During the wrap-up session, I asked people about the highlights of the event. There were so many high-points it's hard to pick just a few, but I'll try anyway. No particular order here.
The People. OK, this is the easy one. As with past events, the opportunity to connect with others is right at the top of the list. And even as I write this, and look at the group photo, there are people I don't know! I think my impossible wish for future events would be to have small group meals with everyone!
The registration and info packet. I posted about this earlier. Clif's (and Amy's) preparation was apparent.
Dick Cooper videos. Church of the Resurrection's Facilities Manager (the "juggling" F.M.), obviously has multiple talents. The videos were hilarious, but also fit IT, Facilities, and probably many other departments in a church. Perhaps there will be a future highlight of these videos being available for others to see.
The COR “water attraction.” OK, I admit it, it's terrible for me to call this a highlight, but it's neat to see that other churches have weird problems and creative solutions. The pictures don't really tell the full story. There are two building with a fiber run between them. Apparently, the conduit isn't quite waterproof.
This is one end of the conduit. Note the special feature of having a drain tap attached to the conduit. Do you have fittings like that on your conduit? :-)
This is the other end of the conduit. The plastic sheets provide a path for the water to run down and be collected.
At the bottom of the plastic is a water collection point (garbage can). But wait, what happens if that garbage can ever gets full? That would be a problem!
The answer (of course) is to have a small hole drilled in the side of the garbage can (can't see it in this picture) that in turn points to a small floor drain. Also note the creative use of a shelf opposite the drain hole to protect valuable equipment on the other side from the splash.
Atrium: I can't remember exactly how it was phrased, but the idea is that Adam Hamilton (COR's Sr. Pastor) wanted God's word written on all four walls, and this is where that happened. On one of the walls, there were actually three signs, with backgrounds of head, heart, hand. (Perimeter uses the same words, the same way)
Adobe Connect. Clif tried Adobe Connect and it didn't work perfectly. But what a great concept and something that will fit in for future group events, especially when we have people in different areas wanting to collaborate. Let's call this a creative failure, or maybe a miserable success. "Things moved on." It was worth the attempt and I give Clif high marks for making the effort. The same can be said for Eric Busby's Thursday morning session -- the technology didn't quite do the job, yet it was still a valuable time.
Data Management/SAN/backup/whatever discussion. Every time there's a discussion about any of this, many pieces come into play. Doesn't seem anybody has the answers, which is frustrating, but it's helping me to realize how big the question is and that maybe I shouldn't feel too badly about the length of time it's taken me to NOT come up with any good answers.
The “spiritual” discussion. The Wednesday afternoon session that got away from the technical and into the spiritual part of IT management was an eye-opener. It was interesting to see how many different "right" answers different people had.
Wednesday evening dinner/worship/communion/prayer. Wednesday evening continued on the "spiritual" path. We had a nice dinner, with the lights low, that was very non-technical. Then we moved into a worship time that concluded with a communion service. I expect this service broke the rules of many denominations. And I didn't hear a single complaint! That was topped off by some prayer time were we broke into groups of 2 or 3. I had the privilege of praying with Jason Lee! Wow - that was a definite highlight!
Airport Travel with Justin Moore. OK, there's just nothing quite like heading to the airport at 5:30 AM. (I can hear you all agreeing) But...take an early morning, a 30+ minute shuttle ride, and what can make it better? Getting to spend some time with a new acquaintance, Justin Moore. I'm so glad he made it to the roundtable and that we go to meet, and talk.
So...what did I leave out? A lot, I'm sure. There were so many great things about this event. Thanks to all who were part of it.
We haven't gotten a good test of the water feature since Darrell, our outside facilities guy supposedly fixed it. Apparently, when we were trenching the conduit, a drain line from one of the downspouts on the student center roof got cut, so any water draining out that line followed the conduit instead of the line to the storm drain. Darrell replaced the drain line about a month ago, so hopefully that's the end of our water feature.
Posted by: Ian Beyer | October 08, 2007 at 10:20 AM
==> Ian: that almost spoils the fun if you've fixed the 'water attraction.' I just realized the irony in your blog name, especially as you discuss downspouts and network conduits in the same sentence.
Posted by: Tony Dye | October 08, 2007 at 02:28 PM