Watch Party Tips

Here’s some tips for a successful “run of show” for your party.

AT THE WATCH PARTY:

• Be sure you have a large enough TV set, adequate sound, and sufficient seats for all the guests you expect.
• Have a signup sheet close to the door, and asks folks for their name and e-mail, so you can follow up. Enlist your kids or neighbors to lend a hand.
• Have a computer with an Internet connection available, and encourage all guests to LIKE the ETOM Facebook page.

BREAKING THE ICE!

• Suggest folks gather 30 minutes before the program starts on air, or before you plan to hit “Play” on your DVD player.
• Introduce yourself and briefly share why you organized the event and what you hope will result from it.
• Ask others to introduce themselves, and share why they’re here and what they hope to experience.
  Watch and enjoy!

AFTER WATCHING:

• Encourage guests to post reactions on the ETOM Facebook page.
• Let them know they can “Ask Richard” to submit questions about the science of climate change, and the promise of renewable energy.
• Brainstorm stories about your community that can be posted online.
• See if you can nominate an Energy Hero, and whether you have the time and resources to post a short video, or photo essay.
• Share videos from the ETOM website with friends and neighbors who did not make it to the Party.

Check out the episode descriptions online, and preview the program trailers. Program 1 is an encore presentation of the 2011 broadcast, and you can see that entire hour streaming online here at the ETOM site. A fully Annotated Script<, with stills and video clips, is already available. Programs 2 and 3 will also be streaming at ETOM after Earth Day 2012 broadcasts on PBS.

As the host, you can come up with a few questions or discussion topics< (we’ve made a few suggestions here) you think will be interesting to your guests. Perhaps it’s comments from one of the people seen during the program. Some of them also appear in individual profiles in the “Who’s Your Energy Hero?”< section of the website. Maybe it’s what another community is doing, such as Portland encouraging kids to ride bikes to schools, and teaching them road safety, or applying group purchasing power to install solar. (“We All Can Ride”, one of the Energize Your Community videos.) Again, it all about what YOU want to come out of the event.

If your party is after Earth Day, you’ll find an annotated script for programs 2 and 3 online.