Were you wondering why your grandmother is requesting your friendship on Facebook? We were as well, and because we’re so inclusive – we accepted her request too!
Before you hesitate to connect to the film festival, take heart in knowing we’re connected to the fastest growing young-creative generation Columbus, Ohio has seen online in the history of the world… ever! (and I don’t think I need to check my facts on that claim)
Going way back to spring 2008, long before any of us realized just what an upturn the economy would bring (HA!), The Columbus International Film & Video Festival began building and improving its audience engagement practices. Your response has been amazing!
We’re still building something good right here in Columbus, Ohio through behind-the-curtain super-double secret plans for our full-on festive return in Fall 09.
Our ever-expanding circle of friends and volunteers, locals as well as the many award winners honored at festivals past, seem eager to engage with the festival in new and meaningful ways.
The use of online community-building tools, Facebook/Twitter/Meetup/Ning to name a few, has exploded with unprecedented levels of activity in our local market. This trend seems to mirror a national deluge of young creative non-profits, cultural and media arts groups pouring events upon an audience interested in the growth of community engagement. But of course the audience and the creative programmers are very often interconnected, so that the audience is in fact, through various levels of persuasion, integral in making the events happen.
The CIF+VF is available for personal-virtual engagement through Twitter (add us), Facebook (join our group here), and our events image gallery (Flicker Photos) . We even have a youtube channel…(previews & trailers).
Oh yes! And then there is our recent partnership with COLUMBUS.B-SIDE which is a local community arm of a larger presence called Bside.com.
B-Side provides websites to over 250 film festivals in North America. As part of those sites, audiences can rate the films they’ve seen, share information on those films with friends, and get recommendations from other film goers. More than 4 million film fans have passed through B-Side’s websites to date.
Best new interactive feature is an ability for audiences to rate a film via twitter – rating get posted on our festivals B-side website. More on that coming soon!
