Show & Dinner: Youtube, Facebook Live, Zoom, or What?

I've been thinking more about "the show" and I realize that this is both a gathering of the Bullnose Forum members as well as a Ford truck show.

As background, the event initially started as a chapter gathering on FTE and then grew as FTE members outside of Okiehoma started attending.  But it was still held in our home.  Then we started the Bullnose Forum and there weren't as many coming so we opened it up to all Ford trucks and not just forum members, and the venue is our church building and its gym and parking lot.  However, there are still two aspects to it: dinner the night before the show, which is essentially limited to forum members, and the show itself which is open to all Ford truck owners.

And that brings me to the questions implied in the subject of this thread: do we want to use Youtube, or Facebook Live, or Zoom, or what for one or the other aspects of the show?

There are lots of different approaches, and I've thought of several but would like your input:

Dinner: As this is the main "Bullnose Forum" aspect of the show we could use something like Facebook Live or Zoom to allow members that haven't been able to come physically to meet those of us who have.  Perhaps we could have someone sitting down with each member for a minute or two and have introductions, questions, etc.  And through the course of the evening have everyone that wants to participate do so.

Show: Here I'm of two minds.  On the one hand it would be nice for everyone to see all of the trucks that come, so we could just have someone interviewing the owners of all the trucks that come and showing their truck after they get set up.  And/or we could limit this aspect to Bullnose Forum members, but that seems rude.  So what if we had two aspects - one for the forum members and another for the others?  For the forum members, since they'd have been introduced the night before maybe the focus is on a tour of their truck.  And for the others it would be both an interview as well as tour of their truck. But in either approach this might be more of a Youtube thing, meaning not live/real time and would go on my Youtube channel.

As said, I'm looking for input and not saying how it should be.  I'm just throwing out ideas to prime the pump.  So please jump in with your thoughts!

Since I am not living in Far Far Away Forum Headquarters neighborhood , I'll break the ice.

It would be nice to see what's happening during this very special event, but Gary (maybe I am wrong) your program appears to be very ambitious.
You'll need someone dedicated to the animation, kind of a technical team, and that's not the goal (in my humble opinion).

Here is how I see it:

• Dinner:  Maybe just a 5 to 10 minutes "live", where our host can say some words to the group (local and remote members), and Cheers all together.
• The show:  Short sequences of trucks on site and their proud owner, in order to enable remote members to see what's going on locally, who was there, the general ambiance.
• The prices remittance: Maybe simply a summary of this part of the event, could be a slide show with comments (similar of what you already post in the forum).

So a foreign member can participate "live" 5-10 minute's during the dinner, the rest (not too long, simple overview of the event) could be delayed and posted on whatever platform.

Seems to me that we have to keep it simple, the organization of this event already requires lot of energy.  This opening to "remote participation" should not become bigger than the event itself...

Good points, Jeff.  And a good graphic.  

But I think you and I are pretty well on the same page.

On the dinner I like the idea of having a few minutes to say hello to everyone.  But I was thinking that the rest of y'all who are here could also say hello to those who are remote.

And we are in agreement on the show itself where someone, separate from me, could interview the owners and video the trucks and the ambiance.

And you are right that we need to keep it simple.  And you are absolutely right that it takes a lot of energy.  In fact, I need to start hitting the sponsors up for "swag".  I COULD USE SOME HELP!

But I'm not sure I understand the "prices remittance".  I think you mean awarding the prizes.  Right?  (Trust me, I'm not faulting your English as I know no French.)  So yes, we've been taking pics of that.  We could do video, but I think still pics work better as you can scroll down the page quickly instead of having to watch a video.

My distance from the show and my work schedule are what keeps me from attending in person. I would love to be a part of the show in some long distance way, so I am going to monitor to see what you come up with. I would love to see maybe a "members who couldn't be here" feature of some kind. Maybe those members can take quick walkaround videos of their trucks and post them to Youtube, and then share the Youtube video to the page or something.

Gary Lewis wrote

But I'm not sure I understand the "prices remittance".  I think you mean awarding the prizes.  Right?

You're right on!


I literally wrote my own "word-for-word" translation (remise de prix).  Should have check on web and found the good terms (awards presentations, round of awards, awarding of prizes, and so on).

Sometimes I shoot straight, but this one was a flop!

Shaun, I like this idea about remote users posting a short video about their truck and the achievements of the last year they would like to highlight, kind of.

We could determine the duration (1 minute, 2 minutes maximum), and structure a method to group and sort these presentations on a platform page.

I'm not a social network nerd, but I suggest to use a platform that enables this "sorting".  I find Facebook difficult to follow and to find specific information I am looking for.

Maybe a dedicated YouToube channel?

Do we have some members knowing well the different broadcasting platforms, who could suggest something meeting our needs?

There are several options for broadcasting—but Youtube is probably the best in terms of audience.  Rumble could also be used.  Both are live capable.

If you are going to get decent sound, you are going to need a mixer board to wire in the mics, etc.  Behringer is cheap and affordable, but, none of this is going to be cheap depending on what you are going to want to do.  Mics, cords, patch cable, and of course cameras will all be needed with stands/tripods.

There are paid sites for podcasters like Streamyard, which is quite good, but mainly used for in studio operations.

If you are wanting user from away to be seen, then that is more simple on the user end, but your end is going to have to handle the out of studio aspect of all this, and for that I know Streamyard can handle it. I am unsure about youtube in that format to call up users to be visible.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

I've not had a lot of time to comment lately due to my hectic schedule, but as good as the intentions are, it's huge, requiring even more work. Have we even determined the classes for the truck show yet?

Regardless, I'm not sure we have the person or the equipment to do what is brought up here, especially in a live setting. I certainly think we could get some video of the various events and post on YouTube, but it would be after the event. I plan on attending and I've told Gary that I would acquire pictures of the trucks and their owners. Looking at this now, would like to get photos of all our members and their trucks and will need to get photos of the show winners. My thought was to get a short descriptive on both the owner and the truck. I suppose I could acquire some video and post it on YouTube and then to the site, but it would be after the show.

Thanks for the input - so far.  And I'm hoping there will be more. 

But let me address some of it:

Shaun - I fully understand that many, if not most, members are busy with jobs, families, etc.  Which is why I'm wondering about doing something for the members that cannot be here on the Friday night when those of us that can make it are gathered.  That's the Bullnose Forum night.

Shaun & Jeff - We did the video thing a few years ago during the COVID lockdown, and it was a LOT of work for me.  I'm looking for something that someone else can do w/o my help, and posting video on the forum isn't the easiest thing to do - although I could get someone up to speed before the show, just not during.  So we'd need a volunteer to do this.

And in reality this wouldn't have to be at the same time as the show.  Nor even coupled with the show. Maybe do this at another time?

AmericanSavage - I really don't want to get too far into the technology.  As I hope to explain below I'm thinking that either Facebook or Zoom will be sufficient for Friday night, and Facebook for Saturday.

John - Here's what I'm thinking:

Friday night: We are going to be at our church building and there we have several options.  We could use the youth room and its video screen and set up my laptop on either Zoom or Facebook, whichever the members are most likely to use.  I'd open things with an introduction of myself, and then turn it over to someone else to have people come up and introduce themselves.  Then we could have the members that are on introduce themselves, which we would see on the screen.  This wouldn't take much more than the setup, which I do on Sundays to teach a class, and then someone to coach others to come up and do their intro.  But it doesn't take any knowledge of technology to do this.

Saturday: This would probably best be via Facebook Live, and here's what Facebook says about that: "Facebook Live is a feature of Facebook that lets users livestream directly to the social network platform. Viewers can react, share, and comment during the stream. A recording of the video is also published to the page or profile so it can be watched again later."

We'd just have to have someone log onto one of my FB pages, Bullnose Forum or Garys Garagemahal, and then go around talking to people.  Just carry the mobile phone around and talk to the entrants and do a walkaround of their truck.  This wouldn't be me and wouldn't take any of my time, other than maybe discussing with the person how to do it and that would be before the show.

Does this make sense y'all?  Please give me feedback, good or bad. 

I like the "Zoom" idea for dinner.
I am not familiar with FB meeting feature, but Zoom is easy to install on various platform.
Requires an account if you plan more then 45 minutes.
Similar with MS Teams.
Just send an invite with the link, and the guests will connect when clicking on this link.  Easy.


Any member who has such commercial account can host the event for you, even remotely.

Good to hear that you do not plan to  play the IT Guy role yourself.  If so, you're going to be out of the party, that's a huge job...

Edit:  Your whole program makes sens for me.  Am I ok understanding that Saturday will be open to any perso interested (not only members)?  If so, I think this is a good idea.

You don't even have to install the Zoom app.  Their page says:

Users can join Zoom meetings or webinars from their web browser and bypass downloading Zoom.

1. Locate the meeting invite link from your email or calendar invitation.
2. Click the join link to join the meeting.
3. If a pop-up window prompts you to open or install the Zoom desktop client, click Cancel.
4. At the bottom of the page, click the Join from your Browser link. Note: If you don't see this option, make sure to enable Join From Browser.
5. If prompted, sign in to your Zoom account. If you do not have a Zoom account, create a new account. You will be prompted to enter your name and the meeting password if it was not included in the join link.
6. Click Join.

So we can just post the link and PW on here and people that want to join can.  Yes, we might get some non-members, but that won't be a big problem.  As said, I have to set up Zoom for my Bible class so I know how to do that, although at the moment I'm using someone else's account so would need to set up my own if we go over 45 minutes.

Jeff, I'm hearing you will be coming to the show! Is this correct? Will you be bringing Big Brother? Hope to see both of you there!!!

John, yes, the rumors are true.
For me and Big Bro.

And my wife too.

Will soon start a thread about «Big Brother's Big Trip».

I used to create Youtube videos with my 1980 F150, so I guess it's just second-nature for me and I forget that not everyone is tech savvy like I am, nor did they grow up in the digital age (although I personally remember when computers were as slow as a 302 pulling a loaded car trailer and rotary phones were still in my grandparents' home).

My suggestion was more of a user submission direct to the site format, which would not require any input from the forum staff other than creating the spot for the user to submit their videos to the site and maybe some slight moderation. But after thinking about it, this site is already drowning with info and media and sometimes slow to load with other glitches thrown in, so this may not be a good option if the Nabble server can't support it.

salans7 wrote

[...] and rotary phones were still in my grandparents' home).

Shaun, I'm pretty sure I'm not old enough to be your Grand Pa, but I still have one at home.


Just for fun, I admit, but still full working!

It's always funny to see younger asking to try a call with it and, after rotating 2-3 numbers, abandoning while saying "wow, it takes too much time".
LOL!

BigBrother-84 wrote

John, yes, the rumors are true.
For me and Big Bro.

And my wife too.

Will soon start a thread about «Big Brother's Big Trip».

Awesome! Looking forward to meeting you!

BigBrother-84 wrote

salans7 wrote

[...] and rotary phones were still in my grandparents' home).

Shaun, I'm pretty sure I'm not old enough to be your Grand Pa, but I still have one at home.


Just for fun, I admit, but still full working!

It's always funny to see younger asking to try a call with it and, after rotating 2-3 numbers, abandoning while saying "wow, it takes too much time". LOL!

Wow, that takes me back.

Being rural, we were one of the last places to get a area code.

"Operator, please connect me with, Enterprise 5, 2390. thank you."  

Truck: 1981 F-150 Explorer / Engine: 300-6 California MCU Feedback System / Trans: T-18 - 4 speed / 2.75 Ford Rear Axle Open Diff.

salans7 wrote

I used to create Youtube videos with my 1980 F150, so I guess it's just second-nature for me and I forget that not everyone is tech savvy like I am, nor did they grow up in the digital age (although I personally remember when computers were as slow as a 302 pulling a loaded car trailer and rotary phones were still in my grandparents' home).

My suggestion was more of a user submission direct to the site format, which would not require any input from the forum staff other than creating the spot for the user to submit their videos to the site and maybe some slight moderation. But after thinking about it, this site is already drowning with info and media and sometimes slow to load with other glitches thrown in, so this may not be a good option if the Nabble server can't support it.

Shaun - I don't mind doing this, but I'm not sure it needs to be done in conjunction with the show. However, maybe I'm missing something? Please advise.

As for dial telephones and operators:

Gary Lewis wrote

Shaun - I don't mind doing this, but I'm not sure it needs to be done in conjunction with the show.  However, maybe I'm missing something?  Please advise.

My only reason for my suggestion was so that forum members who can't physically attend the show could "participate" via a small less than 5 minute video showing us their trucks. I wasn't suggesting that these videos be played during the show, but rather they be posted in the same section on the forum as the show, so that those who are viewing the photos from the show (after it's over) can also view vehicles that couldn't make it. Basically a small extension of the show, but here on the forum.

But again, I don't know if the Nabble server can take that much more media, so after thinking about it, I'm not fond of the idea.