OT: what do you think, would this succeed?

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 2/21/2006, 10:24 PM
Been contemplating contacting speaking venues, as well as state coordinators, about recroding speaking engagements held by speakers that they would have come in for seminars etc... Then offering to sell those DVD's to attendees only - Not necessarily better than content that speakers may have to sell, and certainly with a certain percentage of sales going directly to the speaker themselves, but so that the Exact same thing that they heard - they could have on disk. I realize that some speakers would probably never agree to something like that, but I think that some would, more importantly do YOU think that would be successfull/have you seen it successfull.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 2/21/2006, 10:34 PM
I've done a few of these Dave - I wouldn't restrict possible sales to the present audience - there are often people who couldn't be there but would love to able to see the presentation.

I usually take 2 cameras - leave one locked on a medium wide shot and I control the close ups. Afterwards I add in either the Power Point slides or video that was used, and use Excalibur to do a multi camera edit.
jrazz wrote on 2/21/2006, 10:55 PM
I did something similar, but all that was needed was the audio. We hooked up all the speakers (break out sessions) to wireless mic's and had each mic going into a camera. The events were filmed but all that was kept was the audio and that was put on cd and duplicated many times over for sales. It went over well and was great for what they needed (www.uu.edu Center for Biblical Studies "For All it's Worth" conference). Once I got the master's done, I loaded them in the Bravo II and let it do it's thing- burn and print. We made over 1,000 cd's in under a week and a half (waiting on orders that were still trailing in) and sold them for 2 bucks a pop.

I don't think that this was what you were talking about but I was approached by the university about the possibility of doing it and none of the speakers (over 7) had any qualms about it, plus I had the backing of the University to do it.

I think it is a great idea and when they do this conference again next year, I will be back there doing the same thing again making a good little profit.

Again, this may not be what you are getting at, but I went to hear D. A. Carson speak a couple months ago and they had duplicators set up in the lobby of the church spitting out cd's of the lecture that he just gave. A lot of people were buying them as they were 3 dollars- they had them already pre-printed so all they had to do was burn them. There were probably between 700-1000 people there for the course of the 3 day lectures and the lines for cd's were never short.

I guess what I am saying, is there is money there and there is benefit to both you and the customer as they get to hold on to something that can instruct and teach later on after the conference is over and you get the benefit of helping that process, plus earn some income.

Great idea with filming the event- What were you thinking of charging for something like that?

j razz
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 2/22/2006, 2:10 AM
The main reason that i am saying that this would be only to attendees, is because the speaker may also have things that they sell - and may not want someone saying here buy this Disc for 9.99 instead of 19.99 or 24.99 - anyway - I've done similar stuff in the past with a group where they wanted me to have the speaker taped - and I just did a FW cap to an Ext. HD on my laptop - as well as to tape - but - that was small scale. I'd be looking at either doing a cut that night and selling at the next day - or having a Order and will be to you in 2 weeks sort of deal.

9.99 or something along those lines (depending on if the speaker required money from them or not). I would also need to have a contract for them to sign so that I have permission to sell what they're speaking on . I think that would be just about it. Unless they use props that have recognizable tradmarks - that might also need to be cleared (not sure if that falls under the Fair use with documenting the event).

That's kinda what I'm thinking - Maybe get a Bravo II and make a bunch of copies overnight and have them for sale the next day at a table/booth for purchase/pickup.

Try and set up some deals with something like District leaders for churches that bring in speakers on a regular basis. (Depending on who it is, they may verywell be happy with just recieving a final cut or a copy of the raw footage).

Thanks for the feedback guys

Dave
TeetimeNC wrote on 2/22/2006, 3:56 AM
Dave, I have attended Gartner conferences where they record the audio and synchronize that to a slide show of the Powerpoint slides the presenter was speaking to. I believe these were burned and distributed before the conference ended (or maybe it was soon after). The advantage of this approach for me was that my real interest was in the explanation of the material on the slides, and it is difficult to see the slide details if they are video.

-jerry
farss wrote on 2/22/2006, 3:59 AM
This can be very big business, make over $10K for a weeks work.
Forget doing any post work, 3 cams switched live to VCR and DVD recorder. Make copies as you go, supply goods at end of event, saves no end of dramas with delivery, need mobile EFTPOS terminal.

There is BIG money in these jobs and nerve wracking hard work.

Bob.
Bob Greaves wrote on 2/22/2006, 4:35 AM
There is money in them there hills. Most of the conferences I have attended had audio available for the attendees of the sessions.
RichMacDonald wrote on 2/22/2006, 6:52 AM
>There is money in them there hills.

No kidding. My wife is a public speaker. If you're *good* and can handle being on the road, $300K/yr is reasonable. (Darn babies conspiring to keep her at home :-) And people are willing to pay a lot of money for the extras. Even in the "lower" bracket of public seminars (where a company like Skillpath Seminars will present a full day training seminar and the public will sign up to attend), a good speaker can sell $50/person in audio/video/book extras.

And those extras mostly suck in quality. The audio tapes are badly recorded, the video is VHS, the books are in-house printed. Yet they're very useful to the buyers. Consider the "in-house" seminar, where a company might be paying $3K for the speaker plus traveling expenses, and the day's salary of 20-200 attendees. The message of the seminar is short-lived unless the audience practices and reinforces it (everyone leaves with inspiration and the next day they're back doing the same old thing that led them there in the first place). An extra $50/person is nothing to a business when that employee can re-live the seminar by listening to the tape on the way in to work. Self-help is big business.

You might get resistance from the big seminar companies, but I bet individuals would love to have you recording them and selling the day's seminar as a DVD. Its extra money in their pocket.

Some things would change. If my wife knew a company was going to video her seminar and distribute it to the employees, she would charge differently (higher). But that's something to work out, not something to scuttle the deal.

One risk is that some public speakers *don't* want to have "promo" video material around. (1) Who needs to go to (pay for) the seminar if they have a video of it? (2) Companies will ask for a demo video before hiring the speaker. My wife always refuses because (a) each seminar is custom tailored to the audience and (b) video/audio demos act more to reject the speaker than hire them (long story but true).

If you're serious and want to pick my wife's brain, email me at rich @ clevercaboose dot com and we'll hook up. Kansas-based. Make sure you mention the Vegas forum in the subject header so I don't lose you in the spam filter :-)