Alberta Business Marketing

Last week, I blogged about how the new Apple ipod nano makes recording and posting video to the Web a snap. With the incredible growth of online video, we often overlook the power of audio to create a compelling experience.

iPhone Apps: The Future of Handheld Multimedia is Now

When it comes to multimedia, I’m biased in favor of iPhone; but only because it is the most versatile handheld device currently available. There are dozens of ways of capturing and sharing multimedia on the iPhone without ever touching your computer.

Here are just a couple of samples of applications that make it super simple to create multimedia using an iphone and instantly sharing your creations with the world.

Audio Boo

With this Free app and a free AudioBoo account, audio can be recorded and uploaded directly to the Web over a wifi or 3G cell phone connection. The audio can also be embedded into a blog post like this:

HT Professional Audio Recording

This $3 audio recording app is one of many audio recording apps available in the iTunes store. HT Pro allows uploading of longer recordings (up to 30 minutes) directly from the device to the Web allowing content such as this recorded interview with the Missoula Children’s Theatre to be online in minutes.

Animoto

Another free app that combines up to a dozen of your iPhone photos with Creative Commons music and voila – Animoto in the palm of your hand.

Check out this little Animoto production made and shared on Facebook from iPhone while lounging in a hammock.

Social Web apps make sharing without a computer a snap

Uploaded Multimedia can also be shared on social networks directly on the iPhone directly using Wordpress, Facebook or Twitter Apps making posts like this one directly to a fan page in Facebook a snap.

Are you an iPhone fan?

What’s your favourite app for getting multimedia instantly to the Web?

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Tags: apps, Audio, handheld, iphone, multimedia, photos
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Hear what August’s Green Doers say about contributing to an environmentally sustainable economy in this collection of interviews by editor Michael McCullough and assistant editor Stephanie Sparks.

Erhard Hermann
Co-Owner, Boyd Solar Corp., Didsbury

Gordon Buchanan
Owner, Buchanan Lumber, High Prairie

Christianne Carin
CEO, Earthrenew Organics Ltd., Calgary

Rod Siegmund
President, Eco-Alberta Sales Agency, Calgary

Matt Grace
Division Manager, Enermodal Engineering, Calgary

Tags: Audio, Construction, Environment, Green, Industry Reports, sustainable, Web Exclusive
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QUESTION: What can business people do to reverse the eroding public perception of the free enterprise system?

THE PANEL:

James K. (Jim) Gray: a Calgary businessman and chair of the Canada West Foundation

Janet Keeping: a lawyer and president of the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership

K.C. (Kim) Mackenzie: a professional urban development consultant and CEO of Mackenzie Associates Consulting Group Ltd.

This month’s audio comes from the interview that shaped the article Business’s Big Black Eye.

The Right Call is a rotating panel examining issues of corporate ethics. If you’d like advice on a compromising situation (no names used), send details to feedback@albertaventure.com, or login to this site and post a comment.

Tags: Alberta Venture's Audio Collections, Audio, Fil Fraser, free enterprise, James K. Gray, Janet Keeping, K.C. (Kim) Mackenzie, The Right Call, Web Exclusive
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The Chickwagon! Foundation for Women celebrates a decade of memories

Founders Arlene Flock, Lynda Hay and Rita Egizii regale look back on the last 10 years of a Calgary Stampede icon and share their most memorable stories.

LISTEN
Arlene Flock, president, Flagworks Inc.
Chickwagon founder

Lynda Hay, investment advisor, TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice
Chickwagon founder

READ
Rita Egizii, acting director, development and alumni relations, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. Chickwagon founding member, founding president and first executive director

Although she was unable to provide an audio account of her experiences with Chickwagon, founding member, founding president and first executive director Rita Egizii participated via email, providing the following passage:

“Chickwagon is not about one story. It is about a kaleidoscope of stories that all run together with a common theme – camaraderie.

“Was it watching my ‘Chick-Mate’ standing in the rain on the tarmac, loaded down with 150 purses, as all the women-dressed in pink dropped everything they had and screamed their chuckwagon driver to the finish line? Perhaps. Or was it the year Jerry Bremner won 7 out of 10 races and we thought ‘wow – we may actually be going up on that stage to be with him when he’s presented with that big cheque.’

“Was it helping wash down the sweaty overexcited horses after a race or riding the Midway with some of the ‘barn rats’ (as chuckwagon offspring are called by those close to them)? Was it trying not to faint from heat exhaustion in 28 C weather wearing a fleece velour chicken suit along the Stampede Parade route as hundreds of beaming faces shouted back at me, ‘Go Chicks Go’?

“Was it crying when Chickwagon was mentioned as a significant life experience during the eulogy of a member who passed away suddenly and tragically of childbirth at just 30 years old? Was it the tears of disbelief from a young girl at the YWCA’s Safe Haven, who had never had anyone provide her with anything at all, let alone an entire new bedroom, complete with fluffy pink pillows and all the lovely things she had always seen in magazines that were always ‘for someone else’?

“Perhaps it was that one night behind the barns, after the races were over, the crowds had gone, the smoke from the fireworks had cleared and the horses were quiet and settled. That was the time a few of us Chicks would just hang out and share stories about family, politics, ranching and big business in the heart of the New West with chuckwagon drivers, rodeo cowboys, ranch hands and their families.

“My most memorable experience could have been any one of these, but I believe it was all of these. The Chickwagon experience made an indelible mark on my life in more ways than I can ever count. I learned humility, humbleness, generosity, compassion and the love for a sport that thrives in the blood of all chuckwagon families. I feel honoured that I was able to get just a tiny glimpse of that special world. Thankful for the friends met and relationships grown. Proud of the community work done and legacy left behind.

“Not bad at all for 10 years and the efforts of over 500 women.”

Tags: Audio, Calgary Stampede, Chickwagon! Foundation, Web Exclusive
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