NYWC - Randomness

Day three of the NYWC - Pittsburgh is winding down now... I'm too tired to put down comprehensive thoughts about the whole day so here's the summary...

Francis Chan's general session was simply amazing. I was so challenged and humbled by his talk that I'm still trying to cope with it.

The exhibit hall was busier today than yesterday, but still not what I would consider swamped.

I did manage to have some really good conversations about LiveWorship with some folks, and also got myself into several other conversations that had nothing to do with Youth ministry.

I met Matthew McNutt and William Hartz both in person today, where-as I had not previously known them outside of blogs and twitter.

Alan and I had lunch at Primanti Brothers and dinner at The Lemon Grass Cafe'.

I missed most of the session tonight with Phyllis Tickle, but by all accounts she nailed it.

The Comedy late night act was very funny.

Here are an assortment of random photos from today...

The booth (with slightly better lighting)



Lunch from Primanti Brothers... Yes, the sandwich has fries and slaw on it.



The sign for a Korean restaurant and sushi bar.. (See next photo)


A close up of the "Warning" sticker in the window of the sushi bar...



Alan and I were unable to determine which of the following might be true...

• Warning, these premises protected by a cat AND a burglar/fire alarm
• Warning, these premises protected by a cat burglar AND a fire alarm
• Warning, these premises protected by a cat AND a burglar AND a fire alarm
• Warning, these premises protected by a cat alarm, a burglar alarm, and a fire alarm

Either way... Cats, burglars, and fires beware.


Uh... yeah... Authorized pensonel only.




This one has no relevance... I just thought it was a cute name for a restaurant.



That's it for me. I'm very tired. Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

NYWC Atlanta - Day 1

Well, we're here!

The hotel definitely isn't the Mariott, but the room was clean and the shower was hot, and we both got a good nights sleep after a long day of driving.

The Women in Youth Ministry pre-conference didn't start this morning as early as we thought, so Jenn and I didn't really rush to get ready and make our way over to the convention center. The wind here is blowing hard and is really cold, but if it weren't for the breeze it would be perfect weather!

This convention center is HUGE! NYWC is in the B-Hall. We got registered, got our bags, books, nametags, etc and grabbed breakfast at convention center and ate while we poured over the schedule to decide what seminars, sessions, and late nights we are going to hit for the whole weekend, and what we're not going to make it to and will have to buy on CD.

With all that decided ( tentatively, of course... plans are always subject to change based on the rockage or suckage of the speaker, comedian, presenter, etc ) anyway... with all that decided, we took ourselves on a grand tour of the conference center to find all of the appropriate rooms, halls, and boys bathrooms where our sessions would be.

Don't we sound crazy organized... hahahaha

We grabbed a quick lunch at the food court in the CNN center. Grabbed some amazing wraps from a place (aptly) named 'Amazing Wraps'.

By early afternoon Jenn needed to get to the HerStory opening session, so I went to track down Ed & Alan for the setting up of LW booth. Even though I'm not working in the booth this weekend, it made the trips fewer and setup easier to have another set of hands involved.

The booth looks good. Different than St. Louis, but still good I think. ( photos of the booth coming later )

I've found a great little spot in the convention center where I anticipate being perched on and off throughout the weekend. Jenn and I ate breakfast here this morning, and I'm back here now, updating the blog and checking email. It is a little cafe area with a big window overlooking the exhibit hall. Here's the view from where I'm perched at the moment.



This will be a good place to sit, decompress, relax, catch a snack maybe, and definitely update the blog when I have time.

Oh... I guess it wouldn't be right of me to not point out the LW booth. Click to see the bigger version.



Well... That's it for now. I'm meeting Jenn at 5 to see about dinner. Then hitting the exhibit hall and maybe the Worship Together concert tonight.

More later...

Live from St. Louis

This is post number one, live from National Youth Workers Convention in St. Loius.

We made good time on the drive, got a killer deal on fabric at a going out of business fabric store to use for table cloths, and got our booth setup without any real snafu's.

Yesterday made for a long day with the travel, booth setup, and the mixer in the evening. Made longer by grabbing a really late dinner (which I will blog about later).

Highlight of the day yesterday was definitly dinner, but highlight number two was running into Marko on the show floor and getting to chat with him for a minute. Poor guy... someone had thrown up on his shirt.

It is almost 11:00 AM now in St. Louis, and we've had a steady stream of people coming into the booth.

Here are two photos of our booth. Huge thanks to the girl in the Compassion booth (on the corner from us ) for letting me stand in her booth to get this first one.





And here are the guys from the Noah's Ark booth across the aisle from us. I had to give them a shout out because they are stuck looking at Alan and I all weekend long.

That's all I have time for now. It is sure to be a long day.

Roogles out.