Slide1This is another in a long-term series of posts in partnership with The Communications Network, and originally appeared on that site.

Are you trying to build a sense of community among diverse audiences across multiple locations?

Then take note of what the Daniels Fund learned from a recent experiment using simulcast technology.

The Denver-based Daniels Fund was founded in 2000 upon the death of benefactor and cable TV pioneer Bill Daniels.  The foundation’s work covers seven program areas as well as two separate scholarship programs, all of which is pursued in four states: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.  With populations spread out across some of the largest states in the nation in rural and urban areas, building a sense of community and common purpose among the foundation’s many constituencies has been a challenge.  But with the Daniels Fund 10th Anniversary approaching, the foundation saw and opportunity to bring people together in an innovative way.

The concept was fairly simple: Do an anniversary event, but do it in eight different locations at the same time and link the participants together through simulcast, AND make the simulcast available live to anyone who can’t be in one of those eight locations.  The successful execution, which took place on June 17, was anything but simple and was the product of a year of intense planning.

As with just about any complex endeavor, partnerships were key to this undertaking’s success.  With it’s grantmaking in Business Ethics, the Daniels Fund had established, deep relationships with eight university business schools across the region and those universities served as the hosts for live events that were to be linked through simulcast.  Early in the planning, the Daniels Fund reached out to Rocky Mountain PBS, which had a great deal of experience doing simulcast and public engagement.

Rocky Mountain PBS did much more than just produce the simulcast event. They also used existing footage and photos, conducted new interviews and produced a video that aired during the simulcast that inspired viewers with the story of Bill Daniels legacy and tied together much of the varied work supported by the foundation.

“Rocky Mountain PBS was amazing,” said Daniels Fund VP of Communications Peter Droege.  “PBS not only produced a complex simulcast without a hitch, they produced a number of videos for the event that will have enduring value for our organization.  Their commitment to the community and quality of production really showed through at every step of the way.  They are, for sure, the hardest working people in show business.”

Any communications director knows how challenging it can be to produce a big event that is very important to the organization.  Now think about producing eight of those events taking place at the exact same time and linking them together.  The strategy included having Daniels Fund board members serve as MCs at each of the eight event sites. The board of the Daniels Fund is made up of high profile business and civic leaders, so the presence of board members at the local events was seen as a sign of the foundation’s commitment to local communities.

A large number of nonprofit and communities leaders turned out at each celebration site that had its own short program before being connected to the simulcast.  This enabled the foundation to build a sense of togetherness within each location even before brining everyone together over the web across the region.

“That sense of coming together was really important for us,” Droege said. “We had folks who were grantees in one program area who knew nothing about our involvement in another.  We had scholarship students who didn’t really know about the grantmaking.  And with the inspiring video and an event that brought so many different people together we were able to make strides in fostering a greater sense of connectedness and identification with the Daniels Fund.”

All together, there were over 2,500 people at the live events and another 2,000 who logged on to watch the simulcast live.  Try getting that many people together for an event that isn’t the Super Bowl!  Perhaps the most important audience among the attendees and simulcast viewers were current and past Daniels Fund scholars.  The Fund aims to provide not just dollars for individuals’ education, but to imbue the awardees with a sense of carrying on Bill Daniels’ legacy.  So the 257 new scholars who were all present at the event certainly came away feeling like they were part of a community that expected them to achieve and give back.

Not only did the simulcast function to bring Daniels Fund constituencies together and helped the foundation tell the story of its impact over the previous 10 years to key audiences, it was also useful to the media.  Denver’s NBC affiliate 9News produced a stellar segment on the event using the simulcast footage without ever sending a crew to any of the sites.  Rocky Mountain PBS continues to host the video on its site and may produce a segment for general broadcasting.

“We are definitely going to do more of this in the future,” Droege says.  “The emerging technology is making amazing things possible and foundations should really be thinking about experimenting with what’s possible. Maybe consider starting with a small experiment with technology like bringing in a  board member from a remote location when they can’t be there in person. It really is a great way to increase involvement and engagement.”

Droege first started experimenting with live webcasts some time ago using WebEx to host an online press conference.  He found that media people loved it and he was able to convey information and take questions very efficiently.  So he saw the 10th Anniversary simulcast as the next big leap.  Initially, they planned to do an 8-way simulcast with feeds from each site, but concerns about the technical complexity and cost led to focusing on the largest site using a one-way simulcast to let the other sites see and hear what was going on there.

The Daniels Fund is excited about doing more live web casts.  In fact, they are converting an unused closet in their offices into a “Video Capture Studio” where they will do interviews and other live video feeds for a variety of foundation supported initiatives.  “The technology is becoming more user-friendly.  Communications people and foundation leaders should definitely give it a try and start thinking creatively about the many possibilities for using it to advance their work.”

These new tools require an investment of time, and some financial resources, too.  But according to the Daniels Fund, it is well worth the effort.