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Colorado Video Cooperative

I teach part time at a local community college here in Longmont CO. In the summer I taught a videography course and have also been teaching web design/development related courses. Right after the director of the department I teach in recruited me for the videography course I got a second email from her inquiring if I was okay with going down what she saw as two paths… video and web. My answer was pretty simple, “Have you seen YouTube lately?” Well, that may not be exactly what I said, but it was the simplified essence of my answer.

While many people have not made the connection between web design/development and video, there are a number of organizations and individuals who are waking up to this simple reality. In response to this exploding convergence of technologies, inspired (and convened) by Craig Kendall of Kendall Media Group, several videographers/filmmakers in the Northern Colorado area, put their heads together to form the Colorado Video Cooperative, or COVIDCO. “The initial primary purpose for the gathering of my peers,” says Kendall, “was really to just get folks together who ‘did what I did’.” At that first gathering the name COVIDCO emerged and some ideas for what the group could become.

For about two years Kendall had already been envisioning a group of independent video gurus who could leverage their expertise and equipment to assist small and local businesses achieve their business goals and take advantage of the explosion of video on the Internet. In October Kendall shared his thoughts, dreams, and ideas with Brian Brown, a fellow video professional and videographer in Longmont, and also one of the original COVIDCO participants. In December the two invited Todd Geer of Video Facets based in Loveland CO to sit down and get serious about the idea. Kendall had shared the idea with Geer in 2008 while the two were lamenting the weaknesses in a similar model of a national organization doing something similar to Kendall’s own idea, but missing the local connection and not valuing the work of the video professionals who produced, shot, and edited the actual videos.

It was at a December 2009 breakfast that the trio got serious about putting some resources behind the idea. In weeks, the trio were shooting video, creating a website, exploring partnership ideas, and building momentum toward an exciting new option for local businesses to get their word out to potential customers. By the end of January two videos were posted to the COVIDCO YouTube channel and available to appear on the client’s websites.

If you are a local Colorado business owner check out the COVIDCO website and read more about why you should be considering adding or diverting funds in your 2010 marketing budget to adding video to your website.