TELUS and Worldplay team up to offer Canadian businesses, nonprofits and consumers a new way to stay virtually connected 

Vancouver, B.C. – Today, TELUS and Calgary-based Worldplay Communications announced a partnership that will innovate local community content and give Canadian businesses and consumers a new platform to connect virtually. Consumers will have the ability to stream live events online and through the Optik TV platform, including community events, cultural or faith-based services and local sporting events, while businesses can evolve the delivery of virtual conferences, connect through secure video solutions, and create branded content pages where they can engage with their partners and customers.

“Our priority is to deliver the best possible experience across the full scope of our customers’ digital lives as Canadians increasingly turn to digital tools to work, learn, and stay connected to their loved ones and communities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Zainul Mawji, TELUS President of Home Solutions. “As part of our global leadership in social capitalism, we work closely with thousands of charities and grassroots organizations nation-wide and this new platform presents an exciting opportunity for them to create content and connect meaningfully with their communities. With the backbone of TELUS’ world-leading PureFibre and wireless networks, the opportunities Worldplay offers to create and share content in an accessible way are truly endless.” 

Worldplay Communications is a global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company and leader in video management and distribution that provides innovative video technologies for businesses and organizations to teach, entertain and share. Worldplay’s Vidflex™ is a customizable, easy-to-use video platform that provides customers with a digital toolset to host, manage, control, distribute, live stream, catalog and monetize their videos – how they want, when they want, and to whom they want.

“What excites us about partnering with TELUS is their tenacious focus on serving their customers, ensuring they are able to stay connected to what matters most to them,” said Terry Mochar, Worldplay CEO. “TELUS has great vision for what the market will need today – and tomorrow. Their drive to innovate creates the logical purpose for partnership, leveraging our Vidflex™ technology to help organizations and people thrive in a digital economy.”

In 2020, TELUS and Worldplay piloted the platform by hosting 200 municipalities across British Columbia at the first ever CivX Virtual Conference. Today, communities and organizations are using the platform to engage community members, host virtual camps for young Canadians, and for spiritual and faith based connection. TELUS and Worldplay have partnered to provide the Vidflex™ technology to four Indigenous communities in British Columbia, including Haisla Nation, Huu-ay-aht First Nations, Williams Lake First Nation, and Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc. Haisla Nation has used the platform for broadcasting of key Haislakla language revitalization workshops. The protection and revitalization of Haislakala is a key initiative in the community, as there are only 85 remaining fluent speakers. Through Vidflex™, Haisla was able to share and distribute video content through a controlled storytelling experience, and to host language learning sessions virtually, which proved to be a successful method for engaging community members during the pandemic. Huu-ay-aht First Nations has also found success with the platform through live-streaming an all candidates meeting in advance of the nation’s election. Community members demonstrated their civic participation with 95% of members joining the virtual meeting.

“So far we have found that working with TELUS and Worldplay has offered us more ways to engage with our citizens in a meaningful and interactive way,” said John Jack, Huu-ay-aht First Nations Councillor. “It has expanded our ability to control the content we are offering and how it is presented, and set us up with the equipment we needed to do this properly and professionally while building capacity within our Nation.”

“As a Nation we are certainly missing out on the valuable face-to-face connection that we enjoy in normal times,” said Chief Councillor Crystal Smith. “The video platform provided through TELUS and Worldplay does give us a step towards that bit of normalcy, and lets us present information to our Haisla members in a way that we know resonates. We are using it to share our successes in our culture programs, to keep us united and safe during this pandemic, and we will continue to look at more ways to use this technology for the benefit of our members.” Additionally, a Four Nation working group began in December 2020, and the communities meet to discuss storytelling, content creation, and video production. The platform enables the hosting of virtual council meetings, and sharing of critical information about the Covid-19 pandemic to their communities membership. Since August 2020, the four communities have created 19 live-streamed events and 101 videos with 1,615 participants. 

Using Worldplay’s Vidflex™technology, Calgary’s TELUS Spark and Edmonton’s TELUS World of Science are now offering educational and entertaining programs including their virtual summer camps, which kept young Canadians engaged throughout 2020’s summer break, and will be used again during Spring Break and the summer period in 2021. The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival also leveraged the platform in 2020 to host the festival virtually. 

"Thanks to the generous support of TELUS, we’ve been using the Vidflex platform since early spring and we love it,” said Megan Dart, Communications Specialist for the Edmonton Fringe Theatre. "It’s been such an incredible asset as we transition our creative efforts to engage with a broader digital audience. We’re really excited to see how we can grow our skills and expand our offerings on the platform."

Alberta’s Cochrane Alliance Church is using the platform to connect with their community virtually throughout the Covid-19 pandemic by broadcasting virtual services and prayer meetings online. Today, congregants can stream the service online and in the near future, Optik TV customers will have the option to tune into a specific channel and watch the service from their television. By going virtual the church has helped curb the spread of Covid-19 while connecting with people beyond the Cochrane community, growing their congregation.

“What intrigued us about the Vidflex platform was the capacity it gave us to build our own video library which would keep people on our website, instead of directing them elsewhere,” said Jason Koleba, former Lead Pastor, Cochrane Alliance Church. “This meant our own TV channel which would be uniquely tied to our own brand where people could watch archived sermons."For businesses, the opportunities to produce tailored content for their partners and customers are endless, such as virtual conferences, video training and onboarding, and secure, private communication channels for live and recorded video town hall meetings, internal company updates, investor communications, board meetings, and AGMs.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is a dynamic, world-leading communications and information technology company with $15 billion in annual revenue and 15.4 million customer connections spanning wireless, data, IP, voice, television, entertainment, video and security. At TELUS, we leverage our world-leading technology’s potential to enable remarkable human outcomes. Our long-standing commitment to putting customers first fuels every aspect of our business, making us a distinct leader in customer service excellence and loyalty. TELUS Health is Canada’s largest healthcare IT provider, and TELUS International delivers the most innovative business process solutions to some of the world’s most established brands.

Driven by our passionate social purpose to connect all Canadians for good, our deeply meaningful and enduring philosophy to give where we live has inspired our team members and retirees to contribute $736 million and 1.4 million days of service since 2000. This unprecedented generosity and unparalleled volunteerism have made TELUS the most giving company in the world.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com, follow us @TELUSNews on Twitter and @Darren_Entwistle on Instagram.

About Worldplay

Worldplay (Canada) Inc. is a disruptive global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company and leader in video management that provides customers with innovative video technologies to teach, entertain and share. Worldplay’s technologies are used around the world by organizations building digital communities in critical sectors such as health care, education, business, faith, sports and entertainment. Worldplay’s technologies are developed through a human-centered design approach, innovating to meet the needs of organizations and consumers both today and into the future.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lena Chen
TELUS Public Relations
[email protected]

Brett McConkey,
Chief Commercial Officer
Worldplay (Canada) Inc.
[email protected]
403-705-0818