JCC Maccabi®, North America's largest Olympic-style competition and artistic showcase for Jewish teens, featured an innovative mobile app from tech startup BlueLine Grid at 2017 events that provided organizers and staff with the ability to collaborate and instantly locate each other and communicate with more than 2,700 athletes and artists from five countries and 4,140 host families and volunteers.
JCC Maccabi organizers used the platform to send more than 200,000 messages throughout the five-day games that took place in Miami, Birmingham and Albany, as well as the concurrent performances that took place in Miami, and which ended August 10.
"BlueLine Grid allowed for quick and nimble communications throughout JCC Maccabi, connecting organizers in a seamless network," said Randy Ellen Lutterman, JCC Association vice president and director, of JCC Maccabi Games and ArtsFest. "Its ease of operation enhanced our security at a time when that's one of the greatest concerns facing Jewish organizations and the people who use them."
The app allowed easy, text and email messaging so that organizers could inform participants about schedule and pick up and drop off changes; send emergency notifications, message regarding rules and good conduct issues and even nudge athletes and artists to with "bring your" reminders.
As well, the app allowed segmentation to communicate with specific groups. This allowed for instant communication to specific parties to addressing developing, on-site concerns. Additionally, the program worked with all international delegation phones, so that for the first time, they too were able to receive all communications.
BlueLine Grid, a D.C.-based startup with backing from In-Q-Tel, the funding arm of U.S. Intelligence agencies, as well as Motorola Solutions, has made its signature collaboration platform available to all JCCs in the wake of the high profile wave of threats in early 2017.
"We are pleased that BlueLine Grid has made a difference to the JCCs for both events and daily operations," BlueLine Grid President Jack Weiss said. "We built our platform to solve critical communication challenges and it's exciting to see how JCC Association of North America has leveraged the platform for both event logistics and security."
ABOUT JCC ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA:
JCC Association of North America strengthens and leads JCCs, YM-YWHAs and camps throughout North America. As the convening organization, JCC Association partners with JCCs to bring together the collective power and knowledge of the JCC Movement. JCC Association offers services and resources to increase the effectiveness of JCCs as they provide community engagement and educational, cultural, social, recreational, and Jewish identity building programs to enhance Jewish life throughout North America. By supporting the 25,000 Jewish communal professionals who connect with two million JCC participants each year, JCC Association encourages engaged lives of purpose and meaning.
ABOUT BLUELINE GRID
BlueLine Grid is a technology company transforming the way the world's increasingly mobile workforce communicates. The Company's platform is used for mobile messaging, location tracking, 1-click conference calling, push-to-talk (PTT) and file-sharing by the world's most demanding government and corporate customers. BlueLine Grid also operates the nation's premier, trusted collaboration network for law enforcement, first responders, and security teams. For more about BlueLine Grid, visit www.bluelinegrid.com
