Live from Orlando 2006 - Part 1

[Tannerman]

You've read Live from Anaheim 2006... get ready for Live from Orlando 2006! Later today, Amy and I are flying down to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida for another Children's Pastors' Conference. This event starts just 2 weeks after the first event of the season in Anaheim.

Orlando is south, in case you didn't know!

Why are we going? Well, for those who don't know, I'm traveling on behalf of Kidology, as we have a partnership with the organization running these conferences, the International Network of Children's Ministry (or INCM for short). Back in 2004, I coordinated a website relaunch project for INCM (INCM.org) that Kidology spearheaded (back when I was a directionless freelancer -- go figure, that gig helped me become a full-time employee as the Director of Web Operations). Part of our relationship revolves around running an Internet Cafe area at these Children's Pastors' Conferences (or CPCs -- Evangelicals seem to like lots of acronyms!).

Surveys are grouped by session and speaker

In association with another ministry (LifeWay Christian Resource's Centri-Kid & Crosspoint camping division), Kidology is assisting in capturing survey and feedback data from attendees of this conference. We've automated the entire process so that feedback is captured in real-time online.

Questions are asked about each workshop

Basically a conference attendee can experience a workshop or session and then hop over to the Internet Cafe area (which we call the CPC eZone), pull up the survey for that workshop, and provide feedback right away. Results are public, so this keeps the presenters on their toes. In fact, presenters have already looked at the responses from Anaheim and adjusted their workshops accordingly. You couldn't pull off that kind of tabulation and adjustment if this was a paper-driven process, that's for sure! (It probably also helps that we're giving away a video iPod at each of these conferences to one lucky person who has completed a survey).

Get a free membership!

My role is to ensure smooth running of the eZone from the website perspective. Kidology is giving away 3-month trial Professional Memberships to Kidology.org at the conference just for completing an evaluation of the whole conference. Once an attendee signs up for the free trial and completes the evaluation, they are automatically entered to win the iPod. However, every additional survey they complete (for the various workshops and keynote speaker sessions) gives them additional chances to win. So as you can see, we've created a good motivation to provide feedback (last year we gave away laptops at each event).

Can't go to Orlando? Kansas City is still open

Given that the eZone only consists of 15 computers, and we're expecting twice the attendance of Anaheim at the Orlando event (it's been sold out for quite a while), it should be an interesting experience. Probably the largest CPC that I've ever been involved with (though I've only been to 4... Anaheim 2005, Kansas City 2005, Atlanta 2005, and Anaheim 2006). To help handle the demand and still provide INCM with great feedback, we leave all the surveys live for one week after the conference, so folks can fill them out at home on their own time.

Resort has a Southwestern U.S./Mexican theme

For the first time, a CPC event is being held on the grounds of Walt Disney World. This conference is located at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, a hotel complex built in 1997 that is pretty much tailored for events like this. As you might imagine, I'm rather excited to be able to visit both Disneyland and Walt Disney World within a 1 month span of time. I feel very fortunate, blessed, and appreciative for an opportunity to not only do something I like professionally, but also be able to do that stuff combined with one of my interests (Disney theme parks). Amy is coming along on this trip to help run the eZone, as our staffing for various reasons isn't as large as what we had in Anaheim. In addition, we're going to spend a few extra days on property after the conference is over. It will sort of be a mini-getaway to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary, which takes place just a few days after we return.

The name comes from the last three letters in the United name
(Source: FlyTed.com)

We're flying directly from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) down to Orlando International Airport (MCO) via Ted, that airline from United that pretends to be new, innovative, and low-cost, but c'mon.... we all know you are just United with a new paintjob! Here's hoping for a safe flight. I still hate flying!

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[henryjz]

I'd go as extra staffing for the eZone...

[balloonpastor]

Steve -
I'd go too! I'd even twist balloons again - at no extra charge Just let me know if I need to clear my calendar for KC!

Dave