If you want to improve in a particular area, you need to connect with people who are more knowledgeable in that field than you. I love the quote, “you become like the people you hang out with” – if you hang out with multimedia-minded people, naturally, you will improve in that area.

More and more, we need to network with these kinds of people. They may be technical people, audio people, puppeteers, illusionists, musicians, preachers, trainers, leaders – it can be anyone you need to inspire you to improve in that area. It doesn’t have to mean that this person is your personal mentor, just connect with them, ask them questions, share experiences (remember: you could help them too!) You would be surprised at how you can improve!

I believe the Internet is the most effective and powerful way to make these connections with others – you have the power to contact billions of people, around the world, for free and very quickly.

Here are some quick ways to get connected with others:
Twitter: Twitter allows you to follow others who are quite knowledgeable in an area you are trying to improve or be inspired in. They create short ‘tweets’ which are quick and easy to read. Want to get better at multimedia? follow design companies! Want to get better in leadership? follow great leaders!
Facebook: We all have one so let’s start to use it to connect with others on a deeper level (than Twitter), rather than posting messages about useless daily activities!
CMconnect: Facebook for children’s leaders. Facebook is great, but specifically for children’s leaders, get on board here. It makes life a lot easier when looking for people to connect with, events, training, and even radio programs from top CM leaders.
Blogs: Read up on what influential people have to say (in much more detail) – and comment on them, otherwise, it’s like talking to a brick wall for blog writers. Create your own with WordPress if you feel you have stuff to add in your specialty field.
Linked In: I only recently joined this, however have heard about it for a while. It’s basically a professional profile for yourself, useful when trying to professionally network with someone.

I think that the biggest thing that effects these operating systems is the phone that it is installed on. The advantage and disadvantage that Apple has is that it only offers one phone. It’s the iPhone or nothing. This can be a problem in the sense that there is no room for competition and innovation from a range of companies, always pushing the mark to make the best phone. On the other side, by having only one phone, it can be customised and optimised to work better.

Below are some of the comparisons I have personally drawn from the two:

• Apple got a lot of negative PR from the whole antenna issue with the iPhone. I had a 3GS and never had an issue with it, however, when using the Samsung Galaxy S, I very well did notice it. GPS was the biggest hit when holding the phone. This isn’t a OS issue, but worth a mention.
• The GPS system within iOS is excellent. Very rarely do I have an issue. Android’s however, I have almost thrown the phone out the window. I was lost the other day and it was able to tell me I was somewhere in a 10km radius. Helpful.
• Android have a lot of nifty little features iOS doesn’t have: WiFi hotspot, home screen widgets and themes are some of the few. iOS have a few less features, but very rarely do they not work.
• iOS is much faster then Android (much faster)
• Android is more customisable, and open source.
• App Store is much more extensive and has a much stricter QA process to get apps on there for Apple. It seems with Android, almost anything can get on there, no matter how average. Apple has a bigger range and easier to use too.
• iOS is able to sync all media and music purchases with your computer quite easily. Android has wireless sync software, which would be awesome if it worked properly.
• Both phones can crash and freeze, but Android did more.

I guess it’s obvious that I am more of a Apple fan, but with good cause. If you are someone who wants something easy to use, yet functional and professional, go with an iPhone. I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S, but will be getting rid of it for an iPhone 4. To Android’s credit, there are some phones I’ve heard, such as the HTC that do a really good job, however I have not used them yet.

Traditionally in our ministries our aim is to design flyers, videos and websites that look good – if it looks good, people will buy, register and attend whatever it is, right? Many times I have made something for our ministry that looks good, and we are all happy with that, and even though a lot of though has gone into the design of whatever it is we are making, no thought has been made into the advertising aspect of it.

1. Who is the target audience? What colours and colour combinations do you use when making an advertisment. When it comes to kids, we just hammer it with every colour we can but this is not how we should do it. According to advertising books, we should really be choosing a few colours that contrast with each other, and, ones that appeal to the psychology of our target audience.

2. Have you considered how the reader should react to the advertising? How should they feel? Excited, curious, happy, emotional – does it look cool, or does it make the audience really want it? If you were to advertise missions, you would want it to appeal to the emotional needs of the reader, but if it was a kids camp you would want them to be exited because the camp will be fun. If it was a church album recording, you wouldn’t want people to feel emotional, you would want them to feel expectant, and excited. You need to create a need in the reader to act on what you are advertising for.

An interesting fact – Did you know that nobody had a problem with bad breath until the 1920′s when Listerene (previously a hospital antiskeptic, sore throat remedy, floor cleaner and dandruff treatment) created a fear about through it’s advertising. When you market something, consider, does it create a need?

3. Does your advertising fit the theme or feel of your ministry? If you stick to a general theme, for example, a font set, logos, style, people will become familiar with your brand and will be able to identify with it. At the very least, do you have a logo that looks good? How is it identified, and can it be identified quickly out of the blue? Try thinking of the brand that first comes to mind when you read these examples;
- You go to the supermarket and pick up an apple.
- You are at the beach and you see a shell.
- a tick on a peice of paper.

It’s no wonder companies can pay millions of dollars for a logo, but I was always taught that if you can make a person think of your ministry from looking at something, smelling something, tasting something or hearing something then you have won.

There are many other ways that you can ‘market your ministry’ but this is just a few different things to think about. More to come!

1. Purchase LCD monitor for the great price of $214..
2. To use HD on the monitor I require another graphics accelerator with HDMI ($150)
3. Unfortunately, the graphics accelerator doesn’t fit in my current computer case, so I had to get another one ($70) with a power supply that fits the case and handles the graphics accelerator ($65)
4. Because of the new case, I needed to get a new motherboard, as the one in the previous case doesn’t fit in the new case ($120)
5. The new motherboard doesn’t support socket 775 CPU ($150) or the DDR2 RAM ($125)
6. Bluray writers were only $150 so I couldn’t resist buying one of them too

So you would think I am ready to go…. I’ve spent heaps of money and put it all together, but of course – Windows 32bit wont install on the new 64bit hardware, so $320 later, I also have Windows 7. Pretty expensive considering I was going out for a $214 upgrade and spent around about $1000….

Why do I post about this? Simple. When doing an upgrade to any of your technology whether it be computers, video, audio etc. you need to determine the full cost of that upgrade before you commit to it. If you don’t you might find yourself stuck halfway through or an empty wallet.

Children’s Ministry Blogs

Children’s Ministry 1234 www.childrensministry1234.com
Just Pudge www.pudgehuckaby.com
Kidologist www.kidologist.com
Children’s Ministry Talk www.childrensministrytalk.com
Kid Inspiration www.davidwakerley.com
Leadership Weekly www.nathanmclean.com
The Thursday Blog www.thethursdayblog.com
Mike Johnson www.mikejohnsonblog.com

Children’s Ministry Free Resources

Max 7 Curriculum www.max7.org
Children’s Church Ministry www.childrens-church-ministry.com
Ministry To Children www.ministry-to-children.com
Children’s Ministry Today www.childrensministry.org

Other Websites

Skype www.skype.com
MSN Messenger www.msnmessenger.com
Twitter www.twitter.com
Facebook www.facebook.com
Kidology www.kidology.org
CM Connect www.cmconnect.org
WordPress www.wordpress.com

AppStore App of The Week: Kidshaper 2010 TASTE

Description: Conference Program

Skill Level To Use: Easy

Price:

Description: Travel

Skill Level To Use: Easy

Price: Free

This is a great app for all of the people who travel! Have you ever been at an airport and somebody asks which gate or what time the flight is and here you are with your carry-on luggage unpacked all over the airport floor looking for the itinerary? Introducing Trip It, a VERY EASY to use application that allows you to keep record of ALL of your flights and travel arrangement on your iPhone. When you receive you itinerary from your airline, forward the email to the Trip It email address and BAM! it’s on your iPhone app.

Trip It includes all the times, delays, passangers, gates, terminals and even aircraft data and maps so before you choose your seat at check-in, you can see where it is and what its rating is.

A must for anyone who flys.

Click here to check it out!

One of the hardest things about being the “tech guy” in a Church is dealing with the vast variety of video formats that people use. It seems that you as the tech person only ever receive videos in the wrong format. For me, I prefer H264 Quicktime MOV format, but most other people use AVI, WMV and sometimes even just a DVD. If your the person who prefers AVI, chances are most other people will always give you MOV files – it’s just the way it is.

As a ProPresenter user, I can enjoy the fact that it plays many other formats and allows me to program in DVD’s but your stomach always sinks when the speaker is up the front and enthusiastically says the words “roll the video” and at lightning speed you press the play button and……. nothing….. 15 seconds later, the video plays. Not the best way to help a preacher preach the message God put on their heart.

To get the best video playback results you need to test different formats on your computer. Different formats react differently based on Operating System, Software and also, Hardware. Some video looks better, but uses more memory, you just need to test and test and test. What I do recommend is that you NEVER PLAY ANY VIDEOS STRAIGHT FROM DVD unless it is something like a movie or curriculum that is playing most of the service. The reason being is because when DVD’s are not being used, they ‘spin down’, which means, they stop spinning which means, when you click the video, you have to wait for it to spin back up before it starts playing the video, delaying playback for about 6 seconds. I have found this to be the case even when the software is set to prevent the DVD from spinning down.

Some good software for  you to look at is called MPEG Streamclip. What this software does is it allows you to convert most formats of video to other formats. It also allows you to  pull the video off DVD’s. This software is also free, so it is really worth a look!