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Innovative Media Hub brings General Convention to all people

July 2, 2012
Office of Public Affairs

The innovative Media Hub, developed and produced by the Episcopal Church Office of Communication, will bring the 77th General Convention 2012 to all people, wherever they may be, available here: https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/.

“Whether our viewers are attending General Convention in Indianapolis, or they are in their own dioceses and homes, they can follow all the action and excitement of General Convention on their laptops and other devices,” explained Anne Rudig, Episcopal Church Director of Communication.

The 77th Episcopal Church General Convention will be held July 5 through July 12 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis; IN. Held every three years, General Convention is the bicameral governing body of the Church. It is composed of the House of Bishops, with upwards of 200 active and retired bishops, and the House of Deputies, with clergy and lay representatives elected from the 110 dioceses of the Church, at more than 800 members.

General Convention 2012 http://generalconvention.org/gc

Media Hub

The Media Hub will offer live streaming of the sessions from the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, as well as a listing of daily events, a live twitter feed, Flickr photo stream, Episcopal News Service headlines, etc.

The Media Hub will go live on July 2 with greetings from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson, General Convention Secretary the Rev. Dr. Gregory Straub, and Bishop Catherine Waynick, bishop of the host diocese of Indianapolis. 

On July 4, live programming will commence with the opening addresses from Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori and President Anderson.

Mike Collins, Manager of Episcopal Church Multimedia Services, explained that the Media Hub will feature three media players, one for each House and a special one for videos featuring local and churchwide mission.

“We learned a lot from our experience at General Convention in 2009 that we are bringing to the wider church in 2012,” noted Mike Collins, Manager of Episcopal Church Multimedia Services. “Instead of having one player we will have several, with an interface that will allow people to view what interests them. That might be live coverage from the House of Bishops or Deputies. It might be a worship service or video of mission. We are providing options so people can view and follow what is important to them.”

He continued, “The videos we will be screening on the third player depict the Episcopal Church in mission and ministry. The first video that will be featured is a church in Santa Monica, California called Thad’s. Celebrities, surfers and others make up this new and growing congregation.”

It’s not too late to enter your video for the Make Your Mark video contest.  The videos – about two minutes in length – can be submitted prior to General Convention on the Episcopal Church web site.

The Media Hub is just one of the many state-of-the-art offerings from the Office of Communication that are designed to share the action and report on the activities of July 5-12 event. For example, among the social media coverage of GC12, twitter will be used as a digital billboard, announcing important votes and events as they are about to occur and encouraging conversations.

Twitter Hashtag is #GC77.