Last night I got out of bed at 2:30 am to try to wrestle a Twitter widget into submission. It insisted on delivering two tweets, when I clearly indicated that I wanted only one. Stupid widget.
I want one tweet, in the far right column, just below the two thumbnail links to the video introductions we are posting on the website: the website which was seventy five percent done, yet is in no way ready for the likes of Archbishop Tutu.
This week, right here in Connecticut, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu will give his final press conference and his last public speech in the United States. I had no idea about all this until I saw a banner hanging over West Hartford Center last week announcing a Youth Peace March, and decided to rush right home and Google it. We have been working on a youth video project, so I thought maybe we could cover this event for our local community television station. It would be nice practice.
Once I got to the World Youth Peace Summit website, I began to realize that this was not just a local event destined for a minute or two of coverage in some open slot on the local community news program. The sponsoring organization had some major and impressive global youth initiatives linked to this event with some uber famous folks on the bill. It clearly had the markings of something momentous. And that’s when a small link about requesting press credentials caught my eye.
Un huh. You bet I did.
A scant ten days before the first of the three scheduled events, and with nothing at all really ready for us to take the leap, I sent an email explaining that we were a fledgling youth media organization and would like to apply for press credentials. The next day I received a reply with the official Media Credential Application Form, along with some very specific coverage guidelines, and a request for a coverage plan. Yikes! What’s a coverage plan? I had no clue, so I made one up.
That was five days ago. The next day we got the official go-ahead.
I know that the administrators at CNN don’t dance around like fools when they get press credentials. It’s just part of the job. But for YouView Media, it was totally woot worthy.
So here we are launching our project in just one week, with hardly any resources, under plenty of pressure, and with a lot of attention on us. Caelyn will be there on Thursday afternoon, videotaping Archbishop Tutu’s press conference and maybe even asking a question. And her friend and YouView Media co-host, James, will be helping us cover the rest of the events.
We’ll be tweeting live, interviewing youth on the street and at events, editing tape till the wee hours, and in all ways stretching beyond the familiar to turn our vision into video. Well, just as soon as I get that stupid widget working.
Stay close. I’ll be posting more details soon.
And, yes, there will be T-shirts.
Engaging Awareness 