CBNU student, Lee Sung-kyung (Dept. of Fine Arts) was frustrated to see the cancellation notice of this year’s university festival. “I have enjoyed campus festivals since my freshman year.  Around this time, the whole campus area used to be vibrant from festival preparations, so it feels somewhat empty to see the quiet campus,” she said. That’s why she showed interest in the online communication festival. “A friend of mine told me about the communication festival. I heard there would be lots of events and programs. My friend and I began to check social media more often to keep up with any updated school council posts.”
  Due to the ongoing COVID-19, the school council, Doyak, inevitably had to cancel this year’s annual university Gaeshin Festival. In place of a face-to-face festival, Doyak announced the idea of a non-face-to-face festival called ‘Drive to D.Live: Chamomile’. Held from Oct. 26th to Nov. 3rd, D.Live: Chamomile consists of mainly two themes: Drive to D.Live and Chamomile. Drive to D.Live is the combination of ‘drive’ from the word drive through, student council’s initial, D, and ‘live’ from a ‘live streaming’, describing the goal of the unique festival; to make a good time for CBNU students who cannot come to campus due to the pandemic situation while conducting safe social distancing. Chamomile’s meaning has the hope of CBNU students’ overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic era with a strong will, same as its symbol: Energy in Adversity
  A CBT report covered Drive to D.Live to witness the moment.
  Oct. 26th.
  It was the very first event of the festival. The council chose YouTube as the main live-streaming platform, and the student president and vice president were hosts. They again introduced various events that students could participate in, hoping to encourage students to draw attention. After the short introduction, the hosts started one of the events, ‘Corners of the Room Photo Exhibition.’ The goal of the event was to share the everyday social distancing life during the COVID-19. The MCs and viewers took the time to watch nominee pictures and shared their stories. The next event was targeted at live-streaming viewers. It was a real-time pop quiz. The last corner of the schedule was Q&A with the student council, namely ‘Ask Doyak.’ The student president and vice president didn’t dodge any sensitive questions, answering every question viewers asked. The total of viewers was 200.
  Oct. 28th.
  People walking through the 1st Student Union Building noticed the two festival banners hanging there, promoting main events. On the banners were QR codes to connect directly to the mobile festival website. The second live-broadcasting event was E-sports Chungbuk Champions League (CCL) semi-final. There were three game categories: FIFA, Cart Rider, and League of Legend (LOL). For each game, two student council members played in the caster role to relay from the spot. The semi-finals lasted about six hours, LOL taking up about four hours, which was more than half of the total running time. There was a slight concern about the professionalism of the student broadcasters; however, viewers were unsparing of their praise to the casters for their well-knowledged commentaries.
  A CBT reporter interviewed  the director of planning at Doyak,  Kim Nam-jun ( Dept. of Politic Science & International Relations) to hear about the behind story of the non-face-to-face festival.

- Behind the Scene -

Q. Please tell some of the stories from the Gaeshin Festival’s cancellation to the decision to hold an online communication festival.
A. It was not the first time in history that these events were cancelled. The very first withdrawal was the kick-off ceremony in the first semester. Since then, several ceremonies, such as the May cultural festival or street promotion events, had to be stopped. However, at first, we prepared the Gaeshin festival to alleviate the situation later as planned. The status didn’t change  for the better, and so we had no choice but to cancel everything. The whole council felt so frustrated that we had to develop a new way of proceeding with the event. Therefore, D.Live: Chamomile came into existence.

Q. It must be the first attempt for Doyak to hold an online event this huge. Were there any CBNU organizations which cooperated with the council?
A. Of course, many organizations helped us to make the festival possible. First of all, we reached out to the Office of Industry-Academy Research and discussed the contents we could create. Significantly, The Office of Creative and Convergent Education helped us rent a studio so that we could record promotion contents or hold live-streaming events. The Computing Information Center built a safe online server for the E-sports event. Lastly, the Health Care Center promised to quarantine the Gaeshin Culture Center a day before the event because we had to use the center. Without their enormous help, D.Live: Chamomile wouldn’t be realized. I cannot thank them enough.

Q. It seems most of the big problems are solved. What was the most challenging task that you faced unexpectedly?
A. I would say arranging a platform for proceeding with a perfect online event was the hardest thing. As anyone knows, all Gaeshin events, until last year, were held on a physical campus. Shifting that physical dimension to  a digital one was a whole new ballgame. The main questions were all related to computer systems and programs; what kind of computer program would accommodate the digital traffic, how to promote the event online, etc. On the other hand, the conventional event planning was related to utilizing campus areas such as setting up and arranging booths, getting sponsorships, inviting attractions, etc. Since it was an unprecedented attempt, there were tremendous amounts of trial and error. Regarding this matter, creating the content itself was hard. We had to develop the content as much as possible as a first step to choose the best among a myriad. However, the pandemic situation was like putting a big break on our plans, changing every draft into unfeasible.

By Lee Ju-yeon
jy37@cbnu.ac.kr