Watch Livecast of BlogPotomac Unconference Via ooVoo

Update: there is nothing to see anymore as this was streamed live.

Watch this space! Starting Friday June 13, 2008 at about 8:30 AM you'll see a live Webcast of the BlogPotomac unconference here in DC, courtesy of one of our sponsors, ooVoo. ooVoo's livestreaming page here.

Online Video provided by Ustream

CEO bloggers and videoblogging at the World Economic Forum in Davos

Take a look at the WEF's blog page. A  handful of CEOs are signed up as official bloggers. Meanwhile Jeff Jarvis of Dell Hell fame, has posted a video to YouTube encouraging an open conversation at this year's Davos confab, which starts today Wednesday.

This mega thinkfest has always sounded so cool to me. The idea is that everyone can now participate in the sessions by creating their own short video commentary and uploading it with the tag davos07. (Six takers so far.)

Ditto for assigning davos07 as a technorati tag to blog posts.

Yet another sign that online video is exploding in popularity and influence, both in business and politics. We'll see how well the Davos experiment in social media works this week. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Useful Links

Davos Conversation site

Business Goes Straight to Video (BusinessWeek.com special report; I'm quoted briefly near the end - Jan. 16, 2007)

Hillary Clinton's official announcement video (for 2008 Presidential election)

Hey, Big Blue can be funny: see 3 videos on YouTube

IBM's blogger-in-chief Christopher Barger shared these links with me. Here are three videos that IBM's blogging team has uploaded to YouTube. They feature the director of mainframe sales - a pretty funny guy; wonder if he's real or an actor?

Chris, can you comment??

The Art of the Sale - Lesson 1

The Art of the Sale - Lesson 2

The Art of the Sale - Lesson 3

Online video advertising to explode, according to eMarketer

Think online video as a marketing tactic is a fad? Think again. eMarketer is reporting that Internet video advertising will be a $3B business by 2010. Also think about the $1.65B GoogleTube.

[via Paul Gillin]

How do you upload a video to Keynote? See update - I've got the answer

Update: I've got the answer!

Thanks to Jackie Huba for telling me about SnapzProX (Ambrosia Software for Mac). It's the coolest little tool. It captures a Flash video from YouTube and coverts it to a .mov file. Which can then be uploaded into Keynote (and also PowerPoint).

Note: I'm becoming quite the pro with Keynote. As I get the hang of it, I like it a *lot more* than PowerPoint, which I basically loathe.

Thanks also to Stephan Spencer who directed me to Lifehack.org for an explanation of how to download a YouTube video. (I haven't tried this yet.)

Sorry to be an idiot. I'm sure I'm missing something totally obvious. Below is one of the Chevy Tahoe spoof videos.

Two questions:

1. What's the link to the YouTube Tahoe video I'm looking for? You know; the one where all the Tahoes go over the waterfall.

2. And even more pressing... How do I "embed" a YouTube video into a Keynote presentation.

If anyone can help me out with detailed instructions, I'll send you a signed copy of my new book, The Corporate Blogging Book. And if that's not enough of an incentive maybe you'll just be feeling nice.

Have you thought about using video clips in your blog?

I just watched the funniest video clip starring Steve Crescenzo, a corporate communications guru who also writes a very funny blog, Corporate Hallucinations. It's a Rocky take-off (the 1976 movie starring Sylvester Stallone) set to the theme music, showing Crescenzo running, stopping to drink a beer, running, etc. etc., finally running up the steps... and collapsing in an exhausted heap.

He teaches advanced writing workshops for Ragan Communications. The mini video, accessible via this link through Ragan's home page, is a promo for his workshops.

Well the guy is just... funny. And the clip is very effective as a marketing strategy.

I was thinking today about how your personal appearance can be so much a part of your schtick if you're a speaker or presenter. Steve is a big guy and he's bald. It works perfectly - even for a corporate audience. I wish I were something... more distinctive than the woman you see at left. (Yes, that's me. My daughter says I look like a car salesman in the color version of the photo.)

I'm currently working with a tremendous speaking coach, Clarice Scriber, to take my speaking skills to the next level. It's humbling, a little painful... and fascinating (in a weird way) to watch yourself on video and realize how many ways you can improve your delivery. (Clarice insisted I tape a recent speech I made to IPRA/PRSA-NCC.)

But I don't think bald will do it...

Useful Link

Speaking of Ragan, I'm running a workshop on Corporate Blogging 2.0 [scroll down - last item on the page] at Ragan's mega 15th annual Corporate Communicators Conference in Chicago on Thursday, April 27, 2006. Give me a holler if you're in Chicago and want to meet up for a drink the evening of Wednesday April 26th. You can email me at wordbiz(at)gmail.com.