the studio is getting a short back and sides!

cutting away the initial wood sides is making a massive change to the space we have in the studio allow us to look at the space with wider eyes and plan where equipment needs to go.  ripping out the wood from behind me takes away the feeling of being enclosed and allows for us to visualize a bigger longer working space that originally i had planned for the centre of the room.  i know this now to be the wrong approach.

along the wall to my side will be a long wrap around desk into the corner where all the major recording equipment will be built in and locked out of sight with just monitors along the top.  we could probably get around four/five people in comfortably at a co-working position and it would be perfect for doing hands on training in a coworking environement and allow nomad groups that want to work on a short term project room to work, blog and if they wanted to record video.  it's coming together.

i can see it much clearer now.

balancing mainstream media and a relief effort is a challenge!

your constantly going between different states of mind between being ready to go live on statewide television and then the next minute your engaged in the relief effort and putting trash and wood in piles.  then your having conversations with people that you have to be engaged in without forgetting why your there and not to be rude by finishing conversations early.  then the press want some details from you about how it's going and it seems like your in circus of media, getting bounced back and forth between agencies and different news outlets.  they all add value to the overall relief effort but sometimes you just wish you had a better way of releasing information and capturing the elements they need.

below are some ideas therefore about how social media and mainstream media can get along and provide at least 90% of the elements that the news agencies, remote or otherwise might need - i noticed that the majority of outlets wanted the same things - so apart from suggestions a tool/software to do it, i would make sure you have a place on the web that is easily updateable where they can lift that information for their piece

headshots for television
put a collection of different styles of professional photo together in a variety of settings, you never know if it's going to be used in a casual setting or on the television - have a bunch, maybe five to ten pictures of different styles and links to high quality version.

bio, current home location and job title
you only need a paragraph or two that they can quote, maybe give them a few options of which bio to use, a little bit about the area that you current live at and your job title that you currently go by.  it's up to you if you put your age in here but i would in case it's a news article.  what you do back home might be of interest to the news piece and might cheer up your employer if they get mentioned.  

details of each relief effort worker
if your super organized you could also collect together via email ahead of time in a wufoo form the above details for all of the relief workers that might be working with you 'ontheground' - often times to make a story complete they need exactly the same style of information for everyone there to really lift the piece as a group. having these details for agencies to access from your centralized location makes you the media person to talk to (for good or bad) - mostly good however!

reasons for taking part and statement releases
these are the common questions i'm presuming most agencies ask for - they are digging for pretty much a straightforward area - reasons for coming, what it means to you and how it feels now your there and if you have some snappy and keyword/quirky to throw into the mix they will probably use that as a soundbite cutaway because the presenter of the piece walks into shot with his hands flapping around finishing of the piece with a nice cool and smooth outro.  you may need to update this section when 'ontheground' at the end of the day from the hotel wifi so make sure updating this information is super fast and easy to do - set yourself a google calendar reminder to do it.  it might save you the hassle of having to go over this a number of times with different agencies onsite. 

blended approach to personal media collection
part of the things i enjoy to do is make a variety of different time sensitive, location based media around the activity i'm taking part in.  i use a variety of different platforms including bambuser, audioboo, instagram and my current favorite 360 made by occipital.  make sure that the mainstream media team are aware of your many outlets that you are publishing content too and make sure they give you credit on that content (if you so wish) if it's being played on television and you want to get some credit for it - they often like some fresh content that they can use while doing phone interviews that will play on the screen to viewers as a background ambience, it often really lifts the piece.

give a variety of contact options
i'm terrible for doing this because i'm pretty much off the grid when it comes to phone, i rarely use them for phone calls because believe it or not i find them to intrusive and they burst into my day with stress or pointless long form communication.  face to face is best with me!  - leave plenty of contact options for the outlets to find you at - your room number in the hotel, an email contact that is handling your email while your on site, your twitter account, a local sim for the country your in, a time period when you will be on skype and contactable.  i recently picked up the magicjack (even thou people seem to really dislike it) while travelling to the town of phil campbell - this gives me a US number that people can call as long as my laptop is switched on and this is plugged into the usb.  it uses the phone part of the hotel phone in your room if you forgot to pack a spare phone hookup! ;)

we seemed to get back in rapid quick time on monday.

i've been relaxing around the house and catching up on sleep and blogging while i have a few days before i jump on a plane and head home - purposely left myself with an additional few days either side of the trip to make sure i was set to go back and not just rushing around like a mad man which normally happens.

doing this allowed me to rest and relax and form my thoughts about the blog posts i would be writing too so that i would not be leaving any media and content open for when i get back - i know i'm straight back into the breach when i get back and i still have to find those stable monthly retainers! - i've started one for a solar blog which is perfect with the ark (more on that soon) funding news about to hit any day now.

it's been an amazing, probably life changing experience on many levels to have gone out to the town.  it made me realise that my concerns about the environment are fact and seeing what mother nature can do is a validator that the path i have decided to head down is the right one from a viewpoint of short term futureproofing - if that statement makes sense.

i feel i need to be agile and nimble to be able to react to the ever changing rapid world we live in now and living outside, in between the grid yet on the cloud is based on my lack of 'kiss ass and kick my head down' in an office environment - the data, social computing arena has gathered a pace with entertainment and on demand delivery exploding with lots of people wanting to know how best to adopt and serve these areas - i feel that i'm in a perfect place to finally collect on the years of effort i have put into doing what i do.

it was an absolute pleasure to meet all the town folk in phil campbell, alabama - i've never met such an engaging and surprised close community that have pulled together in their own of need so much and meeting the other phil campbells was a trip.  it was very odd to be in a room when people shouted phil and to have been branded by our region - i think i was called 'nottingham' or 'england' or 'techboy' in the few days we were in the town.

one thing is certain i'll be back to that town. ..

wow.  the parade was awesome.

i'm not sure what the other phil campbells felt but i had no idea how the parade would play out but it was awesome.  a few trucks full of phil campbells and a bunch of other people in cars in the parade from different classes from high school, a marching band and the local school in attendance spinning things and just generally lifting the spirits of the town.

it was amazing.  great work phil campbell and all the imwithphil supporters that made that happen - it was a really special moment and one that i'm sure all of us will never forget ;)

the outpouring of support for the people of phil campbell in the relief centre was staggering.  most of the items were provided by people in the area with boxes arriving day by day that needed to be arranged and stacked up.  people drifting in batches to come and get items to help them in the recovery.  

most of the items like i said, supplied by people not companies - the sheer amount of baby food, water and general food was staggering even now six weeks on and i do hope the story does get picked up by a bunch more companies so they too can help the town recover.  this is going to be a slow process as they rebuild and not a one shot media event deal.  

i for one do intend to get back to the town in the future to see how they are getting on and make sure i keep my eye on the town of phil campbell from a far.  i intend to help rita and others have access to be able to send in pictures/video and blog updates as they rebuild sections of the town.

phil campbell, nottingham (facebook | twitter)

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