What is it about Woodstock?

This week in 1969 a small farm in Bethel, New York, played host to a three-day music festival, featuring many of the day’s biggest names in music.

But Woodstock wasn’t the first such festival. There were dozens of others that year alone.

Nor was the lineup entirely can’t-miss. Many of the greatest artists of their generation played Woodstock, but many more did not. Icons of the era like Bob Dylan, The Doors, Led Zeppelin and others were elsewhere at the time.

It may be true that streets were blocked — but Bethel was (and still is) a small town with small town infrastructure.

And while estimates suggest the crowd numbered between 200,000 and 400,000 over the course of the event, that number spans 3 days and isn’t spectacularly greater than what’s experienced in other similar events.

So why is it that Woodstock stands apart — instantly recognizable nearly 50 years later by the one word name of a town it wasn’t actually staged in?

Why do so many people feel connected to Woodstock even when 99.9% of the US population alive at the time didn’t attend?

Could it be the power of video?

Bolstered by the excitement for the artists who appeared and the exceptional PR that followed reports of “the hippy music show that shut down streets,” official and unofficial Woodstock documentaries soon found their way to viewers around the world. Those who were too young, too far away, or too disinterested to have made their way to Bethel now had means to experience the next best thing.

The more people could see Woodstock, the more the legend of the event grew — until one day a big, for-profit concert in rural New York had suddenly and retroactively become a turning point in American popular culture.

Woodstock lives on because event organizers made it possible to share the experience. And that’s a lesson that other events would do well to remember — we may not all have Jimmy Hendrix, but we’ve all got messages, ideas, and information to share. Video helps bring those presentations, events, conferences, and meetings to life in a way that audiences can engage with, share, and experience as though they were really right there with you.

This week we saw more and more people taking advantage of the power of video to share ideas, present information, and show how the world works. And in the spirit of passing it on, these are just a few of the ideas shared this week with Panopto’s video presentation software.

Introduction to Smart Cities by Qualcomm
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in urban environments. That’s a big number, and it’s sparked even bigger thinking at Qualcomm. By reimagining the role of technology and connectivity in today’s cities, the company is seeking to not only address current challenges, but to create countless smart and sustainable solutions built for the future. Get an in-depth look at the concepts, key components, framework and technologies behind smart cities, in this series of online training seminars from Qualcomm.

Death:The Upside
“Without death, every birth would be a tragedy.” So opens this recorded presentation from Dr Richard Smith at the Emory University Department of Medicine. In this lively talk, Smith discusses the growing movement to rediscover the positive aspects of death, and argues that human beings need to learn to see the many positive aspects of death, as the evidence shows both that our society denies death and that this denial causes pain and suffering.

Headaches in Children
Headaches are a common affliction with potentially many meanings. Especially when headaches are frequent, it can be a challenge for patients and healthcare professionals alike to discern the source of the discomfort and find a way to treat the cause. And when the patient is a child, that challenge can be especially difficult. Join Dr Julian Lin for this review of the myriad of potential causes of headaches in children, and see how medical professionals are learning to respond to each.

Introduction to Cancer Genetics
Every year the University of Bath welcomes prospective new students by sharing a glimpse of some of the exciting topics they can learn while attending. This week, join in with the audience to hear Dr Momna Hejmadi discuss the latest research and implications in the field of cancer genetics. At the very cutting edge of biology and biochemistry, this subject may well be the key to saving countless lives in the future.

Energy Law — Transportation
Finally today, sit in with the students at the University of Denver College of Law for this recorded lecture on energy law and its application in transportation. The class digs into the question of the role of federal and local governments play in this issue, and then examine existing regulations and judicial decisions and how those influence transportation costs and availability around the world today.

Try It For Yourself!

Panopto makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to record video presentations and share them online, both as live streaming webcasts and recorded on-demand video. To see how Panopto can help you share your ideas, contact our team for a free trial today.