Seems Shel Israel (co-author of Naked Conversations with Robert Scobel) has re-ignited their 'words' with CTO of Amazon over the value of Corporate blogging.

Yesterday I spent an hour or so chatting with Anita Yaa Agyeman who is organising the European Podcasting Summit in March 2007. She has spent the last couple of months talking to podcast production companies like ours and end users who are actually using them to help their business. Seems many corporates are still carefully considering the first step. Anita said the feedback she had was - many corporates are looking seriously at podcasts but are:

1. Struggling to find an ROI model to use
2. Want to clearly understand what content will attract and retain a business audience without damaging the brand
3. Worried if they start do not know where it will end.

This pretty much mirrors what Shel and Robert found. All I can say is that in a recent podcast with Shel he said corporate blogging faces the same arguments. But he stated that in February of this year only 2 companies in the Fortune 500 blogged. 9 months later this was 35. A massive increase in only a few months.

Another busy week in the studio. The team was doing a photo-shoot with a teddy bear for a clients calendar. From what I was told, the statement - never work with children and animals - should be extended to include teddy bears! It is amazing how many hours are spent dressing and lighting the studio and then maipulating Ted to get into the correct position.

One of our clients makes batteries for all forms of transport. The photoshoot list for them usually reads - plane, train, boats and military vehicles. The team really enjoy themselves on this weeks location shoots.

The video edit suite was really busy working on a video for a Welsh village. There are some spectacular shots of the local scenery.

We also worked on creating large photo-imaging artwork for a clients reception.

We also met up with Gill Sandell of Serious Media. We have known and worked with Gill before on a project-by-project basis. We hope to working together on some CSR and Social Media programmes over the next 12 months or so. Watch this space...

The audio editing suite was also busy recording many hours of Italian voice-overs. No pasta for the crew - just lots of coffee to keep everyone awake!

I was just cleaning up some files earlier today and came across an 'old' picture.

It shows me (blue shirt) and Richard Knight (red shirt) getting 'gunged' by Mary Flavell at a Bracknell Chamber of Commerce celebration a couple of years ago.

It was the 1st anniversary of the First Thursday Club - a monthly breakfast business network meeting - the brainchild of Mary. Through Mary's hard work it grew from 12 attendees at the first event to over 60. I think the record was over 100 eventually.

Mary has moved on now. Richard is now President of Bracknell Chamber and I seem to remember the grunge going quite hard after a few minutes to everyones amusement.

Who says business meetings are boring. Certainly not while Mary was around.

I am often asked what kit we use to record podcasts. We needed something robust but transportable. Something we could carry as hand luggage on planes and trains where necessary.

We chose the HHB MDP 500 minidisc recorder. It weights in at 2kg. It works on mains and batteries. The batteries last over 3 hours. We can get almost 1.5 hours of stereo recording on a minidisc which is perfect as a podcast usually lasts only about 15 minutes. 

We use Sony ECM-44B condenser clip-on microphones and also have hand-held mics for 'vox pop' type interviews.

We also use Beyer Dynamic headphones.

Sony microphones with battery power - see earlier blog about eating humble pie! (Mic unscrewed showing battery inserted)

HHB MDP 500 Portadisc minidisc recorder with mindisc

We use minidiscs (see shot above) as that gives us greater flexibility. I can either edit in the flield and then send as a file via e-mail to the studio or physically get the disc to the studio so they work with the original recording. The studio prefer the later. Although the MDP 500 does allow local editing are does this sparingly for two reasons. First - I may erase something important in error and once gone it is lost forever. Secondly - I am not a trained editor. The team in the studio is.

We have had the current kit for over 6 months, use it most days and it has worked perfect. While the whole set up cost us about £1500 there are plenty of other lower cost options if you are not needing to do daily location work.

There has been a fair amount of talk about customer care on the blogosphere of late. Check out Seth Godin's blog. I thought I would add something that happened to me that made me a loyal customer - probably for life.

I remember there was a film made a few years ago about doing good turns for people without expecting anything in return. That is a very powerful customer care programme. My story....

A few years ago my son's motor bike broke down one early morning while he was on the way to work. He was 17 and had forgotten his mobile. 6.30am foggy and cold he faced pushing the motor bike a few miles the rest of the way to work. After 15 minutes he was tired and still faced another couple of miles. Then an AA van (AAA for readers in the US) pulled up. The AA mechanic was on the way to his station to start work and wondered if he could help. My son explained he was not a member. That wasn't a problem the AA man said. The AA mechanic couldn't get the bike started so loaded it on his truck and drove my son to his work where he could call me. My son was full of thanks but forgot to get his name or vehicle number.

The AA mechanic did not need to stop and offer to help. After failing to get it started he could have said sorry and left my son pushing the motor bike. He didn't.

That act of kindness had a number of ramifications. I immediately joined the AA and added both my son and daughter to membership - that was 4 years ago. It is done by Direct Debit and it will take a massive amount of unhappiness to cause me to cancel it. I also happened to be coaching the director of HR and some of his staff at the AA at the time in presentation and communication skills. I made sure that he and every senior manager I met in the AA over the next few months heard the story in the hope the message would get back to the mechanic. When I was coaching the CEO of Centrica (parent of the AA at the time) a year or two later I even mentioned it to him.

And guess what? I have told this story many times to other people and if someone has had a bad experience with the AA I always counter with my story.

Now the big question for companies - would their employees do a 'pay it foward act'? It could mean a loyal customer who actively acts as an unpaid 'sales agent'.

The other day I got caught out big time. I have been involved in audio-video production for some time and into podcasting for a year or so. That level of experience can sometimes lead you to develop an ego associated to a Hollywood Director or Producer. It helps to eat humble pie sometimes!

This was my humble pie moment....

Before going to record a podcast I checked out the equipment as usual and then packed it up. I took a new pair of clip-on microphones - same manufacturer as my current pair.

I arrived at the clients office in London in good time and ever the professional set everything up and checked for background sound issues as well as the levels when recording. Nothing. No sound recording at all! I double checked all the connections and settings but still nothing. Now I was starting to panic. The client would be with me in 5 minutes. With senior managers their diaries are very busy. Getting another date would be hard - even if he overlooked my unprofessionalism and the 'technical' problems!

I hadn't dropped or damaged the equipment. A call to the engineers in our studios helped me walk through all the possible scenarios. Their last comment hit home. Did I think the microphone batteries were 'dead'? I said it didn't matter as it was on 'phantom power' - taking the feed from the recording machine itself. But then I had a nagging moment. These were new microphones - same make but an uprated model. Maybe they needed batteries? Yes. That was the answer. The next problem was I now needed batteries. Luckily they were not some special and virtually unobtainable size of battery. The client's office administrator gave me some and the podcast recording went like a dream.

I now carry a set of spare batteries.

It is just over a week since Rememberance Sunday and this weekend I read an article in a Sunday paper about the Youth of today. You know the sort of thing - too loud, too rude and spoiling it for others.

My Dad died 3 years ago on 13th November. Every year - including the year he died - he would be out in all weathers collected money for the Poppy Appeal. Although badly wounded in the RAF he thought himself one of the lucky ones to come home. In fact he  was one of 4 serving brothers - 2 in the RAF, 1 in the Army and 1 in the Navy. A lucky family - they all came back. None of them would talk that much about what happened despite my - and my cousins - pestering.

My son is 19. A year older than when Dad joined up in early 1940 and about the same age as when he escaped from a crash landing. A few weeks later Dad was flying again but by 21 he was facing the amputation of both legs following being shot down. He begged to keep them and the surgeon said he would try. Thanks to that surgeon, the medical team and Dad's sheer determination 12 months later he was walking with only the occasional use of crutches. He never could play football or cricket with me and my friends as his legs would give way and he only once ever flew again - prefering driving holidays.

Sometimes I lose my temper with my son and his friends. Too loud, too rude and spoiling it for others.

Then I think how grateful we should be to the youth of today and tomorrow. They are the ones who are in the frontline of every conflict. The sadness is that some never come home.

Reading a blog the other day by Seth Godin made me think about customer centricity and how the word 'customer' appears in so many corporate mission statements.

As many companies have found to their cost - making wonderful statements in their annual reports, investing tons of cash in CRM system/IT and deploying new business processes will not automatically get the results wanted. Corporate culture, attitude and behaviour has to be aligned too.

Having read Seth's blog ask yourself three questions about your own company.

1. Would our employees have done that?
2. Would our management 100% support such action without reservation?
3. Would we repay all employee expenses without question?

Do you score a 'no' in any? If you do - and you state you are customer focussed - you need to look again at your culture, behaviour and processes.

I have seen too many companies invest in systems and fail to address 'softskills' development. It is a balance. Get it wrong and the damage to the business could be considerable.