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player ready...The Naperville Park District has upgraded its website and next month will debut a new internet podcast.
The new podcast, called ParkTalk, is available through the SoundCloud application. Similar to a radio program, a podcast is a prerecorded package of audio content that can be accessed on a website but also downloaded to a device for future use.
“Podcasts are becoming popular among teens and adults as an on-demand, downloadable form of radio, allowing people to listen to their favorite shows while driving, walking or doing chores around the house,” Sameera Luthman, marketing and communications director for the district, said in a news release.
An introductory podcast can be found on the park district website, and the first full episode of ParkTalk will be made available some time in February, officials said.
Luthman said the first presentation will be the State of the Park District, something that in previous years was delivered in front of a live audience.
“Changing the format of the State of the Park District to a podcast is a cost-effective way of reaching our community,” Executive Director Ray McGury said in the release. “We also intend it to be interactive, as listeners are invited to submit questions to our mailbag, which will be a regular segment of our podcast.”
ParkTalk will be available at the Naperville Park District website, napervilleparks.org, and the Park District smartphone app, which can be downloaded for free.
The district also redesigned and upgraded its website.
Officials called the new page mobile-friendly and significantly faster when it comes to loading pages. The website also has updated navigation with more photo and video content.
“With more than 500,000 visits annually, napervilleparks.org is one of our most important communication tools,” Luthman said.
District web designer Spencer Huard said most of the upgrades are the result of resident feedback.
“This improvement builds on our already mobile-friendly online registration system and gives residents easy access to our entire site from their phones,” Huard said.
New features include a more user-friendly virtual program guide, an event calendar and an integrated ParkTalk blog.
Sue Omanson, the district’s community development director, said ParkTalk will use information from the website blog.
“Similar to our ParkTalk blog, we’re going to talk about a lot of cool stories from our listeners, park district participants,” she said. “Things like fitness success stories, competition dance team, how to start a field hockey team. Broad issues like what’s happening to the bees. We’ll be interviewing Brittney, our expert beekeeper, about not only bees at our garden plots but the state of bees in general.”
Future podcast topics will include golf fitness, a new Park District maintenance initiative to use organic products, interesting tax insights that benefit residents, new events and partnerships, interviews with commissioners and staff and insights into the district’s budget and the stewardship of tax dollars.
Gary Gibula is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.