Technology and Social Media Expand Worldwide Reach of General Conference

In addition to the more than 100,000 who participated in the five sessions of the 184th Annual General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, millions more viewed or listened to the sessions in 95 languages via television, radio, satellite, and Internet broadcasts.

While the Conference Center in Salt Lake City seats 21,000 people, the audience for general conference extends around the globe as millions of Church members and others tune in. For more than 50 years, the Church has interpreted the proceedings in numerous languages. Today, technology makes live viewing possible in more than 200 countries around the world.

In addition to broadcasts in local chapels, the Church streams the conference live on LDS.org, BYUtv, BYUtv International, the Mormon Channel, Roku, Facebook, and YouTube. Online viewership during the October 2013 general conference increased approximately 30 percent compared to the previous conference.

Many also participate in general conference through social media. A flood of tweets with the #ldsconf hashtag are posted on Twitter during each of the five conference sessions, making general conference one of the most discussed topics on Twitter at those times. For example, during October 2013, 155,000 tweets relating to general conference were posted. (Each tweet is an individual comment of 140 characters or less.)

Through its official social media channels, the Church posts messages live from the conference in multiple languages, and it encourages others to share those messages. During general conference in October 2013, many additional viewers watched or listened to general conference messages after seeing a post on social media. Posts have been shared in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.