things that make me happy: an "organic" conference schedule

I meant to blog about this earlier last week, but forgot to. Ah well, such is life.

I first heard about the Verge Missional Community Conference from DJ Chuang's blog (who seems to have a part of my dream job of participating in conferences around the country...sigh). I'm always interested in seeing how ministries identify their ethos, prioritize their values and develop their program when planning conferences. All of this is acutely seen and experienced by the participants onsite, but one can usually catch a glimpse of the planning process and the conference culture through the website.

One thing that caught my eye on the website was that on the schedule page, that's all that they had- the schedule. You don't know who's speaking on what or which plenary will be the crowd-pleaser with the big name speaker...all of the sessions are designed to connect with the rest in order to create a more cohesive (thus more effective and fruitful!) program. The entire conference is a 3-day journey that the group is meant to walk through together. Finally, it communicates the idea that the program is developed and centered around ideas/themes, and not big name speakers. I love that each session builds upon the ones before and that the themes are clear and purposeful. It's so encouraging to see organically designed conferences that center around themes and movements as opposed to big names or for the sake of having a big, flashy event.

I'd be interested to hear how the conference went for the participants. Until then, I will keep myself busy and happy by prepping for the U09 Missiology Review taking place later this week, yay.