You need some cheap and easy video element to include at your next event.

Your budget doesn't even permit for "cheap and easy" video.

Automation to the rescue!

Almost.

Web startup Wibbitz proves that there is potential in transforming your content from one medium to another. Specifically, the company focuses on turning your text into video. This isn't like Xtranormal with wacky cartoon characters and amusing pronunciation errors, the robovoice with Wibbitz is clear, rather human and is mostly correct with pronunciation.

Check out how Wibbitz treats the MPI blogs:

Sure, it needs some work, but if one creates a blog/site written to pair properly with Wibbitz, I think there's absolutely potential.

Image (CC) ikrichter

If you receive The Pulse e-newsletter (check all your email folders!), you may have noticed that we're including a weekly video rundown of top stories from the newsletter, this here blog and One+.

We're not doing this to be hip. We're doing it because we're seeing an increase in online video consumption from our members, many of whom find it more efficient to watch a short video than read one more thing in their already busy lives. 

We recently conducted a poll to get a sense of what our members enjoy and want from online videos. From the 1,018 participants, we found some interesting results.

• 71 percent prefer news videos
• 96 percent watch videos on their personal computers
• 33 percent like videos that are two-to-three minutes in length
• 79 percent feel that YouTube offers the best viewing experience
• 68 percent share videos via email

Thank you to everyone that participated, and congratulations to Mindy Kim, CMP, winner of a US$100 AMEX gift card.    

Best Western recently created a series of indie films showcasing the people who own and run their hotels. They're all well made, offering great personal insight and entertaining stories. It's always refreshing to see the people behind the brands. Below is one of the films. You can find the rest on their website.

You may have noticed that there are a lot more videos on our blog and throughout MPIWeb.org. According to a recent Cisco report, video consumption represents 52 percent of consumer IP traffic. By 2013, that number is expected to grow to 64 percent, with largest growth rates occurring in areas such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is projected to take over as the largest global video consumer, with an estimated 34 percent of all video traffic coming from that region by 2013.

Yes, the world it truly watching. And to illustrate the numbers, Clicker.com created a great graphic (click on the image to increase its size).