This Nebula is not Nebulous

 

If you are reading on a smartphone, use landscape / hold phone sideways. 

A nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas occupying the space between stars and acting as nursery for new stars. Wow, "nursery for new stars" is pretty cool. 

This past week we had an NYDLA.org Open House at Nebula NYC. It is a Night Club / Event Space in Midtown NYC. The cool thing about THIS space (I mean, we are talking about renting spaces in The Big Apple) is that Nebula creates an immersive experience. Transmedia, multimedia, omni-media events can be hosted at Nebula. And via today's cloud technology, these events become global real-time immersive experiences. 

It was our first time using BlueJeans by Verizon Studio, with a Steadicam. I figure there were around 250 people LIVE (LIVE) at Nebula, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. But, we could transmit LIVE to 250,000+ people, and we could Livestream to 25M+ around the world.

It really hit me hard this morning - how the world has changed over just the last five years. The "before times" with most events being LIVE and attending virtually was just an afterthought. And then, when the pandemic hit, we had ONLY virtual events - nothing in person at all. Zoom was already a verb before COVID, but during the worse of the pandemic, that was all we had. I still snicker when I think about how CEOs of companies would be interviewed on TV during the teeth of the pandemic, and the interviewer would say things like "well, all of you Zoom companies....." even if they were interviewing the CEO of Webex. And the CEOs of the Zoom competitors being interviewed would just roll their eyes....

So last Thursday, my afternoon consisted of the 5:20 PM bus to NYC - Nebula event - and the 8:30 PM bus back to BOONTON USA. I walked the floor(s) plural, met very interesting people, ate a ton of sushi, and I also ate a ton of sushi. I also reserved Nebula for our upcoming Holiday / Christmas party. Using a Steadicam at such an event was pretty amazing. We shall have the final edits of our Nebula Open House event live on NYDLA.org early this week. 

But yesterday, we had another event - this time LIVE from good ol' BOONTON USA. From the Boonton Coffee Co. we recorded another Coffee in the Clouds video podcast interview. Once again using BlueJeans Studio and the Jabra Meet Anywhere kit, we had HDTV quality video, with Dolby audio. It was just two people (having coffee in the clouds) but we (could have) been transmitting LIVE (LIVE) to 20,000+ and we SHALL allow 20M+ to watch the Livestream or the archives of the video podcast interview. 

We have been hosting live and virtual events for years, and always hosted at cool places. MOMA, the Bronx Zoo, THE INTREPID to name just a few. But since we are all about  "the cloud" and the future of work, the future of education, Nebula - the nursery for new stars - really moves me. 

There is NOTHING like the energy of New York City. I feel very spoiled that I can drop what I am doing and leave BOONTON USA and be at 11 Times Square in less than an hour, using WiFi on the bus the entire trip. Give me my Lenovo laptop, my Jabra 85 headset and 5G and I'm good to go - anywhere. And I think this shall become the future of work, the future of education for all of us. 

We truly are living, learning, working, playing, teaching, training, coaching, mentoring in the global cloud economy. It might feel a little nebulous, but it's not. And hey - there is a support group for all of this - there is a support group for your personal cloud journey. 

JoinNYDLA.org and THRIVE in the clouds. 

My Limousine to NYC