Tag Archive - #ctcdallas

ChurchTechCamp-8 Things To Know If You Want To Help Organize One-Part 3: Collaborative Planning

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals — for example, an intellectual endeavor[1] [2] that is creative in nature[3]—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Collaboration does not require leadership and can sometimes bring better results through decentralization and egalitarianism.[4] In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources.

This is at the heart of ChurchTechCamp. A coming together of people, sharing of their gifts and resources, to bring a greater impact to the Church through the use of technology. This is not something that one person, or one organization can do, but rather is best brought about by a number of people with a variety of gifts.

When planning for a ChurchTechCamp in your area one of the early things to think about is the collaborative nature of the event and who are those people that can get the ball rolling, as well as usher in a presence and demeanor to everyone else on the fringes to participate and give fully of their gifts. Put another way, “Who can help make this a shared event, and not a one or two person show?”

To pull of ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas collaboration was key. It began as I have mentioned before in a Twitter conversation. Tony Steward knew that John Saddington was coming to Dallas and that I was interested in having it in Dallas. So it began as a collaborative effort among the three of us, but was really encouraged by others who commented on the Twitter conversation. We helped organize, but it was the attendees, in person and online, who before and after the event brought the true meaning of collaboration to the event. A few simply helped get the ball rolling, the rest was done by all of you. Thank you to all of them.

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ChurchTechCamp-8 Things To Know If You Want To Help Organize One-Part 2: Unconference

This is part 2 of an 8 part series on ChurchTechCamp (ChurchTechCamp:.Los Angeles, ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas) from the perspective of organizing one, in hopes that others will find some useful information to help organize one near them.

What is an unconference?

It made me realize that what I really want to attend is an “unconference“, where people pay to come and listen to one (or maybe two) keynotes by prominent community members, but then the rest of the time is spent in unstructured hacking sessions, where people cluster and work together on any number of different projects. If people want to stand up at a mic and talk about something that interests them, that‘s fine, but the focus would not be on presentation, but on working on interesting projects.
Unconferences by Jamis of 37 Signals

You can find this quote on the front page of the ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas website.

And that is the intention of ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas. A place where people can gather together, free of charge, no product placement, no one pushing products…and talk about “best practices” in their areas of interest as it relates to church and technology.

Tony Steward from the outset has successfully pushed for an event that is different from all the other events, and one that is free of sponsors and agendas. I think this is what makes ChurchTechCamp unique, and I think it’s a desire for many who have been burned out and overwhelmed by the number of conference, sponsors and fees to attend them.

An “unconference” is grassroots gathering of locals that has implications for a larger mobilization of the church through the use of technology. Not only do you have the opportunity to listen to others share their perspective, but you as an attender have the opportunity to contribute to the conference in the morning sessions, as well as participating in projects along with everyone else in the afternoon. You are more than a face in the crowd, but a participant of the event.

Questions:
What do you think about the philosophy and idea of an “unconference?”

How many conferences will you attend this year? What will be the grand total cost of them?

Are you burned out going to lots of conferences?

If you had to choose 3 conferences to go to this year (in an area of practice), what would they be?

Series:
ChurchTechCamp-8 Things To Know If You Want To Help Organize One-Part 1: It’s Organic

Disclaimer: Tony Steward is the main organizer, facilitator and influence behind ChurchTechCamp:.LA and ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas, I’m simply writing this series from the perspective of helping organize the details (location specifics) for the Dallas event, and hopefully this will be a useful series if you find yourself wanting to or in the position of helping organize one for your city.

2009 Goal of “Taking Online Community Offline” in Progress…

17264693If you have been reading my blog lately you know that I posted a couple of entries related to this post, “Taking Online Community Offline:” What I’m Doing About It And My 2009 Goal.

What is my 2009 Goal?

“meet & have coffee with every person in the DFW metroplex that I’m connected to on Twitter, Facebook or my blog. Cool?”

It began with a simple Tweet on November 14th and has now become a movement into becoming more and more real everyday.

So I’m going to give you all a weekly update (if some of the goal is met)…but let’s see how it goes.

January 7: Though Greg Atkinson is one of my buddies and we hang out on a pretty regular basis, my lunch conversation with him that day was a really great way to start off the year. We talked about some deep issues and I was able to walk away with some newly needed focus in some areas of my life. Greg is an awesome guy and knows everyone in Dallas and all the best Mexican food restaurants. Follow Greg on Twitter. And follow his work with Church 2.0 on Facebook.

January 8: Now this day was too huge, that I’m not going to even try to mention names. I know I will leave someone out on accident and I don’t want to do that. But it was an epic day at ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas. About 78 guys and 2 girls from all over the DFW Metroplex, Oklahoma, etc. Too many conversations to mention each one, but great things came out of it, and you will be hearing more about some of the individuals as we spend time together over this next year. But I will give a shout out to Tony Steward who is the brainchild behind ChurchTechCamp. I don’t get to hang out with him too often, so it was a privilege to watch him in action.


#ctcdallas from Tony Steward on Vimeo.

Later that evening I went over to John Dyer’s house for dinner. If you don’t know John Dyer, then you need to know him and his blog, Don’t Eat the Fruit. It is one of my favorite blogs on technology and the church. I’m learning tons from him. He and his wife were gracious hosts and I enjoyed getting to have dinner with Greg Atkinson, John Saddington, Ben Dyer, Ben Jordan, Rick Smith, Camron Ware and Paul. It was awesome, and I will be hanging with all of these guys throughout the year.

johndyer_rhettsmith_johnsaddington1January 9: Well, 5 days of hanging out with John Saddington aka ChurchCrunch guy came to an end. I met John on line a couple of months ago and we were able to hang out for about 2 weeks from the December 28–January 9. I really enjoyed spending time with John and not only did we have fun, but I was really challenged in a lot of ways in many areas of my life. Even though he lives in Atlanta we have struck up a great friendship…I will definitely be crashing his couch in the future.

Neil Postman, Technology & The Church

I have really been enjoying reading John Dyer’s blog, Don’t Eat the Fruit. John is currently in the middle of a 5 post series “exploring Neil Postman’s lecture ‘Five Things You Need to Know about Technological Change’ as it relates to church life and spirituality.” Here are 3 of the 5 posts he has written so far.

Five Things the Church Needs to Know About Technological Change: (1 of 5) Technology is Always a Trade-Off

Five Things the Church Should Know about Technological Change (2 of 5): Technology Creates Winners and Losers

Five Things the Church Should Know About Technological Change (3 of 5): There is a Powerful Idea Embedded in Every Technology

I love The Church…and I love certain types/aspects of technology. So I’m glad there are people out there like John who challenge us to ask the hard questions regarding not only technology, but how we use it in The Church. This is one of my new favorite blogs and I hope you continue to read his blog as he continues his series.

Looking forward to meeting John in person at ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas (#ctcdallas)

Register for ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas—NOW!

ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas Website

ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas Registration

The Twitter and Blog tag for this event is:
#ctcdallas