Cooperative Communications named finalist in National Co-op Challenge

Nov. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Edmonton, Alberta –Local co-operative Cooperative Communications has been selected as one of six finalists from West Region in The Co-operators National Co-op Contest. It is now up to the public to vote through Facebook to determine the winners – and Co-operative Communications is looking to engage the local community to help it earn a share of the $220,000 in available prize money.

Cooperative Communications seeks to support and inspire positive change throughout our world. By utilizing new and emerging technologies we empower individuals, businesses and organization to connect and communicate their story in the digital world.

We incorporated in January, 2012 as an employee owned worker co-operative. We offer multimedia services such as video production, video streaming, audio-visual production, event set up and web development. Since our incorporation we have been involved with a variety of projects and events in our area. These events and projects have been documented using video technology and have been uploaded to the internet using youtube as a platform. Our work has been viewed by over 5000 users and has given us excellent public exposure. We have been able develop partnerships, generate business and have sponsored approximately $30 000 of multimedia services to our community thus far.

The project that this grant would support is a community media network. This would be a website that offered video on demand as well as live video streams with content relevant to the local population and abroad. Content will include both audio and video streams.

The grant would also support the creation of community content that will be uploaded onto the network. By the nature of the network being produced by a co-operative, the principals, values and success of the co-operative movement will be present throughout the network. This network would give individuals and organizations the opportunity to inform and engage the public with entertainment and socially conscious information in a more effective way. By documenting events that already have a long history in Edmonton (there are over 80 festivals year round) we can attract the attention of the public who are interested in that particular content. As the content grows our viewership will increase, reaching a wide range of demographics. This allows for greater education (because there will be educational material as well as entertainment) and effective local public participation (by creating a space where they can get involved as well as giving them actions they can perform such as attending an event).

Our initiatives would be to:

·         Create and develop the website.

·         Produce community and co-operative content. (This will be event based video, music, structured content such as talk shows and debates/conversations)

·         Raise public awareness.

·         Engage ongoing community participation.

The outcome of this project would be to create a system that helps empower individuals, organizations and businesses to share their stories on a community co-operative network, creating a more educated and informed public.

“Cooperative Communications to me is more than two words. It is an opportunity for people to come together for the benefit of their community. It is a dream, it is a vision, it is a passion... it is everything I want to live my life for, most of all it is an exciting experience. Every day brings new challenges, new opportunities and seeing the progress we have made, it is more than words... it is a collective action!”

Benjamin E Ryder – Creative Director, Cooperative Communications

The social media-based contest is designed to support small and expanding co-ops during 2012, The International Year of Co-operatives. Each finalist has produced a short video making their pitch, and voting is open to anyone with a Facebook account, through The Co-operators Facebook page. The three co-ops in each region with the most votes on their video will receive prizes of $30,000, $15,000 and $10,000 from The Co-operators to help them grow their business. A Grand Prize winner will also be drawn from the four regional finalists and will win extra resources to further support their organization.

“As a co-op, we are committed to strengthening the co-op sector. We wanted to do something special during the International Year of Co-operatives to support small Canadian co-ops trying to get to the next level of their development,” said Kathy Bardswick, President and CEO of The Co-operators. “This is a great way to showcase the breadth of the co-op sector in Canada, and some of the great things small, local co-ops are doing in communities across the country.”

Public voting began October 22 and it’s up to Canada to choose a winner. To view the videos and vote for your favouritesubmissions, visit The Co-operators Facebook page before November 21, and encourage everyone you know to go out and vote.

Link:

https://apps.facebook.com/promotionshq/contests/291687/voteable_entries/60106509

For further information, please contact:

Leonard Sharman

Benjamin E Ryder

The Co-operators

Cooperative Communications

519-767-3937

780 984 1201