What You Need to Know About Periscope and Meerkat

Have you heard about the new tech craze sweeping events? It's all about live streaming from the user perspective and apps like Periscope and Meerkat are leading the way.

Live streaming is nothing new, but it has been cost-prohibitive and logistically heavy for the average event producer. Apps like Periscope and Meerkat are changing that up and putting the live streaming capability in the hands of your attendees. For basic info on what these apps do you can see this Time article about Meerkat and this Digital Trends article on Periscope, but for the purposes of today, I want to tell you what you need to know as event planners. 

PROS:

• These apps are incredibly easy to use. A download, login and just the push of a button and you're ready to livestream. 
• They are free to use. 
• Not only can event organizers use these apps, our attendees can get involved, too. 
• There is a chat functionality so that people who are watching the stream can participate by asking questions or making comments. 

CONS:

• The biggest con is copyright challenges. If an organization owns the right to its content and the publication of that content, you aren't going to be allowed to stream the events. Think major sporting events, concerts or other large events. These apps are also going to be unwelcome at member-based organizations, as many orgs still want to hold on to their content as an incentive to get people to pay for membership.
• Controlling the quality is very hard. Using the app is easy, but you do need a tripod and a good eye or the experience could be less than the quality we want to show as event producers. 

RELATED: Will Periscope and Meerkat sabotage corporate events?

IDEAS:
I think that both of these apps have some interesting applications for our industry. Consider the following:

• Live stream the set up of your event. 
• Live stream interviews with speakers and sponsors alongside your professional stream of the event content. 
• Ask your attendees to live stream group experiences or breakout sessions. 
• Stream planning meetings or site visits to get your attendees excited about the upcoming event. 

In short, these are very cool apps and I think we'll see them used more and more in the coming months. While there are some hurdles to overcome, I would encourage you to check them out and see how you can integrate them into your events!

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