Last week we co-hosted another one of our popular creator workshops and meetups with our Facebook 360 partners. All creators within Blend Media's network receive invitations to these free and exclusive events. This event was the latest in a global series of events that we've held so far in London, Liverpool, Amsterdam, Vienna, Sydney, Melbourne, LA and New York.
The aim of these events is to provide value through education, training and the sharing of best practices to our network of professional 360 video filmmakers and to help grow the global 360 community. Read on to learn more.
Blend Media's CEO and Founder, Damian Collier kicked off the afternoon with a warm welcome which was followed by Product Marketing Manager for Facebook 360, Caitlin Ramrakha, who presented Facebook 360's roadmap for the year.
Caitlin shared some interesting stats about the growth of the 360 format on Facebook.
Following Caitlin's talk, the mic was handed over to Blend Media's Head of Content, Simon Brooksbank.
Simon, a seasoned producer and expert on content licensing, provided some guidance and best practices for producing commercially strong 360 video content. He also presented examples of recent deals secured at Blend and identified some useful content tips from these case studies.
Laura Helm, Blend Media's VP of Commercial Partnerships provided an introduction to 360 stories; our new web editing platform that makes it easy to create interactive 360 experiences that can be published across websites, ad networks and social media. Laura also introduced a new way for our creators to generate additional revenue through referring clients to the 360 Stories platform.
Our creators then had the chance to catch up with one another and learn out more about 360 Stories and how they can use it to create interactive 360 experiences. If you are a creator and would like to sign up for an extended free trial or would like more information please get in contact with Simon on simon@blend.media.
To see 360 Stories in action check out our event review at the end of this post.
To finish off our workshop, Matt Hitchman, Sound Design Engineer at Facebook, gave an introduction to spatial audio and some useful tips on how to incorporate it into 360 video production....then it was time for our meetup!
Our meetup was held a short stroll away from the Blend office at Worship Street Whistling Shop - a cosy Victorian-style cocktail bar. The meetups provide a great opportunity for creators to exchange ideas and make new connections and collaborations. We love hearing about the new ideas, projects and productions that are in progress and it gives us the chance to update our creators with our plans and new opportunities for the format.
A big thank you to the excellent bar staff and their fabulous cocktail making skills! It was a very fun night.
We will be heading to Austin for SXSW where we will be co-exhibiting at the expo with Facebook 360 and hosting another workshop and meetup. Sign up to both via the links below.
Places are limited so we highly recommend you sign up now to avoid disappointment!
And finally, go ahead and dive into our 360 Story of the London meetup & workshop below. You're in control now!