Last week, six members of the Media Junction team flew out to Boston for the third annual WistiaFest. Hosted not-so-coincidentally by Wistia, the event is geared towards videographers, marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs with a focus on creating great video for business.
Those of us at Media Junction unable to attend were regaled with stories about how great the event was – from Wistia’s hospitality to the great speakers and insightful content.
Here’s what our six attendees had to say about their biggest takeaways from WistiaFest. (And make sure to check out the video from their trip at the bottom of the page):
What We Learned at WistiaFest 2016
Trish Lessard, CEO
This was my first WistiaFest and let's just say Wistia didn’t disappoint— especially in the area of hospitality. We were invited to their headquarters twice and went on a sunset harbor cruise. It was also very apparent from the keynote presentation that Wistia is committed to the user experience (which I love and is close to my heart). They get it. Throughout the years I have seen advancement in video technology and honestly wasn’t sure that anyone could top YouTube—but Wistia did it. Their new player Vulcan is amazing. Check it out.
As for the conference myself, my biggest takeaway can be boiled down to this: if video isn’t a part of your content strategy, you’re missing a huge opportunity. I tweeted some of the insights from each session I attended. Here are a few of my favorites:
Kim Wilcox, Vice President
If I were to summarize what I learned at WistiaFest into two words, it’d be this: Be human.
Video provides businesses a unique opportunity to really connect with their audience in a truly authentic way. While there is a place for larger production videos, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of short videos that can be quickly filmed and published. An application for this could be something as simple—and powerful—as introducing personalized videos into your sales or customer service process.
Tyler Pautsch, New Business Sales
WistiaFest isn’t about selling a product or bashing other video platform services, it’s about creative people sharing how they’re using video to evoke emotions. There were a lot of great speakers who had the audience – our team included – feeling as though they could be doing a lot more with video.
That said, I was struck by how personal video for businesses can be. It reminds me of the 1990s, when everyone was obsessed with using camcorders to catch every little family moment. Today we’re using our phones, and instead of looking back on those videos a decade later with immediate family, we can all be creating videos that help our audience make decisions while feeling emotionally connected.
Ryan VonBergen, Creative Director
The main thing that’s stuck with me since WistiaFest is how everything needed to create, edit and share video content is at our fingertips. Need a camera? Chances are you have a fancy smartphone with a pretty solid camera in your pocket. Need expensive lighting? Nope. Take a trip to your local hardware store and you can find everything you need for a DIY video studio.
Your video can be a short hello to welcome a new customer or a personalized message to let someone know you value their business, or something else entirely. All it takes is a little ingenuity, an idea (or several) and the desire to create compelling video content. None of us have any excuse for not diving in and creating video right now.
Tony Bueno, Photographer / Videographer
My biggest takeaway had to be how video can be shot everywhere, by anyone. For example, when creating a company culture video, it doesn’t have to be the work of one or two people. Instead, the entire organization should be involved and encouraged to capture candid and authentic moments with their mobile devices.
On a side note, I am very excited about Wistia’s new video player, Vulcan. It not only loads videos faster, but it supports 4K. I’m really looking forward to using my phone to shoot some 4K video and using the footage to test Vulcan out.
Austin Bueno, Research Assistant
Of the many things I learned at this year’s WistiaFest, my biggest takeaway came from Glenn Elliott, founder and CEO of Reward Gateway. During his session, he spoke on the importance of using video as a part of the sales process, and how to accomplish it in a very human way.
It was interesting to me because I hadn’t realized how some companies, like Reward Gateway, had begun to use video to replace text in their email messaging. In the next few years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more companies adopt this approach and make the switch to video when emailing clients.
WistiaFest Shenanigans
As promised, here's the video of the aformentioned Media Junction team members at WistiaFest. This footage was shot by our team during the trip, using their phones and a DSLR camera. Big thanks to Tony for putting this together!