An Extra Set of Ears at SXSW
Last week was the interactive conference in Austin, SXSW and I eavesdropped on one of the sessions from my office in Wisconsin.
I was surprised at the fidelity. I could easily hear everything going on, and the transmission was easy and free.
Here’s how it worked. My friend, Karen Kreps was attending the conference and offered to dial us in to any of the sessions she attended.
I picked one out and sent her an email. Then, at the appointed hour, I sat at my desk and logged-on to Skype.
Skype is a VOIP service. It is free and can be downloaded from their website. Most folks use Skype for free long distance calls, computer to computer. It has especially excellent fidelity, so I enjoy using it for long conversations because it sounds just like you are in the same room. (You can also pay a fee to use Skype between phones)
I sent Karen an instant message to let her know I was ready.
She had her laptop computer with her, and used the WiFi connection in the convention center to login to the internet. She’d experimented a bit on the previous sessions. The best results were had by plugging in her AC-28 headset (two earphones with attached mike).
“I had the mike plugged into the mike jack and the headphones jack into the headphone jack (otherwise, my speakers would pick up any sounds coming from the person calling in on Skype). When someone wanted to listen in, I could Skype them so they would pick up the sound via the headset mic and we could communicate via skype (instant messaging).”
Karen Kreps is President and Main Muse of Net Ingenuity, an Internet strategy and content consultancy.
This experiment gives me all kinds of ideas.
- Would it help to add in a listener at a convention you are attending?
- Maybe a client would be especially interested in one of the presentations?
- How about giving someone back at the office the chance to hear your Vice President giving a speech at a conference?
This also gives me a word of caution about your proposal meetings. It might be a good idea to leave laptops out of the room during sensitive meetings.
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