Live from Kansas City, Mo., it's Lena!

I'm halfway through Day 1 of the ASBPE (American Society of Business Publication Editors) conference, and thought I'd check in and share what I've learned.

This morning, I heard from Paul Conley, a media consultant who is probably most famous for his blog. He talked about how people working in print publications need to wake up and realize that online is the future in media.

It felt good sitting there thinking to myself that the things he was saying I already knew—entirely from working here at Hammock.

Conley was a little too "if you don't change the way you think about the Web you will be out of a job" for my taste, but the underlying message was clear and compelling.

Later we heard from Katy Tomasulo, the editor of two construction magazines, about how to prioritize the Web when you already have a full plate on the print side. I came away with some great ideas, including asking experts or interviewees (right after you wrap up the interview) to provide a guest column or related content for your magazine's Web site. What a great idea! And there were so many more!

Anyway, better run. This afternoon, I'm going to learn how to shoot video and do a podcast. And tonight? I have the honor of collecting the probably very heavy awards (yes, plural) that MyBusiness won in the annual Azbee Awards of Excellence.

At the ASBPE (American Society of Business Publication Editors) Conference, I attended two breakout sessions to help me understand a little more about the sorts of things we're starting to do for some of our clients—creating, editing and sharing video and audio custom content on the web. The sessions—one on video and one on podcasting—were pretty basic; but they were thorough enough that if given a camera, a microphone and a cord to connect both devices to my computer, I could have a video and audio file posted in 20 minutes. Seriously, that's how easy it is. And no, the end result would not win a Grammy or an Oscar, but it'd be good enough for the Web.

And that was the lesson (besides "Always use a tripod" and "Don't upload wav files to your Web site"): It's so easy—and inexpensive—so why not give it a try? In both sessions, someone raised their hand and asked for data on how popular the videos or podcasts were and how they measure their effectiveness. I don't recall the answer (there's a breakout session tomorrow on being a better reporter) because I was too busy thinking: If it's so cheap and easy, why not give it a try. If it doesn't stick, no big deal. If it does (and it will, according to what I've been hearing today), all the better.