Last summer (August 2011) we helped the Fly To The Past event organiser use social media to maximise the numbers of people attending the airshow/family fun day at Oxford Airport. In the end over 10,000 people attended. It was so successful that another event has been planned for 2012 – but this time over two days on September 1st and 2nd.

Before last years event we are able to do a number of phone interviews with the organisers, members of the Oxford Airport team, aircraft pilots and owners as well as a number of the ground exhibitors. You can listen to those interviews at this blog post.

We were also asked to film the event on the day. We are able to meet many of the people we had spoken to over the phone and others besides. We were asked to make the interviews available and also create a short video recording what had happened on the day and use it to help promote this years event. This is the video above. It is also on YouTube and on the FlyToThePast blog site together with all the video interviews we recorded on the day.

The integrated use of audio podcasts, Twitter, blogging and Facebook and now these online and YouTube videos are a great example of how social media can help make an event successful and promote follow up events cost effectively.

Its been really fun talking to the organisers, pilots and other participants of the Fly To The Past airshow that is happening at Oxford airport on August 21st. The podcast interviews can be found here.

We have spoken to:

Robert Pleming, CEO, Vulcan To The Sky Trust about his organisations mission to keep the last remaining Vulcan bomber flying.

Martin Willing, pilot of the T28 Fenec about his career as an RAf and then commercial airline pilot and the aircraft he is flying

John Miller, leader of the John Miller Orchestra and Big Band Sound

Chris Orphanou, MD of London Oxford Airport and his role and the airports to suport Oxfordshires economy

James Dillon-Godfray, Development Manager at London Oxford Airport on the continued investement and development

Francis Rockliff, Creative Director of FlyToThePast on what creative content is being developed as part of the show

David Hurst, Commercial Director, Fly To The Past on what is happening with the event

Mike Orr, Photographer on the technololgy behind ‘instant memories’ – taking pictures with planes and printing immediately

John Davis, Flying Display Director on what is involved in ensuring the safety of aircraft, pilots and the audience

What has been great fun is watching how this event has develooped over the last few months or so and having the opportunity to meet and talk to those taking part.

On the day we will be at the show with a number of camera crews, photographers and audio recording engineers to capture the sights, sounds and atmosphere of the event and share some of the flavour to those that maybe unable to attend in person.

We have been interviewing speakers at the OxFocus business leaders networking meeting for a while now.

The October OxFocus speaker is Rob Lindley, VP and MD of Harley-Davidson, European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).  I got to meet Rob at their Oxford Science Park offices. The reception area, meeting rooms, hallways and walls either have images of motor bikes or the bikes themselves. (See pictures here). To support the branding impact most employees I saw had a working ‘uniform’ of branded clothing.

In my interview with him (on the OxFocus site) Rob talked about his own background in the motor car industry and how despite the recession they are growing in the EMEA region. He talked at length about the reasons for the continued strong financial performance.

Rob will be discussing the reasons for the continued strong performance at the October OxFocus meeting.

The July speaker at OxFocus is Professor Colin Mayer who is Dean of the Said Business School, Oxford University. OxFocus is sponsored by The Learning Ladder, OTCN and Charles Russell.

We interviewed Colin earlier this month about his presentation. A recording can be found here.

Colin will be talking about the role Said plays in educating local businesses at a number of levels and how it has worked successfully to become a top ranked UK Business School and well on the way to being in the elite of global worldclass providers.

Colin will also be talking about the importance of innovation for both the local and UK wide economy.

On Monday I went to the April OxFocus meeting at the Oxfordshire Science Park to listen to Stuart Miller, MD of ByBox talk about being an entrepreneur. (For photos see here)  

OxFocus is organised monthly by Oxfordshire Town Chamber Networks (OTCN), Charles Russell LLP and The Learning Ladder. They have great speakers each month and it also provides the audience with an opportunity to network – and have some great food!

Last year we started audio recording the speakers about what they planned to talk about before they spoke. The idea being that potential attendees could get a flavour of that they would hear. You can listen to the archive here and to Stuart here.

This year we are trying something a bit different. We will still pre-record the speakers but we plan also to record an interview with them after they have spoken. The idea being that people who were unable to attend can at least hear some of that was said. It is also an opportunity for us to do some interviews with members of the audience.

Stuarts was a really interesting speaker. This is a guy all of us in business can learn from. From failure 10 years ago to a £40m PA profitable company today – having seen off his competition along the way –  there are lessons there for everyone in business. Stuarts presentation style was very engaging – not least because he rewarded the audience with free bottles of wine and books for correct answers to his questions (Note to self: Do not sit at the back next time Stuart presents). Rather than a plod through the history of the company he choose to look at the Wine industry, Cycling and Jazz and draw lessons from them that he feels are the essence of his success. He did not gloss over how poor his timing and judgement was in launching the company in the US in 2000 and how desperately close to melt down it came as they had to retreat to the UK and cash support from friends and family to keep going. It is hard to do justice in writing to what Stuart manage to get across to the audience but here goes:

Wine – the industry is always willing to experiement whether it is blending different grapes to perfecting the screw cap. Challenge the status quo. Think outside the box. But be realistic in what you want to achieve – set challenging goals. 

Jazz – working within a framework do not be affraid to improvise. To accept individuals who are ‘left field’ but not in a egotistical way. Said a challenge to hire ‘change agents’ but rewards are great. To be a good boss you need to manage your ego. 

Cycling – its about pushing yourself and equipment to the limit and being able to call on reserves of energy and will power when it gets tough. Its about making minute changes to a set-up in search of that extra competitive edge and accepting it is lonely sometimes even when part of a team.

The fact that Stuart had a queue of people wanting to talk to him after the Q&A session (and was still there talking to people after 25 minutes so risking missing his plane) gives you an idea how well his presentation was received.

Note: Stuart has agreed to do an interview so I can capture in his own words what he presented and share that with a wider audience.  

At the meeting I managed to also catch up with Dave Beesley, MD of B-Line Office Supplies to talk about his involvement with Woa!Rhino. You can listen to my conversation with him here. Dave is now the proud keeper of 2 Rhinos in his offices. I think he can safely claim to be the only office supplies company in Oxfordshire in that position. Maybe even the UK.

I also met up with Anthony Lloyd, MD of Fallowfields Resturant and Hotel who co-incidentally was attending OxFocus for the first time and was only just getting back into business networking after almost a year of absence. I met Anthony a year or so ago at one of his regular ‘Tweet-Ups’ at Fallowfields so I knew he was interested in social media. But I never imagined what sort of ROI he was getting. In the interview here you can hear him say that Twitter has been the source of £100k+ business in the last 12 to 18 months. Looking at the maths Anthony has EARNED over £170 per hour he has invested in social media in the last 18 months. Not a bad ROI.

I also met up with David Hurst who (when he is not being Biggles – see photo above) has just set up a company ‘Fly To The Past’. After a number of years at Blenheim Palace this years event is taking place at Oxford Airport on Sunday 21st August 2011. It features historic fly-overs from early bi-planes, fighter planes of the world wars, as well as modern jets. There is also a collection of vintage aircraft, including Spitfires and Hurricanes, and historical aviation films on giant screens. ‘Theatre on the ground’ will include a vintage fashion show, re-enactors, famous look-alikes from the past and the Glen Miller Orchestra with dancers inviting the audience to join in.

Our skills cover four key areas:

• Planning (includes pre-production project management, scripting, presenter preparation, marketing and promotion)
• Production (all aspects of recording on location at your site or elsewhere and in the studio)
• Post-production (editing, graphics, music, special effects, voice-overs, captioning, translation etc)
• Distribution (via DVD/CD Rom, internet, mobile internet, intranet, hosted etc)

Some clients like to manage some of these areas themselves (typically Planning and/or Distribution) whilst others prefer us to do it all under their management. Some prefer their marketing agencies to part manage. We offer a totally flexible service. You and/or your marketing agency can choose the areas you want to be involved in and leave the rest to us.

To help clients discover more about the world of audio and video and where it can be used effectively we  run ‘hands-on’ workshops A-V Production Workshops. For information click here

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

We have been delivering impactful, creative and effective audio and video programs to time and budget for over 30 years. From concept to scriptwriting, recording and editing as well as post-production graphics, music, special effects and translation – we have done it all.

We understand how to deliver content, by DVD or CD, online via client web sites, through iTunes or YouTube, streamed live, or in webinars.

Our studios and equipment are broadcast standard and our technical team have broadcast training and experience. Whatever your audio and video needs – employee communication or education, Health & Safety training, marketing, sales or customer support – or even just studio facilities and equipment hire – we have done it and can do it for you.

To see examples of our work on land, sea or from the air (and in the studio using a ‘Green Screen’) click on ‘Client Work’ above.

Here you can view a selection of videos that we’ve worked on recently.
		Fly To The Past Last summer (August 2011) we helped the Fly To The Past event organiser use social media to maximise the numbers of people attending the airshow/family fun day at Oxford Airport.
		Think! First Think! FIRST’ is one of a series of twelve short training films designed to encourage crew to think about their own safety while they’re going about their work.
		The Trouble with Handovers The Film “The Trouble with Handover” has been made to highlight the vital importance of clinical handovers to patients’ safety.
		Seafarers die during Lifeboat Drills A short 30 second advert for the DVD we produced for Headland Media, filmed on board Santa Giulana and Guilietta on the River Fal.
		Virtual Studio – your message from anywhere, to anywhere! This demonstrates the use of Green Screen and clever graphics to illustrate and add extra impact to your message.
		Boat Show Dreams Rather than adding to the rows of vessels aligned side-by-side at the Southampton Boat Show, SD Marine gave their exhibition floor space over to just one boat plus a plasma screen showing the video material shot and edited by Focus of the Maxi 1100 at sea and sailing into the sunset
		One man with a Passion Our challenge this time was to help one guy with a real Passion to start building support for an event that he hopes will take the City of Southampton by storm in 2011.
		The Patient Safety Federation As part of our ongoing relationship with NHS, we were asked to film a recent Patient Safety conference at the Ark, the NHS Conference Centre in Basingstoke, and to carry out and record some interviews with staff beforehand which were used as part of the day.
		Information Technologists A short head interview with Charles Hughes, Master Elect of the Information Technologists’ Company. Our animation expert also produced a short intro sequence to spice up their logo.
		Green screen rocks The Brief was to build a green screen space from scratch in several European cities. We were to meet certain people in each of those cities and they would perform for us. But lighting and shooting green screen is an art-form. Here, Andy on camera and Dave on lights put on a show of their own. But then, they’ve done it once or twice before. So naturally it all worked beautifully.
		Coastguard Operations The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency asked Focus to produce a video programme that covered the Agency’s entire UK-wide operation, describing the ways in which their Maritime Response Control Centres handle the coordination of Search and Rescue missions when ships get into trouble. You can watch the whole programme at http://www.mcapodcasts.co.uk/mcavnrs/index.htm
		Grandstand B&B TV presenter Iolo Williams meets Colin and Mandy Powell who run this fantastic 5 star B&B in Mid Wales. Incidentally, they have the three minute Podcast running on their own website, possibly a first in the B&B sector. Originally as part of a DVD promoting the town of Llanidloes in Mid Wales. www.grandstandbandb.co.uk www.llanidloes.com
		The Rainbow Centre Fred Dinenage presents the case for helping this organisation that supports children with cerebral palsy and their parents. The Rainbow Centre uses Conductive Education to improve the quality of life for the children and their families. This programme, presented by Fred Dinenage, was intended for showing in cinemas. It was made by Focus, in conjunction with The Remarkable Group
		Mithril Racing These guys are definitely Licensed to Thrill! Enjoy this piece put together for the client by one of our producers Andy Goode. Another great use of video on the web to show what printed brochures couldn’t.
		The Emergency Escape Breathing Device Used by navies worldwide and manufactured by Ocenco in America, the EEBD saves lives during maritime emergencies and this programme shows how. DVDs of this training programme were issued to Officers and Crew of all British Naval vessels. HMS ‘Ark Royal’ was the location used for shooting this programme.
		Brecon Beacons National Park Cover your ears! Brian Blessed takes you on a tour of the history, scenery, wildlife and activities of the Park.
		3000ad – Gangster Animated music video for 3000AD (Pete Devereux – Artful Dodger), directed and produced by Martin Davis featuring Radio 1′s DJ Spoony and 1Xtra’s Ronnie Herel. As seen on VH1 and MTV.

The Film “The Trouble with Handovers” has been made to highlight the vital importance of clinical handovers to patients’ safety.

We follow the story of David, an elderly man with dementia, after he develops pneumonia and a crush fracture in his thoracic spine. David and his partially – sighted wife have been coping OK at home with support of their daughter. But an admission to hospital goes badly wrong due to important information being lost at various handovers between staff.

The Patient Safety Federation (PSF) is made up of, run by and funded by the healthcare organisations of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Its members collaborate to address those wider patient safety issues of particular relevance to them, bringing to bear on these a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary approach.

The No Needless Ignorance (NNI) workstream is one of ten work streams under the PSF and consists of clinicians from different backgrounds with a common vision who have come together to create this innovative piece that can be used right across the NHS to illustrate how handovers between services can go wrong. Giving clinicians the opportunity to reflect on individual day to day practice and therefore improve handovers and communication to ultimately affect patient safety.

You can choose to record material yourself at your office or come into our studios in Southampton and work with us to create a great 5 minute podcast. We’ll add a free intro voiceover and music to get you started.

Have a listen to some of the work we’ve done for clients who have used a podcast series to start a conversation:

Parity Solutions

A range of podcasts looking at Collaborative Recruitment, CIM and technical business issues.

EUFIC – The European Food Information Council

A range of audio and video podcasts looking at issues affecting the European food industry.

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Video podcasts created using material that we have produced for MCA, material from the MCA helicopters, or from MCA stock footage.

Contact us to discuss your free podcast.

This offer is valid for the first 20 businesses who contact us.

Podcasting is a wonderful way to share information widely, and the majority of Business Podcasts consist mainly of conversations.  Now obviously no-one would think of travelling across the globe to meet up face-to-face to record such conversations, so we’ve been using Voice Over IP (that’s Skype to you and me!) because it’s free, better than the telephone, and to many people’s amazement it works brilliantly (provided you use good microphones).  If we can get people into a studio then we can use inter-studio ISDN audio links – but that’s pretty unusual.

But many global organisations who use Business Podcasting also have a Video Conferencing network, and that’s a great way to talk across the world, and it provides good sound quality.  Our client AstraZeneca is no exception in having a huge VC network providing contact with all of their sites.  So when we started to produce Business Podcasts for them the first thing to work out was how we would connect – and someone said ‘How about Video Conferencing!’  Sounded crazy, but once we’d all thought about it and tried it – it works a treat!

So now we’ve tweaked our VC system, and we record and edit interviews  over the VC system into our SADiE audio workstation and produce great conversations for podcast – using the medium of VC.  Thanks to some clever people at Direct Visual, we’re getting great audio quality out of the Tandberg VC system.  And because everyone can see each other, the conversations flow beautifully too!

So let me thank one of the very nice people at AstraZeneca for coming up with this bright idea, and say ‘Thanks Amanda!’ (You know who you are!)

But why didn’t I think of it!