I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be leading a breakout session at this year’s Biola Digital conference June 4-6 at Biola University near Los Angeles. As the conference website states…

The biola.digital conference is designed to empower individuals with the vision, knowledge, and relationships necessary to be thoughtful stewards of digital technologies for the cause of Christ.

Join us as we gather together like-minded people around one primary goal: to understand how we can use digital technologies to accomplish the missions of our organizations. The conference will be organized around three tracks: Education, Strategy, and Theology.

There will be a slew of great speakers and sessions including keynote speaker Michael Hyatt.

My Session: Grand Central

In the last decade, the number of communications platforms has exploded. In addition to print and mass media, we now have websites, blogs, enewsletters, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ plus dozens of other smaller social networks and private social networks. What could be great new opportunities to connect people with your organization often becomes an overwhelming mess of chaos.

In my session titled, Grand Central: Making Your Website a Powerful Hub of Communication, Connection & Growth, I’m going to:

• Show you how to strategically organize all your organization’s communications channels so they all work together to help your organization achieve its mission.
• Teach you how to evaluate any communications platform (even those that haven’t been invented yet) to determine whether your organization should be using it or not.
• Provide you with the key elements of a successful website that attracts new people and inspires them towards ever-increasing levels of engagement.

It starts here, now

In the weeks leading up to the conference, I’ll be blogging about communications strategy and…

• Launching a survey so we can all get a better idea of what organizations are doing well, where they’re struggling and the most pressing communications strategy issues.
• Sharing some of the concepts I’ll be presenting in my session.
• Using your feedback and comments to refine my presentation, including possibly citing quotes and stories you post in comments.

So, what do you think of the conference? Will I see you there?

And what do you think of my topic? Does it resonate with you? Does it sound like it provides a compelling solution to a problem you’re struggling with?

OurChurch.Com will be exhibiting again at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta today through Friday.  Catalyst is a huge conference for young Christian leaders.  The 12,500 tickets have sold out.  Speakers include Andy Stanley, Seth Godin, Beth Moore, TD Jakes, and Francis Chan.

If you’ll be at Catalyst, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  We will be giving away gift cards throughout the conference.  Several times each day we’ll post a codeword on Twitter and Facebook.  The first person who stops by our both with the codeword will get a gift card.  So, after you follow us, be sure to check Twitter and Facebook throughout the conference to win.

I will also be at the Arena Tavern tonight for the Bloggers meet-up.

Stop by our booth and introduce yourself.   We’ll be on the club level, booth #204.

And whether you’re at Catalyst or not, you can get behind the scenes info and interviews at http://www.catalystbackstage.com/

So, who else is gonna be a Catalyst?  What are you looking forward to?

For the second year in a row, Mark and I will be representing OurChurch.Com as exhibitors at the Florida United Methodist Conference.  This year the conference is in Lakeland, FL, and it’s taking place this Wed-Fri.

Once again we’ll be blogging and Twittering from the conference.  Andrew Conard is again organizing Twitter hashtags for the state conferences, and the hashtag for the Florida conference is #flumc.   Sadly it has no recent tweets, but we hope to change that.

To liven things up, we’ll be giving away Chilis gift cards throughout the conference to people who follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  Periodically we’ll Tweet or post to FB that the next person who stops by our exhibit gets a gift card.  So, follow us and check FB and Twitter regularly for a chance to win.

Anyone going to be at the FL UMC conference?  Stop by our booth.

Anyone Twittering from the conference?

‘Tis the season… for Christian conferences.  As I tweeted the other day, it seems like there’s been a Christian leadership or ministry/tech conference going on every day since Labor Day.  I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, the Lutheran Educators Conference, Catalyst, and Cultivate this year.  But thousands of other people who would have loved to be a part of these conferences could not because of the time and cost of travel.

While at Cultivate, Neal Locke saw one of my tweets from the conference and emailed me about the growing trend in virtual conferences.  Take a look at this this video showing a virtual conference…

Pretty wild huh? Could you see yourself participating in a virtual conference like this?

(You can read more on the Virtualis Convention and Learning Center here)

Right now I think virtual conferences are a ways from becoming mainstream because virtual worlds are still a ways away from becoming mainstream.  So, while virtual conferences may reduce the barriers of time and money they introduce new barriers of competency and comfort with the virtual world.

But the number of people engaged in virtual worlds like Second Life continues to grow.

Twenty years ago it would have been crazy to think you could get 10,000 people to sign up for an Internet-only, live streamed Christian leadership conference, but now that most Americans have high speed Internet access and view video online on a daily basis, the Leadership Network was able to pull that off with The Nines conference.

Could it be that in 20 years (or less), the Internet will no longer be primarily a 2 dimensional experience viewing flat text, images, and media, but a 3 dimensional experience?

Clint Runge is the kind of guy who likes 7-11 Mountain Dew Slurpees and Velcro shoes. His saving grace is that he does great creative. As cofounder and creative director of Archrival, a distinguished youth brand strategy and design firm, Runge kicks the tires and lights the fires for clients such as Red Bull, Facebook, SPAM, Colt 45, A&E Network, Walgreens and a host of entertainment brands. He’s won as many awards as he’s had all-nighters with numerous national gold Addy’s, Art Directors Club, Young Guns, AIGA awards and One Show appearances including multiple One Show Pencils. His work has also been featured in publications like Communication Arts, HOW, Print, Graphis, STEP and the One Show Book. Most frightening of all, Runge teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the advertising college.

How his company engages youth…

They study youth culture.
They partner with a company that surveys youth.

Gen Y doesn’t think the same way Gen X does
- Gen X when we were growing up it was all about how I can be different.
- Gen Y is about how can we be different.
- Gen X has an attitude of exclusion
- Gen Y has an attitude of inclusion. What can we do together?
- Shifting from me culture to a we culture.
- Gen Y is more concerned with peer approval.  They distrust ads.  The one thing they can trust is their friends.
- Gen Y success is a balanced life, relationships
- Gen X success is luxury items.
- Gen Y has a huge passion for causes.

Gen Y believes the biggest issue facing their generation is environment, economy is #2, education #3.

Why is the environment #1?  Because it’s easy.  They are “active” by wearing a t-shirt or a wristband & because everyone likes the environment (not controversial).

What media best connects with Gen Y?  Social media.

The “first screen” is their mobile.  Brands ask, how can I get there?

Where is social media going?  People used to hope for their 15 minutes of fame, now they expect it.
- Social mobilization. Ex Dodgeball.  Leave a virtual post-it-note.
- Social networks will get smaller. MySpace & Facebook feel less like our place to Gen Y.
- Virtual worlds like Second Life

How do you target Gen X and Gen Y without offending one or the other?  They don’t care.  If you try to reach both you water down your message and miss even more.

Everyone is trying to get Gen Y’s attention.  You can shout all you want but you’ve got to let them come to you.

You can get people interested in a brand for about 3 months.

Trends suck.  As soon as you figure out what the trend is, you’re just following the trend.

Next generation starts around those born in 1995.  Some think it will be like Gen Y times 10.  Gen Y has been told that they know everything and the world revolves around them.  They are a generation of experts.  Next generation maybe more so.

Gen Ys don’t necessarily want to lead.  They value collaboration more than leadership.

There’s no such thing as brand loyalty to Gen Y.

Young adults are disillusioned by the political system.  Gen Y believe Apple has an opportunity to make a bigger impact on their life than the government.  Gen Y votes with their dollars.  That’s why a lot of companies are jumping on the social cause bandwagon.

Because women are becoming more successful, guys are asking what does it mean to be a guy.  Media spotlights guys as “the lost boy.”  What they find is that guys are actually free to do what they want to do rather than fit gender stereotypes.

There are new life tracking applications now available.  Daytum, Nike Plus, Monthly.info, ships & wrecks documents relationships.  Allows you to look back and see self improvement.

Do the right thing.  Because of the green moment and because of the recession some people are stressing over every decision.  Should I ride the bus or bike?  Should I buy eco-friendly or local?  Gen Y is looking for a moral code to help them make these decisions.

Does social media empower or impair our call to act as the body of Christ? Let’s examine together how we might learn from Christ’s work of applying everyday scenarios as life lessons—in common language, wrapping His message in simple, yet soul-gripping stories.

Ryan Wynia – I lead social brand innovation at a new brand consultancy called Firebone in Chicago. We believe brands begin and end with people.

Joe Dascenzo – Wooer. Futurist. Ideator. Communicator. Activator. A 14-year veteran of the creative industry, my work includes strategic ideation, brand storytelling, and group facilitation and mediation.

Jesus did a bunch of stuff and when a crowd gathered he taught rather than trying to draw a crowd to teach.

Would you rather be going out and telling people about your church or having people come and ask you about it?

How does a church use social media to engage the community?
- FB discussion about message
- Post photos of events, engaging commenters
- Authenticity is what matters most

You’ve never been managing your brand.  People from your church have been treating people imperfectly and talking to people way before the Internet came around.  But now it’s out there for everyone to see and it’s there forever.

Resist the urge to defend and delete.

How are churches using Twitter?
- Tweet event announcements
- Just Bible verses (not a good idea)
- Churches are trying to figure this out since it’s not a person

Integrity and honesty is huge.  This is an opportunity for the church to lead the way.

Online discipleship, building community and outreach are often talked about, but what is working? Come hear case studies, best practices and participate in a conversation about how the web can be used to fulfill our mission.

Drew Goodmanson – CEO of Monk Development + Elder at Kaleo Church

Gabe Taviano – Christian web designer at Taviano.com + blogger at GabeTaviano.com + podcaster at GodsMac.com + disciple at DigitalDisciples.net + husband to @marlataviano

What do you want to help people accomplish with your website?
- We’ve got the website, but how do we get it out there?
- Drew’s research shows that church websites aren’t reaching unbelievers
- 60% of church attenders said the church was helpful with their own evangelsm
- If no one visits your website does it really exist.
- Is the reason websites are ineffective for evangelism is because the content isn’t for unbelievers?

How are we going to gather people?
- 77% of people said the church website was an important factor in their decision to join the church
- 30% of people first heard about a church online
- 20% of content is dedicated to visitors.

How do you do discipleship?
- You don’t want the discussion about the message to be limited to just Sunday
- Old method was forums, new method is Twitter and FriendFeed
- Most online discipleship is learning information

The church is asking itself can it exist entirely online
- We are addressing the whole issue of “presence.”  Does location matter?
- The way people connect is changing and that is impacting the ways churches organized and are governed.

Be passionate and be professional

Vista Community Church on Friend Feed.

The more welcome videos you can do (for each ministry) the better.  Keep them around 1:30 or less.  Also video of changed lives.

Gabe recommended an “Invite a Friend” feature.

Gabe’s church has a form people can fill out saying when they are coming for a visit, that way the welcome staff is ready for them and can meet them.

What can you do to get the leadership of the church to embrace and promote the website?

3 audiences
- Primary audience for homepage
- Secondary audience, people trying to get connected
- Third audience, regulars trying to get resources

Phil Cooke – Writer, Filmmaker, Media Consultant. Founder of Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California and co-founder of TWC Films in Santa Monica.

• There’s an enormous amount of media clutter.
• We’re bombarded by 3,000-5,000 ad messages a day.
• There are two results of this…
• First, content has become shorter.  From books to theater to movies to sitcoms to blogs to YouTube to Faceboook and now to 140 character messages at Twitter.
• Second, we are spending less time creating each media.
• Four questions to consider:
• 1) What are you really trying to do? (with your life, your church)
• 2) How do you deal with ambiguity?
• 3) Are you asking the right questions?
• 4) Stop thinking about how much will it cost and When will it be ready?

Discussion

1) What are you really trying to do? (with your life, your church)

• Argh! Lost my notes from this discussion.
• From our group – Trying to make fully devoted followers of Christ, Trying to communicate more effectively, Trying to redesign our website

2) How do you deal with ambiguity?

• I make things up and hope its true later.
• The gospel is the answer. (Yes, but how do we communicate that to the culture)
• From our group – Stick to your guns, get to the point, stay focused, don’t try to do too many things.

4) What are the right questions?

• What do we need to stop doing as a church?  How do we do less things more effectively?
• Who does this glorify? (You, your ministry, or God?)
• How to we lean into what God is already doing?
• How do people want to be communicated with?
• Are we being purposeful with the tools we’re using? (Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should)
• Am I wasting my time doing what I’m doing?

Spend less time on what is urgent and more time on what really matters.

OurChurch.Com will be an exhibitor at the Catalyst Conference this week in Atlanta Wednesday through Friday.  Catalyst is a huge conference for young Christian leaders.  The 12,500 tickets have sold out.  Speakers include Andy Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, Tony Dungy, Rob Bell, Dave Ramsey, and Francis Chan.

If you’ll be at Catalyst, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  We will be giving away 8 Bonefish/Outback gift cards during the conference.  Several times each day we’ll post a codeword on Twitter and Facebook.  The first person who stops by our both with the codeword will get a gift card.  So, after you follow us, be sure to check Twitter and Facebook throughout the conference to win.

Mark and I will also be at the Bloggers meet-up Wednesday night at the Loafing Leprechaun Restaurant & Pub

If nothing else, stop by our booth and introduce yourself.   It looks like we’ll be on the club level near section 200.

Friday morning I had the opportunity to lead a workshop at the Lutheran Educators’ Conference in Daytona Beach titled “Web Tools for More Effective School Communication.”  I really enjoyed the chance to speak to the room full of teachers and school staff, and I hope I was able to spur them on towards making better use of their websites and giving them some ideas for how to do that.

The interaction in the workshop was fantastic.  With all the ideas that were shared by the participants I feel like I got a lot more out of it than I put into it.  Fortunately, I had Kurt in the workshop with me to take notes.

Here’s an outline from the workshop plus the ideas suggested by the workshop participants…

Education is a team effort. It takes effort from the student, the parents, the teacher, school administrators. With any team, good communication is paramount.

• Example of a football team with poor communication. See football bloopers video.
• Example of school with poor communication.  See test video.

Benefits of using the web to improve communication

1. Prevents miscommunication (misunderstandings)
2. Prevents missed communications (lost papers)
3. Save time – parents can get the info themselves.
4. Saves money – less paper copies.
5. Strengthen relationships. When communication is good and people are “in the loop” they feel more connected, more a part of the team.
6. Increases retention. When people feel connected, they don’t want to leave.

12 ways to use your website to improve communication

School-Wide Communications

1) Put all info for prospective students on the website

• Calendar
• Tuition
• Test book and curriculum info
• Uniforms
• Extra Curricular activates
• School rules
• Lunch Menu
• Staff directory
• Email for teachers
• Pictures of activities
• School philosophy
• Location
• Contact info
• Scholarship info (red text indicates these were suggestions from Paul)
• Application form
• Admissions process
• History of school
• Introductory video
• Virtual tour of school/map
• Commonly asked questions

2) Put all forms and policies on the website.

• Handbook
• Dress code
• Emergency form for athletics
• Permission forms
• Acceptable Use for  (photos and computers)
• Lunch menus
• Field trip
• Driver form
• Insurance forms for parents (field trips)
• Background check form

3) Put all school-wide communications on the website.

• Parent Teach Partner meeting forms
• Special day announcements
• Any paper you send home with students should also be on the website before they leave the school.

4) Email all school-wide communications to parents.

5) Have a calendar on your site and make sure it’s ALWAYS up to date.

• Must be up to date.
• Must include everything.
• If its not up-to-date or doesn’t include everything, people will not trust it and won’t use it.

6) Post & email a weekly note from the principal. Perhaps a blog.

7) Online event registration

• Sign up for extra curricular activities.
• Parent volunteer sign-ups.
• Allows parents to sign up anywhere.
• Helps to organize all sign-ups in one database.
• Prevents handwriting/reading mistakes

8) Pay for tuition, lunch online

Class-Specific Communiations

9) Maintain a class web page.

• Update at least once a week.
• At the very least put each week’s homework assignments and test schedule on it.  Other things can include…
• Syllabus
• Spelling list/memory verses/reading assignments
• Field trip info
• Links to outside resources
• Photo gallery
• FAQs
• Kids blog
• Podcast
• Course Description
• Research paper formats
• Class policies
• Daily schedule
• Teacher/classroom needs list
• Tests online
• AR info or link to online AR site
• Patrol list
• Weekly newsletter
• Phone extension

10) Put all class-wide communications from each teacher online.

11) Email all docs or a link to them to parents

12) Private student pages for grades & progress reports

• See demo at http://www.ourchurch.com/design/adv-access-demo/

Changing the Communication Culture

• It takes consistency.
• It takes communication.
• It takes time.
• Creative incentives help.

Eventually it will catch on because your website will save parents time.

The two biggest reasons schools don’t do these things?

1. Money.
2. Time.

However… not putting all the info parents of prospective students are looking for costs you time and money.  Not putting all forms and policies on the website costs you time and money.

A better website will SAVE you MONEY and TIME.