Over the years, we have received several requests to start filming our talks, and we were always a little bit hesitant.  It is labor intensive, potentially distracting and not attractive to some speakers. Although we hope to reach those outside of Berlin with this effort, maybe our local attendance will drop. In spite of these initial fears and challenges, after testing some options, we have decided that we will give it a (provisional) go with an improvised, rather rudimentary setup. 

Where to start? We have asked previous presenters if they would prefer live streaming or video recording, and streaming came out just on top, however, most were also ok with recording. We then asked our target audience, who strongly preferred recorded video. The BEMC Talk videos will be available for everybody wherever, whenever, potentially multiplying the number of people who benefit from the extra effort. So, video it is. 

Of course, we understand that not all presenters will feel comfortable with recording. Sometimes it is because of the work that they are presenting; sometimes it is because the thought of being online until the end of time is a bit daunting. We will respect their wishes if they want the talk to stay completely offline.  However, we will try to work with speakers in such cases to record parts of their talks, when possible, and ask them for a green light after we have shown them the edited video. With this approach we think that a good chunk of the BEMC talks will end up on the internet. Even though the video and sound quality will not be top notch without professional equipment, we hope this first step will still be well received.  

We hope that a lot of people will benefit from our videos. Of course, we will keep an eye on the view counts and watch for useful feedback in the comments section on our Youtube page, but please feel free to get in touch directly via Twitter or using our “Contact us” page to let us know what you think. 

All the best and thanks for your continued support, 

The BEMC team