On the 21st we’re at the ICA for a morning of conversation around the future of online video. We’ve kept the title as broad as possible and we’ve got around 60 or so attendees, which isn’t too shabby for such an early start. With just a little over 24 hours to go I’ve added a bunch of possible conversation starters over on the wiki to kick things off. These were just off the top of my head and there’s plenty of crossover and probably one or two things that no one but I would be interested in. Do please feel free to add more.

As well as being fascinated by what a room full of social media practitioners can come up with after a few hours chewing this over, we’re also using the event to consider how a sit-down-cafe-style suits Amplified09. We’ve secured a range of venues for the events in the first quarter of this year and we’re aiming to have lots of small groups within them (as some of the smaller gatherings at Amp08 worked better than the really large ones). The point is to be conversational and avoid simply broadcasting as much as possible - so we’ll be using the opportunity to try out a few different scenarios over the course of this year. We’re still learning as we put this together and of course the input we get from all the attendees is something else we need to factor in.

If one particular topic is over subscribed then we’d rather have two sessions run than a single one where not everyone gets to participate. The power of Amplified events is that we’re already getting some very smart people together and the real value is in how they interact - not how good they are at sitting and listening (there’s a calendar full of regular events for that).

We’ll also be trying new ways to capture the event. We’re not sure how the ICA will handle a lot of live streaming, but we will be using video where possible along with the ‘one tweet initiative’ that worked so well at Amp08. I dare say we’ll have whiteboards and index cards to scribble on too.

Once this event is over we should be able to announce a date and venue for the first large Amplified 09 event (aiming for the end of February) and then the regional events should begin to fall into place.

We’ll keep you posted…

Thumbnail images from the awesome Horror Express now available on The Internet Archive