The countdown is officially on and in just 12 days ,thousands will flock to warm Miami, Fla., for ITEXPO East 2012 – the world’s largest communications conference.

One company eager to head east this winter is MediaPlatform, a company that delivers webcasting and media management technology to global enterprises and digital media producers. In addition to exhibiting at ITEXPO (News - Alert), taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3, MediaPlatform is also gearing up for its session at the event titled “Business Video Thought Leader Panel,” taking place Thursday, Feb. 2, at 2 p.m. EST.

During the session, top executives from leading vendors and global enterprises will discuss online video solutions and present strategies for implementing business video. Greg Pulier, president of MediaPlatform, will be joined by other officials from other companies to discuss trends likely to shape the way organizations will be implementing business video solutions in the coming years.

“We see three primary uses of video in our client organizations and with prospects,” Pulier told TMCnet. “Internal communications, especially executive presentations, are very popular. Training is also a big video consumer in most companies that we work with. Finally, there’s marketing. We are increasingly getting called into help marketing departments that want to improve their webinar game. They want to do webinars but they are responding to audience demand for a more rich media interactive experience than you can get with just the phone and slides.”

For more from Pulier, read below.

How receptive are executives at your organization to expand use of video in business communications? 

Well, we are a provider of webcasting software, so this question isn’t quite relevant to us. We are very receptive to video in business communications.   Amongst our clients and prospects, which are primarily Fortune 500 type organizations, executives seem to be receptive to expanded use of video. However, most business managers want to understand what the pragmatic business use case will be for video. It’s not enough to say, “You can have live video across the company.” You need add, “Now, you can reach everyone in a live executive town hall with interactive audience engagement.” 

How will the budgets allocated for deploying video technology in 2012 compare to 2011?

We are working with many very large enterprises on ambitious video programs. Our sense is that budgets are going up in 2012 compared to last year. That said, clients are still looking for value – not just in the video solutions themselves but also in the way they create economies through efficient network utilization or leveraging existing infrastructure, such as Riverbed (News - Alert) WAN acceleration devices.

How is video used most frequently in your organization? In live video events or in the use of video to develop on-demand content?

We are in the process of introducing connectivity between our WebCaster software and various VCU inputs.

Does your organization allow employees to use Skype or other live video collaboration tools at the desktop?

We do, especially Google (News - Alert) chat and Google Circles for video in collaboration. 

Will the use of online video in outbound marketing communications increase in the coming year? Does your company use video in marketing applications beyond traditional advertising, such as Webcasting product launch events, distributing executive presentations or providing customer service and product information?

Yes. It’s definitely on the increase. We use webcasting to promote ourselves, of course. But, for us, it’s more than just eating our own dog food. We find it to be an incredibly effective way to do lead generation.

Has your organization used social media applications, such as Facebook and Twitter (News - Alert), to draw more viewership for your organization’s video content?

Yes, in fact, we are announcing right here at the show that we are now integrating our webcasting software with Facebook. You can stream a live webcast to a Facebook page but require viewer registration and track viewer behavior if you want. It connects your corporate webcasting solution with your social media presence.

How has the growing interest in mobile devices, such as tablet computers, impacted your strategy for making business video available in the mobile environment?

Mobile video is huge. Everyone wants it and wants it now. We have responded to this demand by enabling webcasting on virtually any device through our software. This includes iPad, iPhone (News - Alert) and Android devices.

What priority, if any, is your company placing on making it easier for employees to create and upload their own video content?

We offer a tool that enables employees to generate their own video content, but publish it through whatever approval workflow the organization demands. For example, the administrator might allow person A to publish anything at any time. But, person B might have to send the content he creates to an approver who will review it before publishing it on our video portal software.

To find out more about MediaPlatform, visit the company at Booth No. 235 at ITEXPO East 2012. 

Want to learn more about business video? Then be sure to attend the Business Video Expo, collocated with TMC’s ITEXPO East 2012taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 2012, in Miami, FL. The Business Video Expo highlights the latest strategies and technologies available to executives who are serious about leveraging emerging video communications capabilities to build competitive advantage. By bringing together the industry’s most innovative video technology vendors with end-users who are pioneering the use of video in the corporate environment, the Business Video Expo mirrors a burgeoning market -- no longer just a corporate novelty -- with a growing appetite for learning the best practices in implementing video to make business communications more engaging and effective. For more information on registering for the Business Video Expo click here.

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