ABOUT
APPLICATIONS
The following interview captures the experience and satisfaction of a bcast customer.
bcast asks: So tell us what NCYC is about...
RP: We like to say that NCYC is possibly the greatest seven days since Genesis! The National Christian Youth Convention is seven days of young people hanging out, doing electives and bible studies, and worshipping in a way you never could at home. The week is packed with music, speakers, entertainment – and usually a life changing moment or two. Around 2000 young people aged 16 to 30 from Australia and overseas, other churches, and from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds converge on NCYC to make it the biggest gig of the Uniting Church in Australia. The event has an international flavour and there’s lots of community activity. And what did you want to use bcast for?We worked hard to prepare a lot of high quality events for NCYC 2009, and it seemed a shame not to share these as widely as possible. We wanted to leverage the internet to share the vibe of the week, and discovered bcast. The idea that we could actually go ‘live’ with our convention was exciting … but we were nervous! Little did we know how easy it would be; and the success was even more surprising.
bcast: What was your bcast application?
RP: We used the bcast Community technology. This meant that we could provide a group of subscribers online access to several Bible studies and also deliver real time streams of the convention gatherings and nightly worship services. The bcast Community site was completely integrated with our web design, so the user experience was entirely consistent. Users simply logged on and were able to watch our events right at the moment they were happening – they could feel as though they were there with us … and because of the interaction features like ‘chat’, they were.
bcast: What were some of the benefits?
RP: Well bcast’s main strengths are that it’s live, high quality and readily accessible online, so it really extended our reach. The system was clear and simple, and we had great support from the bcast team with setup and seamless site integration. And finally, it delivered on its promise by making the spirit and joy of the convention accessible for more of our ‘community’. And our broadcast archives are still accessible as a living history of NCYC 2009.
bcast: How have you measured success?
RP: We had many subscribers, lively interaction during the bcasts using the chat tool, and a lot of enthusiastic praise for the medium. We were able to grow our community through bcast, and with the integrated PayPal payments/donations we actually generated revenue and came out well in front. And what did your community have to say? We’ve had some great feedback, which is why we’re so happy to sing bcast’s praises: “It’s great. So easy, and I felt like I was right in the thick of what was happening.” “Thank you so much for bcasting – helped me to be a part of this special moment in time.” “Without your live broadcasts, I could not have been a part of NCYC 2009 – so much fun!”
