Some at the conference learned the art of making a video by interviewing other attendees, in a session led by Stacy Laiderman of See3 (photo by Jonathan Werve)

Another Making Media Connections conference: from the South Shore Drill Team to the statewide Campaign for Better Health Care to the Great Lakes Urban Exchange to … well there was a pretty diverse group of folks learning to make videos, think strategically, and use social media more effectively today. Nonprofit communicators are a sort of motley crew but that’s how we roll, I guess.

The food was good, the conference energy was great, and we’re looking forward to another great day tomorrow! I was in and out of the workshops today, the takeaways seemed useful. Some examples:

Stacy Laiderman from See3 Communications led a session on how to make a video (the participants learned how to frame a story, shot their videos, and got an orientation to post-production by learning a bit about editing in FinalCut Pro):

• interviewing 2 people at once—have them sit uncomfortably close together, so you can frame them nicely in one shot.
• Shooting one person interviewing another? Use two cameras, one trained on each person, so you can cut back and forth between the interviewer and interviewee in the final product. Of course!

I’m always glad to see Beth Kanter (because she’s good people and she almost singlehandedly has helped to create the field of nonprofit social medi-ologist), even if I can’t always keep up with her. I walked into her session and had a useful gem within 5 minutes, about how to read and comment on blogs (this is straight off her powerpoint):

• Think before you respond!
• What did they say well?
• What did they miss?
• Answer questions
• What are other people saying
• How does it apply to you
• Look forward
• Look backward
• Ask what if?

More tomorrow!

If you’re in Chicago but can’t make it to the conference in the morning, come out for our free roundtable discussion on Social Media, the News, and Us, from 3 to 5 p.m.

The following sessions on Thursday will be live-blogged:

9 to 9:30 a.m., Keynote Speaker Monica Davey, New York Times Midwest Bureau Chief

9:45 to 10:45 a.m., Global Chicago

11 to Noon, Cause Marketing

1 to 1:45 p.m., Keynote Speaker Colonel Tribune, Chicago Tribune

2 to 3 p.m., Funding Communications in an Age of Austerity

3:15 to 5 p.m., Social Media, News & Us

We’d also like to thank all our live bloggers for helping us put the Conference online.