The idea of charging a fee for video and audio from conferences and events is old, and comes from the days of charging for tapes of presentations as a way of boosting revenue from live events.  Those days are over.

Today, sitting in little old South River, Ontario, Canada I’m watching the live streaming event LeWeb from Paris France – for free.  Not everyone can afford to travel to conferences and not everyone can attend your event each year.  By letting participants peak into your conference on their computer, you build your event reputation, entice future attendees and earn fans far beyond the walls of your event.

Events like LeWeb and Web 2.0 Conference put some of the brightest lights in the tech industry on stage for their audience and give away the content. These events gain a wide audience and inspire people to consider attending in person and make it more enticing for presenters to offer their services at little or no cost.

These events and others like Phocuswright Conference for Tourism Industry earn income by providing a stage for start-ups to showcase their businesses.  Unlike others, Phocuswright charges a fee for access to streaming and on-demand video.  This insulates conference content from those who don’t pay for access, and offers less exposure for the people and businesses that take the stage.

Growing your brand exposure by giving away the proceedings, earns free promotion for your event from people “Outside the Walls” who:

• tweet about happenings with your hash tags (even though they are not there)
• broadcast the news and info and crediting your event
• tell others about what they learn
• blog about ideas they see and hear
• link back to your event
• attend future events

In this regard your event might consider moving the cost of video production from an expense that will produce income (selling access to video from your event) to a Public Relations and Promotions expense that will grow future attendance at your events.

Ask Yourself: How can I extend my brand and involve people who can’t be here?

Why Live Streaming your Event is a no brainer:

Audience members can stream your event themselves today for FREE.  Apple yesterday approved the Ustream Live Broadcaster application for iPhone.  Now anyone with an iPhone 3G can  live stream video straight from the iPhone to the Ustream Web site.  That video can be embedded in other Web pages for free.  When audience members are holding up their phones, they are no longer just snapping photos, but sending video of your conference or event to others on the Web.

The Ustream.tv Live Broadcasting app works on both 3G cell phone connections as well as Wi-Fi.  It supports audience interaction with chatroom messaging and polling of viewers and allows uploading video to Youtube and Facebook.  Ustream Live is available in the iTunes store for FREE here

Other apps like Qik Video for iPhone (and other smartphone devices) has submitted its app for approval to the iTunes store as well.  This app permits instant updates of Video broadcasting via Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

All information is already free. The information attendees gather from your event will be publically available around the world before your speakers even step off stage.  There is virtually no information that Google can’t provide, but for the sake of a couple of keystrokes.

Information presented at your event is already old. The Web is changing so quickly that information has a “Best Before” date stamped on it that expires before the signs are taken down and the stage is packed away.

If they can get it for free, why would anyone come to your event?

The truth is, most people don’t come to your event for the conference proceedings and presentations.  They come to socialize with other attendees and presenters.  The biggest value you bring to attendees is the opportunity to build face to face relationships.  If your event doesn’t gain renown for the face to face interactions that take place in between presentations, you have a bigger problem than ubiquitous live streaming video.

photo credit: kitcowan