1 The Business Café Dr. Gilly Salmon Open University Business School UK

2 Open University Business School 25,000 Business and Management Students in Europe Distance Learning: online, print, broadcast and face to face seminars

3 Context for the Business Café Project Long standing relationship between OU and BBC TV shows and Video produced for teaching but large non-OU audience Experiment in understanding wider business audience

4 The Business Café concept- integrated broadcasting Magazine-type TV shows linked to interactive Web site TV viewers drawn to Web site, Web visitors drawn to TV series

5 The Business Café TV Shows Set in Tower overlooking City of London Broadcast each Sunday for 9 weeks February- April 1999

6 The Business Café TV Shows Weekly feature on set discussion and filmed Case study Taxi ride- business figure in the news in black cab Office of my own- different ways of using office space Opinions on business books Stock-market discussion Promotion of the Web site

7 The Business Café Web Site

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9 The Business Café TV Audience 300,000 visitors per week 8% of total TV audience middle & senior manager & small business people every industrial sector and managerial job some interested in OUBS courses

10 The Business Café Web site Visitors 60,000 visits over 9 weeks 42% visited on day of TV broadcast two-thirds were prompted by TV broadcast Some visitors used site who were outside broadcast range, interest continues One third clicked through to general OUBS information site

11 The Business Café- Online Discussion Used Web based FirstClass environment Trained moderators Information about visitors and nature of discussions reported weekly on TV shows

12 The Business Café Web Site: attractions Selected URLs linked with weekly features on TV show Easy to use questionnaires Download of Business Briefings

13 Evaluation by Stakeholders - TV Shows Well received: TV case studies Imaginative filming techniques Lively, interesting, magazine format good presenter topical issues weekly market commentary

14 Evaluation by Stakeholders - TV Shows Improve for Next Time Reduce trivialisation of topics Better scheduling slot Better set Better advert for Web site Increase publicity

15 Evaluation by Stakeholders - The Business Café Web Site Improve for Next Time Simpler design Better threading for discussion forum more interactive questionnaires shorter video clips links to OUBS community discussions

16 Evaluation by Stakeholders - The Business Café Web Site Worked Well: Downloadable documents to support TV feature Easy maintenance and updating, good technical infrastructure Easy interaction online discussion with good moderators Links to other sites

17 The Business Café Project - Conclusions to share Convergence of broadcasting and Web= worthwhile for education Its tough to do - build up cross team working from the start Ensure academics understand time commitment Ensure TV understand and respect academic approach

18 Lessons from the Business Café- Asynchronous Learning Networks Create serials on TV to entice associated Web visitors Create controversy in online discussion to pull in participants

19 Lessons from the Business Café- the toughest part Better cross team integration needed for a better integrated Business Café experience- especially between TV production Team and academics

20 URL Business Café: Papers about the Business Café project E mail Dr. Gilly Salmon