To record or not to record – A decision you should make as the event organizer
Technically it is very easy to record the online sessions but there are a number of things to consider. First, let’s look at the advantages of recording the sessions:
- Advantages of recorded sessions for attendees :
- They can view recordings again later for reference or clarification.
- They can watch sessions that they were unable to attend live.
- They can watch the recording if they experience technical difficulties viewing the live session.
- Benefits of adding recorded sessions to your online resource library:
- Creates a special benefit for members that they can access the recordings.
- Generates additional income by selling access to the recorded sessions to those who were unable to attend the event
Based on all the advantages it may appear to be an easy choice but there are other aspects to consider:
Does the presenter own the intellectual property rights for all of the content in their presentation? No Disney characters? No YouTube videos? Images of unknown origin from a Google image search? If they do not own intellectual property rights for all of the content in the video there could be legal copyright issues.
Are all the attendees comfortable attending a session if it is recorded and made public? Are their real names used in the session? Are individual videos shown that may contain identifiable personal information? Is the content of the session confidential or personal?
Attendees need to be informed at the beginning of the session that the session is being recorded and to voice any concerns they may have.
Do you have the approval of the presenters to record and make the recording public? If the presenter earns a living doing presentations they may not want their session to be recorded and distributed.
Obtain publishing rights from presenters before recording and sharing videos.
Before you make the decision to record sessions, you should be clear on why you are recording and what you are planning to do with the recordings. Clearly communicate your intentions with your presenters and attendees to avoid any problems later.
Where are you going to store the videos? Is there a cost involved? How much is the cost and how do we pay it? Have the costs been budgeted for?
How long are you planning to keep videos? 2 weeks? 3 months? 1 year? If there is a time limit who will delete them once that time is up? The duration that videos will be published needs to also be communicated with presenters and attendees to avoid any issues.
Offering recordings your live online sessions changes the experience of
To sum up, you should carefully consider all these aspects and make an informed decision about recording sessions.