I have been to my fair share of Christian conferences of all types, techie gatherings, pastor events, leadership weekends and on and on. Some good some bad.
I spent the last few days at the South by Southwest Interactive conference and had my mind blown. I couldn’t help comparing the experience to the pile of Christian conferences I have been to over the years.
Here are a few observations:
Speaker Trumps Content
It’s awesome that you run a company that has revolutionized some type of technology or has been crazy successful or your church’s web or video department has blown the doors off of everyone else. But if you can’t deliver the story in a compelling and engaging way or lead a discussion on it you may as well be talking about what color hymnal your church uses.
I went to a few sessions that were addressing some issues that were really important to me and the panelists and speakers flat out sucked, so I got next to nothing out of it. Evan Williams did a keynote on Saturday that totally flopped because he is a terrible public speaker, I’m sure the content was great but I checked out pretty early.
I went to some sessions that I was drawn to because of the speaker rather than the content and I was blown away every time. Danah Boyd gave the opening keynote and based on the title and description I wasn’t especially excited about it but never the less Danah killed it! I gleaned some great insight from her talk on a subject that I wasn’t really interested in.
Q&A FTW
When it comes to smaller sessions, breakouts and panels it’s all about the interaction. We hear enough talking heads so let’s save that for the keynotes. Some of the best content gets brought out during Q&A time. What’s more; the content that gets talked about is what the audience wants to hear… since they asked. The best session for me was Gary Vaynerchuck who, rather than give a 60 minute monologue, chose to riff for 10 minutes and then opened it up to questions. The content was great and I got some of my best notes of the week from that session.
Party On!
Rarely did I chat with someone at SXSWi without it eventually leading to: ‘What parties are you going to tonight?‘
Sure the content that is being delivered during the keynotes and sessions can be huge for your development, but it’s all about the community. it’s all about the connections. The companies that sponsor SXSWi and the event organizers know this. Serious resources are put into the community experience at SXSWi while the main stage is left pretty naked. At most of the Christian conferences I go to it’s clear where the registration money goes; to the main room in the form of insane lighting, projection, sets and more. All of that makes for a really cool experience, but it is soon forgotten. What stays with us longer are the connections we make.
I highly recommend if you’re in the web space at your church or ministry that you take a look at SXSWi for next year. There is a lot to be learned there.
P.S. The WiFi was awesome at SXSWi too. Always a bad experience being at a conference with jenky WiFi.
1. Reading Vaynerchuk’s book, very interesting, he’s a cool guy.
2. bad wifi at conferences is no good for anybody. Especially the conference! Think of how many more live bloggers Catalyst would have with free wifi everywhere…
vince great mtg you at sxswi!
“party on” resonates w me; i’d love to see a conf flip the amount of resources spent on program in favor of community and see what happens!
I think Echo conference has a lot of potential…they did a few things right last year for community building. Break out sessions needed some help though…not enough open discussion or Q&A.
yeah, WIFI FTW.
This should just go without saying. If you don’t have it, don’t have your conference.
I agree there needs to be some sort of change with Christian conferences. Interesting read.
right. What’s up with Christian conferences having keynote sessions at 7PM? that’s when we should all be heading out for parties and tweetups.
at least have a blogger/tweetup of some sort…
That goes without saying. They’re especially good when they are completely crowd sourced and focused on a specific niche.
Hey Vince:
Great blog post! I totally agree with you! It was awesome meeting you and other fellow Christians in Technology. Keep the relevant stuff coming!
Great meeting you Andre…my guess is we’ll connect again sometime…maybe even at a Churchie conference of some kind
Love the post. I love the communal feel of SXSW (and this is something I sensed without even being there). Definitely need to get there sometime.
In organizing both Idea Camp and !deation, we’ve continue to design it to facilitate mutual learning and creative opportunities for collaboration.
definitely!
John! We should have connected. I was there from Fri-Mon. Next time…
DOH!
I wanted so badly to go to SXSW this year. I watched Gary Vaynerchuk’s entire keynote on Youtube. I agree with all of your observations. I too have attended quite a few Christian Conferences (ie. Catalyst Conference, Orange Conference, Unleash Conference to name a few), and there has been this continuous abrupt conclusion to the experience once the conference ends. Plus I rarely have quality time to network and connect. Most of the time is spent going to and from the restroom, viewing booths, and rushing back to claim your seat before the next session starts. It feels like a typical Sunday at a mega church (lol).
Don’t get me wrong, I love the lights, the camera, and the action, but most Christian Conferences lack the authentic community and tribal feel that I think SXSW has. That feeling that you are a part of something that is ongoing.
Even Hugh MacLeod said that this was his #1 anticipated event of the year. Gary Vaynerchuk blasted tweets about it weeks in advance.
I long for the day that our Christian Conferences become more than just hip, cool events. I would love to attend parties, meetups, and more. And I would really love to leave with lifelong memories and newly-formed relatioships, not just a bag of promotional materials and a butt-load of sessions.
Oh yeah, great post! lol.
word!