Changes, Changes, and more Changes

Since my last entry we had build a whole new process here. We had bought and setup and EditShare which did wonders for our last event. Since the economic downturn, it looks as though things are getting worse. We just got a notice last week that all events for the rest of the year would be handled as a conference call. This worried me as all of the equipment we had just purchased basically is now no longer useful. I would no longer need to schedule contractors and the cost to capture a conference call is drastically smaller than a live event.

We spend the last week talking about how to handle the situation. We are going full force with WebEx and numbers will have to go back to sales for some decision making. I feel like this is where technology fails us... when they possibly take away jobs and cut cost by providing a lower quality product.

We will have to see how things play out. Tomorrow starts the first conference call event. I do see some issues already but let's see how things play out before I make an assumption.

Success and Boy am I Tired

It was a crazy shuffle but the event is finally over. I was worried since we didn't have enough time to test the EditShare fully before we stared the event. It took a lot longer than I thought to get that thing set up. Because of the network issues in the building, it took a ton of back work to get everything set up correctly. Literally the day before the event started the EditShare was ready to go.

I found that the EditShare concept of online collaboration is the same as any other Web 2.0 tool. It's all about file managment; where to put files and how to easily search and access them. Our team was able to come up with a great naming convention and file structure system which help us make our 24 hour turn around quota. We used Google Docs as a tracing document to make sure everyone knew who was working on what and what was completed.

I am so glad the event worked. I wish it was time for a break but now I start planning for the next event. Our team is going to have a meeting about our thoughts on the process. We will need to get this documented and hopefully refine it for the next event.