Bringing the Story Home

Multimedia Skills for NGO workers

Every day, organizations like yours send people across the world to work with partner organizations.     International development workers interact daily with a rich variety of people in the field who have their own perspectives to share.   They work in environments rich in images and sounds which provide a context that tells so much more about your work you're doing than words alone can convey.  

"Bringing the Story Home" is a multimedia skills workshop to teach your international development staff and volunteers how they can bring this richness back to share with people here in Canada.   Because that's where your most important work happens ... in the communities and places in remote corners of the world where lives are affected and change is happening daily.

Our hands-on workshops will teach your staff how to create dynamic podcasts and videocasts for the internet, and media rich content that can be used in all of your organizational communications, from slide shows to your own personalized message on your voicemail!   Or, we can do the entire job ourselves ..   it's up to you.  

Some of our Workshops:

Each workshop can be a standalone workshop, or can be part of an ongoing series.   Here are our two introductory workshops:

Getting Started in Podcasting and Vodcasting

What is podcasting and vodcasting anyway?   Do you have to have an Ipod to do a podcast?   What kinds of opportunities are available to get your message out on the internet in multimedia form?   Examples of podcast and vodcast productions - what "sounds" and looks better/best?   What skills do your staff need to learn to start to start producing?    We'll also explore tools available and skills required, along with lively brainstorming about how these new tools can be used as part of your communications strategy.  

Workshop length - 2.5 hours  

Number of participants - this workshop can accommodate groups of any size.  

Resources required:   internet hookup and LCD projector

Podcasting 101

Make your own podcast!   A hands-on workshop to introduce your staff to the craft of audio production.   It is a useful foundation for creating podcasts, streaming audio on your website, soundtracks for slide shows, talks for distribution on CD .. anything you want your supporters to hear.   It also provides a good grounding in sound technology and creative sound production for video makers -   because sound is just as important as your images.

Workshop length - 1 day

Number of participants - 10 - 15

Resources needed - laptop computers - 1 for every three participants (any kind of laptop, PC or Mac built in the last four years will be suitable)

Software - Audacity - downloadable for free on the internet

Recording equipment - three kits will be provided by Sound Out Communications, others will need to be rented, depending on the size of the group.

Optional - if any of your staff have recording devices (even cassette machines), the more equipment, the better.

Note:   this can also be done as a 2 day workshop.   The more time available, the better the result will be.   (The one day workshop does not usually provide enough time to do anything beyond a simple script/clip or interview format -   suitable for learning purposes but may not result in a product you'd want to post.   The longer the workshop, the more time there will be for production and planning, and the better the result.   We also do weekend or weeklong camps)

All these skills can also be taught one-on-one, and we can also produce entire podcasts and multimedia projects for you if you don't want to do this yourself (but once you start to learn how ... you'll want to!)

For details of video/vodcasting workshops, please call us.    Workshops can also be customized to suit the unique needs of your organization and people- if you already have some of these skills and want to take it to the next level, we can create interactive hands-on learning that move you up the learning curve..

Workshop costs:   Sound Out Communications works with organizations of all sizes and budgets.   Each workshop is quoted individually, depending on the needs of your organization.   Travel costs apply for out-of-town workshops, however, the cost can be shared if there are several organizations within the same city wanting workshops at the same time.    

Victoria Fenner and Leah Murugi at the community radio station in the Korogocho Slum, Nairobi

Sound Out Communications is a media production and learning company owned and directed by Victoria Fenner , radio producer and internationally recognized sound artist.     The mandate of Sound Out is to produce lively, and informative programs and material for the internet, radio, soundtracks for films, talking books, interactive learning materials and anything you can hear.    Equally important, we teach people and companies how to become their own producers. We also work with video producers and photographers who can teach and produce video and still images.

More about Victoria

Victoria Fenner is a writer, journalist and sound artist.   For the past two decades she has worked in community and public radio in the Canada and the United States as radio station manager,   current affairs producer, freelance documentary producer, production technician, creator/director of participatory media projects and trainer.   She has also taught audio production skills at the university, high school and elementary school level.

She has recently a series of documentaries for " Green Planet Monitor " with prairie based Earth Chronicle Productions , travelling to India, Nepal and Sri Lanka to gather material (funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Canadian Autoworkers Union Social Justice Fund ).   She has also just returned from Nairobi, where she presented three workshops - Creative Radio Production; and Bridging the Digital Divide for the International Association of Women in Radio and Television , and a Soundwalking workshop for Internews , an international development media organization.

She has worked for CBC Radio ; in community radio stations in Vancouver, Hamilton, Ottawa and the Appalchian mountains of Kentucky and as a trainer of management skills for community radio station managers in the developing world.    The development of community radio and web-related radio (Radio 2.0) in the developing world is a constant interest and focus of her writings about communications.

She takes a creative approach   towards sound making, using her microphone to gather sounds and her   computer to organize them in ways which reflect the way she hears the   world .   In addition to her own compositions, she has also created   sound art anthologies of artists across Canada which have been played   on radio stations across the world.

(Victoria's art-sound website can be found at www.magneticspirits.com - the Sound Out Website is under development)

E-mail: fenner@magma.ca

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