Interested persons logged 8,200 views on a Facebook Live broadcast of a two-day June meeting of Gov. Matt Mead’s Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming initiative.
ENDOW’s figures suggest the public is ready to use such services to observe the proceedings of their state government. The Wyoming Legislature is considering streaming its committee meetings. In the interim periods between legislative sessions, committees meet around the state.
The 24-member committee that makes up ENDOW met in Cheyenne, Pinedale, Cody and Sheridan over the summer. Interested residents who couldn’t make the trip were able to tune in to ENDOW via Facebook Live, in broadcasts set up by the Wyoming Business Council. The results have been positive, said Jeremiah Rieman, Mead’s Director of Economic Diversification Strategy and Initiatives.
The most watched livestream was the June meeting in Pinedale. While interested persons logged 8,200 views of the live broadcast itself, ENDOW’s Facebook page now shows close to 9,000 views for that meeting. Many others are viewing the videos when they aren’t live. Videos of the first five months of their meetings have registered more than 25,000 viewers.
“It’s amazing how many people will comment to me about how I watched it on the livestream, or I went back and looked,” Rieman said. “It’s actually been very successful from my perspective.”