Virtual PistonHeads events

[Ben Lowden]

It's fair to say we're pretty glum about not being able to host any events right now and for the foreseeable future. As a result, we're considering what we might be able to organise virtually instead in the absence of Sunday Services.

These may or may not be possible, but some initial thoughts include:

• Factory tours
• Q&A sessions with racing drivers/engineers/people of interest
• 'How to' sessions, such as car detailing and suspension set up
• Filming popular cars from our Readers' Cars forum and interviewing members
• Car buying agony aunt sessions with tips from our team on what cars you could consider buying to meet your criteria

There are then a few options for how the community could get involved. If we host the virtual event live, members could potentially ask questions live during the event, but the production quality may naturally be a little rough around the edges. Alternatively members could ask questions in advance in a thread that we fit into filming but rather than hosting the event live, it's essentially a more polished higher quality video that we'll host on our YouTube channel.

We're very keen to gather thoughts from what would usually be a very busy Sunday Service community to understand how we can potentially fill a void and what the appetite could be.

Over to you!

[supermanraf]

A video of a race teams prep would be great, with some prepped questions, hopefully that would give time to make a better quality video?

[greeneggsnsam]

Sunday Service is all about the members so something covering their cars would be best. Wonder if you could do something on video like that classic picture thread where people race to get a snap of their car (& some custard obviously) next to a place recommended by the previous winner.

[keo]

Filming readers rides cars would be good I think. I hope Sunday services start again next year!

[alfaspecial]

keo said:

Filming readers rides cars would be good I think. I hope Sunday services start again next year!

Agree with filming readers rides cars.
How about making regular (weekly), very high quality (ie 2 plus cameras for angles / decent sound quality in a 'nice' setting) films of a selection of 'interesting' (ie readers cars that have some appeal - not just exotics - but classics, or even sheds etc)
See Carfection on you tube. eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dEd6uQjSvY which has had over 750,000 views!


Given the scale of PH's (huge!) 'virtual' circulation, videos could be accessed via You Tube which would provide PH with a source of income.
If those two idiots on 'this' thread https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... can derive what seems a pretty decent income from what is called 'social influencing', then surely PH could do likewise?

Many PH readers might be prepared to subscribe ..... and You Tube adverts 'pay' if there are sufficient viewers. Some PH readers with 'cars in the 'sell' your car section might even be prepared to pay a small fee to boost interest in their (PH) advert?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIngfKyJyUw

Edited by alfaspecial on Thursday 29th October 10:35

[Ben Lowden]

Thank you for the feedback all so far! I think I am leaning towards us putting more effort into slick video production that can be enjoyed at any time, and that feels like the general consensus here.

We've been toying with the idea of filming Readers' Cars for a very long time and had in fact started to line up some crackers earlier this year in March before covid hit. So watch this space...

alfaspecial said:

Many PH readers might be prepared to subscribe .....

Thank you for all of that feedback, much appreciated. We do already have a YouTube channel, which you can find here https://www.youtube.com/user/PistonHeadsTV

This is where the content will live, although we'll definitely be putting it on the homepage too as we do with all of our feature videos.

More feedback/ideas very welcome!

[sherman]

A new Pistonheads Annual for us all to read whilst stuck in this winter.
11 years of content should give you enough to produce a worthy read.
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/general-pistonhea...

[Lordbenny]

You’re YouTube site is crying out for some readers cars content...you’re missing a trick here. I’m talking unusual and interesting cars. Not you’re typical new car reviews that can be found all over the inter web!!! Pistonheads has a plethora of fantastic readers cars to choose from that are actually....interesting! I’ll be the first to throw my hat into the ring if you want to film a VERY interesting car for your channel!

[Ben Lowden]

Lordbenny said:

You’re YouTube site is crying out for some readers cars content...you’re missing a trick here. I’m talking unusual and interesting cars. Not you’re typical new car reviews that can be found all over the inter web!!! Pistonheads has a plethora of fantastic readers cars to choose from that are actually....interesting! I’ll be the first to throw my hat into the ring if you want to film a VERY interesting car for your channel!

Quite right, glad you think so too. As per my post above, I've wanted to make Readers Cars videos for years but have never had the resource/budget to do it. I finally got the go-ahead at the start of this year and then it all fell apart due to coronavirus. I'm hoping to pick this up again though next year so please feel free to PM me with more details.

[hilly10]

Readers cars will be a great feature, hope you can get it going in the not to distant

[Ben Lowden]

hilly10 said:

Readers cars will be a great feature, hope you can get it going in the not to distant

We're aiming to when covid has settled down and it's safe to do so

[Wursle]

When do we reckon the PH Sunday Service will be able to start again?