Pics from the Week

A few pics from the past week.

Interview with Scott Harrison from charity: water

Got a chance to recently interview Scott Harrison, the founder and president of charity: water, a leading organization providing clean water to people around the world. Founded in 2006, charity: water has already raised over $10 million to help fund clean water projects, wells, and filtration in locations all over the globe. You might know charity: water from the connection in 2008 with American Idol as part of Idol Gives Back. Scott’s story and ultimately the story of charity: water is inspiring.

You can listen via the Catalyst website or download from itunes.

Producing Events Part Two

Part two of the three part series on producing events.

4. Find talent everywhere. If you can’t hire someone full-time, then bring em in as a consultant, or at least just for a day to bring fresh ideas and different perspective. When you live in the middle of planning and producing every day, it’s good to have someone from the outside.

5. Understand the difference between producing, directing, and leading. For Catalyst, each of these roles are different people. And they require different kinds of people. (more on this later) It’s important to not just have the same person filling these strategic areas, unless your event is basic and not in need of a comprehensive production team.

6. In programming, focus relentlessly on transitions. Many times producers focus so much on the speaking, or the key production parts, that they leave the transitions to chance. It’s essential to have transitions that are seamless, experiential, and connect with the audience.

Part three coming on Saturday.

Interview with Joel Houston about i-heart film

My good friend Joel Houston is leading the charge on a great project called The I-Heart Revolution. As part of this project, a feature film will be releasing next Wednesday, November 4 in 500 theaters across the US entitled “We’re All in This Together.” Blogged about this last week. You can buy tickets here.

Hear from Joel regarding the reason behind the film and what he hopes to see as a result of thousands of Churches and leaders unified together.

Producing Events- Part One

I’ll be doing a three part series this week on some of the basics behind producing great events.

So here you go, part one:

1. Content is king. It all starts with content. Without great speakers who can deliver, you’re climbing uphill.

2. Know your audience. Aim small in terms of your audience. Be VERY specific in terms of who you are creating an experience for. Aim big, miss big. Aim small, miss small.

3. Creativity many times requires conflict, complication and frustration. Everyone wants to know how to deliver creatively. But getting there is many times a course in patience, conflict resolution, and many hours of frustration. Great ideas and creative programming is the result most of the time of healthy tension and debate over many months. It’s a process.

Part two coming on Wednesday of this week.

End of Week Links and Highlights

A few end-of-week thoughts, highlights, links and notes of interest: 

- Vote now for Jamie Tworkowski, a good friend and Catalyst speaker, and founder of TWLOHA, to win the Woodie Award from MTV, given to an artist who is helping impact our generation through social causes. 

- Watch this interview with Mac Powell at Catalyst regarding adoption and the importance of the Church to lead on this issue. 

- Have you visited Lanny on Leno yet? Check it out. Still time to be involved in this campaign to get Lanny Donoho on the Leno Show. Tweet it up and put on your Facebook status. Not just for fun, but to help build awareness for the 143million Campaign. 

- Pebble Beach is heaven on earth. Got to spend a couple of days there earlier this week. 

- Phil Wickham’s new CD is really good. It releases middle of November. Thanks Phil, for sending me an advanced copy!

- The Catalyst Music Project album is now on itunes. You can download here. It released in the top 15!

- Working on the final speaker lineup for Catalyst West Coast. Wow, it’s hard to narrow down to the final lineup. Will be releasing the lineup in the next couple of weeks. 

- The Catalyst One Day event in Baltimore is officially sold out. Actually has been sold out for the last three weeks! Gonna be a blast to finally take Catalyst to the Northeast!!

- Got to hang earlier this week with the great folks from Alpha and Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. They were all in Orlando for the Alpha USA Conference. The Alpha course  has impacted millions around the world.

Hillsong United's i-heart film on November 4

Hillsong United’s brand new film “We’re All in This Together” will release on Wednesday, November 4 here in the USA, with a one-night viewing of the documentary film along with a live concert with the United band from Hillsong Church in Sydney. The film is being shown in over 500 theaters across the USA. Buy tickets and check availability in your area here. 

You won’t want to miss this experience. It will be an epic evening