Technology Carries Urbana 06 Buzz

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Over a month after more than 22,000 students were urged to live out a life worthy of God's calling, the Urbana buzz is still on.

Short cell phone clips and summary video presentations are floating around the popular YouTube site and discussions are ongoing in the online social network Facebook. Although a triennial missions conference, Urbana has become a nonstop experience for students. And it's all through the Web.

"On the internet they are able to keep the feelings they had at Urbana alive because they can connect with people online," said a recent news release by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which spearheaded Urbana.

It's a web-oriented generation. Today's college students have grown up on personal computers, cell phones and the internet. And their prompt reactions and use of technology is giving Urbana a boost in publicity with little advertising of its own. Some of the video clips have postscripts that read "Come to Urbana 09!"

As Brenda Salter McNeil of Salter McNeil Associates had said at the conference, this is a generation who hears the Word of God and then immediately wants to respond to it.

While the quality of the videos may not be up to par with the professional productions that came out of InterVarsity's multimedia department - Twentyonehundred Productions - throughout the Urbana event in St. Louis, Mo., many people are likely to stumble across the short glimpses on YouTube, according to InterVarsity. With 70 million YouTube videos viewed each day, InterVarsity believes the target audience is "bigger than imaginable."

Those who come across the Urbana clips may be prompted to attend an Urbana event or at least think about missions.

With 14 million registered users on Facebook, Urbana 06 groups can stay connected with both the event experience and with one another. InterVarsity cited at least nine Facebook groups dedicated to some facet of Urbana, with some having more than 2,000 members.

One of the Facebook groups was labeled "Worldwide Urbana 06 Accountability." There, students share the commitments they made at Urbana and post prayer requests.

Urbana 06 drew together college students from 144 countries to the Edward Jones Dome on the last few days of the year 2006.