There are 249 articles today

2/2/2009

NATPE 2009 in Las Vegas

On a whim, and in search of inspiration, I went to Las Vegas last week to attend the annual NATPE conference, which is essentially a conference for television executives. Now, I’m no executive, but there were several tracks of relevant seminars, and I crammed in about 20 presentations in two days – some of which gave me a real feel for the trends in content delivery on the web, as well as on mobile devices.

 

 

Recently published research suggests that about one per cent of Canadians have tried watching video on their mobile device, while that same number is about three per cent in the U.S. In other words, video delivered on handhelds is still in its relative infancy, but it is a trend worth watching.

 

One content developer at NATPE described the mobile landscape as “the wild, wild, west at the moment”, with no single delivery standard. I chatted with a couple of Adobe reps, who made sure to point out that a mobile version of their Flash video player (Flash Lite 3.1) is presently loaded on over 800 million mobile devices worldwide, with the rather notable exceptions of Apple’s iPhone, and the BlackBerry. A work around for the iPhone is supposed to be in the works, but getting Flash Video to work on a Blackberry is more problematic.

 

On the other hand, a market research firm pointed to the potential of Mobile TV with wild optimism, citing completed trials that suggest consumers are more than willing and able to watch programming on their phones.

 

 

Some other comments from the conference that made an impression include those from the CEO of TiVo who warned the 30 million Americans who currently use (and love) their PVRs, will soon be 50 or 60 million strong. This means there will soon be 50 or 60 million higher income users skipping TV commercials, which he strongly argued will spell the end of traditional television advertising….and that it is time to wake up and get innovative.

1/22/2009

Team Building

For RSA (formerly Royal & Sun Alliance), I captured a fun team building exercise on tape, and within 24 hours had the whole thing edited together so it could be shown at the same conference.

1/7/2009

John Hancock

For investment giant John Hancock, I traveled to Austin, San Antonio and Houston, Texas to conduct a host of client interviews. These folks all had been involved in a pilot project, involving state-of-the-art web access for pension plan sponsors and participants. Back in Toronto, John Hancock employees starred as themselves in a snazzy launch video. Both videos were shot on High Definition – quality appropriate for the launch of a splashy, new initiative.  

3/27/2019

Jack of all Trades. Master of None?

* Read my personal blurb, over at LinkedIn.

* Read about the origins of all this Jimboco stuff, in a four page comic, here.

* See my crazy, fast supercut demo reel here. (Revised slightly in October, 2020)  Slower version here. 

* The elevator pitch for my exposition and trade show services is now a beautiful pdf.

* The fastest way to connect with me is via email: ja@jimboco.ca. You can also connect via Twitter or my general YouTube page.

* The home page of my website is www.jimboco.ca.

12/1/2008

TD Canada Trust: Qualities of a Champion

For a big awards night to be held in December, I started researching potential national award winners back in September, covertly conspiring with their spouses, relatives and friends to figure out what makes these folks tick. Armed with this background info, I eventually interviewed the winners on-camera, and, in the edit suite, combined excerpts from their interviews with on-screen quotes from my co-conspirators, as well as personal pictures they had supplied to me. By awards night, it certainly won't be a surprise that they won (the airline ticket to Toronto took care of that), but the on-screen quotes and personal pix will be.

Kind words followed from my client: "I really wish you could have been there. They probably would have carried you around on their shoulders."

11/18/2008

It Can Be Simple.

I often describe myself as a 'guerrilla videomaker'. While on a shoot, my client approched me with an idea, and after five full minutes of pre-production, we were shooting something that later was embedded on his website.  

Embedding a video in your website doesn't need to be an expensive proposition. But, it can be an effective one.

To see this video in action, go here.

11/9/2008

RFID Journal LIVE! Europe 2008

Just spent a week in Prague, the location of this year's RFID Journal LIVE! Europe event. In the coming weeks, I will put together a video that will ultimately serve to promote next year's conference, and will be found on the RFID Journal website.

11/3/2008

Launch of New R&R Program via Webcast

Every fall (touch wood) I am fortunate to work on a video, or two, or three... for TD Canada Trust. This year, fortunately, is no different.

A new Reward & Recognition program will be launched very soon - internally, via a webcast. We created the English and French versions of the video, the web interface, and we hosted the webcast as well.

Kind words followed: "The senior mgmt team is just thrilled with the work... I really did have tears in my eyes when I saw the final version.... GREAT JOB!!!"

11/2/2008

Champs

We created a video to help motivate the troops to win... in part, by showing them all the great stuff past Champions were able to do on their reward trips to fantastic locations...

9/30/2008

TD Customer Experience

This year's strategy for customers is presented nationally, in a powerful video.

"Thank you for the incredible teamwork on this project!!"

9/25/2008

Parody

Just putting the finishing touches on a parody of a much loved commercial. It's part of a national "road show" staged by an executive.

"LOL!!"