MIT has a great resource including free videos of presentations made at MIT by an impressive line-up of speakers. Jack Welch, Jeffrey Bezos and Carly Florina just to name a few.

I’ve known about this for a while and yet I’ve only watched one presentation video.

If these speakers were making appearances here in Tulsa, I’d be paying to go see them. Yet, I find it hard to give up the time and effort to watch them for free online.

Why is that? It’s the same info.

But it’s a different forum.

Part of the appeal in attending a live presentation is knowing you will be surrounded by like-minded individuals. There’s a collective sense of belonging. There’s also the opportunity to connect with other attendees and expand the knowledge gained from the speaker. To tap into the wisdom of crowds.

MIT’s online forum doesn’t facilitate that. Actually, I’ve never seen an online forum that does this as well as a live, personal event.

Online
It may never equal the live presentation, but what if viewers could comment on these vidoes? Rank them? Rate them? What if there was a schedule of weekly chat sessions based on particular videos? How about a subscription-based email list specific to those who have watched specific presentations? Notify me by email when a similar presentation is uploaded and available.
Live
What if live presentations used the pre-registration process as an opportunity to connect attendees with similar interests? Then you give them the ability to contact each other and create a post-presentation discussion group for bloggers, educators, students, managers or small business owners… etc.

I think there’s incredible, untapped value here… and it doesn’t just apply to presentations either.