Project purpose or objectives
During the last few months, I have had the opportunity to participate as a Director for the Elevate Competition. For nearly 4 months I was able to be head of Digital Content Creation and to help the other members of my team prepare for the Competition. So what is this Elevate Competition? Every other semester Brigham Young University-Idaho hosts an Interdisciplinary Competition for Social Change. Teams made of students from all the different Colleges on campus come together to answer a question that deals with social change. This question has ranged from Mental health, Forming relationships, and for this semester’s competition; Finding Balance.
A lot of the planning work had been completed back in the months of January to April, prior to COVID-19 canceling a lot of our plans for the spring contest. Our spring competition was pushed back this past fall, and I had the opportunity to once again participate to see this contest come to life and actually happen.
The project (samples of the work produced or the final product)
Since most of the creatives were completed before, there wasn’t as much to make in terms of posters and flyers to make. I was able to redo a previous flier for our team to hand out to advertise for the contest, but that was about the extent of the graphics and design I was able to do.
Instead, my time was spent with the actual advertising and promoting of the event, and making the final preparations. A good portion of the contest would be done virtually through Zoom, and it became my job to be the technology director to help make sure everything ran as smoothly as it could.
Challenges encountered in completing the project
With a contest over Zoom however there became lots of challenges. These challenges didn’t present themselves until the actual competition when we found that many of the rooms we had for the presenters had audio and video issues. I spent a lot of time working with others, both from my team and the teams of AV and audio employees on the BYU-Idaho campus to fix these issues, and we were able to work things out.
Project processes
Each week our team would meet via Zoom for about an hour to make assignments and plan things out. We were able to go from having no idea how to host a hybrid competition to be able to have over 200 hundred participants, with about 40% over Zoom. Each week we made new progress for how we can run a virtual event, and in about 4 weeks we hosted the first part of the contest, the kick-off event. This took place on the BYU-Idaho campus, and it is where the participants first gathered to form their teams. Then, 2 weeks later we hosted the contest itself, where most of the technical issues first presented themselves as explained earlier. The contestants were able to present their ideas to their judges, and then the top 5 teams were selected the following week. The Finals had the most audio and video issues to date, but at least it taught us some valuable lessons on how to prepare. After the Finals and a winner was chosen, we immediately went into evaluation mode to figure out what went well, how to improve, and what could be done better for future competitions if they happen in like manner.
Fall 2020 ELEVATE winners
An overview of the experiences you had
Overall I loved working with Elevate. I was able to work on my design skills and put to practice things I have learned in a real-world setting. Instead of working for a grade, I was working to accomplish something, which has allowed me to become a much better designer and to work well with a group or team. It was a neat experience to meet all virtual given the current situation of the world, and I was able to meet some great people.
What insights or takeaways you gained from the project
With this project being so virtual and different than what I’ve been used to, I have learned a lot of patience. This applies to both people and technology, and without it, the project will fail. I have gained a much greater appreciation for digital communication and will take the skills I have gained into future projects and careers.
