I am glad to be able to bring to convention and conference planners, exhibitors, and those interested in church ministry and Christian conventions, a central place where we can share ideas, ask questions, and share the mission of Church Ministry Conventions Network, or to be known as “CMCN”. It’s exciting to use today’s technology to communicate to one another! I hope to hear from you all soon!
ON LINE DOCUMENTS
Today’s post is going to include some information about planning a conference. From our experience as a collective board, we find that our biggest challenge is getting responses back from speakers, presenters, exhibitors and others invited to participate. With today’s computer technology, you virtually do not need to spend your budget on printing and postage. This consumes a huge portion of most conventions’ budgets!
If you convention has a web site and a web-savy “webmaster”, consider posting your forms, letters and contracts in a “portable document format”, better known as “PDF”. Or, better yet, see if your web site is capable of handling on-line registration. This would allow your speakers, workshop leaders, exhibitors and others invited to participate, to fill out a “form” on your web site and send it directly back to an email account. This could be arranged with your webmaster.
One area that many conventions are faced with is on-line payments. If your convention does not accept Visa or MasterCard for payment, you would need to make arrangements with you financial institution. Or, consider using the new tool called “Pay Pal”. I personally know individuals who use this for their business and it works very well. There is no charge for set-up, just go to the PayPal web site for more information.
As our weblog evolves, and I learn more about working with one (!), I hope we can cover many more subjects on a regular basis.
April 9, 2007 at 2:36 pm
This is great Dale. What a blessing to convention planners and all those who participate in them. Now we have a place to meet, share ideas, help one another and help ourselves by finding answers and ideas. This is great. If there is anything I can do to help a fellow planner, workshop leader or resource provider please feel free to ask. God bless CMCN and especially you Dale for you great service to all of us.
April 26, 2007 at 4:46 pm
This is a great idea. I proposed something similar for cmcdenver before we disbanded, but it never got off the ground.
Having served for over 15 years as the administrator for the Denver Christian Ministries Convention, I may have some insights to offer here. I will try to check this site often to see what exciting things are happening in conventions across the country.
Keep up the great efforts on behalf of Christian training through conventions.