Create Conference 2008

Put the date in your diaries…. Create will be on again Saturday 14th November 2009.  Stay tuned for more details.

Judith Atkins

Over at my blog I have posted a list of links to the websites I mentioned during my seminar. Click here to view the list (and perhaps add some suggestions of your own). It was great to see so many people at the conference, and to chat with lots of you. I look forward to continuing the conversation as to how we can do our best to promote Jesus.

Steve Kryger

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday and hope you enjoy the day!

The top 100 websites in Australia (according to Alexa) are listed below. You can view the list with descriptions and links at the Alexa website. (Warning: whilst I’ve tried to check the descriptions and warn against unhelpful content, please exercise appropriate caution).

This list is only a snapshot of what Australians are looking at on the internet today. What does this list reveal about Australians? How might this affect how we minister to them and share the Gospel with them?

1. Google Australia
2. Google
3. Yahoo!
4. Windows Live
5. Facebook
6. YouTube
7. Ninemsn
8. EBay.com.au
9. Myspace
10. Wikipedia
11. Blogger.com
12. News.com.au
13. Microsoft Network (MSN)
14. The Sydney Morning Herald
15. Bebo.com
16. Real Estate Australia
17. Microsoft Corporation
18. Flickr
19. Commonwealth Bank of Australia
20. WordPress.com
21. The Age
22. The Internet Movie Database
23. Telstra BigPond
24. EBay
25. SEEK
26. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
27. ANZ - Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited
28. Photobucket image hosting and photo sharing
29. RedTube (warning: I think this might have explicit content)
30. Amazon.com
31. RapidShare
32. Australian Bureau of Meteorology
33. Mininova
34. BBC Newsline Ticker
35. Westpac Banking Corporation
36. Adult Friendfinder (warning: this doesn’t look helpful either)
37. National Australia Bank
38. Apple Computer, Inc.
39. Ask.com
40. Baidu.com
41. NSW Government
42. PartyPoker.com
43. Domain.com.au
44. Friendster
45. About
46. Carsales.com.au
47. Pornhub.com (warning: this doesn’t look helpful either)
48. LiveJournal
49. Youporn.com (warning: this doesn’t look helpful either)
50. XE.com
51. CNN - Cable News Network
52. Optuszoo.com.au
53. QQ.COM
54. Go
55. sina.com.cn
56. Adobe
57. VnExpress
58. St. George Bank
59. Victoria Online
60. Fastclick
61. Gumtree
62. Cricinfo
63. CareerOne
64. Orkut
65. 6park.com
66. YourTV
67. AWeber Systems
68. GameSpot
69. ImageShack
70. The Trading Post
71. Code2win.com
72. IGN
73. DeviantART
74. Optus.com.au
75. Reference.com
76. Emailcash
77. IsoHunt
78. Megavideo
79. Australian Stock Exchange
80. Answers.com
81. Yellow Pages
82. Mycareer
83. Queensland Government
84. White Pages Online - Australia
85. EzineArticles.com
86. The Pirate Bay
87. RSVP
88. CNET Download.com
89. Qantas Airways
90. Whirlpool Broadband News
91. Hi5
92. ESPN Sportszone
93. Googlesyndication.com
94. Tagged
95. Vmn.net
96. Clicksor
97. The New York Times
98. Tabcorp
99. Tube8.com
100. RuneScape

Steve Kryger

I have the privilege of sitting next to some smart gents this Saturday as part of the Arriving and staying on the web panel session, and one of the ideas I’d like to throw out there is the idea of turning your website inside out.

What I mean is this: say you were after a copy of the Rolling Stones’ Flowers album (hey, it’s got Ruby Tuesday on it, what a great song). Where would you go to get it? These days you might shop at iTunes, or Amazon, or countless other online avenues. Or you might scour some second-hand music stores. No doubt you would go to where music is available for sale.

Now say you had a copy of that album to sell. Would you keep it on the shelf and hope someone will knock on the door and ask to buy it? Unless your house is a famous music museum, you’re probably going to take out an ad somewhere where you know people will read ads for music to buy. Or maybe you’ll take it to the second-hand music store to sell. The point is: you would go to where people are who would want to buy it, to tell them about it.

Obvious? In my line of work, I often find that people build websites assuming that others will knock on their door to buy that album, then (understandably) get discouraged when it doesn’t sell.

Go to where people are

In ministry we’re given the great commission by Jesus to take His gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19). I think that attitude of going to where people are with the Gospel can apply to websites: we can take the content of our websites to where people are already congregating.

There are so many websites around these days that thrive on communities sharing their content with each other. Whether it’s for fun, like photos and videos on facebook, MySpace and flickr, or to make a coin, like on Etsy or Threadless.

There are loads of opportunities for creative thinking to take our church websites’ content ‘out of the house’ and into the street to where people can see it, engage with it, share it, have a conversation about it — be it to promote events, sermon MP3s, Bible study notes, topical articles — whatever you and your ministry have a passion for.

Ben

I am running a seminar called, for want of a better name, Wayne’s World.  Basically it’s a ramble on all kinds of unrelated issues, a little bit on everything and a lot on nothing. I get phone calls or emails literally every day from friends in ministry, co-workers and even strangers, asking me all manner of technical questions, and this seminar is my FAQ.  In 1 hour  I am going to try to answer (almost) every question I have been asked. Of course, we will run out of time, so here the top 15 I was thinking of covering. 

1. Speech recognition on the Macintosh and PC does it work? Should I bother?
2. How do I not wreck my battery? laptop, phone, camera, ipod, what’s the difference?
3. Basic PA (what is a microphone,  amplifier,  speaker, and much should I spend on them?)
4. What is a good powerpoint remote control?
5. How do I plug my computer into a PA sounds system? (What is a DI box? What’s the difference between plugging in a computer or a microphone?)
6. Podcasting - what it is and how do I do it?
7. How do I record and compress a sermon for the web? 
8. Introduction to VOIP and why it sounds so bad so often.
9. Using smartboards for School scripture.
10. Putting video on the web or in keynote (what format,  what quality, How to put a video on youtube)
11. What is a continuous inking system on an inkjet printer?

To those people intending to enroll in my seminar. Which of these tickle your fancy? Which turn you off? What else would you like to know?

I am hearing that group registrations are strong. This is great news! I am guessing that within your church group, there are people with different skill sets and interests. You will have selected your Create Conference program accordingly, desiring to be a better writer, video producer, web designer, graphic designer, event manager or ideas generator. Whilst these sessions are being run in isolation, in practice creative disciplines work closely together in teams. I work with writers, web developers, photographers, illustrators and strategic thinkers on a daily basis. It is not just about complementary skills, but about sharing and evaluating ideas. We don’t even have to be precious about who does what. Dare I say it but who says a writer can not have input into the layout of an advertisement, or that a graphic designer can not come up with a great copy line. Working in teams is exciting and rewarding. How much more exciting when our aim is to communicate the gospel and what a ‘key message’ we have – God’s love for us in Christ! 

Recently I came across this video (click the link below to view):

What if Starbucks marketed like a church? A parable.

It’s cheesy, it’s American, but offers some interesting (and humorous) insights into church culture. It got me thinking - what is the experience of people who walk through the doors of my church for the first time?

Perhaps you might like to ask yourself the same question - when people come to my church (or interact with the ministry I’m involved in):

What do they think?

What doesn’t make sense to them?

What is confusing?

What is off-putting?

What elements of Christian sub-culture have unnecessarily snuck into our churches and ministries that are a barrier to people spending time with us and coming to know Jesus?

Steve Kryger

Speaking of the US election, here are some interesting links related to the way marketing was used during the election:

• Marketing lessons from the US election
• McCain v Obama on the web
• Obama’s viral marketing campaign
• Election marketing sucks

Credit goes to Church Marketing Sucks for this list of links.

What are your reflections on the successes and failures of the election-themed marketing?

Steve Kryger

It takes a nice bit of writing to make a professional copywriter blub like a baby.

But that’s what happened to me yesterday afternoon when I heard President Elect Obama talk last night. IN front of all my work colleagues. How embarrassing.

Mr Obama didn’t have a lot of body movement. Didn’t show a lot of emotion. But he did choose his words very very carefully. That speech ticked every box of in the copywriter’s check list. I’ll name a few, but I’d be very interested to see what people can add to the list.

1. It was addressed to people personally - it was about them. It began with “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible…” A lot of the speech used the second person.

2. Kept his theme: America’s capacity for change. In a way, he’s given this message at least 1,000 times over the last four years. Six months ago it was “Change we can believe in.” Six weeks ago it became “Change we need.” On his night of victory it was “Yes we can.” On the way out of the park, The Economist reports, people were giving out T-Shirts that read “Yes we did.” The words have changed to keep things fresh, but the theme has stayed true.

3. He won empathy by admitting that the opposing view (that of John McCain) had much to its credit. As a wise man has said, “A small admission wins wide acceptance.”

4. It had a good story about an individual. Here’s how it began: “This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.” As he told that story all you could hear besides was the sound of 250,000 people holding their breath.

5. He was visual. Here’s one example of many: “Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.” Not clever words. Not witty. But visual. The mind does the work and our hearts follow.

If the man is as good a President as he is a communicator, we may be in for a new Golden Age.

Matt