Going LIVE–from the Production Side

One thing is clear about live blogging: planned spontaneity is a must. Having produced Sunday’s live simultaneous team coverage of both the AIDS Walk New York and an anti-gay-marriage march in the Bronx, I quickly learned the value of the assets our team had gathered in advance. They really helped to fill up dead air, from a pre-recorded BlogTalkRadio interview with one of the stakeholders in the debate, Cathy Marino-Thomas of Marriage Equality New York, to pre-recorded intro video from one of the correspondents, to researching position statements from another stakeholder, state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., that could be shared with the audience via a bit.ly shortened url. In hindsight, given the fact that there were still periods of downtime, we could have used even more assets prepared in advance. The importance of advance prep is one of the definite takeaways.
In addition, making contact with key stakeholders in advance of the live event also was key to a smoother production. We were able to plan interviews in advance, and also have contacts who could get us access to other interviewees. This is how we were able to snare a live interview during AIDS Walk New York with Dr. Marjorie Hill, CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which was a really strong get. Moving forward, it would be great to have a little more time to plan, especially for the purposes of promotion.