As part of an in-class application activity I had my Event and Experience Management class brainstorm ways to increase the effectiveness and impact of campus devotionals. I thought the class came up with some great ideas to increase devotional attendance as well as overall viewership of devotional content. As a class we wanted to share these ideas with the campus community to hopefully facilitate further discussion on this topic. Here are the ideas ranked in order of popularity as determined by the students:
· 5 minute Mormon Message summarizing Devotional
· Make an App that streams & plays devotionals and keeps a library of past devotionals
· Teachers get more involved (extra credit for attendance)
· Improve Marketing (posters, handouts about speaker and topic)
· Increase awareness of who is speaking by Facebook group, texts or emails that you can sign up for.
· Publish devotional messages onto the Daily Message LDS app for BYU students specifically
· More involved faculty/staff (devotional talked about/summarized in class)
· Promote devotional with Pre & Post devotional activities in Brigham Square
· Survey that allows students to suggest speakers/musical acts
· Media more user friendly (hard to find/access broadcast devotionals)
· University encourages professors and bishops to encourage students to attend
· Encourage Campus employers to promote watching devotional in the office
· Incorporate more media in the devotional presentations
· Create a more TED Talk atmosphere but yet still spiritual
· Have multiple speakers during each devotional
We believe the incorporation of some of the suggestions will help increase the ability of campus devotionals to provide a unifying and spiritually uplifting experience for students, faculty, staff, and alumni of BYU.
Mat Duerden
BYU Recreation Management professor
