Periscope debuted in early 2015 and has been growing in popularity ever since. Will it change events forever?
I think it most certainly will. Here’s a look at how this new live-streaming app can shake up the world of event planning. But first, for those who may not know, what exactly is Periscope and how does it work?
Periscope is Twitter’s live-streaming video app that makes it easy to record and broadcast live videos using an iPhone or Android. Once you’ve downloaded the app, you sign into Periscope using your Twitter log in, and your followers are instantly added to your Periscope account. The app’s live feeds can be watched on smartphones, desktops or laptops either through the app or on Twitter’s site. Those streams with the most “hearts” end up with high rankings. Periscope saves video streams for up to 24 hours, though you can store your original stream as a video on your own device.
What does Periscope live-streaming mean for meeting planners? Here are a few examples:
- Now, we can set up a few key people to live-stream the event and share their thoughts and views. Seeing the event through the eyes of the president of the company or the keynote speaker certainly sounds interesting.
- One attendee may actually equal hundreds of attendees. If one person shows up with Periscope and live-streams parts of your event, hundreds could be “attending” without you even knowing it. Meeting planners know they can’t control a lot of things, such as weather, plane schedules and attendees’ moods. Periscope may have just added another—that is, control over the number of people “attending” an event. I think the bottom line here is that this social media tool may just help us take marketing our events to another level.
- I will admit that the idea of live-streaming the meeting planner’s experience of the event would be an interesting item to watch. So few really understand the magic we make behind the scenes. But then again, should we tell them?
As with any new thing, time will tell what the long-term impact of live-streaming will have on events. But the signs are that live-streams from smartphones broadcasted through social media platforms will continue to explode. For instance, Facebook is looking to launch it’s own live-stream app. Are you ready for that?
