Vlogging their way to the Olympics

Kendra Correia / Submitted  

Two Fredericton university students will have plenty to smile about between Feb. 10 and March 1: namely, a free trip to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Hilary Creamer, a third year UNB student, and Tara Correia, a third year student at St. Thomas, are headed to Vancouver through the Samsung Mobile Explorers Contest.

Correia got the idea to enter when she saw an ad for the contest on YouTube; she and Creamer came up with the idea for their team name, Two Peas in a Vlog.

“The requirements were that they wanted people who used social networking and are media savvy. Twitter, Facebook, stuff like that,” Creamer says.

The contest, which took place in Canada, the US, China and Russia, sees winners blog, tweet, post, and tape about the Games.

“Two days after Tara saw the ad, we submitted an entry and we worked through the night. This was all during finals,” Creamer laughs.

Despite the crunch to submit by the deadline, the Two Peas in a Vlog video was submitted, and Creamer and Correia found out on Dec. 21 that they’d be going to Vancouver.

Creamer attributes the success of the duo mostly to Facebook. They made a group where people could view their submission and rate it, and they made the top ten.

Then a panel at Samsung decided they’d made it through.

Creamer and Correia aren’t yet sure exactly what they’ll be doing in Vancouver. Creamer says she and Correia will be “attending events, not necessarily just sports, but events all over the city and in the village.” The two will also be writing articles, and possible even interviewing the Olympians themselves.

Correia says no matter what they’ll be doing, she’s excited about the experience.

“I can’t even think of one thing that’s going to be the most exciting. I’ve never been out west, and how many people get to experience the Olympics in their
lifetime?”

She says she’s also excited about the opportunity to network. “I’m going to meet so many people and learn so much about journalism and blogging. I think I could end up liking it so much that I’ll wind up doing it. I think it’s going to open a lot of doors.”

Creamer, who is pursuing a double major in English and Media Studies, is also excited about the new career opportunities she’ll gain from the experience.

“This pertains directly to both of my degrees. It’ll help my writing skills obviously. It’ll also help with my media skills, which I’ve already been using to do our webpage.”

As per the requirements of the contest, Correia is also a self-described techie. She’s been interested in technology since she was a little girl, and she’s been interested in video editing for a while now as well.

“When I got my Mac in August I started doing iMovie, and I just got Final Cut Express, which is an apple video editing program one step above iMovie and one step below Final Cut Pro. A lot of films use it. I think we’re going to be using that to edit the videos,” she says.

Both Creamer and Correia will be outfitted with Samsung’s Omnia phone, which is a touch screen smart phone similar to the iPhone. The phone has a Wireless Olympic Works (WOW) application that outlines all of the sporting events, their times, and after the event, who won gold, silver and bronze.

Once they get to Vancouver, the ladies will complete two days of orientation where they’ll meet the 47 other teams competing.

“We’ll be competing with the other four Canadian teams. The blog that gets the most views, has the best visuals, and is just really good quality wins. Samsung will look at who did the best job, and the members of the winning team get $5,000 each,” Creamer explains.

While Creamer and Correia don’t yet have the url for their official blog, they do have a website up and running, and their blog will be linked to that once they get their url from Samsung.

In order to win the contest, they need their blog to get the highest number of votes. You can check out their endeavor, and eventually vote for their blog, at www.twopeasinavlog.com.

“It’s really important that we have UNB behind us,” Creamer says.