Problem:
Each year, more than 100 law libraries from private, government and higher education meet to share best practices and learn from each other during the three-day Mid-America Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting.
Event organizers had been noticing a decline in attendance over the last few years, mostly due to increasing travel costs and declining professional development budgets. They needed a way to create and share content to people around the world without breaking the bank.
Solution:
In 2015, the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law hosted the 42nd meeting and recorded all the content using Mediasite Desktop Recorder. This was the first time all sessions were recorded for the members and general public.
“Using Mediasite Desktop Recorder and existing equipment, laptops and webcams — without any dedicated personnel to monitor the cameras, audio and light — we were able to record 24 sessions and made them available immediately after,” said Ayyoub Ajmi, digital communications and learning initiatives librarian, UMKC.
“During multi track conferences, it is always difficult to decide which session to attend, especially when you know that you can only attend one session at a time. The organizers may make sure the PowerPoints are available after the conference, but it’s not the same as having the video recording of the actual sessions. Therefore, having a video recording of every session allowed participants to take the most out of the conference, knowing that they could catch up on the other sessions later.”
“For members who couldn’t attend the conference, they were able to watch the recordings and be part of the discussions through social media and by contacting speakers directly,” he said.
Results:
In the face of budget constraints, Mediasite Desktop Recorder allows UMKC School of Law to capture events, like this annual meeting, inside and outside of the law school.
“We have hours of useful content that we can use for years to come,” Ajmi said. “With a little training and leveraging existing equipment, anyone is able to produce good quality content. Before Mediasite we were doing great work, but you have to be present to benefit from it. Now we are bringing the good work to you wherever you are and whenever you want it.”
This is part of a continuing series about our 2016 Enterprise Video Award finalists. The award program recognizes Mediasite users for revolutionizing video in their organizations. Winners will be announced during Unleash 2016, our Mediasite User Conference May 2-4 in Madison, Wis.