we had to endure a complex process to publish video.  A few years before that, end-users did not have enough bandwidth to even watch online video.

Now that almost everyone does have enough bandwidth and studies have shown that video is a preferred user experience for many, it is time to make video part of every organization’s communication strategy.  Event professionals s are already making great use of video:

• Before the event – promos, teaser content, previews,  pre-event learning
• During the event – simulcasting
• After the event – follow-up webcasts, video recordings of sessions to watch again

One of the main goals for your in-person event is likely networking and collaboration between participants.  Are you considering the same for your online video?  Or, are you just uploading and linking.

The next step from “online media” is “online collaborative media”.  Make sure that people are having a dialog around your video stream.  YouTube and others allow for comments, but that is not as engaging as it could be.   Luckily, now we have Twitter.  If you provide your video at a specific day/time and combine that video with a TweetChat, you now have your audience discussing what they are watching.  It only takes a few people to make a valuable TweetChat.”