16.03
2009

An Open Letter To Christian Leadership Conferences…

Last week I was talking to a friend about Life, Leadership, Faith and Culture. He mentioned in passing that his wife has put the Kibosh on them spending any more of their family budget on Christian Leadership Conferences.

Her words – “You’re just NOT going to learn anything new there.” She may be right. Something seems a little broken these days.

It seems that the more and more Leadership Conferences pop up, the more and more they seem pretty much the same (despite some really cool and catchy titles).

So. I would like to offer to all those Conference Makers out there a few ideas that might help us drop our $250 hard earned (or tithe earned) dollars on Their Leadership Conference Thing.

Don’t charge $250. There are way too many Christian Companies / Publishing Houses / Camps / Resources that would pay a good chunk of change to have presence at your thing. You are Way Too Smart and there are Way Too Many Ways to be Free or Cheap and still turn a Profit. InStyle magazine doesn’t charge me $20 to fill my magazine full of Ads. They charge me $1 and fill it full of ads. (and by me – I mean my wife…I swear)
Bring us FRESH voices. The Strategy of getting “Those Big Name Speakers” that everyone else wants to hear is a flawed platform rooted in diminishing returns. It’s great for those first couple of conference that “land” them, but past that, I can see them anywhere – you are no longer Unique by having them.
Your FRESH VOICES need to be more than Successful White Males. I understand that you are not trying to have ONLY White Male voices, but for someone who’s not trying – You’re Really Good At It! I know you’re not trying to make a a STAEMENT…but you are. And we pay you too much of our hard earned / tithed dollars for you to make the excuse that you just don’t know where to find THOSE OTHER VOICES. Try harder. We believe you can.
Decentralize. It’s seems ODD that you can host a conference on Multi-Site Churches, but YOU still make everyone come to One Location. Remember – we are not just paying for YOUR DEAL :: We pay for Airfare, Hotel, Meals, and a night of Team Building at Dave and Busters. You could cut our costs significantly by doing Smaller Regional Events.
Ditch The Old Format. We don’t HAVE to have the Big Opener, the Give Away, the Hypeman Host, and the Big Speaker. There are several cats taking ground in this area. But the Old Format of Session / Break / Session / Lunch / Breakout / Break / Session is a little played out. Maybe you could try Breakout / Break / Session / Lunch / Session / Break / Breakout...I don’t know, I’m just Spitballing here…
Define YOUR UNIQUE Thing. Speak to THE THING that ONLY YOU can Speak To and YOU WILL have an Audience. What is Your Deal? What is your Unique Niche? What is your Holy Discontent. Find that. Say that. Stick to that. And people WILL come. Kevin Kelly’s Long Tail makes that clear. The Buck Shot of Speakers and Topics is entertaining, but there’s very little that’s Sticky about that, and even less that is Transformational.

So. There it is. For the 0.0081% of you that read this and are Responsible for planning Conferences – Maybe this will help. But for the rest of us :: we’ll keep holding out, shopping around, expecting more, and filling our closets with this year’s Swag Filled, Conflict Free, Hemp Messenger Bag (which my MacBook fits perefectly into, btw. Thanks again for that!).

Your Turn :: Thoughts? Who’s doing well when it comes to this stuff and WHY?

Spread the Love:

Comments (844Comments2009-03-16+18%3A59%3A42Jarrett)

human3rror, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 7:01 pm

dude. this is money. RT FTW.

Phillip Gibb, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 7:10 pm

reading this, not planning a conference(most likely never)
but I completely agree with you
I still have the Free Cars DVD I got from Drive06 – will keep it for when my son is old enough to watch. Landed under my seat after some crazy person threw it at me from the stage. ha ha ha.

nice one
RT'd

Milan Ford, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 7:23 pm

digging the decentralization point.
and of course – adding some color to the lineup would be great too

just don't ask us to sing or dance please.
we're a little tired of that. there's so much more…

Bobby Shirley, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 7:24 pm

I'm not real huge into the whole Christian Leadership Conferences, but you make some awesome points!! RT

Tripp Crosby, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

I'm currently doing creative work for 3 different christian leadership conferences. And, while I agree with a lot of what you wrote here, I think you'll be amazed at some of the new things we are attempting this year. For instance, we are using lasers. We will a live giraffe in the lobby. And, each speaker is going to have a sweet motion graphics title package. So…..

Seriously, thanks for this insight. We (conference people) probably agree more to an extent that is greater than our insight on how to switch things up.

Milan, I agree. I want to start seeing black churches hire white praise bands to do their special music.

Tripp Crosby, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 7:55 pm

that second paragraph should not have the word "more" in it

NateWilliams, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 9:25 pm

Great commentary on conferences. You always challenge my thinking… love it.

Tripp what conference has the live giraffe? I need to sign up for the triple uber super early bird registration today so I can get the discounted rate of $500

Jimmy Spencer, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

As a "new voice" out in the leadership world.. I sent out my info to leadership conferences– and realized that people bring in to types- Big Names, and then fill the rest of the sessions with their friends.

The door is essentially closed to new thoughts.

American Christianity is much more about pedigree's and who knows whom– than about getting innovative thinkers and speakers on stage– and this is a direct reflection of how our churches operate in general — we've become the modern day temple gatekeepers– using the system for our benefit…

People arent bad hearted- and I really believe that. But the finding new and innovative voices takes risk– and that is probably a bit too much to ask for an event that needs to generate revenues…while the speakers themselves have little reason to collaborate with others who will simple take stage space away from them…I have actually found few leaders willing to collaborate — there are a few shining stars out there with warm hearts–leaders committed not to building an empire– but catalyzing Kingdom growth– God Bless them

We can do better– we must do better –if we want to be relevant in 5 years.

Good thoughts Jarrett.

Marty Schmidt, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 11:16 pm

I'll throw thesticks conference – http://www.thesticks.tv as one that is doing some of the things you have mentioned. They identified their thing – Small and Rural Towns, they decided to go regional offering the same conference three times – they kept the cost down – they brought in a couple known names but introduced me to some other guys that were freaking awesome.

David Osborne, says:

March 16th, 2009 at 11:58 pm

Thank you so much for addressing the lack of diversity issue! I'm a leader in a 8k membr AfAm church;there are millennial black church leaders who have felt this way at Catalyst, Orange,etc. We Exist! And have significant relationships into prominent black churches and prominent leadership experts like you wouldn't believe! No name dropping here; we have value to add beyond Barack Obama. http://www.bacharcreatelead.com

Jimmy Spencer, says:

March 17th, 2009 at 1:20 am

The 7 conference is actually trying to do some stuff your talking about also– they are haveing a two day conference for $15– that pretty cool….and it includes lunch. Its in SoCal and the guys behind it are trying to make it accessible to everyone– which is admirable.