Nashville Day Three

Missed the worship service today. Late night, already being tired, and the time change made opening my eyes real tough this morning. I think I pulled back the drapes near 10:30am. With food being so expensive here, I decided to dig into my hospitality bag for breakfast. I hope salted peanuts, water, and a granola bar will get me through till supper.

Tony said he went to the steak house here last night. Steak, Salad, Potatoes, and Tea was $83 with a tip. So I guess if I can skip a few meals today, I might could afford an appetizer later this evening. I plan on sneaking in my own Mountain Dew in a flask.

I have a good meeting today mid-afternoon, then a meeting with a vendor around 5pm. I think I will walk around the expo floor for a while too. Look for pictures.

I forgot to mention that last night's General Opening Session was good. Micheal W Smith opened with a small concert. He is very talented. The keynote speaker was good too. They confirmed that President Bush will be here Tuesday at 11am.

I am sitting in an "Executive Internet Management & Strategy" session in Bayou Room A. The room is only half full. I assume with it being Sunday and with the daylight savings change some people decided to stay in their rooms today. They also opened the conference tradeshow expo and that has a lot of people running around looking at the booths and vendors. I am surprised how many Israel booths that there are. I even saw a weight loss booth. WOW. I can't seem to get away from the small still voice.. "Stop Eating Dude!"

The IFL Suite Entry

You can skip my notes of the meeting, if you want:
Speaker just said or I just thought of:
17% Americans look online before attending a church.
65% Donors visit non-profit website before making decision
75% of those visitors said website/visit had impact on decision

5 keys to Magnify Your Ministry Using the Internet
1. Define Strategy, Set Targets, Measure and Adjust (SWOT analysis: strength, weakness, oppertunity, tactics)
2. Present effective visual and content messaging
3. Grow the regularity & volume of online donations
4. Gain efficiency through ministry web applications and integration
5. Reach more people with Web Media (Not sure this one counts as a key)

Live Webcasts (He used Harvest as en example) and said 100,000 people will watch it. Footer and nav changed based on what is being displayed. Users can jump to chapters within the video. (drop down list of chapters) Flash Player vs interface application. Viewer time in interface (w/ menus and supplement) x4 over simple Flash player. "but did the call to action improve?"

Microsite for Topical Pages, with their own Convio campaigns. Great Idea for measuring. Also can use keywords for SEO
Disaster Planing Pages: Death, Hospital, Etc. Build Early and hold.
Broadcast Stories: Making Waves in the World
Plant seed for END of the YEAR SEO NOW! Build Page ASAP.

The $12 Hamburger Lunch

Bill & International Networking Lunch (more than $12 I'm sure)
Andy, John and me in the IFL Suite
Tony and John made some new friends at the Wildhorse Saloon

We went to the famous WhiteHorse saloon this evening. Had some great ribs, steak, and sweet tea. A three-story bar/restaurant with a large dance floor and stage. A great band named "32 Below" played while some questionable characters line danced. I feel it is time to get my work-in-progress published "Real Men Don't Line Dance... and other little known truths." It is sad to know that Tennessee, a state I used to respect, has just as many men, line-dancers than California had. What is going on here? The state that sent "volunteers" to protect our Alamo and fight for Texan freedom has now become "boot scoot'n sissies." I am a little torn. Not sure if I should shake their hands or give them a little talk'n to. Wearing dead squirrels and coons on their head was one thing, but now this? God bless Texas!

Not sure where Paul is tonight. I thought I stayed out late but he is still not here. I'll check lost and found in a few hours.

Tony, Jonas, and I played some pool tonight. We each won one game of Cut Throat. It seems we all had a little pool hall left in us but were very rusty. I glad Bill was not here. He makes the loser play the next game with their shirt off.