Vid Network and San Francisco Young Democrats Produce Live Candidate Debate Dubbed “Best Ever”
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — On Wednesday, June 23rd 2010, Vid Network’s VidSF.com and the San Francisco Young Democrats produced a groundbreaking live broadcast featuring San Francisco District 6 candidates engaged in a lively debate regarding the future of District 6 and San Francisco.
The Fog City Journal [1] praised the District 6 event, calling it the “best debate ever” and attributing its success to “a lively format that included candidates firing questions at each other and Melissa Griffin’s artful and entertaining moderating that combined to keep a well-attended audience engaged and on the edge of their seats.”
Over 5,000 viewers tuned-in to watch the debate, which was broadcast live in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Pier 40 adjacent to San Francisco’s AT&T Park. Viewership of this magnitude is considered a high turnout for a live broadcast of local politics.
Kieran Farr, the CEO of Vid Network, stated, “Audiences increasingly demand content to be easily accessible at any time on any device and local content is no exception. The success of this broadcast is a powerful example of the need for local media organizations to produce and distribute content in a way that matches evolving audience expectations.”
Event organizer and SFYD president Maxwell Szabo was also pleased with the result. “Local government is responsible for so much in our daily lives, but so many people don’t know a whole lot about their locally elected leadership. […] There’s few things I can think of that are as important as ensuring that the electorate is empowered with knowledge,” Szabo said.
The broadcast was distributed with streaming partner Ustream and syndicated on SFGate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Online viewers were kept engaged during breaks by commentary from CBS5 and SFGate blogger Beth Spotswood and San Francisco Bay Times and Gloss Magazine columnist Pollo Del Mar. Viewers were able to submit their own questions for candidates through Twitter.
The event was sponsored by the San Francisco Firefighters Local 778, BOMA of SF, and Senator Leland Yee.
Watch the online broadcast archive here: http://vidsf.com/718
The next broadcast in the series is scheduled for July 23rd featuring candidates from San Francisco’s District 2 to be held at the Golden Gate Yacht Club.
[1] http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2010/06/sf-young-dems-d6-debate-format-best-ever/
