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NEWSLETTER 140
 
VIRTUAL EVENTS GROUP
 

 

“In an age of acceleration, nothing can be more exhilarating than going slow….”

― Pico Iyer

 
 
 
 
 
 

The content on the Web overfloweth. According to various estimates, every day about 4.5 million blog posts are published on WordPress. More than 500 million tweets are sent each day on Twitter (subject to change based on the variable X), and more than 500 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Video is now responsible for more than 50% of all Internet content.


Generative AI’s raison d'ĂŞtre, at least for the moment, is to help us produce all of this stuff even faster. But is snackable content, produced by AI, digital junk food? After living in the trenches with Generative AI for the past 6 months, I'm starting to realize that that AI might be better at cutting and snipping than creating. 


Will AI effectively produce better content, or will it just churn out more and more junk food? The jury’s still out. But your meeting videos might get watched more if they are shorter. According to Pex, around 90% of videos people upload on their YouTube channels never reach 1,000 views. For a video-sharing site that gets more than 5 billion views daily, that’s a lot of underconsumed content.


What’s new in the world of Generative AI? For academics and academic wannabes, there’s PaperTalk.io. Astoundingly, it will take an inscrutable academic paper (I believe academics are secretly paid by the word) and provide a really solid summary. Here’s an example showing how it took a full-length academic paper, shrunk it to size and even included an audiobook like transcript for read-a-phobics. 

 
 
 
Summary of an academic paper. Image credit: PaperTalk.io
 
 

Then there’s what Axios calls “smart brevity.” Axios began its life as a daily email newsletter to provide a summary of top news stories from around the world in a quickly digestible format. It named its particular writing formula Smart Brevity. Now Axios has codified “Smart Brevity” into Axios HQ, a commercial AI that helps us all be brief and to the point. You enter an outline of what you’d like to say and Axios HQ does the rest. HQ is big on bullet points, headlines, subheads, and underscoring what’s important for the reader. Good for PR, HR, and corporate team members who want their communications read and not deleted. Pricing is based on the organization's size and (sigh) there is no free trial.


For video, it’s the same story. Cut that CEO’s 45-minute speech down to a digestible series of bullet points. Or cut a 45-minute webinar down to a quick snack break. Our latest faves in this booming category are Vidyo and Opus. Both get Ph.D.s for analyzing a long-form video and finding the most salient parts. 


Conor Eliot, Head of Creator of Partnerships at Opus, told me that even his own team was surprised at the enthusiasm of the corporate world for Opus. The AI was designed with creators in mind but quickly found a market cutting video in many different instances, from real estate to product launches. 


Both programs have different approaches and features but basically, they ingest long videos and chop them up into juicy parts.

 
 
Opus will snip up your long videos and even score them as to how and why they’ll perform. It’s astounding. Image credit: Opus
 
 
On an amusing note, Ben Parr was incorrectly identified as Ben Affleck. An easy edit but it made for a good chuckle. Image credit: Vidyo
 
 
Scuttlebutt
 
 
 

Steve Jobs did it. Why don’t we try walking? 
Jobs' favorite way to engage was to walk and talk. Any event folks ready to man up and try some walking/talking moments? Walking and talking are like peanut butter and jelly. Many events have curated walking tours led by an expert who does all the talking, but what if there was an interactive element? Let us know if you’ve done a walk-and-talk meetup.


Can Roblox Sell Headsets?
Holy immersiveness! Roblox is now available in open beta on Meta’s Quest VR headsets. Will this popular version of a 2D metaverse played on screens and mobile devices translate to Oculus? We’re not so sure. 


TikTok pulls a Reverse Dorian Gray
Remember those FBI computer-enhanced images of how a person (often a kidnap victim) will age? Well now you can do it to yourself. TikTok’s new viral exercise lets you see whether the years will be kind to you. Here’s how to do it: 

  • Open TikTok.
  • Click on the plus button to open the camera.
  • Tap on the effects button, then the magnifying glass.
  • In the search bar, type 'Aged. '
  • Select the filter of the same name.
  • Hold the record button to try the effect.
 
 
The aging filter didn’t do much for me, perhaps because I didn’t give it enough to work with, so I asked Gigi Raskin to try out. Image credit: TikTok
 
 
The Corona Coaster 
Dahlia El Gazzar talks about the Corona Coaster that many event planners have been riding, but worries that we haven't learned our lessons about how meetings and events need to change to be successful.  We explored How the Pandemic Has (or Hasn't) Changed Event Planning at our last VEG event. Have a listen. 
 
 
What Did You Learn From the Pandemic?
 
Highlight Reels
 
 
Unstoppable Resilience: Overcoming Pandemic Challenges with Teamwork
 
 
Unleashing Change: Embrace the Corona Coaster for New Opportunities
 
 
Unleashing the Power of Engagement Fueling Excitement and Connection
 
 
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Robin Raskin | Founder
917.215.3160 | robin@virtualeventsgroup.org

Gigi Raskin | Sales/Marketing

917.608.7542 | gigi@virtualeventsgroup.org