Since the Grey Cup Festival committee couldn’t squeeze a large chunk of the millions of CFL fans from across the country onto Edmonton’s Jasper Avenue and into a few dozen hospitality suites, they’ve done the next best thing.
Just like at the Grey Cup that Edmonton hosted in 2010, they’ve created a social media team to customize individual reports for people in other CFL cities who couldn’t come to Alberta’s capital.
Marty Forbes is overseeing the project. His team is made up of six NAIT students.
“So if you’re in Vancouver or Winnipeg and want to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily see on television, these kids are going to capture it — all access,” Forbes said.
He said fans in Montreal can follow along with what Alouette fans are doing.
“Of course Twitter wasn’t as big back then (in 2010) but you think of the power of smartphones now and the reach, so Twitter is the media darling.”
It’s a championship opportunity for students like Keenen Kanda, who has never been in the eye of a hurricane the way Grey Cup week can be.
“This is going to be the first time that I’m doing anything of this calibre,” Kenda said. “I’m so excited to get down and dirty and get this done.”
Watch below: (From Fall 2018) It will be like a mini-city within our city. The Grey Cup festivities are taking over a section of Edmonton’s Jasper Avenue and that means shutting the road down to traffic. Kendra Slugoski reports.
Same with Jasmine King, who’s getting a crash course on mingling and how to document what Grey Cup fans experience, even if eventually they don’t really remember themselves.
“I’m going to be going to all of the different activities going on and taking pictures, taking videos, talking to fans from wherever and finding out about their experience,” she said. “[I’ll also be] helping people have a good experience as well.”
King knows she has to hit parties to do her job.
“OK. Alright. We’ll check out what the crowd is over there.”
Tailored content was also shot in the festival zone which kicked off with The Strumbellas playing atop the CKUA building, according to a tweet from Edmonton-Centre MLA David Shepherd.
Forbes said the committee is excited that the CFL has mandated that future Grey Cups need to meet the standard that Edmonton has set.
“This one is four times larger than the last one here and is really focused on family and fun and other events than just the game,” Forbes said.
You can also expect fans in Halifax will have something to watch for, Forbes confirmed.
“I’m not privy to all of the information of what’s going on in the league but, ‘Are we going to have an announcement?’” he asked. “They said it may not be the year they’re starting, but there should be an announcement. So yeah, we have one person literally responsible for making sure they feel welcome in Edmonton as well.”
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