This summer, in addition to producing corporate videos, FiveCore Media has a different project: preparing for the Mennonite Convention coming up this July in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Mennonite Convention is a one-week event held by the Mennonite Church USA organization every two years. For the 2013 convention, FiveCore Media will host an activity at the Goshen College booth. FiveCore will replicate the setting of a television control room and invite students to come and experience live broadcasting. Students can become anchors for a newscast, weather forecasters, accept an Academy award, or watch viral videos as their reactions are filmed.

The first half of June was spent preparing for this activity. If you’re wondering how much work it takes to set up a television control booth, let’s just say that recently, our leaders’ offices, Kate Yoder and Kyle Hufford’s, have been quite empty. They’re spending most of their time at the rehearsal booth setting up and testing the equipment.

But that’s not all! The work consists of everything from technical aspects, scripting, promotion and management. Our staff created backgrounds for the green screen, wrote news scripts, created promotional videos, gone through technical rehearsing, and more.

For two weeks, we’ve spent about eight hours a day, five days a week to get ready for the event. The challenge will come when we have to repeat the same setup in Phoenix in about 36 hours. In that short amount of time, we will have to make sure everything goes smoothly. Although technical challenges and time pressure might be stressful, they are what Kyle likes about the work. As for Kate, she enjoys learning about live television set up.

As the convention draws near, we’re excited to see our hard work pay off. We hope to provide an enjoyable activity and lots of fun for people at the convention as well as introduce them to the exciting world of video work.