First of all, there is no need to record them. Nink, NINC’s in-house monthly publication, has a reporter in every workshop. The November and December issues of Nink every year each contain about two dozen extremely detailed reports covering what’s taught and discussed in every workshop. The reports also include the question-and-answer periods, links to the resources that the speakers provide or recommend, contact information for speakers, and often some images from the presentations. The Nink reports are comprehensive and thorough. The aim is always to provide members who did not attend the conference with the same educational information accessed by attendees who were at the session.
Second, NINC has a well-established culture of privacy and discretion. Our speakers tend to be very frank in their sessions. Yes, they’re aware that there’s a reporter in the audience who’ll write a scrupulously detailed report of their presentation. But that’s a very different prospect than having a video camera pointed at you. Some people are quite uncomfortable being photographed or filmed. Even people who don’t mind it nonetheless tend to do a lot more self-editing when they’re on camera and being recorded—especially these days, when there’s a realistic chance that one way or another, the video could wind up on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc… possibly after being edited to eliminate or change the context and meaning. The atmosphere at the NINC conference and in our workshops ensures a sense of privacy that encourages a level of frankness in our speakers that is seldom found at other events. Our aim is for them to relax and be candid, not worry about how they look on camera or who might one day see this video.
Finally, there’s the complication of expense and logistics. Video-recording the workshops would substantially increase NINC’s costs, so NINC in turn would have to increase the conference fee for attendees. Hotel contracts require NINC to rent the hotel’s audio-visual equipment. We’d need a camera for each room of our multi-track programming, a camera operator for each room, a feed for audio into the camera, storage devices for the contents, etc. After the conference, all videos must be reviewed and edited. Then those files would have to be stored somewhere with NINC members-only access and/or password protection. Because of the obvious risk of the videos winding up on YouTube, TikTok, etc., NINC would also need to get releases from the speakers—not all of whom would agree to it, while others would agree to it but be less candid in their presentations and Q&As.
For all of these reasons, NINC is unlikely to change its policy and start recording conference sessions.