Comment here on General Breakouts...



Share your thoughts, your questions, and your reactions.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sitting on the floor at "The DNA Of Effective Brainstorming". Question...if you limit the attendance of each breakout by issuing tickets, why are there about 20 of us on the floor? Is this bad chair-planning? Or maybe it's our fault...maybe people have snuck in here that don't have tickets...no one checked mine at the door...

Ray Pelletier said...

Hey paul, so sorry you are on the floor! Actually, we have chair planning experts who live for things like making sure there are the exact number of chairs for what we need (we even rent extra chairs to make sure all is covered). But, like you said, if there is a breakdown in the ticket collection system, then it doesn't really matter if we had enough chairs to begin with.

Again - sorry about the floor.

Anonymous said...

The "Wanted Gifts and Passions" breakout was exceptional. I was anticipating something cliche, but it was effective and helpful for even the most seasoned of worship volunteers. Thank you for such great programming.

Anonymous said...

Rachel that Dance girl was great! I am pretty inept at being able to communicate with my dancers and she pointed me in some great new directions: Biggest takehome? Study the history of Liturgical Dance...guy named Davies has a great book apparantly...You know? posting your biggest takehome might be good here since sometimes its just a nugget that you need. And since there were so many breakouts that I could not attend maybe you all could help me out by following suit. Up next...got blog. A comfort zone after the dance one :)

shawn said...

"Being a Worshiper" with Helena was outstanding! She really spoke to the heart of what worship is and what our focus as worship leaders should be. Then she lead us in one of the most intimate times of worship I have experienced in a long time. Praise God!

Anonymous said...

I have a chair in "B". My posterior is now happy.
The DNA of brainstorming session was very informative. I think the large size of it was a negative, but the speaker handled it very well. Left with some specific tools that I can use immediately, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Sean McDermott said...

I got to listen in with Todd Elliott and Chuck Spong. It was great to listen in on their Production Manager / Producer relationship and how they prepare for effective tech rehearsals.

I am now sitting downstairs getting ready to learn about the basics of copyrights.

Will check in later.
~SEan

Anonymous said...

Loved the guys from The Journey Church in NYC! It was such a helpful session and I am so glad I went! Thanks guys...

Anonymous said...

well done...the guys from Journey were very helpful and provided wonderful scriptural insight into why they plan the way they do.

Wayne Cordova said...

I had to walk out of the DNA of Effective Brainstorming. There were no seats and much of the interaction was happening with the people at the tables.

My problem was that I had no idea the Renaissance Hotel was no so close to Willow. I offered to drive someone there and was about 30 minutes late to the session.

The map was not helpful because it made it seem like everything was close.

When I arrived to at Willow... I asked 3 volunteers before I could actually get a clear answer to where B100 was.

I arrived... just in time to get an outline and have no idea what was going on.

Oh well... there's more sessions to see.

Anonymous said...

THOROUGHLY enjoyed Vocal Artistry for Worship. Great, non-traditional approach and I especially enjoyed the way that Tim allotted time to put some of his concepts into practice for us.

TheEpicBeat said...

Kem is doing a great job edumacating folks on "what is a blog?"

Anonymous said...

Mark Miller is talking about requirements for a great brainstorming meeting ... one of the components is to visually display the ideas that are developed as you progress through a meeting. A couple of weeks ago, our team came up with [what I, as their leader, think is] a great idea. We're planning to cover all of the 8-foot tables that we use for our Weekend Design Team meetings with rolls of butcher paper to allow people the chance to scribble ideas, be artistic, etc throughout the course of the meeting.

Any other creative ways to put all of the ideas/philosophies from breakouts into practice??

Adam said...

I was attending the DNA of Brainstorming as well. Arrived a bit late and ended up on the floor too (same as paul j). Felt as though arriving late did me in because I couldn't track with the teacher. Couldn't see his visuals because of the size of the room and the number of heads I had to split from the floor just to try seeing the teacher. I left a half-hour into the session. Oh well...maybe I'll catch the recorded media once it's available.

Wayne Cordova said...

Mark Miller did a fantastic job!

This made up for what I missed at the Brainstorming DNA.

Definitely lots of great nuggets to take away!

Anyone wish that other people on your staff could've been there with you so that they would understand when you hand them all random objects?

Anonymous said...

“Get Cultured” was great! Efrem Smith was such a funny, motivating speaker. I’ve talked to several people who say they are so excited about meeting up with their groups to share the information they’ve learned with their leaders. It was nice to hear that other churches struggle with transitions and that my church is not the only one.

Anonymous said...

OH...MY...GOODNESS...
"The Curse Of The White Suburban Worship Leader" was AMAZING!
If you didn't go to this seminar, go to the bookstore and buy the CD!!!!

adam hann said...

The stage presence and communication session was great. Tim did a great job at coaching and pointing out some great ideas about singing/communicating from the stage.

Looks like "The Curse Of The White Suburban Worship Leader" was a good one. Is the CD the recording from that session?

Wayne Cordova said...

who did "The Curse Of The White Suburban Worship Leader"session? I'm trying to find it to order.

Anonymous said...

Sandra Van Opstal did 'The Curse of the White Suburban Worship Leader.'

Anonymous said...

I have really enjoyed the breakout sessions--I mostly attended drama-oriented sessions-- I learned something that I could apply in my own drama ministry, for sure. I just wanted to say that I would have liked to start and end the sessions (general and otherwise) with prayer and have more of a focus on God. Yes, we are active in Creative Arts Ministries and believers. However, I think we need to focus on the fact even more that God gave us these gifts and what we do is all about God. What an incredible blessing this conferencce has been. And it isn't over yet:) Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

My experience in the breakouts specifically in Vocal Arts was great. Tim Carson was an excellent teacher and coach and had some great tips and suggestions for the untrained vocalist. I wish there would have been more examples of application of the techniques he taught in ministry. Most of the video clips were of secular artists, and situations. All in all, I learned many things that I will be able to take back to our church and show others on our team. I also would have liked ( in general ) to spend some more time in Praise and Worship since most of us spend our time in our churches on stage or behind the scenes and dont get to fully particpate. Anyone else feel that way?

Pam Howell said...

I stopped by 'Art for the Heart & Soul' as one group was leaving and another group was assembling. I was intrigued by the art that was created during the session. I saw some beautiful pieces. It would be great to hear from those of you who participated - is there a story behind what you created?

Anonymous said...

"stage presence and communication session": I'm interested in classroom notes, anyone?

I did two vocal tracks, and loved the first, but it was an overview of everyting to come. We started session 2 in the same exact way, with shoulder rubs from those on our left and right doing vocal scales.

For people with back problems (a lot of us), that just risky when you are singing and can't give feedback for what is painful for people you don't know. I left when I realized he was going to doing it again and didn't fill out an evaluation OWWWW!!!!

...I think it would be a good tip to pass on to Tim. He's an awesome teacher, but that threw me over the edge.

I would have loved to have seen session 4--he'd emailed us all ahead of time and asked for voluteers to do live evals with. So cool to listen to him take a person from one level to the next in a series of three or four tries. Very cool opportunity...so thankful for those who prepared tracks and let us watch them be evaluated.

Anonymous said...

I found the main sessions inspiring, but it was the breakout sessions that really made the conference worthwhile for me. I was in the writing track. The short drama workshop was top notch, I only wish there had been some sort of networking sheet where we could all trade emails and then pass out a copy of the completed form to take home. It seems a shame that after assembling all these writers from around the globe, each of whom has some experience or questions about writing drama for church services, that we couldn't better harness the opportunity.

Still, the conference, my first at Willow Creek, was incredible. A heartfelt thanks to all who planned and participated!