In times of uncertainty, it’s crucial that the media are working to put out information to the public. CTV has been working with different organizations and establishments to help them get their news to their audience. For example, we worked together with the St. Anthony-New Brighton School District to help get information about their upcoming school year out to the students and parents.

The Challenge:

In a typical year, school districts would normally hold an in-person orientation to welcome students back to school and answer any questions students or families might have. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools aren’t able to hold any in-person events. Students and teachers had a lot of questions about the upcoming school year. Were they going to have in-person class meetings? What kind of online software would they be using for distance-learning? What’s happening with fall sports? The school district decided to host their own zoom meeting to answer these questions. However, the zoom call only had a capacity of 100 people which left hundreds of students and parents unable to access this much needed information. The school district reached out to us for help to make this information more accessible and inclusive, and here’s how we did it— with only 5 days to prepare. 

The Solution:

First, we created a social media campaign to get the word out. We posted the event and zoom link four times a day on each of our social media accounts in the week leading up to the event. We then set up a virtual town hall meeting with a capacity of 500 instead of 100. Instead of hosting the event at a physical location, we webcasted a zoom call between Superintendent Dr. Renee Corneille and other school administrators on our website, Facebook page, and channel. Viewers were able to tune into either live or watch a recorded version later. There, they answered frequently asked questions and even had guest speaker Dr. Mageen Caines talk about local COVID-19 data and safety for the school district. 

Results:

We reached over 5,000 people on our social media accounts. Over 1,000 people spent an average of 4 minutes watching this town hall forum. At any given moment, we had over 100 people engaged in the live meeting. Together, CTV and the St. Anthony-New Brighton School District was able to make this event a huge success for the community.