Wow.
I can’t believe it happened.
So consider this…
- a thought was conceived, planned and delivered in under 9 months [kind of like a baby]…
- no marketing budget whatsoever, and no marketing at all, except viral…
- none of the speakers invited to participate were paid…
- all proceeds made went to two charities…
- we didn’t rent blocks of rooms at hotels, for the most part it was a “find your own way” adventure…
- nearly all of the conference attendees traveled from out of state in a down economy…
- there was nothing flashy or produced…
- speakers were told to leave presentations at home and come ready to have content driven by audience member’s questions…
- breakout discussions weren’t announced until the day of…
- close to 250 people attended…
- God was honored, ideas were born, conversations and connection happened.
That, my friends, is the story of Cultivate.
There are an incredible amount of people who were behind what happened at Cultivate [Dawn Nicole Baldwin, Jason Widney and our team at Park], but at the end of the day, I think we’d all agree God orchestrated all of it.
I was going to try to write a post to express my thoughts or what I learned, but I’m honestly still at a loss. I’ve been so encouraged by what people have been saying and know this is just the beginning. Don’t quote me on this, but I’m fairly certain this [or something like it] will be coming in 2010.
In the meantime, I thought instead of me saying what I thought about Cultivate, I’d let you hear about it from others. Here’s what they had to say…
- Chicago Tribune [ Kate Shellnutt ]
- NBC Chicago
- Catalyst
- Church Marketing Sucks
- Kevin Hendricks
- Ron Edmonson
- Blake Coffee [aka "the Church Whisperer] part 1, part 2
- Paul Steinbrueck
- Emma Boyd
- some great insight from Marty Davis
- Michael Buckingham
One of the hottest new photographers in Chicago, Anthony Barlich, was also on hand and has a great photoblog of the day, be sure to check it out!
So all of that to say… thanks. Thanks to everyone who was a part of Cultivate, it was an experiment, and I think it went incredibly well. Thanks to everyone who tuned in throughout the day, and thanks Bert Newman from Ziglar Inc. for making live streaming a possibility for us. Thanks to Cynthia Ware for being so gracious to interview facilitators and host the live stream. Immense thanks to Dawn and Keith Baldwin for their incredible support. Thanks to Brad Abare and the team at the Center for Church Communications… the list is endless. HUGE thanks to our keynote speakers: Phil Cooke, Clint! Runge and Jon Acuff, you guys were incredible. To all of the facilitators, thanks for believing in this enough to come on your own dime… I hope the Intelligentsia Coffee we gave you helps keep you going for at least a week.
Audio content from some of the sessions will be available for download soon, watch for details.
Sweet shot from the day [ courtesy of Anthony Barlich ]
