Spring Roundtable Information

Here's a single place for all information about the Spring 2007 Church IT Roundtable.  This is definitely a case of "what we know now" and will change as new information is available. 

Summary:  After the success of the Fall 2006 Roundtable, we're doing it again!  Church IT people discussing Church IT issues, PLUS some technology presentations as well as some ChMS presentations and discussions.

Dates: April 16-18, 2007

Location:  Sugar Creek Baptist Church, just outside Houston.  Directions

Host:  Chris McGuffin, IT Director, Sugar Creek

Costs: $25 registration fee

Meals: There are lots of restaurants within a mile or two of Sugar Creek, however, we are very close to having all meals covered by vendors!

Registration: Invitations have been sent to all who have pre-registered.  As of March 5, there are a very few "in the room" seats available, per our earlier Proposal.  In you haven't received an invitation and are interested, preregister here (soon!).  Invitations will be emailed as space permits.

Hotels: Special rates will be available at the Drury Inn, across from the church.  Additional information will be supplied as part of the registration package.  Holiday Inn Express is offered as an alternative, but without the special rates.

Drury Inn & Suites
13770 Southwest Freeway
Sugar Land, Texas, 77478
281-277-9700

Holiday Inn Express
14444 Southwest Freeway
Sugar Land, TX 77478
281-565-6655

Travel: Houston has two airports, depending on what airline you fly.  George Bush Intercontenintal (IAH) and Hobby (HOU).

Directions from IAH (about 43 miles)

Directions from Hobby (about 30 miles)

Shuttle Service:  Super Shuttle Houston, 1-800-258-3826

Schedule (tentative):
April 15, Sunday
Informal Evening meet and greet.  (Location TBD.  Sponsorship welcomed)

April 16, Monday
"Technology day"
Doors open at 6:00 AM for vendor setup.
8:00  Check-in starts, coffee bar open, morning snacks available
8:30  Start of the event; 1st door prize give-away.  (Must be present, so be on time!)
8:40  Greetings and opening (and more coffee)
Vendor sessions throughout the day.  We're still making some arrangements, but have a great list of presenters from companies like VMware, Katharion, Xcentric, ScriptLogic, and there are some other possibilities!
Lunch will be provided, approx noon
We're still looking for a dinner sponsor
Evening: Mark Stephenson - Web-Empowered Church (Mark's book is now available!)

April 17, Tuesday
"Roundtable Day"
8:30  Door Prize #2, must be present to win
8:40  Introductions, Guidelines
9:00  Agenda preparation
9:30  Break
9:40  Roundtable discussions begin
11:00 Break
11:10 Roundtable continues
Noon  Lunch
1:15  Discussion continues
2:30  Break
5:30  Wrap-up and recap
6:00  Dinner (sponsored)
7:00  Guest speaker

April 18, Wednesday
"ChMS day"
6:00  Building opens for vendor setup
8:45  Door Prize #3 (must be present)
Vendor Sessions from 9:00 until 5:00
Vendors include: ACS, Blackbaud, "ChuMMS," Fellowship One, ProclaimCRM, and Shelby Arena

Special Thanks to CDW, CompUSA, MetaGeek, and Zones who are providing door prizes and other give-away items.  Likewise, thanks to many of the presenters and vendors who are helping sponsor meals and other activities.

Comments

[stuart cowen]

Lucky for the Sugar Creek staff - they're going to have the best minds in Church IT in case anyone has a problem for those three days :)

I just might have to make the trip this time. I had the privilege of serving as IT Director under Gary Hill, their Pastor of Administration, at his old church for 6 years.

[stuart cowen]

Sorry, but this isn't a comment to shoot holes in your last post, but I was wondering how to sign up for the roundtable. I haven't seen anywhere to do that. Will you be opening up the registration later like Jason did and accept the first 20?

[Jason Powell]

Just note that as you increase the number of people in a room you increase the sound absorbsion. People don't reflect sound well at all :-)
Of course the big factor is the acoustic properties of the room. A good room and you're prob ok. A bad room and it could be hard for the "outside" folks to hear much with the "inner" folks being mic'd.

[Jason Powell]

opps ... I meant "without" the inner folks being mic'd

[Chris McGuffin]

Jason,

We have regular staff meetings in this room all the time without voice amplification. In the event there is a problem, we are planning to use a few proximity mics for voice recording, we can probably rig up some monitors facing the gallery areas if necessary. I will address this issue with Jeff Young, our Technical Director, and see what his thoughts are on the issue.

[Derek Berg]

An option for the "overflow" attenders that may be beneficial in the grand scheme would be to break-out some of the discussions by chuch-size, network size, location, experience, ?????, etc. Then maybe have some from each of those groups come back to the full round-table to be the "20" and then further discuss with groundwork and questions determined from the breakout groups.

[Stan Piercefield]

I attended the first RT in Granger - outstanding. However, I was representing the 2nd smallest church and didn't have much to offer, yet I learned a ton of stuff. Not sure what I could offer, but I'd like to be present and be a sponge again. Rather than take up a seat at the table, how about letting attendees opt for "where" they'd like to "sit". And thanks for keeping the ball rolling - look forward to enrollment information soon.

[Tony Dye]

Great idea, Stan! You can now go ahead an "pre" register by posting a comment here:
http://tonydye.typepad.com/main/2006/12/roundtable_prer.html We'll have to figure out the details of how to let people be "table" vs. "gallery." Thanks for that great idea.

[Chris Marsden]

I agree with Stan. To be present and be able to submit a question for official discussion would be beneficial to a lot of people who might feel like they shouldn't waste a spot being officially involved.

I also like that you guys are going to be recording this. For me, I not only don't need a seat at the table, but the transportation cost would not be justifiable for my needs.

[Dave Davis]

Please put me down for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday. I would like to bring the president of Solerant (www.solerant.com) if that is ok.

Dave Davis
River Pointe Church
www.riverpointe.org

[Antonio Montez]

I'd like to RSVP for the IT Roundtable. I'd also like to be included in the 20 person discussion forum if possible. I'm the Director of It for Covenant Church in Carrollton, TX. We are a 10K+ member church just north of Dallas.

I'd love to participate if space is still available and I'm interested in being there for all three days.

Please let me know if I need to do anything else to register and when.

Thanks for your help....tm

Excellence In All Things!!!

Antonio Montez
Director of Information Technology
Covenant Church
2644 E. Trinity Mills Rd.
Carrollton, TX 75006
972-512-4458 w
972-512-4767 f
tonym@covenantchurch.org

[Jesse Goodwin]

I intend to attend Sun-Tue if there are seats available. The first one was great and I am looking forward to sharing, discussing and learning again.

Jesse Goodwin
IT Director
Grace Covenant Church
Cornelius, NC 28031
704.892.8005
jesse@gracecovenant.org