Canadian Opera Company shines at Opera America’s Electronic Media Forum

I had the opportunity to give a presentation this past Thursday at the Opera America Electronic Media Forum in New York City. This conference was established to stimulate dialogue and ideas among Opera Companies across North America.

The Canadian Opera Company (COC) asked me to join them to the conference and deliver a presentation on the work we have been doing with the COC. I was joined by Jeremy Elbourne the COC’s head of Marketing, as well as, Claudine Domingue their head of PR.

The conference began and there were attendees from right across the US. We were the only Canadians attending.

The original intent of our presentation was to discuss the 7 Radio Broadcasts being aired on the CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. However, we decided that not only would we discuss the Radio Broadcasts, but we would discuss the live event we created on coc.ca where we integrated a live chat around the streaming of the CBC broadcast for Madama Butterfly and the Nightingale. I even decided to take it one step further by describing the digital strategy we have helped to develop at the COC.

We knew things were going well when Jeremy Elbourne informed the audience that the COC was the 3rd largest Opera in North America in numbers of performances. This surprised some of the attendees, not expecting Canada to have such a successful Opera Company. By the time I finished taking the audience through the strategy we have developed for the COC, their new website and the results we have achieved, the audience was beyond impressed.

It is always great to see what we do in Canada as innovative and forward thinking, but I couldn’t have asked for more when I observed the pride that Jeremy and Claudine felt when they really saw that recognition and respect the COC received amongst their peers from the US.

Other attendees were definitely sharing some innovative approaches to the use of digital technologies, which resulted in some great discussion.

Here is my presentation from the Conference

Two launches for the Canadian Opera Company

Today we produced a webcast for the Canadian Opera Company of the press conference for the 2010-2011 season. Craig and I set up shop in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at 8:30 this morning and at a little after 10AM, we broadcast the season announcement to the world using Ustream with a live stream on COC.ca. (Check it out here)

Ain’t it amazing how quickly technology moves? Seriously, now: when we started working with the COC in 2007, it would be unthinkable to find a simple, free solution to host webcasts like this. Today, with only a camera, two laptops and wifi access, we can broadcast to the world in no time at all. We’re eager to see how viewership played out over the next couple of days, and to see where in the world the eyeballs came from across town, across the country and even – fingers crossed – around the world.

And yes, that is Adam Froman in the still at the top of the broadcast. Let’s just say he loves being infront of and behind the camera. One of his photo posts to our Posterous account during the broadcast net a Google Alert almost immediately. Nothing like the real-time web, right?

Jan. 20 also marks the launch of the COC’s digital brochure, a piece we developed to support online subscription renewals to the 2010-2011 season. We can’t tell you how many brochures we looked at that were just a PDF of print collateral. Looks great in the mail, falls totally flat on the web. The COC brochure takes subscription renewals to a different level with production information, a video welcome from general director Alexander Neef, ticket and costing information and a consistent push to the COC’s e-commerce engine throughout the experience. See for yourself. We’re pretty chuffed about it. Congratulations to the COC on an exciting new season!

Shake it like a Lady Gaga picture…shake it!

For someone like me who loves instant gratification and is exceedingly eager to snap a camera’s shutter release – the recent announcement of ultra-offbeat-fashionista, Lady Gaga, as Polaroid’s creative director and inventor of specialty products is something I’ll be watching with interest.

Why?

First, because whether you love her or hate her, Lady Gaga is unique and she’s unafraid to experiment and try new things – which is exactly the attitude that an “inventor of specialty products” should possess. You can’t teach creative but you sure can apply it – in any setting be it fashion or photography or technology.

Second, for those of us that grew up snapping, shake, shake, shaking, then oohing and ahhing over Polaroid’s original instant film shots, the added buzz of Gaga’s appointment will (hopefully) spur on the loyalists and enthusiasts of Polaroid’s Instant Packfilm to speed up the rebirth of the discontinued analog instant film. The Impossible Project is a promising step in that direction with its goal of developing a new breed of instant film for use with the original cameras but under its own brand and with its own unique set of enhancements. (There was just something special and spontaneous in the experience of shaking that card and witnessing the reveal of your photo that Polaroid’s current instant digital camera products have not been able to capture.)

Whether Gaga adds to Polaroid’s transformation or detracts from it is yet to be seen but this partnership is worth keeping an eye on to see if Polaroid’s brand claim of “redefining instant digital photography for a digital age” can truly be as fun and as simple as its predecessor.