Greetings! In case you weren't able to attend one of the sessions, there are a couple of ways to participate. The first is to take a self-guided tour. Simply scroll down the page, reading and watching the videos as you encounter them.

The second is a recording of the first session immediately below this paragraph. If you watch the video of the presentation, pause when I start the videos, scroll down and watch the embedded ones below. The framerate for GoTo Meeting isn't fast enough for video.

Tech Lunch: Presentations & Video - Friday March 17

The purpose of this lunch is to shows some examples of multimedia presentations and video with an eye towards ways we may be able to improve our presentations and offer communications services for our clients.  My hope is that by showing examples we can identify a few clients and projects that could benefit from improved communications. Not only on our presentations to them, but ways we may be able to offer services that would help their communications to their stakeholders, constituents, etc.

I welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions. Please feel free to reach out to me at aburtch@cititesthatwork.com or x129.

Thanks,

Anson Burtch

PS - Before moving on, please click this link to download a PowerPoint that we'll get to later in the presentation.

Section 1: Explainer Videos, Advocacy & Animated Infographics - Simplifying the complex

The purpose of an explainer video is to convey a concept in the quickest, simplest way possible. Think of these as your elevator speech. Animation is often the best approach to these as it helps convey information to the visual learner while the voiceover explains the concept backing up what you are seeing while supporting the auditory learner. Following are a few examples. My goal is to show you styles that may lend themselves to concepts and ideas (Such as MMAs or MMTDs) that we would like to convey in layman's terms to help educate our clients and the general public.

Deloitte - M&A Trends

This is an example of a simple animation which summarizes a dense technical report. It's designed to give a top-line overview and act as a "teaser" enticing people to find out more about the report.

Deloitte - Analytics Symposium

Designed as a meeting opener video, this is one of my favorite examples of a fun, animated infographic. This content feels relevant as the Deloitte Analytics Symposium was a conference around getting people who work with data to think about the big picture and craft stories from that data.

AASHTO - Transportation Future

Aimed at congressional representatives, this video was designed to draw attention to the nation's deteriorating transportation infrastructure and highlight the dire need for future investment to repair and expand it. The video is a good example of using story to lay out a point of view and advocating for action. It's also a nice use of two dimensional animation.

Duke Energy - Net Metering

Here is a good example of presenting a complex issue - solar net metering - in a way that's understandable. Be aware that this is explained from a biased viewpoint, so the solar people would probably have a different take. But for these purposes, I wanted to show how the illustrated stop-motion whiteboard technique lends itself well to explainer videos.

Section 2: People, Places, Testimonials - Exploring the human element

The stories we connect with the most are inevitably human ones. Watching a crane operator work, hearing a tale of trial or sorrow, or experiencing uplifting stories of people overcoming the odds; we can picture ourselves in their shoes and feel what they feel. This is why testimonials and documentary style storytelling is so powerful. The following videos are examples of organizations getting their message across utilizing the human element.

North Carolina Ports - "We Keep This Port Running"

People are at the heart of the North Carolina Ports system. Their service, dedication, and knowledge set the NC Ports apart from their competitors. This video was produced to showcase the people who keep the ports running. It puts you in their shoes so you can see the pride they feel in their work. The viewer gets a real sense of what it's like to work and the port and its important role in the state's economy. This video had multiple audiences including potential clients, employees, legislators, and the surrounding communities and was captured over the course of two shoot days.   For an example of what a budget for this kind of video would look like, click here.

Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance - Building Operators Certificate

This is a good example of a testimonial. One of a series of three, we meet people who have taken NEEA's Building Operator's Certificate. We hear first hand what they do and how they've used what they've learned by taking the course to gain efficiency and save money. This was done in only one shoot day. Doing a sit-down interview with the subject(s) and then spending a few hours filming them in the course of their daily work gives you enough interesting broll to cover the edits in the interview and keeps the video interesting.  

Tobacco Reality Unfiltered - "Justin"

One in a series of six spots for North Carolina's anti-smoking program, this campaign focused on powerful stories from those adversely affected by tobacco use. A short story, powerfully told in Justin's own words.

Section 3: Presentations - Impressing the audience

We all hate it when a presenter simply reads the bullet points on their PowerPoint slides, right? This section contains a few ideas on how to take presentations to the next level.

University of North Carolina - Strategic Framework

This is an example of an animated presentation placed inside of PowerPoint. The beginning of each slide is the exact same as the end frame of the last slide so it appears seamless. While the presenter talks the animation illustrates the points, coming to a resting point so they can continue or take questions. Then the next sequence is triggered by the presenter advancing to the next slide.

Click this link to download the presentation. It's the same as the one at the top of the page in case you've already downloaded it. Please note, there is no audio on this PowerPoint and I only included the first part to keep the size down.

University of Florida - College of Medicine

These are a few slides from an enormous PowerPoint (1.2Gigs) that incorporated both text and video profiles. There are animated section headers, some infographics and a video. One thought I had here would be to create some Renaissance Planning animated PowerPoint template slides that could be quickly added to presentations. (Videos have no sound. This is a playlist, so keep watching after the first video ends.)

UNC Health Care - live presentation

Although this quick clip doesn't convey the full scope, the idea behind this presentation was an "Inconvenient Truth" style speech. As the presenter reads from a prepared script, animated infographics appear on the screen behind him perfectly timed with the script. This very simple animated infographic style could be used in some of our presentations.

Thanks everyone very much for participating!

Again,  I welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions. Please feel free to reach out to me at aburtch@cititesthatwork.com or x129.