Whew! I’m back from the Holy Land and ready to put my focus back on Europe. Thanks for traveling with me on this adventure here on my blog. (My TV crew will now begin editing all that great footage into our upcoming Holy Land special.)
Last night, we streamed my homecoming lecture. And, while it was fun to have about 600 people in the auditorium, it was really exciting to have thousands of people “attending” virtually via our streaming of the event.
For those of you who did watch last night, I’d love some feedback both on the talk and on the tech end of it. How could I have made my lecture and slideshow more helpful as a primer for someone wanting to better understand the Holy Land? Also, how can we tweak the technology to make viewing a talk like this online better from your end? I’ll enjoy your suggestions and comments.
By the way, many asked if we’re going to upload the lecture for later viewing online. We will certainly offer this lecture online (likely a later live presentation), but it’ll be coordinated with the fanfare we hope to generate with the release of our hour-long public television special (which we plan for this April). Stay tuned for more on that.
As always, your live presentations are an absolutely brilliant counter-point to the show’s aesthetic, Rick: I’ve had the pleasure of making the short bus trip down to the Edmonds PAC to see you speak on three separate occasions, and find the more intimate setting perfectly-suited to your mix of accessible commentaries on the places you’ve been, as well as the subtle bawdiness of your occasional one-liners (I woke up thinking of last night’s “NSFT” anecdote about the Palestinian internet cafe, and it immediately cracked me up).
I’d be curious to see what the webcast opinions are on it, but–as far as the live experience goes–you can make two and a half hours seem like it breezes on by in thirty. The only request I’d make is to stick around in the lobby a bit longer, after the show: my wife and I were desperately trying to get a picture for my sister (Who’s a huge fan, from California) and got “boxed out” by the bum-rush of friendly seniors. So close!
The webcast was great. Thanks. I find it more interesting if we get more full screen shots of the pictures you are showing overhead. We the picture is panned out and focused on you as you are speaking it is pretty tough to see the pictures. It was a great event. Thanks for sharing.
We watched the broadcast in the comfort of our family room and felt like you were sitting there with us. The audio and visual were great. We booked our tickets for the Holy Land earlier in the day. At first we thought “Oh no”…. should we have done that but a short time into your presentation and by the end we were “Oh Yes….. can’t wait to go in March!!!” Loved your comment about your family asking if it was safe and you said “yes as I’m not flying through Chicago”. Learned so much about the places we are about to visit and were reminded to travel with an open mind. Thank you for sharing how you go about interviewing, filming and editing. We never leave home without you!!!
I tried to watch the presentation last night online but it would not come in steady. It stopped every few seconds and the sound was weak. So I do hope you have a repeat. I was in the Holy Land the same time you were and I believe you were a day or 2 ahead of us. I wish I could had heard more about your feelings about the Palestinian/Hebrew relationship. I wish there was an easy solution and I feel for both sides. Your hand out is excellent!
Your lecture looked fine; the sound was good; the streaming was nice and I did not have any problems. It was nice to be able to see and hear your lecture without the drive.
The only trouble was when you were pointing at a picture we could only see the picture and not the area you were pointing too. Could you either give more description on where you are pointing? or have some way of highlighting the area you are talking about.
Thanks for taking the time to talk
Loved the presentation! Very informative, thought provoking and inspiring. We found that it stalled in high quality, but once we lowered it a little it streamed perfectly! Thank you!
Webcast came through fine on my iPad, but crashed on my desktop (XP and Firefox) and then wouldn’t restart. Agree with the comments from Chad and Janet. It would have been nice if you had also streamed the Q and A!
Thought the content was fine. When I visted the ME (Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in 2009) I made a decision not to visit Israel as I object to the settlements and to the government’s behavior to the Palestinians. If I go back (Petra, at least, rates a second visit) I may change my mind., but would definitely visit Palestine as well.
Dear Rick,
One last question: On your way home did you call a meeting with President Obama to report on the affairs of State in Palestine as George Clooney did earlier this year (for Sudan) on his way home from his Villa in Italy to his home in LA?
Rick,
One more last comment: Your timing is impeccable with President Obama and company lifting nuclear sanctions on Iran today. I’m sure the President is excitedly awaiting your PBS special so he can get up to speed on what’s happening in peaceful Palestine. For Palestine this will, I’m sure, set off several days of joyous celebration for the religion of peace. Within a couple of weeks of your trip to Egypt this spring the Muslim Brotherhood was overthrown and within hours of leaving Palestine, a peaceful Iran will be able to convert to nuke energy instead of producing all those old fossil fuels that cause global warming. I do think you are just being modest. You’re a special emissary for the President! Keep up the good work and happy traveling.
Rick,
On the tech end, there was a major problem with the broadcast. It kept on freezing every 20 or so seconds. Then, the broadcast would resume — sometimes starting at the spot where it had frozen, other times skipping chunks of material. Then the broadcast would resume, only freeze again. The problem is not my computer, because it is only two years old. It’s possible that my service provider was at fault, but I am online via my computer throughout the day because I work at home. I rarely have problems. After about 45 minutes of the constantly stopping and starting broadcast, I gave up because it became so frustrating.
As for content, I was disappointed by your insulting comment directed at Chicago. I see that Al & Gail Brown got a belly laugh out of it. Our city is a big supporter of Rick Steves, given that you have a weekly column in the Chicago Tribune and given that the WTTW, the local PBS station, hosts you for a broadcast multiple times a year and broadcast your travelogues.
As for your blog, I was also disappointed in it. You did not devote a lot to Israel itself. It’s almost like you blew Israel off. I liked the material on Palestine, but there was a lack of balance.