30 September 2009

Innovate09 came and went, but left a lasting impression on me.

I'm going to divide this post into two sections: My Role and My Experience.

My Role
This year I was part of a few teams looking into and implementing the following:

1. Live streaming: A first for Innovate. It went off without a hitch and was definitely a big hit. We partnered with LightCast to provide the stream. Setup was a snap and the stream was steady and consistent. People were able to watch all main sessions along with the Innovate Film Festival. We averaged 260 viewers over the 6 sessions.

2. Twitter Feed: We used ParaTweet to pull a feed from the hash tag #innovate09 and presented it on the big screens during breaks and as sessions began and ended. Simple web interface for account creation and tweet moderation along with an Adobe AIR application for presenting on the screens. Worked like a charm.

3. Text Voting: During the Innovate Film Festival we partnered with Jarbyco to offer text in voting for the films (medias) entered in the festival. Worked like a charm as well. People are getting more used to texting every day so the number of people participating was even more significant than it was last year.

A special thanks to those that worked on these projects with me and helped make them a success during the conference. You know who you are :)

My Experience
The great thing is that even though I was nervous and "on call" throughout the conference related to the three projects above, I was also able to fully engage and enjoy the conference as it unfolded.

This year took me places I didn't think I'd go. Collaboration was the name of the game. Never before has there been such synergy between our teams and those attending the conference. The Arts Mashup and the Storyteller sessions brought an exciting new flair to the conference and infused it with the blood, sweat and tears of other churches.

I left feeling part of something bigger - a brotherhood of churches all pulling hard for the Kingdom.

There is definitely momentum building behind this type of collaboration and I can't wait to see where it takes the church.

It was good seeing all of you at Innovate09 - we should do this again sometime...

Don't forget to check out the main sessions on the Innovate09 site if you missed the conference or even if you just want to relive the experience!