Event Coverage

Events and conferences are major drivers of our knowledge economy – they provide spaces where cutting edge information and invaluable knowledge is shared between members of an industry. But what happens to this data once the dust around the event has settled?

This information may enrich those in attendance, but how can it be shared with those who can’t make it to the event due to constraints of distance and time? And more importantly, how is it possible to include an ‘absent’ audience and tap into their knowledge by enabling conversation through digital technologies.

The African Commons Project believes in the importance of access to information and the conversations that emerge as a result of that access. We provide event coverage and documentation packages that cover a range of media, in a range of formats that are all made available online. We creatively leverage social media platforms to encourage discussion and debate between participants and stakeholders.

Why is documentation important?
Documentation of the information, ideas and action items that are discussed at your summit, conference, seminar or workshop allows

  • Attendees to refer back to what was discussed at the event and access additional resources gathered at the event,
  • Knowledge gathered at the event to be passed on to a wider audience who might not be able to attend,
  • Remote participation in the event – connect with new audiences through streaming video, live blogging, or even create a conference space in the online virtual world Second Life,
  • Members of the press or the media to access detailed information from interviews to photographs, or to participate ‘live’ in the event from their offices, increasing the spread of newsworthy information.

We provide the following services:

Online event marketing

A marketing campaign either driving people to follow the event through the website, or a longer campaign that will also boost attendance at the event. This will be run in the form of an e-mail or SMS campaign, a drive on social media site(s) and/or a competition.

Participant-centered collaboration

Interact with your event participants – provide a collaboration driven programme in consultation with attendees/stakeholders, collect data through interactive maps that pools information from all participants, use mobile phone technology to get participants networking.

Blogging and Live blogging

Live blogging is a form of blogging that records what is said and done at an event, as and when it happens. The writing of the live blog can be supplemented with video and photographs, or additional reading information, to enrich the user experience. We also provide traditional blogging services and coordinate ‘expert’ bloggers to suit your event, who provide more in-depth and insightful accounts of happenings.

Videography and photography

We provide professional photography of key moments of the event, as well as the coordination of ‘crowd-sourced’ photography by participants – thus providing varied and alternative views of the event. We provide streaming video of key sessions, as well as ‘packaged’ video released shortly after the event.

Podcasting

Audio interviews and discussions with participants, the hosts, or key speakers of the event, released online for download or streaming either during your event if it over more than one day, or shortly thereafter.

Resource collection

Collecting and sharing presenters’ slides or papers and making them available online.

These services can be tailor-made into packages that suit the coverage requirements of the event you are hosting. All packages will include the development of a pre-populated coverage website, where all the content created at the event will be hosted.

How will online documentation of the event benefit my company?

  • Producing a podcast for the iSummit '08 website. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Online documentation creates a web presence for the event, resulting in more publicity and discussion around the event.
    We ran the iCommons Summit ’08 website in Sapporo, Japan. At the height of the event, during the month of July, unique users to the site increased by 300%.
  • It provides an added incentive for sponsors of the event sponsors of the event have more of a reach than just the conference attendees as the audience can now include those who attend the event ‘online’.
  • It provides a space for interaction that can spark connections between attendees during or after the event. This is also true of the connections that can take place between attendees and followers online.

For more information or to arrange a meeting, please contact Daniela White or Kerryn McKay on +27 11 327 3155 or [email protected]