Conference

I don't think I'll be going to a conference this year, at least not until at least late fall. But if I could go to one I would go to the Whiteboard Sessions. Such an interesting concept and some amazing leaders. Sounds awesome. Maybe next year. JM

Catalyst

I went to Catalyst two years ago. It was okay, but a lot of the speakers didn't really resonate with me. It seemed like it was a lot of "Go get 'em tiger" stuff. I think it's changed. The lineup this year was awesome. It's gotten bigger, but they do it in the round now, so it probably doesn't feel as big. I'll have to go next year. Too bad I missed it this year, but the National Youth Workers' Convention is in Atlanta this year, so I felt like I needed to spend my conference money on that instead. JM

Granger Regional Workshops

I registered 4 people tonight for the Granger Communications workshop that's coming to Atlanta. I'm really excited about it. Should be a good time. The information we learn will probably translate better to our situation than the Newspring Unleash conference that several of our staff went to last week. Hopefully we can learn a lot and integrate it into what we're doing to improve it. JM

Granger Regional Workshops

Everybody always seems so gung-ho to go to big conferences. I love them, too. But I think it's way more cost effective when great conferences come to you. This year Atlanta will get several, but two that I am majorly interested in are the National Youth Workers Convention and Granger's Communications Regional Workshop. I'm going to sign up for the communications workshop tomorrow. It's April 24, and if you're nearby, you should check it out. They also have one on first impressions and one on strategic growth.
A lot of people on our staff are going to Newspring's unleash conference. While I think it will be beneficial, I definitely don't think it is worthy of our whole staff going out there. There context is so different from ours. I know we could learn a lot, but it seems as if it would be more cost effective to send one or two people to it to glean the information and bring it back to us. JM