CNMC 2010 Day 3

Saturday – the day that was most anticipated of the weekend, not counting the Meet and Greet. The actual Catholic New Media Celebration took place at the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Boston in Braintree, MA. On Saturday morning, Zina made delicious banana-chocolate chip muffins and after a shower and getting dressed, I had quite a few. Getting three kids ready to go is quite a feat, but they did and we were on our way with about an hour to go before the opening remarks. We all loaded into Battlecar Gallatica (the name of their van) and we off with the Star Wars soundtrack accompanying the ride.

Zina was navigator with her iPhone GPS (mostly successful) and just as we were about to arrive, Owen threw up. After arriving, Benjamin and I crawled out the back. They stayed outside to wipe down the area and I went inside. After a bit, Benjamin, Myra and Zina came in and Jeff and Owen stayed outside to see how his stomach would be.

Around 9 am, Mac Barron made some opening remarks, very much in the style of Steve Jobs (complete with black t-shirt).

He presented the fact that SQPN now has 6 gazillion downloads (or some similar crazy number). He also presented shows we currently have on the network and ones that were rejected that are similar such as “Catholic in Da Hood.” Many of us agreed on Twitter (many of us were live-tweeting the day) that although “Catholic Drinkie” was rejected, it sounded like a great idea! So much so that there’s now a Twitter account for it! Mac did a great job and we were all very entertained. He knows how to start off this event very well.

After his talk, Scot Landry, Secretary for Catholic Media of the Archdiocese of Boston, welcomed us.

He was followed by Pat Gohn who welcomed us and gave us the layout for where things were in the building.

Fr. Roderick then welcomed us and said the opening prayer.

Mac then introduced the morning keynote speaker, Fr. Robert Reed of CatholicTV.

It’s always good to give the audience free gifts, and Fr. Reed did so. We each out a bag and were instructed not to open it yet. Oh, the anticipation!

The theme of his talk was “Spirituality and Catechesis in New Media.” Main points: The Holy Scriptures are the root of our Tradition and the foundation of our faith, icons make God present, our work makes God present as well and we need to be fed as we feed others. Here are photos of the four gifts. The “Bit-O-Honey” was his favorite candy as a child.

{Side Note: If my friend Megan is reading this, she might be drooling over the last one. She is a freak for peanut butter. During the summer, I was likely to keep her supplied with these at camp… 😉 }

After Fr. Reed’s keynote, we had a short break before the sessions started. The person sitting next to me (writing on a yellow pad – how retro!) told me he was from The Boston Pilot. He noticed that I was snapping photos of the gifts with my Blackberry (and also with my regular camera since the BB camera sucks) and asked me what I was doing with them. I informed him that I was uploading them to Twitter and that I had an account on there. He wrote my name and what I told him down, so maybe I’ll be quoted somewhere! 😉 It’s America’s oldest Catholic newspaper and it was just announced that it is now available on Kindle and iPhone.

After a break, the sessions started. I went to two podcasting sessions and one blogging session throughout the day. The podcasting track featured Cliff Ravenscraft and Fr. Roderick, two of my favorite people. In the first session they explained (with a great Keynote presentation) how the whole podcasting thing works: you record your show on an mp3 file, save it in the internet cloud, upload it to a website, create an RSS feed on the website, submit to iTunes and then listeners download to their player or computer. It was very informative and helpful. They also were able to address questions from the audience.

They also gave a few tips and suggestions for equipment. Cliff recommends using a dynamic microphone. A cheaper one that is very effective is the Shure SM-58. Fr. Roderick says the closer you are to the microphone, the better the sound will be. Also if you use a headset, point the mic down your chin to avoid unnecessary sounds.

After another break, the second session of the morning started. I attended a session in the blogging track presented by Sarah Reinhard. She is a very adorable pregnant lady with a lot of guts (she wore a cowboy hat at the Meet and Greet on a dare)!

She polled the audience on who currently had a blog, and who had had one the longest. The winner was someone with a family blog for ten years! She gave out coffee and cookies as prizes for poll winners and for people who were spoke persons for their groups. The Three C’s of Blogging according to Sarah are Community, Content, Catechesis.

In this session, we were seated in small groups and each group had a basket of objects. Our task through the session was to choose an object and decide what kind of blog we could make around it. Our group had good intentions, but didn’t fufill our task. Instead, we helped our friend Kim figure out what kind of blog she could write based on a very profound life experience many years ago. I really hope and pray that she makes it happen. I’m sure it could have great impact on others. Overall, it was a great session, and I learned a lot from it. Even if you are very experienced at something, there is always more to learn.

After the second session, we had a very delicious lunch and I spent time after walking around the beautiful Pastoral Center. 

After the lunch break, Lino Rulli, of Catholic Guy Show on Sirius XM Radio and Lino at Large on SQPN, had the afternoon keynote. Anyone that listens to any of his shows knows that he is self-deprecating and hilarious. This talk was no different. He started things out right by entering from the back of the room to the theme music of “Eye of the Tiger.”

Lino encouraged us to explore what we are passionate about. He is passionate about entertaining people and now does it for a living. He tells us that all forms of media are art. It takes work to make it successful. Study what works to make it better. He also encouraged us to ask who we want our audience to be and who do you want to reach? Most importantly: “Make it new, fresh, different, quality. Make the name ‘new media’ mean something.”

At the end, he took out his iPad and read some of the mean things that people have posted about him online. He was having trouble managing the iPad and this happened:
Lino: I hate this thing (iPad)
Sr. Anne (from the audience): I’ll take it!

After the keynote, we had a break and then the final breakout session. I went to the final session on podcasting. In this one, Cliff and Fr. Roderick broke down how you put together a show, what equipment is needed and how you set it up. They suggested going to MusicBakery to search for music for your podcast. It must be short and interesting. An opening jingle can make or break your show. Start the music loud and in 7 seconds, decrease volume and speak. Your name, title, what show is and the topic at beginning of each show. A mixer isn’t too expensive to purchase. A cheaper one they recommended is the Behringer 802

Cliff drew what goes into the mixer and where and then they showed it with actual equipment.

At end of show, state ways to get a hold of you and other important information. Use a pop filter for your microphone unless one is built in. Have your show notes in a window on the screen or on piece of paper. A separate screen than the one you are recording on is better. Stereo podcasts should be compressed to 192 kbs/sec. Mono should be compressed to 126. Use Libsyn for hosting and use the RSS feed they provide to send to Feedburner. Add the new podcast in iTunes. It was an extremely helpful session and I learned a lot.

After the last session, we had a free hour and there was much podcasting (video and audio) happening by various people throughout the building. There were also desserts in the cafeteria (yum!) and time to see the vendors and talk to people. The cardinal arrived at that time and met many people (myself not included). After the hour, we reassembled in the conference room and the cardinal addressed us.

After that, Fr. Roderick gave some closing remarks and then ended with a prayer and invited the cardinal up for a blessing. With that, the CNMC was over – it went so fast! At that point, I didn’t have dinner plans and was assuming that Jeff and Zina were going to the founder’s dinner (their original plan). Owen and Jeff made it in to the conference by the end of the morning, but they were still concerned that something else could happen to him. We decided to go back to the condo and order in instead of going out and Jeff got some fabulous food from a place down the street.

That was the end of Saturday and we were all ready for the day to be over. Zina made pasta for the kids and we had our food. After, we hung out and I listened to a few podcasts before bed. That was the end of another very full day.

Stayed tuned for the recap of the final day of my weekend coming out tomorrow. These take so long to write that I have to pace myself and I have to eat lunch and leave for work soon. In the meantime, here are adorable Benjamin and Owen eating their dinner and Myra playing with the refrigerator magnets: