Doug and Josh hosted a Facebook live event and asked me to simply jot down my thoughts and reactions to what they shared. So here we go…
Initial Thoughts
They started off by sharing what the new Sidekick looks like, and let me tell you, it is amazing! Not only was there a whole lot of hype about how youth pastors will be able to use phones to engage students instead of trying to fight against students using their phones, but there are some pretty significant giveaways going on as well!
Also, Josh was drinking something yellow and weird out of a suspicious-looking water bottle… but I don’t think that had anything to do with Sidekick 🙂
The Big Reveal
The big news is that Sidekick has been rebuilt from the ground up!
Instead of having to download a program onto every computer, you plan on using it with, Sidekick is now a browser-based web program! So you can design your youth program in your office and walk over to the youth room and load it up without having to ask anyone for their permission to put a new program on a computer (for some of us, this is a BIG DEAL).
Bring on the Phones!
You can now use Sidekick to engage with students by having them answer multiple-choice questions on their phones! Wild!
Speaking of phones, you can CONTROL Sidekick on your phone, laptop, iPad, other computer, anything you can log into the web and see the internet. This is a SUPER BIG DEAL! Now, you can make each slide appear as soon as you want it to and not necessarily wait for your computer person who may or may not be tuned into your lesson (we’ve all been there, right??).
The Giveaways (…it is DYM after all!)
There are also some MAJOR giveaways going on with the launch of Sidekick! If you sign up and use Sidekick three times or more during the month of December, you’ll be automatically entered into a giveaway for an iPhone, Xbox, or a $500 Slurpee gift card. These are some exciting times! Get in on this right away!
Questions
As I was watching the live stream, there were a few questions that kept coming up, so I reached out to my friends at DYM and asked if they could help me answer some of those for you here.
- What about CCLI Worship Licenses? Yep! CCLI SongSelect is integrated directly into Sidekick. That means you can import any of SongSelect’s 100,000+ songs directly into your presentation without having to type out every word!
- If we have Coleader and/or DYM Gold, will there be any retro for us to change to DYM Platinum? You bet! If you’re in this boat (or if you have any issues at all with your membership), just reach out to [email protected], and they’ll help you get your Platinum Membership up and running!
- So with DYM GOLD+, how many members can I have on my team? With DYM Gold+, you can have 10 users under one account.
- So if 50 voters is the base, how do you upgrade to the larger tiers? You can find all the info about upgrading to more connections here: https://help.sidekick.tv/en/articles/8673101-getting-more-phone-connections-on-sidekick
How Do I Rewatch the LiveStream?
Well, obviously, the Sidekick Launch LiveStream was a HUGE deal for youth workers, so if you missed it, here’s how you can watch:
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:
Wait whats the platinum membership? And how did I miss this?
Dear Doug & Gang,
I used the new Sidekick last night (Dec. 6th) for my presentation on Christmas Traditions. The phone voting was a huge success, it was flawless and really got a lot of interest. Because I had children, teens, and adults, not everyone had a phone. I had non-phone users play the game in four corners style by having them go to corner A, B, C, or D. I had a prize for phone users and a separate one for non-phone users.
To be able to control the presentation from my phone was extraordinarily helpful! Considering that it is the “Launch” version, it was bug free and very reliable. I’m looking forward to the quality of life improvements and future integrations. One of the things I’m most excited about is the sections feature. That sounds dumb right? But last night, I had stories separated in sections, when I saw my middle schoolers get antsy, I was able to bounce to a different section for attention recovery.
My only regret, was that I lacked the foresight to load some Christmas Carols from youtube in a section at the end. When I decided to fill the remaining time, I exited the presentation, I had open the browser, find the song, move the browser to the presentation screen, and then try to control it from there. I laughed to myself and said, “If only I had a program that would make this easy…” with the level of sarcasm only a New England Native could muster.
Thanks for your outstanding work in serving the servants of the young.
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