Conference Changes

This year we set out to make some changes to our annual convention.  First step was to change the name from the ACS Annual Convention to the Ideas to Impact Conference.  The name change was symbolic of the different things in store for this year’s attendees.  Here are ten things that changed at this year’s meeting:
1. the conference got started on Tuesday evening with a keynote speech by John Ortberg from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.  His talk was on his recent book The Me I Want to Be.
2. each day started with time with the praise and worship group from St. Stephens Church of Louisville.
3. following the praise and worship time, each day started with a different keynote speaker.
4. we had a Harley Davidson motorcycle there (to be explained later).
5. two full tracks of classes dedicated to implementation workshops, taught by church staff who use ACS every day.
6. the technical writing group had a ongoing usability study (125 attendees participated).
7. Dean Lisenby open the IT Roundtable (held on Tuesday) to both ACS and non-ACS churches.
8. we were in Louisville for the first time (I working here to make it to 10 new things).
9. as part of our “Go Green” efforts there was no printed documentation.  All the session material was made available prior to the conference.
10.  a “Let’s Go Stage” the exhibit area with continuous short presentation on new products.  Each new session was introduced by the sound of a motorcycle revving up (thus the reason for the Harley Davidson).
Thanks to John Gilman, Director of Marketing and Russ Fortier, Director of Training and Implementation for their creative work in planning this year’s conference.