6 March 2016 | Silver Spring, MD, United States [Victor Hulbert with Sam Davies] Communication, IT and Media specialists from around the Adventist World converged on Seventh-day Adventist World Church headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland, for a series of meetings between 24 February and 5 March. The two weeks of meetings included special advisories for the Communication and IT departments; Network Managers meetings for Hope Channel and drawing them all together, ‘GAiN’: the Gobal Adventist internet Network, hosted in the World Church auditorium, 24-28 February.
The rest of the week provided possible solutions to that tricky question. Harvey Alferez, Professor at Montemorelos University, showed that understanding the needs of people in big cities through data science can be helpful. He said, “following Christ’s method to reach the city dwellers of our day means understanding and meeting their needs.” His presentation described the potential of data science, the study of generalised extraction of knowledge from data to discover the needs of communities. He said this will make us more efficient in reaching people because we have taken the time to analyse their needs.
Nine representatives from the Trans-European Division attended either GAiN or the more technical advisories surrounding it. Among the cluster of presenters during GAiN were four speakers from the TED including, Sam Neves, Miroslav Pujic, Tor Tjeransen and Daryl Gungadoo.
Neves, who recently joined the GC as Associate Communication director spoke on the topic, ‘Experience is King’. He argued that while content is important it has to be ‘experienced’, not just delivered. Expectations on the web have changed and delivery must be “much more intuitive, pleasurable and efficient through apps which have caused users to change their expectations.”
Tjeransen, developer of the ADAMS photos storage system built originally for the Norwegian Union but now adopted by the GC and Adventist Review, showed how good practice in photo archiving can help not just individual communicators, but the whole world. He spent the second week representing Norway and the TED at the Hope Channel meetings where, he says, “topics ranged from operational policies to technical issues in broadcasting.” Tjeransen was impressed by General Conference Health Department director, Dr Peter Landless, who urged Hope Channel stations to produce programming that would contribute to the Comprehensive Health Evangelism initiative which is part of the strategic plan of the world church. Hope Channel UK will be releasing a very practical six-part series, ‘Enhancing Health’ in the next few weeks.
Paula Yunuen Carrillo, who was attending with her boss, Des Rafferty, from the Adventist Discovery Centre in England, stated that she loved the exploration of ‘data science’ and also the development of the Adventist Learning Community. This e-learning programme is a concept that is also part of the TED strategic plan and will be developed in Europe in co-operation with partners from around the world.
That was also true for Pujic. Also busy networking, he enjoyed the “exchange of information, meeting other people and learning that the Church is still thinking about and using up-to-date methods in its ministry.”
Films were also a big part of GAiN and the subsequent Communication advisory. The world premiere of OPPOSITES: an engaging true life tale of a man who had the odds stacked against him, also ‘Tell the World’: a moving re-enactment of the origins of the Adventist Church focusing on William Miller and Ellen White, and finally, a Hope Channel co-production, ‘Rest’: which highlighted the way Adventists celebrate Sabbath across 9 different cultures and time zones. With work still to be done on translation and sub-titling, all three films will shortly be available to all parts of the world.
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Esti Pujic, editor
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