How Joyned Is Transforming Communication at Newday Festival
Building Stronger Connections in the Volunteer Team
Newday partnered with Joyned to streamline volunteer communication, centralise updates, and create a more connected community. With Joyned’s platform, Newday transformed its volunteer engagement, fostering real-time collaboration, better organisation, and year-round connection.
Background
Newday is a large youth festival held each year in August. With 10,000 people on site and 1,000 volunteers, communication is essential.
Before 2024, Newday used a mix of Slack, WhatsApp, email, and text messaging to coordinate its volunteers, but this fragmented approach led to missed updates and limited two-way communication. While volunteers received important information, there was no easy way for them to engage or give feedback.
It was important to the event to build a lasting community around their OneTeam volunteers to improve retention beyond the festival week, but the existing tools failed to support this goal effectively.
The SOlution
Joyned provided a solution that consolidated Newday's communication into one platform and introduced features specifically designed to support volunteer engagement and operational coordination.
"The Joyned app was a game-changer for our team communication: from the user-friendly and clean interface through to the excellent functionality of being able to have different groups and different types of groups for different purposes, this easy to manage app with easy onboarding has vastly improved our ability to communicate with volunteers and increased overall productivity and satisfaction."
Centralised communication
All messages, updates, and discussions were centralised through Joyned, unifying what had previously been scattered across multiple channels. This shift streamlined communication, making it easier for volunteers and leaders to stay connected.
By moving all communications to a single app, Newday drastically reduced reliance on other platforms. The impact was clear, with over 150,000 messages sent and received throughout the event week, highlighting the app's effectiveness in keeping everyone informed and engaged.
Year-round engagement
A key reason Newday adopted Joyned was to help foster a stronger sense of community among their OneTeam volunteers. Joyned's platform enables the team to stay connected beyond the confines of the festival itself. Regular updates and ongoing conversations ensure volunteers feel more engaged and valued, even when the festival isn't in session. This year-round connection is expected to significantly increase volunteer retention as volunteers remain emotionally invested in the event and its mission.
Improved volunteer coordination
Another notable improvement was the shift in the tone of communication. Previously, the focus had been largely on logistics and operational needs, limiting the conversations to functional updates.
With Joyned, Newday was able to foster more relational conversations. Leaders shared personal and encouraging messages with their teams, which helped create a stronger bond between volunteers and the event.
Custom groups and permissions
Newday's leadership was able to set up different types of groups to serve specific needs. Beyond the standard volunteer news and chat groups, one of the most successful examples was creating a "Resource Needs" group, where volunteers could post requests such as extra equipment or materials. This allowed the resource management team to respond quickly, ask clarifying questions, and mark requests as complete.
THE Results
The introduction of Joyned at Newday proved to be a resounding success. Key metrics included:
- 150,000 messages were sent and received by volunteers and youth leaders over the festival week, with a significant reduction in missed updates or communication errors.
- More than 1,000 users were successfully onboarded to the platform in just one week, demonstrating Joyned's user-friendly interface and ease of adoption.
- Volunteers engaged through over 100 active groups, allowing for targeted and efficient communication tailored to specific teams and responsibilities.
This year marked the first time in Newday's history that all 1,000 volunteers communicated through a single app, received daily updates, and participated in team-specific discussions. The feedback from both leadership and volunteers has been overwhelmingly positive, with Joyned credited as a game-changer for enhancing operational efficiency and volunteer satisfaction.
"For the first time in Newday history, we had all 1,000 servers on one app, communicating in their teams, all receiving daily Newday updates. Joyned has been a game-changer for building community amongst our Newday One Team andexciting to hear so many churches are now using it."
Looking Ahead
Joyned has revolutionised Newday's event communication and laid the foundation for year-round volunteer engagement. As Newday's leadership continues to explore the platform's full potential, the aim is to strengthen the OneTeam community further, making volunteers feel more connected and valued, even during the off-season.
By using Joyned, Newday has created a sustainable system for communication that can grow alongside the event. Joyned will continue to play a central role in fostering a more connected, informed, and engaged volunteer base as they plan for future festivals.
The ability to customise groups, track needs, and maintain two-way communication has transformed the event's operations. But perhaps more importantly, Joyned has empowered Newday to build a community beyond the event, creating lasting relationships with its volunteers.
Find Out More...
At Joyned, we’re continually developing new features to meet the dynamic needs of event organisers. Explore Joyned’s capabilities and see why it’s the go-to app for fostering connection and communication at large-scale events.
