Category: Podcasting

Change in Plans

“Wait a sec… I think I just… Yeah, I just had an idea.”

– Lloyd Christmas, Dumb & Dumber

A funny thing happened on the way to Phoenix. As I was sitting in the airport in Rochester, Minn. I had finished a post previewing a series on using Facebook for qualitative market research, and promised that my next few posts would flesh out this concept step-by-step. But some First Class brainstorming on the flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix has caused me to think more expansively. I have some more details to work out, but as I do I will return to that concept of Facebook Focus groups as part of the the broader framework.

So here’s a review of my Sunday travel experience, and a look ahead to the Frost & Sullivan conference, from which I plan to be blogging.

  • Goofy TSA moment: It might not be exactly a TSA responsibility as much as a general transportation regulation issue. As I disembarked from the tiny plane that had made the puddle jump from Rochester to Minneapolis, most of the passengers were gathered around the door where the luggage that had been checked planeside (mine included) was about to be delivered. The area was packed, and I didn’t want to block the doorway, so I set my laptop bag in one of the chairs just inside the waiting area near the gate. The gate attendant noted that I had broken the plane of the doorway (as Marion Barber, III just did to give the Cowboys a 14-7 lead over the Giants), so as I popped back in she said, “Sir, since you left the gate I’m going to need to have you show me your boarding pass.” Me: “You’ve got to be kidding.” Answer: “I’m NOT kidding. Regulations say that when passengers leave the gate area, they need to show their boarding pass.” This wasn’t a big deal. I pulled it right out of my coat pocket and it was quickly resolved. But to the extent that devotion to regulation enforcement has trumped common sense (she knew I had been on the plane, and watched me walk up the ramp and set my laptop bag 18 inches outside the gate and step back in), it’s a sign that Mark Steyn is right. If we’re entrusting our security to aggressive enforcement of the gate regulations instead of, say, the porous borders through which the next 9/11-type terrorists could enter, that’s a losing proposition.
  • Upgraded Seating. What led to my first-class brainstorming was being in, well… First Class. I had just gotten notification that I had achieved Silver Elite status with Northwest Airlines based on my travel for 2007. Our Carlson Travel group assistant had noticed that I had been booked in a middle seat, and sent my assistant a note saying that with Silver Elite I could book premium seats at no charge through NWA.com anytime before the flight, and had changed me to aisle seats. I’m still not sure exactly how I ended up in First Class. If anyone can fill me in on how this Silver Elite thing works and what I need to do to have the best chance of getting upgrades, I’d welcome the explanation, because I’m really new at it, and it was nice to not be crowded, and to get an omelette instead of Pringle’s.
  • Spiritual Social Media. Because my first flight was at 7:15 and I didn’t arrive in Phoenix until 11:20, I didn’t get to go to church. I watched a John Piper sermon on my video iPod. I’ve written previously about how I appreciated what Dr. Piper and the Desiring God Ministries team have done with podcasts through their radio without radio initiative. Now R.C. Sproul, another of my favorites, also offers his daily radio program as a podcast.

After Dr. Piper’s sermon (and finishing another good book I’ll be reviewing soon), I was in a great frame of mind for heavy-duty brainstorming. I look forward to sharing those ideas as I refine them further. Meanwhile, the Frost & Sullivan conference is about to begin, in an hour or so, so it’s time to hit the showers after having gone for a run here at the Wigwam Golf Resort & Spa. It’s a really nice place, and the weather is fantastic.

My next few posts will be about what I’m learning here. I attended another of these Frost & Sullivan events last July and blogged about it. I expect this one will give me lots of material, too.

Mayo Clinic Podcasts

mayo clinic podcasts
Mayo Clinic is launching several new podcasts today. They aren’t our first foray into podcasting; we’ve been podcasting our daily Mayo Clinic Medical Edge radio program for nearly two years (since September, 2005, back before there was such a thing as a video iPod.) This has been a popular program, and in January of this year we started the Mayo Clinic Medical Edge video podcast, which is based on a weekly news insert we provide for local television stations in the United States and Canada.

The new podcasts are different, in that they are produced especially for people with interest in a particular topic, condition or disease. What’s more, they’re not limited by the mass audience appeal necessary for broadcast news. They feature in-depth discussions with Mayo Clinic physicians and scientists, and instead of 60-second packages for radio or 90 seconds for television, the podcasts can be as long as the conversation needs to be.

So, for example, the first episode of the Mayo Clinic Heart Podcast, featuring Dr. Thoralf Sundt, a Mayo Clinic cardiac surgeon, talking about off-pump bypass surgery, runs 18:30. The Cancer Podcast segment on Inflammatory Breast Cancer is 15:10, and the Bones & Muscles podcast, featuring Dr. Richard Berger discussing a painful wrist injury, the UT Split Tear, and how to diagnose and repair it, is 37:14.

That’s the beauty of podcasting; it doesn’t have to fit a particular time slot, and doesn’t need to appeal to the lowest common denominator, so people with a particular interest can get a lot of deep and meaningful information. And they can listen where and when they want, either on their computer or on an iPod or other mp3 player.
Among the other new podcasts are:

mayo clinic podcasts

For more information on how to sign up to receive these podcasts, go to this page. You will need some kind of “podcatching” software, either iTunes or something similar. But you can learn more about podcasting here in Wikipedia. The podcasts are also listed in many of the major podcast directories, including PodcastAlley, Podcastingnews and others.

I make no pretense of objectivity when it comes to these podcasts; this is a project our New Media team at Mayo Clinic has been working on for several months; I’m not a neutral reviewer. So I would appreciate your feedback. Please let us know what you think of these new podcasts, anything you see we could improve and what topics you would like to see covered in the future.

Update: Mayo Clinic’s news release announcing the podcasts is here.

TechnoratiTechnorati: , , , , , , , ,

ALI Social Media Summit Presentation

As requested by Michael Rudnick, Chairperson of the Advanced Learning Insitute’s Social Media Summit, I have posted the PDF of my presentation on the blog he established as a clearinghouse. Go there to access my presentation, and feel free to leave comments or get in touch with me.

TechnoratiTechnorati: , ,

Social Media Summit – Day 2

We heard some excellent presentations today, including one from Andy Sernovitz of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, another from Mary Owens of Motorola, and a third from Mayor Bill Gentes of Round Lake, IL. A panel discussion featuring Mary, Bill Hanekamp and Patrick Rooney also created some good discussion.

I liked Bill Hanekamp’s four essentials for a successful microsite: it needs to be Entertaining, with Exclusive content, Timely and Relevant to the target audience. We also talked afterward about whether companies can put their video on YouTube and still keep other companies from incorporating it into their for-profit sites. Bill said the owner of content maintains copyright, and a cease-and-desist letter to the offending company will get them to pull it down. The panel said companies need to have a presence on YouTube to be relevant.

This made Kimberly Smith’s kind words all the more meaningful as she launched her blog today. I firmly believe that as more communications professionals begin to understand just how easy it is to blog and start experimenting, they will find applications that make sense for them. As Michael Rudnick said, we need to see the tools as just infrastructure. Don’t pay attention to how most people use them. If they are free (and most of them are) and you can meet a need with them, be creative and take advantage.

So – for those who attended this week, what was the most important nugget you took away? What are you going to apply in your work? In your personal life?

TechnoratiTechnorati: , , , ,