For those of you who may want more info regarding the specific steps in taking audio from PowerPoint and putting it into a podcast, check out my article on InformIT that spells it out step by step. I also recommend the use of Camtasia Studio 2.0 for creating a video file and extracting the audio.

Posted by Tom Bunzel at 12:29 PM .

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We have a frequent requirement for photographic images to use in the preparation of in-house presentations and publications and usually have neither the time nor the opportunity to produce our own. Although the cost of licensed photographs from commercial photo-libraries is somewhat prohibitive I can quite understand the need for professional photographers to charge high prices for commercial use. We recently paid £170 (over $300 US) for a single-use license to feature a commercially produced image on a single display panel for use at an internal meeting. This was a special case, but my budget will not stand too many of these in the course of a year.

For the majority of needs, we will turn to an image source like Stock.xchng and find exactly what we need for free. Stock.xchng originated in Hungary and has been around for nearly four years, many readers are probably already familiar with it. It now has nearly 140,000 images available and the standards for submission are high. The availability of high-resolution digital cameras for the consumer market has enabled many talented ‘amateur’ photographers to produce and publish quality images with ease. Although we would always employ a professional for specific assignments – especially where the photographs would have wide public distribution – for one-off internal presentation use the free picture libraries are proving invaluable.

Another valuable resource that turned up quite recently is morgueFile – a somewhat macabre name but one that traditionally means the place where newspaper publishers keep their past issues. They cover some areas that Stock.xchng don’t cater for and have a good boolean search function. Currently they are hosting nearly 67,000 images that are free for corporate or public use.

An excellent article on finding free photographs for commercial and public use was published recently by Robin Good. He lists the above sites plus many more. A group called Yotofoto have produced an interface that allows you to search across many of the sites mentioned. Currently they are indexing around 100,000 images.

Posted by Roy Hammans at 12:43 PM .

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“Marilyn” was kind enough to model some of our promotional material during the opening reception.

Posted by Lee Potts at 11:30 PM .

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Got into Las Vegas around Noon today and am all checked in at the Hilton. I flew down from Seattle after speaking at another meeting and I’m having trouble thinking of two cities with more disparate vibes. I’ll tell you one thing though, Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport does an extremely good job of getting you off the plane, out the door and to the casino of your choice quickly and efficiently. I was in the Hilton lobby in less time than it took me to get my luggage at Sea-Tac.

Not much on the schedule for today. I’m going to try to check in at the conference later this afternoon. Then the presentation council folks are meeting at the Hilton lobby bar around 6:00 for a little pre-conference reunion. Feel free to stop by if you like, we’ll be easy to find. Just look for the loudest, most….

Well, you get the picture.

Tomorrow is, of course, Super Tuesday. That’s followed by the manufacturer’s industry forum, the open reception and the awards banquet. Busy day. Wednesday’s pretty busy too but I’ll do my best to post some of what’s going on sometime. I think it will largely depend on how well wired the convention center is.

Please don’t forget to make use of the online bulletin board we set up just for InfoComm. We’re hoping everyone will find it useful as clearinghouse for information about the conference.

Posted by Lee Potts at 6:22 PM .

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