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Technology

prezi for the presentation : not your mamma’s powerpoint

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i tweeted about prezi the other day. erin told me i needed to check it out (she was quite proud to know that she knew something tech that i didn't). i am doing a quick intro presentation on tech & church today for a small group of pastors and the rest of the time together is q&a and i thought, heck i'll try out prezi for this.

well, it is really cool!

what i've done is pretty simple. i've taken images that i've garnered for other presentations over the year and inserted them all onto my 'canvas.' i did the path thing for the few slides i want to make sure to start going through getting the session time going, but after that you can move in and out and focus onto each element on the canvas as questions or ideas come up. 

Prezi

i am super stoked about that. so many times in doing these church presentations on tech you get a huge gamut of knowledge, questions, and 'expertise.' now i can adapt for the audience as i see who is there and the questions they ask.. brilliant! i can also put a number of presentations on the canvas and then just re-route the 'path' of the presentation for a more specific focused presentation.

i'm stoked to share this with this pastors group and i'm stoked to share this with you & tell you to go kick the tires. it does cost an annual fee, but not an unrealistic fee. especially for those who use it on a regular basis.

note: for the stickler, i did correct the gutenberg spelling.

methoApp : the methodist church into the 21st century mobile technology

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4610420499_2985c7fd15_oyou might have seen my tweet about it, or maybe the article itself about the british methodist church's new iphone app. in the short time i've had it i really do like it. my quick thoughts:

it isn't over done: too often when we make stuff in the church it has to do everything for everyone and it ends up sucking at all things. like a 'one size fits all' life preserver, it doesn't actually fit anyone. so it has a daily prayer, a daily scripture meditation & news.

it has a simple news section that not only provides the usual suspect news on the methodist church, but also tweets mentioning 'methodist' (at least that seems to be the key search term, so you should see this posting show up at some point).

the formatting is really good. some of the stuff other churches put out is taken from some other medium and just put in through some cut & paste job. i appreciate that the content looks like it should be there.

it is free.. that is a nice part about any iphone app.

i know some of the other umc agencies and entities of the church are trying to put out their own application, i think they'd be wise to take a look at the first one on the scene

adventures in golf : when not to trust the on course gps

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went out today to play a fundraising golf tourney, at hermitage golf club, for conference camping scholarships. had an eventful day with my team, the highlight being that a drone the 18th green (no small feat, almost pee'd my shorts I was so surprised). sadly this par 5 was out of my reach.

Blog posted here.

adventures in golf : when not to trust the on course gps

me speaking & talking : here & there for your amusement

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Pcn10_speaker_300x250next week i'll be doing some of that speaking thing that i do.

wednesday thru friday i'll be in and around the dallas area for the united methodist reporters communicators conference. i'll be leading a churchy discussion based off the keynote speakers thoughts on new media strategy. the possibilities of that conversation could be amazing, so i'm excited to get to lead that. the next day i'll sit on a panel with a bunch of social media geek / church nerd friends on, what else, social media. that will be easily enjoyable. hope we can bring some stuff to the table that challenges everyone in the room. that's the task i'm giving myself.

flying back on friday and then on saturday is up early to volunteer with podcamp nashville and put on my session of 'sex, lies, and social media.' that's going to be interesting & a whole lot of fun. vegas is betting my awkward statement and subsequent blushing will be an over/under at 4 (its just 20 mins of talking otherwise it'd be much higher).

unfortunately, if you are not already signed up for the communicators conference then you'll have to miss me this go round, but you can still sign up for podcamp & check out me and some of the other fabulous minds of technology and what they are thinking about.

so long my friend : nashville no longer talking

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Nit

noticed today that nashville is talking is ceasing to exist as the blog portal for the nashville blogging community.

truth be told, it probably ceased to be the main portal some years ago when brittney left and the whole chaos ensued at nit & music city bloggers was birthed for a short while.

i enjoyed that community of folks at that point, some of the people i'm still in conversations with today. {in fact, have to thank newscoma for tipping me off to this.} back then you looked for the 'fresh rolled blogs' and knew when your site got linked because hits & comments would take off (well, for someone small time like myself). i remember going to the first barcamp cause all my blogger friends were planning on going, which was the first time i met many folks.. remember sitting next to rob robinson & recognizing him immediately because his hat & outfit was exactly like his thumbnail pic on his blog (yes i teased him about that one). met kate o in line with john carney (john whom i've known for years) we were all first in line (well, kate was actually first).

fast forwarding: that medium, that town square, we all met & built our friendships and community on ceases to exist. since those days of nit i can safely say that twitter, facebook, or anything since has garnered the loyalty & passions that the nashville is talking site did for us some four or five years ago. (gosh, has it really been that long?).

i would love some new place find some of that community. but alas, not all good things are forever & nashville is talking served a great place in my cyber musings life. so much so that it impeded into my real life, which i was more than okay with (it just took some explaining to the wife). so long my friend, nashville is talking. (i want to say some 'long tail' ulogy comment, but its just not quite there, so assume i said something clever & smile)