The Christian Web Conference
- Former user (Deleted)
GodBlogCon
GodBlogCon was a conference for Christian bloggers produced by Biola University and the Torrey Honors Institute. Begun in 2005, GodblogCon was founded to help Christians understand and utilize the rapidly developing tools of web “broadcasting” that were changing the shape of information distribution and media production worldwide. The conference was founded by Torrey Honors director Dr. John Mark Reynolds, blogger Andrew Jackson, and talk radio host and author Hugh Hewitt. Blogger and Biola/Torrey alumni Matthew Anderson, and Biola/Torrey students Seth Cutter and Danielle Jorgensen led the conference in its first year.
In 2006, Biola/Torrey students Dustin Steeve, Jennifer Hardy, and Julia Kiewit assumed leadership of the conference. In 2007, the leadership team made the decision to accept an offer to co-locate GodblogCon with the nation’s first national new media conference, tradeshow, and expo, the BlogWorld and New Media Expo. For two years, GodblogCon was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center as a part of BlogWorld’s annual gathering. After its 4th year, GodblogCon was ended and the conference re-branded and re-focused to incorporate a larger audience of web users than just bloggers.
During its four year run, GodblogCon was pleased to present many noteworthy speakers including Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president and blogger Al Mohler, Family Research Council Director of Web Communications Joe Carter, Washington Examiner writer La Shawn Barber, talk radio host and author Hugh Hewitt, Mars Hill Audio president Ken Myers, Christian Bloggers Network president Andrew Jackson, and missionary and blogger Andrew Jones. In addition, GodblogCon was pleased to partner with the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Desiring God ministries, the High Calling, Crossway, Stand to Reason, and a number of other prominent Christian organizations in the presentation of the conference. GodblogCon was a remarkable conference that was discussed in numerous media outlets including the renowned newspaper the New York Times, national television network Fox News, national talk radio shows The Hugh Hewitt Show and the Dennis Miller Show, and web outlets such as the Salem Web Network.
The Christian Web Conference
The Christian Web Conference is the product of the GodblogCon re-brand.
The purpose of the Christian Web Conference is to gather Christian Thought Leaders together in order to discuss brilliant New Media related ideas. The idea of the Christian Web Conference was birthed in the latter part of 2008. The conference will take place at Biola University with Torrey Honors Institute on September 11-12th, 2009. The focus of the conference jumps on the trend of the ‘un-conference’ discussion style which focuses on attendee led sessions. Christopher Munekawa, Laurel MacLurg, Sharon Smith, Cameron Dalke, Melissa Gutierrez, Juliana Rinaldi, and Joann Oh assumed leadership of the conference.
The structure of the conference changes dramatically from GodBlogCon as the Christian Web Conference plans to heavily implement the use of Idea Round Tables. Because collaboration and implementation are the driving force behind ideas being put into action, Round Tables will have a facilitator who will lead the group into discussion about a particular topic. The attendees will then proceed to discuss ideas as they network with each other throughout the weekend.
Because the sessions of the Christian Web Conference is driven by the voice of attendees, CWC focuses on bringing out the smartest Christians involved in New Media. As of March 11, 2009, the facilitators include Joe Carter, formerly with Evangelical Outpost, Jon Acuff from ‘Stuff Christians Like’, Drew Goodmanson from Monk Development, Abraham Piper from Desiring God, and Dr. John Mark Reynolds from Scriptorium Daily, and Cynthia Ware from Digital Sanctuary.