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15 Apr 2024

New Feature Alert: LOOPING SLIDES & VIDEO CONTROLS!!

By |2024-04-15T13:15:06-07:00April 15th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|4 Comments

In October 1911, Roald Amundsen set out on the first-ever expedition to the South Pole. It took him and his team almost 2 months to make the journey, and when they got there, you know what they saw?

Snow… They saw lots and lots of snow.

Well, our developers have also been hard at work over the last 2 months, and quite frankly, we think they have a little more to show for it than tiny bits of frozen water. That’s right, today is the day that we proudly announce TWO MAJOR UPDATES to Sidekick!

The first new Sidekick feature is one that youth workers have been asking for since we first unveiled Sidekick back in December (we can’t believe Sidekick only launched a few months ago!). That’s right, we’re talking about…

LOOPING SLIDES!!

Now, Sidekick users can choose any section in their Sidekick presentation to auto-advance and repeat automatically! Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of LOOPING SLIDES in action!

But that’s not all!

In addition to LOOPING SLIDES, our ever-vigilant team of developers decided to bring you another highly requested feature:

ENHANCED VIDEO CONTROLS!!

Now, Sidekick users can set the starting position for any video (yes, this new feature works for your own videos that you upload and videos that are streamed from YouTube and Vimeo) and once a video has started, you can jump to any specific timecode!

First, let’s look at how to adjust the starting position for any video:

And then, let’s look at how to jump to any point in a video once it’s already playing:

We’re super excited about both of these updates, because they’re a direct response to feedback we’ve gotten from Sidekick users just like you!

And I can’t wait to tell you about what’s coming next… No, seriously, it’s pretty exciting… But you’ll just have to wait… Because I can’t tell you about it… Yeah… Even though I really want to…

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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5 Apr 2024

How do I Sign Into the NEW Sidekick?

By |2024-04-18T14:59:22-07:00April 5th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog, Sidekick: What's New, Youth Ministry Hacks, Youth Ministry Ideas|0 Comments

DYM Gold Members Rejoice! Sidekick is included in your membership!

1000’s of your youth ministry friends are using it every week. If you haven’t poked around yet and tried out Crowd Voting, the FREE section, the one-click integration to DYM products you already own, the “presenting from your phone or iPad”… there’s so much. And, we’re making it better every day.

Here’s how to log-in:

Let us know what you think and what you’d want for us to include in the ever-growing FREE category next. Even 100’s of your recent DYM purchases are instantly available in Sidekick to insert in just 1-click!.

Let us know if you have any questions,

Doug & Josh
[email protected]

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4 Apr 2024

Coming Soon: Looping Slides!! (and more!)

By |2024-04-04T11:27:15-07:00April 4th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|1 Comment

Without a doubt, this has been our MOST REQUESTED Sidekick feature, and I’m super-excited to say that it’s really close to being ready!

Yes. I’m talking about…

LOOPING SLIDES!!

It may still be another week or so before it’s ready for release, so I can’t show you a full walkthrough just yet, but I can show you some of the progress we’re making. Check it out:

That’s right! In the very near future, you’ll be able to add all of your announcement slides to a single section and then set the timer & walk away! And just like you’d expect, each slide will play for the specified length of time before automatically moving on to the next one. And when it gets to the end of the section, it’ll just automatically loop back to the beginning of the section.

But how about I just show you instead?

(click image to enlarge)

Again, it’s still a week or so away from being ready for prime time, but I just wanted to let you know that we’re listening and we are working tirelessly to make sure that Sidekick is the absolute best it can possibly be!

And the only way that happens is if you tell us what you need. Thankfully, we have a great way for our users to suggest new features and vote on features that have already been suggested! So feel free to head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

I’m so excited about Looping Slides that I almost forgot to mention another incredible feature that we’re working on…

Oh, wait. That’s right. Doug said that I am definitely not supposed to say anything about the upcoming video control feature that will let users set a starting point for videos as well as jump to specific timecodes while playing. Yeah, I’m definitely not supposed to say anything about that…

Oops… 😅

Until next time!

Blessings,

Josh Boldman

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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20 Mar 2024

New Feature Alert: SLIDE LABELS!!

By |2024-03-20T13:37:22-07:00March 20th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|2 Comments

Have you ever noticed how sometimes it’s the littlest things that bring you joy?

That’s why Skittles aren’t 32lbs each. And it’s why we don’t put Toyota Corollas on engagement rings.

But you want to know what little thing you can do to bring you joy right now? Yup! You can now add and edit…

SLIDE LABELS!!

That’s right! You can now change the label on any slide in your Sidekick presentation!

And the best part is that it’s SUPER easy! Check out this step-by-step guide to adding and editing slide labels in Sidekick:

And you wanna know the best part? Of course, you do!

The absolute best part about the SLIDE LABELS in Sidekick is that it’s available right now for all users!

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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29 Feb 2024

New Feature Alert: FREE CONTENT!!

By |2024-02-29T08:19:15-08:00February 29th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|4 Comments

Let’s just say that February has been a BUSY month for the Sidekick team!

In the last month, we’ve released:

  • PICK ME! – Users can now create a random (or not-so-random) picker that (so far) can handle up to 200 names!
  • BULK ADDING for PICK ME and WHEELS! – Users no longer have to add each PICK ME or WHEEL item one at a time. Now, users can copy and paste a list from virtually anywhere (Apple Notes, Google Sheets, Excel, etc…), which makes the whole process that much faster!
  • DYM INTEGRATION – This is a biggie. DYM INTEGRATION allows users to import the resources that they purchased on DYM directly into Sidekick without ever having to download anything!

But that’s not all! We just couldn’t close out the month without adding one more little bit of DYM magic to Sidekick. That’s right, we’re talking about…

FREE STUFF!!!

That’s right! If you’ve used Sidekick in the last few days, you may have noticed that there’s a new toolbar at the top of the screen when you’re in “Overview” mode:

Now, sure. There are two buttons that should be pretty familiar by now. On the left, you’ve got the “🎹 Song” Button that allows users to import songs directly from CCLI using their SongSelect account. And then there’s the “🦙 DYM” Button that we talked about earlier that lets users add resources that they’ve purchased from the DYM Store.

But that about that magical middle button??

Yup! The “🎁 Free” Button does EXACTLY what you think it should. All you have to do is click on it, and it will bring up a window that looks something like this:

As of the time that I’m writing this post, there are currently 10 INCREDIBLE resources that are completely FREE for all Sidekick users (although you may need to upgrade your membership to accommodate the number of students you have participating in Live Voting.)

These FREE resources include classics like:

  • The Impossible Shot
  • Useless Facts Countdowns 1 & 2
  • Extreme Four Corners
  • Popcorn Story
  • Sword Drill

And interactive templates to help you get started like:

  • PICK ME! Templates
  • Emotional Llama Wheels

Plus, we’ve even got completely built-out, fully interactive games for you to play with your group like:

  • Wilderness Survival Guide
  • Swiftest Swifties

Actually, check out what one user has already said about our new Wilderness Survival Guide game:

I’m so grateful for everything you guys are doing to make youth ministry AWESOME. We just used the Wilderness Survival Guide game last night for our high schoolers because it was easy to just add to Sidekick. They lost their minds. It was a huge win. Thank you!

– Jeff

And you wanna know the best part? Of course, you do!

The absolute best part about the 🎁 FREE content on Sidekick is that we’re adding new stuff all the time! That’s right, be sure to click the “🎁 FREE” Button often to see what new resources are available from your friends at Sidekick!

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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21 Feb 2024

New Feature Alert: Adding DYM Resources Directly to Sidekick

By |2024-02-26T09:34:41-08:00February 21st, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|2 Comments

Friends, the day has finally arrived. Today is the day that worlds collide in the best of ways.

That’s right, as of today, you can now add the many of resources that you’ve purchased on DYM directly to Sidekick! No more downloading. No more thumb drives. No more hassle.

Now, if you’ve been around the DYM world for any length of time, you know exactly what this screen looks like:

But before today’s update, the process of getting your DYM resources loaded into Sidekick was a bit… tedious:

  • Step 1 – Purchase a resource from DYM
  • Step 2 – Download that resource
  • Step 3 – Spend 35 minutes sorting through your Downloads Folder looking for the resource you just downloaded
  • Step 4 – Ask everyone in your family if they’ve seen your USB thumb drive
  • Step 5 – Realize that you left your thumb drive in your office
  • Step 6 – Drive across town…

Well, you get the idea.

That’s why the Sidekick team is so excited to finally announce:

DYM Integration!!

That’s right! As of this morning, Sidekick just got a bajillion times more user-friendly for every single DYM customer who has ever purchased a resource on the DYM Store.

So… do you wanna see it? Of course, you do! Why else would you have read this far??

Here is is:

That’s right. The resources that you’ve purchased on the DYM Store are now available to add to any Sidekick presentation without the need for downloading! Here are a few of my favorite scenarios where this will really come in handy:

  • You can now buy a DYM resource on your phone, and it’ll instantly be available to load in your Sidekick presentation.
  • You don’t have to keep your DYM resource files downloaded anywhere (no more taking up space on your hard drive!!)
  • Students and volunteers who have access to your Sidekick workspace can quickly add any DYM game or countdown that you’ve already purchased.

At DYM, we’re always trying to keep youth workers from wasting their time, and we believe this latest Sidekick update has the potential to free up hours every single week for youth workers everywhere! (Can you tell that we’re excited about this one??)

Starting today, once any Sidekick user connects their DYM account, they will see a little icon that says +DYM at the bottom of the left-hand toolbar in Overview Mode:

From there, simply click on a resource that you want to add to your presentation, and you’ll be good to go!

No more downloading. No more USB thumb drives. No more frustration. No more wasting time.

Want to see it in action? Just watch the video below:

Not seeing the +DYM Button? That means you still need to connect your DYM account. Here’s a brief tutorial on how to make sure you’re DYM account is connected:

And that’s it!  Once your DYM account is connected, you should see a bunch of your previous purchases ready to go in Sidekick.

Just a quick note: We’re in the process of rolling out a feature on the DYM Store that will show which resources are Sidekick Enabled, but here are the products that you can expect to be ready so far:

  • The 200 most popular products from the past two years
  • The DYM Gold Member resources from the past few months
  • Every resource that gets added to the DYM store from this point forward.

Plus we’re adding new resources every single day!

It’s really that easy! Thanks to the most recent Sidekick update, you can now add your DYM resources directly to any Sidekick presentation!

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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19 Feb 2024

What’s the Deal with Gold vs. Gold+?

By |2024-02-20T11:42:36-08:00February 19th, 2024|Membership, Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|1 Comment

One of the most common questions we get from new DYM members is:

Thankfully, there’s a really simple answer, but first, here’s what’s included in BOTH memberships:

💰 $20 Monthly Store Credit
🏷 35% DYM Store Discount
🎮 Monthly Free Game
🎥 Monthly Free Video
📚 Monthly Free Student Leadership Resource
❓ Monthly Free Mystery Item
📺 Leader Training Library Access

That’s right! Both Gold and Gold+ Members get all of that every single month!

Plus, Gold and Gold+ Members also get access to Sidekick, the new presentation tool that’s built for the youth room!

The only difference between Gold and Gold+ is that Gold+ has additional phone connections, allowing more students to participate in Live Voting. The table below shows how many connections are available for each plan:

Gold

$2473per month (billed annually)
  • 5 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 1 Active Presentation at a Time
Join Now!

Gold+ 50

$2999per month (billed annually)
  • 50 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 2 Active Presentations at a Time
Join Now!

Gold+ 100

$4499per month (billed annually)
  • 100 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 4 Active Presentations at a Time
Join Now!

Gold+ 250

$5999per month (billed annually)
  • 250 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 6 Active Presentations at a Time
Join Now!

And as always, if you have any questions, or if you need help determining which DYM Membership is right for you, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] any time!

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

Read More
14 Feb 2024

How To Never Log In EVER AGAIN!

By |2024-02-14T08:43:45-08:00February 14th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|0 Comments

Gather ’round, friends! I’d like to tell you a story.

About 237 years ago (this may be a slight exaggeration, but there’s really no way to know for sure), the world was forever changed when Download Youth Ministry introduced a game-changing presentation software called Sidekick (around the DYM Offices, we lovingly refer to this as O.G. Sidekick).

With the introduction of O.G. Sidekick, youth workers everywhere could suddenly create Spinnng Wheels, Pick Me, and more. It was truly revolutionary, especially since there were very few other presentation software options for youth workers to use (and NONE of them had the same features). It was a game-changer in every sense of the word.

However, as revolutionary as it was, O.G. Sidekick came with an unwelcome but necessary evil:

Yes, the dreaded login screen popped up EVERY SINGLE TIME the software was launched.

And this meant that the user had to type in their username and password EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Recently, I sat down with a youth worker who had used O.G. Sidekick from the very first day it launched. I asked them if it was ok to share their story, and they agreed with the one caveat that we keep them anonymous, to protect the innocent (of course):

I’ve always loved having students run our tech booth. From sound, to lights, to presentations, I’ve always viewed the tech booth as a place where students can learn valuable skills that they’ll hopefully continue to use well into adulthood.

However… we had a sixth grader who didn’t quite grasp the difference between minimizing a window and closing a window…

It was his first night running the presentation when, right in the middle of our service, boom… he’d accidentally close the O.G. Sidekick window. And when he reopened it, he was met with the dreaded login screen. I didn’t even realize there was a problem until I heard his voice from the back of the room:

“Hey ______, what’s the password?”

The only problem was… I was the only one who knew the password… and it was the same password I used for everything… like literally everything.

So there I was, in front of a crowd of students, saying my password into the microphone…

It was not great.

A Youth Worker that Would Prefer to Stay Anonymous

So when we started developing the New Sidekick, we knew that we had to make sure this never happened again. Thus, the decision was made to utilize one-time codes instead of passwords.

The concept of a one-time code is fairly simple. If you have a Sidekick account, you just type in your email address, and it will email you a code that only works once. That way, users don’t have to tell anyone their password. However, we’ve been getting reports from a few users that every time they open the New Sidekick, they just keep seeing this screen:

Thankfully, we believe we have a fix.

It appears that the majority of users who have experienced this problem had bookmarked the actual one-time code request screen instead of their Sidekick dashboard. So, if you’re experiencing this problem, try these easy-to-follow steps:

  1. Open the Chrome browser on a computer where you have previously entered a Sidekick one-time code (within the last 60 days)
  2. In the Address Bar, type this URL: https://app.sidekick.tv/dashboard
  3. And boom. You should be all set.

If this works, then be sure to bookmark this link: https://app.sidekick.tv/dashboard, so you can always get right back to your Sidekick Dashboard without having to enter another one-time code.

If you are still prompted to enter a one-time code, try this:

  1. Type your email address in the text box and click “Sign In.”
  2. Check your email and click the login link.
  3. Once you’re logged in, close Chrome.
  4. Then try the above steps again. This time, everything should work perfectly.

You’ll need to do this for each device (for example: your presentation computer, your tablet, and your phone) that you use with your account, but once you do, this should keep you logged in for the next 60 days. And even better, every time you open Sidekick, that 60 days starts over.

So, long story short…

As long as you open Sidekick once every 60 days, you should NEVER HAVE TO LOG IN EVER AGAIN! 

Hooray!!

P.S. If you’re still having trouble, feel free to reach out to [email protected]. They’d be more than happy to help!

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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7 Feb 2024

Using Sidekick for the Big Game!

By |2024-02-07T12:01:22-08:00February 7th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|6 Comments

This will be short & sweet. I was talking with Cooper M. (an awesome High School Pastor in Lancaster, PA), and he showed me how he’s using Sidekick during their group’s Big Game Party this Sunday. You’ve gotta see this:

(click image to enlarge)

Now, in all fairness, Cooper is pretty darn good (actually, he’s kind of amazing) at graphic editing, so it was no surprise that his image overlay is one of the best we’ve seen yet. Hopefully this might spark a few ideas for you and your ministry!

P.S. Sidekick has a few features coming really soon, so keep an eye on the blog for updates!

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

Read More
19 Jan 2024

Sidekick: Adults Love It Too!

By |2024-01-19T08:36:57-08:00January 19th, 2024|communication, Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog, Teaching, Teaching/Programming, Technology|2 Comments

It’s no secret that when we created Sidekick, we had youth workers in mind (they are our favorite, of course!), but recently, my wife (Cathy) and I were asked to teach a course at our church called Intentional Parenting (based off a book by the same name we wrote back in 2018). We had an idea that the course would be popular, but we had no idea we’d have hundreds of parents seeking advice each month! It’s been a whirlwind, to say the very least!

After seeing how much students love the new interactive features (such as live voting) in Sidekick, we decided to see if adults would feel the same way, and—spoiler alert—THEY ABSOLUTELY DID!

For the past few sessions, throughout the teaching, we’ve been sprinkling in questions like this:

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And, even though we knew it would be a hit, we were BLOWN AWAY by the response! Cathy and I have taught this curriculum in many different settings over the years, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is the most engagement we’ve ever seen with a group of parents!

Here are a few things I’ve noticed about the parents in our course since we started integrating Sidekick Live Polls throughout our teaching content:

  1. They are more attentive – Since they know I might ask another question at any time, I genuinely think they pay more attention to the material we are presenting.
  2. They’re having more fun – I can’t even tell you how much I love their response when the “Show Live Results” feature is enabled. It’s not uncommon for people to cheer as the results come rolling in!
  3. They’re more likely to come back – I don’t need a lot of research (although it certainly is out there!) to tell me that people who enjoy an experience are more likely to come back a second, third, or even fourth time. That’s EXACTLY what we’re seeing right now with Intentional Parenting.
  4. They’re more likely to bring their friends – I’ve seen this in youth ministry over and over again, but this is one of the clearest examples of this happening with adults I’ve ever seen. Couples who attend one session are inviting their neighbors. Plain and simple: People want to attend engaging events.

Now, before I close out, there’s one more really important thing that I realized during our most recent course. It’s in the picture below. See if you can figure out what I’m talking about:

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It’s right there at the bottom of the screen. I’ll zoom in to help:

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During the session, I asked what grade parents would give themselves based on how well they show affection to their children. And 5% answered that they would give themselves a big ole F. I can say with 100% confidence that most of those parents would never have admitted this if they weren’t able to answer anonymously.

You see, Sidekick doesn’t just promote engagement, it gives people the chance to be honest without facing immediate judgment. You can absolutely be sure that the next words out of my mouth after this poll were different than they would have been had we not done the poll. Because of what we learned with this poll, I was able to pause and tell those parents that they aren’t alone and that simply by attending the Intentional Parenting course, they were already taking steps in the right direction. I’m not going to say it solved all of their problems, but you could actually feel the sense of relief in the room.

And none of this would have been possible without Sidekick.

Blessings,

Doug

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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