A wrap-up of what BRASSmedia was up to for the past year.

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Hello, I’m Dean Owen and welcome to this special edition of the BRASScast. For this episode we are recording this as a video and will release it as an audio and video podcast and publish it on our YouTube channel at BRASSmediaCanada. We plan to produce more video and this is just the start.

I want to recap what we’ve done for the year 2008 and tell you about some of the things we have planned for 2009.

Back in January 2008 we published a blog with a list of things we had planned for the year – a combination wish list, predictions for podcasting and a to-do list all combined.

The RadioFreeRedDeer project where we feature independent musical artists from Central Alberta was a lot of fun and we received a lot of good feedback on it. We took the summer off to work on a few other projects but before we knew it here it is a few days before Christmas and though we have lots of material we won’t be able to get to it until January 2009. Thanks to all those who listened in and to the artists that took part. You can find this show at radiofreereddeer.wordpress.com.
Another project we started in early 2008 was albertaJOBcast – where we record employer profiles and job ads and publish them across the web as podcasts and social network videos. In our initial market surveys there was some interest from employers and even support for this new and innovative recruitment tool. When we took it to market we were unable to break through the traditional HR approach to recruitment of job boards, newspaper ads and job fairs. As a result we put albertaJOBcast on the back-burner while we waited for social networking and social media to permeate to the mainstream. With the current economic climate we are looking at services we can provide to job seekers as well as the companies still looking for workers. This may turn out to be a longer term project but we feel that it can be successful given the opportunity.
Another goal we set for BRASSmedia was to spend time evangelizing web 2.0 in general and podcasting in particular. There were a number of events we took part in and really enjoyed meeting lots of folks while we spread the word. We did two brown bag lunch sessions for the Alberta Business Link out of Edmonton on Podcasting for Business. These sessions were video conference across western Canada. There is a lot of interest in podcasting for business and they have asked us back to present a three hour workshop on blogging, podcasting and online syndication. I’ll post the exact dates on our blog and Facebook page and we look forward to seeing you there.

We took part in some fusion marketing with two local businesses – Nova Media and Advanced Systems to present a seminar on Web 2.0 and SEO strategies. Most of the folks there were interested in the Web 2.0 part and although some of them were even taking part in such things as blogs and social networks, they weren’t quite caught up to how Web 2.0 can be used as a business tool. We expect that 2009 will be a bigger year for Web 2.0 strategies now that there has been more time for this to catch on.

Thanks to David Jeffery and his business students at Canadian University College in Lacombe for inviting me to guest lecture on web 2.0 for business. They got excited when we used WordPress to build personal blogs. I’ve heard back from many of these students and it’s great that they are taking part in this.

I was able to take part in one Calgary Podcast and new media meet up and it was great to actually get to chat with these folks who are involved with podcasting in so many ways. Due to weather, work and the high cost of fuel I was never able to attend another meet up but I’m looking forward to being there in the upcoming year. There’s talk of them hosting a Pod camp Calgary and we look forward to something happening on that soon.

So what’s coming up for 2009?

More podcasting. We have a number of shows that we need to dedicate more time to and get on schedule. Some shows will be intermittent as the content occurs but RadioFreeRedDeer and the BRASScast will be coming out on a regular basis. We’ll also continue to evangelize the value of podcasting as both a business and social tool.

I haven’t made up any to do lists yet – but we’ll do that in January 2009.
Well that brings us to the end of this episode. We wish you the best of season – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and look forward to talking with you in 2009.