One of the events we’re organizing the live communications for is TEDxAmsterdam. Being a pioneering event, this year the staff is experimenting with more technological novelties than ever. Oliver shares his highlights.

In addition to the “content circus” I am orchestrating as TEDxAmsterdam’s Live Reporting Coordinator this year some new and and exciting things are added to the mix. In addition to the cool technological experiments listed below, my personal favorite extras are Instagram speaker quotes and visitor portraits, an actual live-blog with continuous updates and a higher quality and quantity of stunning photography than ever before.

Twitter replay with the TEDTalks – a world premiere

In close collaboration with the Dutch startup SAAM I’m proud to say we are premiering this technology. Something that seems so logical but was never available: scrolling back through tweets watching a video from a certain moment in time. Extra interesting knowing this year’s theme is “Somewhere In Time”. Directly when a TEDxAmsterdam Talk is uploaded to YouTube, visitors of TEDxAmsterdam.com can watch the talks and performances surrounded by an interface that enables you to read the tweets from those ‘live moments’ as if it were just happening right now. One can also filter for certain types of tweets and scroll to any moment with a high peak in engagement rate.

Every video posted on TEDxAmsterdam will be accompanied by its Twitter archive, so you can re-watch your favorite talks and monitor what people discussed.

Live feed and social content aggregation with MobyNow

We’re working with our trusted partner Moby again for a homepage takeover. In this dynamic environment you will find the lifestream, our Twitter/blog/photo updates and popular content from social media. A new addition for TEDxAmsterdam is that we’re trying to provide a live update feed. Something you might know from Apple’s press conferences getting live coverage by major global newspapers and sites like TechCrunch and NU.nl with updates at least every minute. Our  live feed reporters will try to update the world about everything that’s going on on the stage, behind the scenes and outside as part of the Beyond The Walls program on the Leidseplein, VondelCS and other locations in Amsterdam.

Live stream in 360 degrees (virtual reality)

If all goes well, you can watch TEDxAmsterdam 2014 in 360 degrees. For example on your regular ol’ computer screen but more importantly in 3D if you own an Oculus Rift or a Google’s cardboard virtual reality kit. It will be just like sitting in the front row! This is one global tech premiere I’m looking forward to very much. Also, you can watch back the entire event in Virtual Reality afterwards.

Mood sensing by DELL

Something that uses the latest technology is an experiment we call “mood sensing”. With cameras facing away from the stage we are tracking emotional responses in the audience. Real time data about their feelings is available on a website, on screens at the event and in the blog posts about the TEDxAmsterdam Talks. Mood sensing is an experiment organized by our partner Dell in collaboration with Handmade UX and Sightcorp.

Instagram speaker quotes

During TEDxAmsterdam I always mix content that has been pre-produced with live images and this year I want to focus on interaction with other Instagrammers.

One team member will dedicate her time solely to anything related to Instagram. For example, our aim is to publish a visual with a speaker photo our team has made with a quote from the TED Talk the second he or she says these words. Because for some parts of the show we already know what’s gonna happen… This is the type of content I hope gets picked up really soon so it might go viral.

Instagram portraits “Humans of TEDxAmsterdam”

In the past 5 years, we have had troubles to showcase this important experience element. Portraying individuals on Instagram will show people we care about our audience. During the walk in, breaks and borrel, our reporter will interview people in 5 minutes and take their photo. I’ll try to keep some of the goodness available as “post-event” content so we can share more inspiring stories about TEDxAmsterdam visitors in the week after the event.

Live Flickr uploading

With a system developed by Mike Breeuwer our team of photographers is able to upload photos on the fly – even outside on a 4G sim card. This ensures that the bloggers, social media team and press can use nearly live high resolution images in their communications. To be sure of the high quality I expect from TEDx photography, a photo editor chooses which photos on Flickr are set from private to public.

 

All in all I think this 6th edition of TEDxAmsterdam promises to be more than exciting. We’re communicating about the event in new ways, with a larger team and meanwhile experimenting with the coolest technology that’s available to us. I can say there’s a very fine line between being exhilarated and extremely nervous to find out if all goes exactly the way I planned it after coordinating hundreds of elements with all fellow TEDxAmsterdam team leaders. Don’t forget to tune in on Friday 28 November!

 

Further reading:

• Our blog about content in 2013 “TEDxAmsterdam, de geheimen achter het ‘sharing’ van ideeën“
• Our presentation about content in 2012 “How TEDxAmsterdam used Google+ Hangouts On Air to create compelling content before, during and after the TEDx conference“
• 10 ways to experience TEDxAmsterdam 2014