Category: Blog
The Importance of the Physical Connection – April 23, 2010
Last night, The Ancestry Project team presented in front of a group of Digital Media students and faculty. Finding Kesler was premiered, as well as our vision of the future and our goals for The Ancestry Project. Among those goals is a continued focus on uncovering the stories of anyone’s ancestors that need to be untold and tell them through visiting the locations important to those ancestors. Actually visiting something in person, or listening to someone speak right in front of you, creates a physical connection, a link that is much stronger than it would be in the online space.
Case-in-point: Over the past several weeks, we had amassed 336 Facebook fans (I will continue to call them fans until I can think of something better to call them), but new fans were barely trickling in. Then yesterday, since the showcase, our number of fans have jumped to 350. I am sure it is because of the presentation. It’s because we were able to make that physical, personal connection.
So what’s the point? Taylor Van Sickle’s life has been inalterably affected because of the physical connection he made with his 5th great-grandfather as he explored some of the locations important to him. Likewise, as you venture out and make physical connections with your story, your life will be affected, and who knows how many other lives you will affect.
On To The Showcase! – April 16, 2010
The Ancestry Project is among the top seven digital media projects at Utah Valley University. We are going to be presenting FINDING KESLER and our plans for The Ancestry Project in front of faculty, donors, businesses, alumni and the community at the Digital Media Senior Projects Showcase on April 22 in the foyer of the UVU Library. We are honored to be able to present. We hope it will open doors for us to be able to expand The Ancestry Project and help more of you tell your stories.
Go over to Facebook to see detailed information about the Showcase if you are interested in attending.
Our Presentation – April 15, 2010
Last night was a big night for the Ancestry Project team. We stood up in front of a group of Utah Valley University faculty and other senior project students to present FINDING KESLER and The Ancestry Project to them. Several members of the faculty seemed genuinely excited about the project, with several of them asking when they could see the documentary. We told them, and now we are telling you, that it will be completed and viewable by next Thursday, April 22, where it will be unveiled at a special showcase at the UVU Library.
The presentation itself was a lesson in communication. If we are selected as one of the premier groups for the showcase on April 22, we have a lot of work to do to make the presentation flawless. As the production manager, I was in charge of putting the presentation together, and while well rounded, the talking points weren’t clear enough for group members to quickly and concisely hit their points and we ran out of time just before I could finish my closing statement. But I’m putting the promise out there right now that if we get to present at the showcase, that won’t happen again.
Last night’s presentation was a big milestone for us. We remain busily putting the final touches on FINDING KESLER, and we can’t wait to show it to you! It will be featured prominently on the home page and on our Youtube channel one week from today.
