Following the publication of the ‘Post’ Pandemic Hybrid Futures report, Ella Chedburn from Knowle West Media Centre reflects on the pro and cons of connecting remotely during Covid, and what positives we should be taking forward from our different experiences of connecting during the pandemic.
For many of us, the Covid-19 pandemic involved a huge shift from in-person to digital encounters across all areas of life. Here at KWMC, from the very first lockdown we knew we needed to find ways to keep working with and stay connected to our community, so we got creative with digital and blended ways of working. There were many positives to connecting remotely, through online platforms / posted packs etc. For some people, joining meetings, events or workshops from home was suddenly possible and more accessible. However, there were lots of negatives to purely online spaces too – not everyone has access to webcams or is familiar using technology, and some of these spaces had negative health impacts too.
As we emerged from lockdowns, we wondered: could we get the best of both worlds by merging online and physical (‘hybrid’) spaces? We explored this in our ‘Come Together’ programme in 2021 and learned so much about the vices and virtues of these hybrid setups. We have lots of useful resources and examples on the website for anyone to use. However, as 2022 rolled around it became more and more tempting for institutions to forget these learnings and revert to in-person events that are often easier to run.
The ‘Post’ Pandemic Hybrid Futures project came at the perfect time for us to pause and reflect on what learnings we could realistically carry forward from the pandemic. Through this collaboration, we were able to further develop some of the hybrid tools and methods we had learnt from workshops, community events, live broadcasts, festivals and blended programmes. We focused our collaboration on a specific experiment – how could we make a local community festival (Knowle West Fest) more accessible through hybrid means?
Learning from the process
From the Knowle West Fest (KWfest) experiments one of our main learnings was that a rough-and-ready style works really well when it comes to livestreams. It seemed that the more authentic and casual style of Facebook Live resonated with many of our audiences. People in the physical space were also much more relaxed about being featured in a Facebook Live, with many seeming excited to talk on camera. Plus, the more informal nature meant that any pauses from lack of internet felt far less painful in both the online space and the physical space compared to Zoom. This livestream was also not too taxing on our staff, so it is realistic for us to continue doing them long-term. The biggest surprise was the success of our Facebook livestream afterwards – gaining over 1,000 views during the following week. Here we learned the importance of allowing digital audiences to engage in their own time.
In comparison, only a couple of people joined our Zoom livestream. While marketing it, a few people responded negatively to the idea of Zoom – associating it with work and lockdown. People also expect events on this platform to be more professional and smoothly run, which adds pressure to staff. Despite our best efforts to market the space as a ‘cozy online portal’, these workplace associations will take more effort to overcome. Instead, we recommend using Zoom to fully engage in a single activity, allowing participants to get hands-on and make the most of the more personal space. Or even creating a pre-recorded complimentary offering to access from home instead. These have both worked very well in our previous projects.
Alongside our two livestream experiments, we left postcards around the festival for people to send to friends and family via a ‘post box’ in the cafe. On the back of the postcards was a link to a YouTube playlist of acts playing at the festival. Surprisingly, this activity went down particularly well with children and has a lot of scope for further experimentation such as adding art, or posting to (consenting!) strangers, or posting back and forth between people. It can also be less intense for staff to run and eliminates the stress of technology failures. After the festival we sent out craft packs to some people with links to online content – again demonstrating that to access a festival experience it doesn’t all have to synchronise or be live.
The BDFI partnership
BDFI’s aim to create more inclusive, sustainable and prosperous digital futures aligned well with our ethos at KWMC.
BDFI’s support was invaluable in helping us to collate all our previous research and reflect on it from both internal and external perspectives. This allowed us to fully absorb and integrate our learnings then use them as a springboard for more experimentation.
On a practical level, the extra staff from BDFI meant that we had enough people power to confidently deliver the hybrid elements. We learned the hard way through the Come Together project that hybrid events often need double the staff and can be more demanding for facilitators and producers, so it is important that they are properly resourced and well planned.
Next steps
At KWMC, we hope to cultivate a more inclusive future by combining the best of digital and physical spaces. We are also keen to ensure that Knowle West communities continue to benefit from the research and experiments that they have participated in. We will be sharing these learnings with the 2023 KWfest producing team and exploring ways in which we can share the research more broadly with those working in the education, community, creative and charity sectors.