Gillmor Gang: Over 2 U

The pandemic shook up our (and virtually every other) video news production process as Zoom became the focus of our daily lives; slowly but surely we’ve altered the production process to reflect Zoom’s easy onboarding and semi-casual approach to virtualized meetings and conversations.

We now use a series of interweaved services to broadcast the live Zoom recording session over ReStream, which in turn streams to Twitter/Periscope, YouTube and Facebook Live. Some of the show’s regulars share the Facebook stream using Watch Party, aggregating comments and viewership metadata of their friends and cohorts. Once the session is over, we add music, titles, and pointers to the Gillmor Gang Telegram Backchannel, and embed the YouTube mix here on TechCrunch.

Much of this live-streaming strategy has been workshopped with people like Brent Leary, who with his CRM Playaz partner Paul Greenberg produce a growing series of live streams on LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks. Brent joined the Gang in late 2019. On this Gillmor Gang episode, Brent switches gears from yet-another-TikToc segment to a new streaming target, Twitch. Just before he bails to co-host a Playaz show, I ask him to explain the latest project they’re cooking up. Here, in his own words, is more:

CRM Playaz Executive Roundtable Convo Livestream…Not Webinar….or Panel

We’re seeing broadcast media use streaming platforms to do their jobs while they shelter in place and social distance. And while some of this has the look and feel of a Zoom conference call we’re all experiencing way too much, as time goes on they also are beginning to make these live streams look like regular broadcasts to a certain extent. Which means that if they can take cues from us amateurs to do their broadcasts, we can do the same, or at least attempt to, by making our “programming” more tv-like.

So, Paul Greenberg and I, underneath the umbrella of our CRM Playaz video podcast, had an idea. To bring senior executives from the five leading vendors in the CRM industry — according to industry market share — together for a free-flowing conversation about the state of the industry seven months into the pandemic. Kind of like what you might see on a cable news segment…but of course there’s no way you’d see a bunch of execs talking about CRM on CNN, Fox or MSNBC. But we’re gonna do it, complete with a post-roundtable show directly following the discussion with a number of rapid-fire panels of industry analysts and thought leaders sharing their thoughts and opinions on what they heard from executive convo.

Now we aren’t talking webinar here, or something stiff and controlled like you’d normally see from a traditional panel of high-level execs. Not that there’s anything wrong with a traditional webinar or panel. But these streaming platforms give us the ability to put a different lens on things. Maybe create an environment for a less polished but just as substantive group convo which goes wherever it needs to — and goes with humor and flexibility and twists and turns…and comradery. And maybe there’s an audience of folks out there in their comfortable home office taking it all in and also participating with their own commentary that might also become a part of the conversation. And those are the cues we can take from the broadcast media – to make these business live streams more comfortable, more communal and more real… and less staged and sterile.

So we’ll see how it goes on October 8th at 1:30 p.m. ET, as we are excited to bring together a group of folks who are not only leaders at the leading vendors, but also people who have personalities and senses of humor to go with all the experience and smarts. Because when you get into what will no doubt have serious interactions on important subjects, we think you can do it in a way that allows us to be human — and possibly smile at seeing a dog or cat in the background — Anne Chen of Salesforce knows what I mean. Or laugh when a little kid of one of these high-powered execs come stomping into the room looking for his mom or dad. And maybe catch a glimpse of something you just wouldn’t experience in the traditional settings you’d normally see a panel made up of folks like:

• Suresh Vittal, VP Experience Cloud Platform and Products, Adobe
• Alysa Taylor, CVP Business Applications and Global Industry, Microsoft
• Rob Tarkoff, EVP/GM of #CX, Oracle
• Bill Patterson, EVP/GM #CRM Applications, Salesforce
• Bob Stutz, President, CX, SAP

So if you’re into CRM, or just curious to see how this all comes off, you can register to join us for the live stream at https://www.linkedin.com/events/crmplayazexecutiveroundtableconversation/ (https://www.linkedin.com/events/crmplayazexecutiveroundtableconversation/). And let us know what you think in real time…

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The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant, Brent Leary and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Friday, September 25, 2020.

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

@fradice, @mickeleh, @denispombriant, @kteare, @brentleary, @stevegillmor, @gillmorgang

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