December 13, 2011 | 7 Comments

Catholic Technology Conferences – A Sign We’re Catching Up!

In terms of technology adoption, I’ve heard cynically stated that Catholics move ‘at the speed of church’.  Well, as John Fielding put in his comment on the last CTT blog entry, Vimeo vs. YouTube, “we Catholics are finally catching up”.  I am pleasantly surprised to see that Catholics now have two annually technology conferences available to us.  Earlier this year, I attended the Catholic New Media Conference put on by SQPN in Kansas City and I was, quite frankly, impressed.  The quality of the speakers, the depth of content, and interaction from the audience was quite impressive.  It was on par with any secular technology conference I’ve ever been to.  The next Catholic New Media conference will be at the end of August in Texas in 2012.

For those that missed SQPN or can talk their leadership into a second conference in a year, there’s another conference one coming up, Interactive Connections.  Interactive Connections is put on by Sister Caroline Cerveny and will be held down in Florida the week of January 23rd.  The Interactive Connections conference celebrates and explores faith-based educational technology for ministry and evangelization in the 21st Century.  I’ve been to this conference previously and it offers a nice array of speakers and topics from beginning topics to more advanced sessions.  Plus attending a conference in Florida in January does offer the simple pleasure of warmth for those of us who live in more northern climates!

Seeing the emergence of two difference technology-oriented conferences centered on the Catholic Faith is indeed a sign that we are awaking to the power of the Internet.  The next generation of parishioners are growing up online and its our mission to make sure we’re they’re to greet them!

 

 

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Author:Joe Luedtke

Joe Luedtke is the Vice President of Interactive Media for Liturgical Publications (LPi). Joe specializes in Social Media and Web 2.0 and is currently leading LPi’s efforts to move into the on-line world. Joe works for the world's largest and oldest social network, religion, and believes that this social network could benefit tremendously from the the proper use of Internet technologies.
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  • Jeff Geerling

    Don’t forget about the DISC (http://www.discinfo.org/)! It’s been around a while, and is focused more on diocesan IT staff, but it’s still in the realm of Tech conferences for Catholics :)

    • Joe Luedtke

      Jeff, good catch.  I’ve never been to this one, but it looks great and this year’s is on a very important topic:  information and security.  Security may not be as fun a topic as Social Media, but its ever so important.  The more technology we introduce into the church, the more challenges we’ll have protecting our parishioners data privacy and our security.

  • http://catholicservant.com Craig Berry

    Good call @edbe1bf61ac911425aab87e1d8530e72:disqus ! I used to attend these…did you ever go to any for ArchStl? 

    • Jeff Geerling

      Unfortunately, I never got to make it to one; our budget didn’t allow for more than one conference a year, and I picked DrupalCon :)

  • http://twitter.com/ccerveny Caroline Cerveny

    Thanks Joe for highlighting the INTERACTIVE CONNECTIONS conference.  It is a delight to welcome those who are interested in faith-based educational technology and social media to Orlando and to co-locate with the Florida Educational Technology Conference.  What makes IC 2012 unique, is that those who come have the opportunity to be immersed in the technology culture.  There are over 300 exhibitors at the FETC Conference!  So much to be exposed to and to network with! 

  • Lisahendey

    Thanks for including the CNMC — it’s going to be even bigger and better next year in conjunction with the Catholic Marketing Network. I’ve attended both conferences the past few years and can’t say enough about both the education opportunities AND the power of the networking that happens as well. Sister Caroline, will any of Interactive Connections be live streamed? Would love to be there, but have prior commitments this year…

  • http://www.facebook.com/capt.jeff Capt Jeff

    So glad you were able to attend the Catholic New Media Conference, put on by SQPN in Kansas City this past October! As Lisa stated, our next CNMC in August 2012 will be even better! Anybody involved in technology and social media would definitely benefit from attending… not only to learn new ways to evangelize using the latest cutting edge new media tools, but to enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded tech-savvy Catholics!