When is a webcast not a webcast?

When it's a podcast in disguise.

I know what you're thinking: "Webcasts were sooooo 2003!" And I'm not one to argue with that. But, for reasons too complicated and boring to post here, I had to recruit a webcast speaker and then create, arrange, and record said webcast in about two weeks for the Expert Answer Center. Sometimes good ideas can't have better timing, and so it was with Fireside chat on Notes troubleshooting with Mat and Dana. You see, my buddy Mat is a Notes expert and I tap his brain frequently on my site (the EAC, not this one, although -- Hi, Mat!!! -- I'd love for him to comment, of course!). I know the Domino peops have loads of Notes troubleshooting questions, so it's a good match. He was on the EAC as a featured expert, but he had 40 extra questions there just wasn't time to get to. It's always a good time working with Mat, because:

1. we're buddies, so work is actually loads of fun,
   
2. the man knows his stuff and practically begs for more questions, and
   
3. his blog entries are not only educational (he actually teaches this stuff in his day job), but they're also very entertaining.

Not to mention his accent makes me just smile...

I have a few experts like this -- people I keep going back to because they provide truly terrific content, but also because they're just pleasures to work with.

At any rate, 40 extra questions and the need for a finished webcast in two weeks (they normally take about a month to arrange and record) led me to the idea of doing a Q&A webcast of some of the questions with the broadest reach. After all, there's always a Q&A part of the webcasts I produce and moderate, but what if there was no Big Talking Head PPT presentation? I'm learning every day about podcasts and what makes good ones, so the idea was to present the webcast as a podcast, just with a visual. The PPT, therefore, became the questions and an outline of the answers. Mat and I, over the course of a few early morning/late night -- Mat lives in Tasmania -- Skype conversations, came up with a workable format and he selected which questions would work the best. He also, god LOVE him!, came up with the PPT the last day before we recorded. Basically, it all worked like clockwork, which, if you've ever recorded a webcast, you know happens infrequently at best.

The title came from Mat, you creative Aussie, you! We were Skyping and he said the concept is more like a fireside chat than a webcast, so we decided to personalize the thing to come closer to the format. Anyway, I hardly ever brag about work, but sometimes I get proud of something. The webcast is probably the best one I've posted...

Thanks, too, to Jeff Kaplan of THINKstrategies, who, after we recorded our most recent webcast together in March (on SaaS), asked me if TT has ever done webcasts that were more fluid and less one speaker talking for 35-40 minutes. So, Jeff, thanks for the seed! Our next webcast together will be more interactive. I promise!