E v E n t P l a n n i n g t o o l k i t Brought to you By

Transcription

1 Brought to you by E v e n t P a n n i n g T o o k i t

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 About Wecome to Shebyvie 4 About Shebyvie Mutimedia 4 About this Tookit 5 Getting Started with Your Event in Four Steps Define Your Objectives Identify Your Target Audience Determine Venue Options Recruit Partner Organizations 8 Framing Your Event 10 Tips for Post-Screening Discussion Pane Discussion Q&A Faciitated Diaogue Meeting Your Objectives with Post-Screening Discussion What To Do If the Conversation Gets Tense 13 Getting the Word Out 14 Panning Checkist 16 Acknowedgments

3 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 3 About Wecome To Shebyvie Change has come to rura Tennessee. Set against the backdrop of a shaky economy, Wecome to Shebyvie is a documentary that takes an intimate ook at a southern town as its residents whites and African-Americans, Latinos and Somais grappe with their beiefs, their histories and their evoving ways of ife. The fim foows severa characters as they connect across formidabe ines: Hawo, a Somai refugee and former nurse working at Tyson Foods; Bevery, an African-American whose roots in Shebyvie span severa generations; Brian, a oca white reporter who is documenting the new arrivas; and wecoming ambassadors Migue and Luci, who have both overcome their own persona chaenges to become a bridge between ong-term residents and immigrants. From paces of worship to the Tennessee Waking Horse Show; from a tense confrontation in the imam s house to a potuck where Tyson chicken is served Somai-stye, the fim captures an intimate sice of ife as these unikey neighbors grappe with the new face of Southern hospitaity. Wecome to Shebyvie is directed and produced by Kim A. Snyder and executive produced by BeCause Foundation in association with Active Voice. It broadcasts nationay on the PBS series Independent Lens in May 2011 and is aso part of the Independent Teevision Service s (ITVS) Community Cinema program, screening in over 90 communities in Apri and May Learn more at communitycinema.

4 4 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit About Shebyvie Mutimedia Inspired by the cast of Wecome to Shebyvie, Shebyvie Mutimedia is a project of Active Voice that provides a patform to promote community-buiding and harmony between native-born Americans and immigrants and refugees nationwide. Inviting peope around the country to get to know each other, embrace our differences and ro up our seeves to buid stronger communities, it incudes the foowing offine and onine components: Director s Cut and broadcast-ength versions of the independent fim Wecome to Shebyvie that can be screened in poicy, faith-based and community settings. Copies of the fim can be ordered at Shorter video modues that use compeing storyines as training toos for service providers and community eaders. Webisodes that feature new footage and revea the compex dimensions of the residents of Shebyvie. Socia media toos, incuding an interactive website, a Facebook page ( com/shebyviemutimedia) and a bog for viewers to submit their own wecoming stories to inspire broader community-buiding among peope nation- and wordwide. Learn about these toos and join the conversation at About this Tookit This tookit is designed to hep organizations and individuas that are hosting screenings of Wecome to Shebyvie to jumpstart community conversations and actions toward enhancing immigrant integration. Active Voice s experience shows that fim can be a powerfu too to engage and move audiences, but often requires carefu panning and framing, especiay if you d ike to foster positive change. The tips incuded in this kit are meant for a range of groups from churches to city agencies to informa neighborhood committees that are interested in heping their communities come to grips with demographic change. Depending on your needs, some sections may be more reevant to your event than others. After reading through this kit, fee free to take what appies to you, and consider how what you accompish with your event can contribute to onger-term efforts.

5 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 5 Getting Started with Your Event in Four Steps 1) Define Your Objectives Figuring out your objectives is the first step in panning a great event. Think about how your event can support some bigger picture objectives. Are you interested in sparking diaogue about how your community might be more wecoming to newcomers and immigrants, or more generay about immigration? Do you want to capture the attention of oca decision makers? Do you want to heighten your organization s profie and buid new partnerships? Having a sense of what you d ike peope to take away from their Wecome to Shebyvie experience wi hep you pan and set the tone. Here are some possibe objectives (these are not mutuay excusive): Start the conversation on an issue that is often charged and difficut to discuss by using a too that provides many perspectives. Educate community members about issues faced by immigrants in your community. Foster safe and productive diaogue among peope who are uncertain about the impacts of demographic change. Inspire new eaders by offering motivated viewers easy ways to get invoved such as hosting an event to wecome newy arrived immigrants, offering anguage assistance, or hoding a screening of their own. Buid bridges with new aies who are beyond the choir. Spotight the work of your organization and generate donations and press attention. Prompt coaition buiding between oca and state groups working on community buiding and civic engagement. 2) Identify Your Target Audience Once you define your objectives, you have a better sense of who your target audience is. Do you hope to engage peope who are motivated around the issues and ready to get more invoved? Woud you ike to reach beyond the choir and introduce the issues to new audiences? Are you interested in engaging communities of faith or oca decision makers? Even if your organization does not have direct connections to your target audiences, you can partner with organizations that do.

6 6 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 3) Determine Venue Options Where you screen depends on your budget, the expected size of your audience and the impression you want to give. For exampe, if you want to host an intimate diaogue, a church basement or arge iving room woud suffice. If you want to engage coege students or high schoo students, an auditorium or cassroom woud work we. If you want to put on a more professiona event that attracts VIPs and press, you may consider doing your screening in a private screening room (at a ibrary or museum, for exampe) or in a theatre. Theatres and screening rooms often have renta fees, which can range between $450 and $1200. However, you might be surprised to earn that there are organizations in your area that have screening rooms avaiabe for itte or no cost. Loca universities, community centers and ibraries might be good paces to start. You may aso find out if there are any organizations that do a reguar screening series, as they might be interested in partnering with you and incuding Wecome to Shebyvie in their ine-up. (See next section on recruiting partner organizations.) 4) Recruit Partner Organizations It s aways good to invite other groups and organizations to partner with you on your event. Partner organizations not ony hep broaden your reach, but they can aso end credibiity and contribute to your event panning. In some instances, event-based partnerships can even pave the way for onger-term reationships that wi benefit your mutua efforts. Partners can get invoved in a range of ways, depending on their interest and capacity. At the very east, they can hep get the word out about the event on their istservs or websites, but some partners might be abe to get more activey invoved and contribute ideas, time, resources and/or paneists for the event. For Wecome to Shebyvie, you might consider the foowing groups as potentia partners: Refugee resettement agencies and human service organizations Churches, mosques, synagogues and other faith organizations Civi rights groups Community coeges, especiay if they offer ESL casses Departments, cubs or institutes at oca coeges or universities High schoo and coege student groups Libraries, museums and media/fim centers Community foundations Poicy institutes Civic organizations Loca businesses Loca government officias Literacy programs Consuates To reay broaden your reach, try contacting an organization you ve never worked with before that wi share an interest in Wecome to Shebyvie. This wi hep you reach new potentia supporters and bring your messages to new audiences beyond the choir.

7 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 7 Some tips for reaching out to groups you ve never worked with before: Offer background and context. You can get more information about the fim, Shebyvie and the issues at Make it reevant to them. Highight eements of the fim and your objectives that are most aigned with their interests. For exampe, if you re reaching out to pubic officias, they might be interested to know that the fim features the perspective of the county mayor, fire chief and schoo superintendent. Send them a ink to a cip or webisode. As part of Shebyvie Mutimedia, we have severa cips and webisodes avaiabe onine that deve deeper into some of the themes and characters in the fim. These are great teasers to send to potentia partners. For exampe, if you are reaching out to a oca congregation, consider sending a ink to the Embrace the Stranger Webisode which features Pastor Stephen s testimonia on engaging his congregation about difficut issues. A webisodes can be found at: Let them know about partner benefits. Getting invoved in your event can be a good opportunity for other groups to spotight their work, raise their visibiity and reach new audiences. If you are open to a more coaborative partnership, invite them to get more invoved in event panning and design, such as suggesting paneists for the discussion, brainstorming target audiences, etc. Remember that groups have different capacities so invovement wi vary. Some wi simpy just send your emai bast to their istserv, others might get more invoved in ogistica panning and some might even be abe to contribute funds. Be mindfu of what your partners are capabe of and make sure you re not asking them for too much (or too itte!) as you pan your event. No matter what format your event takes, make sure to have a system for coecting emai addresses at your event, and foow up with audience members and co-sponsor organizations in the days after. You ve worked too hard to et those reationships disappear! And remember: take pictures, coect stories and post them to the Shebyvie Mutimedia Facebook page. We ve been buiding a network of partners who wi want to hear about the great work you re doing!

8 8 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit Framing Your Event Consider what you want your audiences to wak away with deeper knowedge, understanding of oca vounteer opportunities, a coser connection to oca resources, etc. and frame your event accordingy. Remember that the fim is just a springboard for deeper engagement, so it s important to provide ocay reevant information and resources to hep viewers deve deeper. For exampe, this coud incude any combination of the foowing: Pane Discussion: Paneists can hep put the fim in context, whether it s providing background information on immigration in the U.S. or connecting the fim s themes to what s happening in your community. It s aways a good idea to have a range of perspectives represented. Possibe paneists might incude a ong-term and famiiar community resident who emigrated from another country, a more newy-arrived resident who fees comfortabe teing their story, a oca service provider or socia worker, a supportive government officia and many others. Partner organizations are great resources for potentia paneists for the discussion, and they be even more eager to promote the event if they re being represented. (See the next section for more detaied tips on how to run a successfu pane discussion and audience Q&A.) Host a Reception: A pubic post-screening meet-and-greet wi aow opportunities for networking and continued discussion after the screening. Or, host a VIP reception with oca eaders and funders. Whichever way you decide to go, refreshments are aways a good idea! Inspire Your Audience: Engage the audience in activities that heighten their senses and connectivity to the issue. For exampe, if you re providing food, consider a menu that s representative of your community s diverse popuations. If you have access to a arge map, you might want to put it up and ask peope to insert pins where they or their ancestors are from, eaving you with a visua representation of the goba reach of your audience. Capture Wecoming Stories : As part of Shebyvie Mutimedia, Active Voice is inviting immigrants and ong-term residents around the country to share stories about how their ives have been transformed by simpe acts of wecoming. Perhaps you want to take advantage of the opportunity and capture your own community s wecoming stories by setting up a booth with a fip-cam or audio recorder and inviting peope to share their stories. Submit them on the Shebyvie Mutimedia bog at Showcase Your Work: Save some time after the screening for you and/or your co-sponsors to give a brief presentation about the work you do, and how audience members can support it. You and your partner organizations can aso dispay iterature outside of your screening venue so that audiences can earn more about your work. And there s nothing wrong with making a funding pitch at the event, especiay if your audience incudes potentia big-time donors.

9 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 9 Distribute Materias and Resources: Present audience members with fact sheets, fyers about upcoming events and other reevant materias. Organizations ike Opportunity Agenda have hepfu resources on their websites that are avaiabe for easy downoad. For exampe: Why Immigration Matters to A Americans Present Action Opportunities: Offer audience members concrete ways they can get invoved and support your and your partner organizations work. These might incude visiting your website to find out about upcoming events, vounteering, becoming a member, signing a pedge, making a donation, etc. Long-term Engagement: Creating a more wecoming community takes time so you may aso invite your audience to sign up for an ongoing sma group diaogue about issues in your community. You might consider using the webisodes at as conversation starters for subsequent meetings. We even have discussion questions that we ve created for each one, designed to prompt discussion around specific themes, to break the ice when communities come together for the first time or as an opener for a cassroom session or sermon about a reevant topic. You have penty to choose from! See here:

10 10 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit Tips for Post-Screening Discussion A fim ike Wecome to Shebyvie can raise a range of emotions, questions and/or concerns from the audience, and we recommend you address this with a post-screening pane discussion, Q&A and/or faciitated diaogue. Beow are some tips and ideas for having a productive conversation no matter what your format: Pane Discussion The themes of your pane discussion wi vary depending on your event objectives, but it s aways a good idea to have a range of perspectives represented on the pane. Make sure your paneists get a chance to see the fim prior to your event. Give your paneists an idea of who wi be in the audience, so they can taior the discussion to the audience s needs. For exampe, if you anticipate a genera audience, ask paneists to tone down any sector-specific jargon. If you can, have an experienced moderator present to keep time and prompt the speakers with questions. A moderator shoud be someone who has: (a) your trust, (b) proven pubic speaking abiities and (c) knowedge of the issues addressed in the fim. Potentia candidates incude community eaders, members of your organization or members of the press, to name a few. An experienced moderator can hep a pane go smoothy, and shoud have experience addressing tensions between audience members. Even if you don t have a moderator, you can have a productive conversation by just prompting your speakers to refect on the fim, offer their own perspectives and suppement that with persona stories. A good ength for a pane discussion is usuay about minutes, depending on how many paneists you have. After that, it s aways a good idea to open it up to questions from the audience. If you be in a arge auditorium or theatre, make sure there are microphones! Q&A Leave as much time as possibe for audience questions. You might even consider prompting the audience with a question, first: What jumped out at you during the fim? or Which characters did you identify with? Take advantage of the Shebyvie Mutimedia website and consider hooking up your projector to a aptop so that you can navigate the website in rea time during the Q&A. For exampe, if someone has a question that reates to Shebyvie s demographics, you might cick on Loca History to show them where they can earn more. Given the subject matter of the fim, some audience members may be compeed to give ong accounts of their persona experiences. If their comments exceed a minute or two, respectfuy thank them and ask them if they have a question for the paneists. If your group is arge, you may consider either passing around a coupe microphones for those who have questions, or simpy setting up mics in the aises and having peope ine up to ask questions. You might aso consider having a vounteer wak around the room and hod the mic for audience members whie they ask their questions (this can hep prevent overy wordy questions and commentary). A good Q&A asts around minutes. If your audience seems ike they sti want to tak after the time is up, invite them into the obby or a nearby restaurant or café to continue the conversation.

11 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 11 Faciitated Diaogue If your group is sma enough (under 20 peope) it might be a good idea to do a faciitated diaogue, where a participants have an opportunity to share their feeings and experiences. Even with a arge group, if your space permits, you may want to break into sma groups for diaogue. (If you have ony one faciitator, s/he can foat among the different groups.) Aways start the diaogue by asking the group to share their immediate reactions to the fim, e.g., what jumped out at them or particuary moved them. You must be ready in case the fim or speakers come under scrutiny. For exampe, there may be audience members who are highy frustrated with the current economic cimate and pace bame on demographic changes. A neutra moderator can hep make sure that the conversation remains productive and many perspectives are heard. Guide any comments or concerns to a positive end that appauds the benefits of sharing information in an open forum. Encourage critica audience members to think about how the fim or the avaiabe community resources might be a hepfu way to address the tensions that they are feeing. Meeting Your Objectives with Post-Screening Discussion The way the discussion is framed can be hepfu in meeting your objectives. If you d ike to buid coaitions, feature paneists from various organizations or churches in the community, identify common themes in your work and emphasize those points in the discussion. If your goa is to have a safe space for open diaogue, break into sma groups, ask each group to share their concerns or opinions and have severa experienced faciitators on hand. If your main objective is to give voice to immigrant community members, work with a oca cutura or resettement agency and identify one or two good speakers who are wiing to share their own story. Offer your audience members ways to get invoved, whether it s as simpe as visiting your website to find out about upcoming events, or something more specific ike heping to coordinate more diversity roundtabes or events. Active Voice has aso created a Wecome to Shebyvie Discussion Guide with more, indepth ideas on how to get your conversations started, and where to go from there. You can find it here: ToShebyvie_DiscussionGuideow-res.pdf.

12 12 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit What to Do if the Conversation Gets Tense The faciitator s roe is to ensure the diaogue is safe and productive. If there are individuas who offer strong opinions or negative attitudes that prevent that diaogue from continuing, the faciitator has a few options: Ask the individua(s) to step back and aow others to speak. The faciitator might begin their comment with, Part of my job is to make sure that everyone can be heard. Summarize what you are thinking in a sentence or two and et s hear what others are thinking. This option works best if the group estabishes an appicabe step up/step back ground rue at the beginning of the discussion, in which those who are more voca agree to give space for others to speak and those who are ess voca agree to use that space. Refect not the content of what was said, but rather the emotiona state in which comments are made: I hear you fee very angry/frustrated/etc. about this subject. If the person makes one short voatie statement, the faciitator might ask her/him to eaborate on why s/he fees so strongy. There s ikey a story that person needs to share and from which the group woud benefit. If the person has been speaking a great dea, the faciitator might ask the group to share their feeings on what s been said. For more resources on diaogue and faciitation check out which offers many free, downoadabe guides incuding, Constructive Conversations about Chaenging Times and Fostering Diaogue Across Divides. The above suggestions are usefu if you have one or a few dissenting voices, but sometimes the entire group needs to take a moment to refocus. If things get chaotic, or if the entire group breaks out in debate, the faciitator may opt to do one of the foowing: Pause the discussion and have everyone refect sienty for a minute or two. After participants have had a moment to cam down, each person shoud share with the group why s/he chose to participate in the discussion in the first pace. The faciitator may then return to an appropriate pace to continue the diaogue. Ask everyone to pause and write down a headine to describe what they are feeing. To start the discussion again, put the headines in a hat and pick one, or do a go-round so everyone hears what everyone ese is thinking and then pick a reference from the fim to spur further diaogue, or genty move the diaogue to a consideration of action what do peope want to see happen?

13 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 13 Getting the Word Out Getting the word out is one of the most important things you can do in your event panning. Even a we thought-out event with prominent speakers can suffer ow attendance if you don t cover your bases. We encourage you to spread the word announcing the event through your partner organizations maiing ists, posting fyers in the community and securing caendar istings. Beow are some additiona tips for getting the word out: Check out our materias and downoadabe artwork on the box site at There you wi find tempates for fiers, emai invitations, press reeases and many additiona resources. Nai down the detais. Confirm the exact time, ocation, venue and ticketing/rsvp procedure before you send out notices to anyone. (If you re taking RSVPs, pan to accept 30% more RSVPs than you have room for and et ate responders know you might be abe to squeeze them in if peope earier on the ist don t show.) And as a nod to your partner organizations, incude a mention of them in a of your outreach. Hit the inboxes. The simpest thing you can do to promote your event is to create an emai bast and send it out widey via istservs. Send out two emais: the first at east two weeks before your event, and then a reminder severa days before. You can aso create a Facebook event and invite a your friends. Incude a ink to one of the webisodes that you think is most reevant to your target audience to ure them in! For a ist of the webisodes, ook here: Get it on community caendars. Try to get caendar istings in your city s weeky pubication(s) and on the web. If you have a website of your own, make sure to post information about your event there, and ask any partner organizations to do the same. Embed a webisode on your website and Facebook pages. Embedding a webisode to these pages introduces interested audiences to the content eary on to spark their interest. It s easy to embed a webisode. Just fi out the request form and we send you the directions on how to do it in just a few easy steps: shebyvierequest. Post fyers. Make fyers and post them in high traffic areas, such as coege campuses, shopping mas, grocery stores, paces of worship and recreation centers. Start the presses. Ten days before your event, send a press reease to oca newspapers. Try to target reporters covering community issues, and remember to customize your press reease to highight the fim s reevance to oca issues.

14 14 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit Panning Checkist Once you have defined your target audience, objectives and framing, begin panning the event. Preiminary panning at east 6 weeks prior Book the venue and date for your screening. Make sure the venue has the proper equipment for the audience you have in mind. Recruit oca organizationa partners to broaden your reach, and hep identify roes for each one (for arger community events). Determine speakers, paneists and faciitator (if appicabe). Become a fan of the Shebyvie Mutimedia Facebook page to earn about events and other deveopments that might appy to your event. Logistica panning and initia outreach 3-4 weeks prior Create a fyer to pubicize your screening (use tempate provided by AV). Send out press advisories to media outets (for arger community events). (See Getting the Word Out on p.13 for more information as we as AV s press reease tempate and recommended pacements.) Confirm the appropriate format for your screening (most ikey DVD). Draft event agenda. More ogistica panning 2 weeks prior Create an emai bast to pubicize your event eectronicay (tempate provided by AV). Again, send one announcement two weeks prior and another severa days prior. Contact community caendars about your event (for arger community events). Secure food for reception (if appicabe). Create a Facebook event and announce it on Shebyvie Mutimedia s Facebook page. Media outreach (for arger community events) 10 days prior Foow up with media outets and if necessary, resend press advisories. Make cas to oca teevision and radio programs.

15 Wecome to Shebyvie Event Panning Tookit 15 Fina panning severa days prior Important: test screen your format version of the fim in advance of the event to make sure there aren t any gitches. Send second round of emai basts. Send press reeases; contact individua reporters who expressed an interest in covering the story of the pending date (for arger community events). Finaize agenda. Make copies of handouts to distribute at the event. At the event itsef Take photos! As peope arrive, ask them to sign up for your istserv. Have a timekeeper so that paneists/speakers remain within their assigned speaking time. Be prepared to suggest next steps and have materias avaiabe for attendees to foow up. Have a video or audio recorder avaiabe to record Wecoming Stories.

16 Wecome to Shebyvie is directed and produced by Kim A. Snyder and executive produced by BeCause Foundation in association with Active Voice. Acknowedgments Funding for Shebyvie Mutimedia was provided by: Andrus Famiy Fund Carnegie Corporation of New York The Fedging Fund Ford Foundation Unbound Phianthropy Active Voice Staff BeCause Foundation Staff Wecome to Shebyvie Tookit Contributors Een Schneider Executive Director Richard Kincaid Founder Director and Producer Kim A. Snyder Tookit Designer Zady Serrano Shaady Saehi Deputy Director Debbie Ferruzzi Executive Director Editor Jeremiah Zagar Copy Editor Debbie Zambetti Danie Moretti Operations Director Maikiko James Program Manager Erin Sorenson Chief Programs Officer Director of Photography Greg Poschman Executive Producers Richard Kincaid Een Schneider Sahar Driver Consutant Betsey Zeiger Co-Producers Sarie Horowitz Katherine Pickard Gwyn Wees Administrative Coordinator Active Voice uses fim, teevision and mutimedia to spark socia change from grassroots to grass tops. Our team of strategic communications speciaists works with mediamakers, funders, advocates and thought eaders to put a human face on the issues of our times. We frame and beta-test key messages, deveop nationa and oca partnerships, pan and execute high profie, outcome-oriented events, repurpose digita content for web and vira distribution, produce anciary and educationa resources and consut with industry and sector eaders. Since our inception in 2001, Active Voice has buit a diverse portfoio of story-based campaigns focusing on issues incuding immigration, crimina justice, heathcare and sustainabiity. BeCause Foundation ignites socia change through the powerfu fusion of documentary fimmaking and creative outreach and engagement projects. BeCause fims te moving stories about individuas, organizations and communities who, with compassion and determination, are finding innovative soutions to compex socia probems. By impementing engagement campaigns and coaition buiding around the fims, BeCause Foundation heps transform soutions into broad-based movements for socia change. Copyright 2011 Active Voice