Jen Bennett | She Impacts Culture Podcast
Digital Media Con is a three-day online conference focusing exclusively on digital media and marketing for Christian communicators.
The event is produced by the Evangelical Press Association (EPA) with the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) as the co-presenting organization. An additional seven Christian media associations are participating partners.
A virtual conference platform will provide a single login space where registered attendees can conveniently access live and recorded sessions, set an agenda, interact through networking with community discussion boards and meetups, and browse the virtual exhibit floor. The platform will provide access to all sessions for sixty days after the conference concludes.
Tuesday Opening Session
October 25, 12:00 p.m. ET
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is a professor and dean at Wheaton College where he also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches; trained pastors and church planters on six continents; earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Outreach Magazine. His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates.
Wednesday Opening Session
October 26, 12:00 p.m. ET
Dr. Jen Bennett is a driven, visionary communicator who has a unique way of connecting with her audience. She enjoys teaching, leading, and building and is committed to helping others be successful. As a Strategic Communication Professor at Indiana Wesleyan University, Jen equips college students to discover their voice, develop their expertise, and lead with influence to impact culture for Christ. Jen is the host of the She Impacts Culture podcast, a podcast for trailblazing, faith-based women who want to lead with influence and impact culture for Christ.
Thursday Opening Session
October 27, 12:00 p.m. ET
Erick Goss serves as the CEO and co-founder of Minno, a kids’ media and tech company that is committed to helping families experience Jesus every day, on and off the screen. After a career in the Navy, Erick became Senior Manager with Amazon. Erick led the creation of Amazon’s first ebook business, print-on-demand, Super Saver Shipping, the Amazon Credit Card, and oversaw North American book buying. Erick left Amazon to serve as a Chief Marketing Officer for an e-commerce company before launching Minno.
12:00 pm (ET) - 12:45 pm (ET)
Evangelical missiologist and researcher Ed Stetzer takes a broad look at how digital technology has evolved into what it is today and how it has created a cultural moment for evangelical leaders to assess their impact in the world. How do we shift from digital as a tool for mission to both a tool and a context for mission? How do we leverage digital space to learn from the majority world? How can we move from discipling with digital tools and spaces to discipling for digital spaces?
1:00 PM (ET) - 2:00 PM (ET)
This session offers an array of high impact insights in effective digital engagement including advertising techniques, data capture and use, and social media strategies, with additional insights for online fundraising and email.
1:00 PM (ET) - 2:00 PM (ET)
Hoping to craft a more effective website? From strategy to implementation this session is packed with specific ideas to help your next project succeed.
What you will learn:
• Easy ways to appeal to your online audience
• Key elements of the website building process
• How to find quick wins using existing content
• Common mistakes to avoid
2:30 PM (ET) - 3:30 PM (ET)
Discover how to create killer content, break it into smaller pieces, and then repurpose it. Learn how to use a podcast to create brand awareness and build brand authority, and up your game with best practices for podcast guesting.
2:30 PM (ET) - 3:30 PM (ET)
Learn how Google works, what it is looking for, and simple tweaks you can make to your articles that will make a big difference in your rankings. Google can be an amazing source of free traffic, if you know how to optimize correctly.
4:00 PM (ET) - 5:00 PM (ET)
Click on the ON-DEMAND SESSIONS tab above to see the selection of videos from past conferences. Three of these will be unlocked each day of the conference. Once unlocked, they can be watched on-demand anytime.
12:00 PM (ET) - 12:45 PM (ET)
1:00 PM (ET) - 2:00 PM (ET)
This session teaches critical principles for effective email engagement including rapid and affordable list building strategies, managing domain reputation, increasing deliverability, and insights into high impact messaging.
1:00 PM (ET) - 2:00 PM (ET)
What do you need to successfully and organically grow your community using social media channels? This presentation will review best practices for Instagram, YouTube and Facebook with a heavy focus on creating engaging written content for your current followers and optimizing your content for steady growth. This session will be taught by Haley Jersey who successfully grew an Instagram channel and YouTube channel by 33% (over 100K new followers each) organically in under a year using this strategy.
2:30 PM (ET) - 3:30 PM (ET)
In this session, Akosua Frempong will share practical tips on recording your stories using your smartphone. She’ll also talk about how to edit those stories. It’s vital to highlight that as part of your report, you’ll need a good voiceover. You’ll also need to upload the completed story onto a social media platform or share it with your smartphone audience. Understanding these tools, therefore, is key to maximizing their usage. So is understanding your audiences, found on social media and smartphones. While addressing these critical topics, Frempong will highlight the importance of using these digital media tools for content creation, dissemination, and promotion.
2:30 PM (ET) - 3:30 PM (ET)
The pandemic has revealed what we’ve known as believers all along… we were created for connection. Automation, analytics, and all the amazing marketing tools we have at our disposal will not replace good old fashioned relationship building. In this workshop, Jason Goff will walk you through the four levels of the social penetration theory and how you can apply this psychological framework to engage, inspire, and motivate your digital audience. Learn how to apply the four stages of the social penetration theory—cliche, facts, opinions, and feelings—in your communication strategy. When you better understand your audience, you’ll be able to share more meaningful, relatable content.
4:00 PM (ET) - 5:00 PM (ET)
Click on the ON-DEMAND SESSIONS tab above to see the selection of videos from past conferences. Three of these will be unlocked each day of the conference. Once unlocked, they can be watched on-demand anytime.
12:00 PM (ET) - 12:45 PM (ET)
Erick Goss, formerly of Amazon, is the co-founder and CEO of Minno, a streaming platform for Christian kids. In this talk, Erick shares lessons he has learned from spending the last 25 years working in digital. He gives a masterclass on effective digital marketing in uncertain times and how to build products customers love.
What you will learn:
• The value of a growth team
• How to execute high tempo testing
• The four elements of user flow
• Why having a strong brand is essential
• Why analytics and storytelling are equally important
1:00 PM (ET) - 2:00 PM (ET)
Elementor is a popular and widely used visual builder for WordPress websites. Many teams now use Elementor to build both their smallest and most ambitious projects. Join Elementor nerd and web creator Brian Erickson to learn how to use Elementor more effectively as a team or organization while having some fun in the process! This session has something for everyone and will focus on three groups:
• Content creators: helpful tips and techniques for non-coders (especially landing/sales page builders)
• Developers: advice for maintainable, intuitive, and scaleable development with Elementor
• Designers: using a living web style guide inside of Elementor and connecting this to your design tools and processes (for example, Figma)
1:00 PM (ET) - 2:00 PM (ET)
Generational differences are not just stereotypical; they exist because the world was different when different generations were in their childhood years, teenage years or becoming adults. Their perception of the world is different, making communication unique within each generation. Trying to speak to all at the same time will simply make your message more invisible. Learn how to leverage the individual intricacies of each generation to increase engagement and connection.
What you will learn:
• Understanding your audience’s generation will give you cues on how to communicate with them in a relatable way
• The communication gap between you and your audience can be reduced if you understand who they are and what makes them unique in this world
• You can’t reach what you can’t define. Define your demographic first and then trace a plan of communication”
2:30PM (ET) - 3:30 PM (ET)
Reusing content from a successful blog, articles or white papers is a great starting place for a book. Writing a book from scratch can take time, but when you re-purpose published content you start with a pre-existing audience, an established focus for your book, a built-in marketing machine (readers are already familiar with your work) and a library of content. The big questions you must answer are: What are you giving readers? Why would they want to read your book? How will it improve their life, change their future? We will discuss KDP and IngramSpark account setup, the pros /cons of Kindle’s KDP Select program, how to set up the accounts, five things to watch for when you upload your files, and how to produce your book with professional cover and interior designers for less than $1000.
What you will learn:
• How to take ownership of the publishing process
• When to self-publish—when to pitch to a traditional house
• What a detailed road map to publication looks like
• Where to find the same professionals that larger houses use for cover and interior design
2:30PM (ET) - 3:30 PM (ET)
Digital/social media gives publishers a borderless platform with a potential audience many times larger than their subscriber base, organization supporters or denominational membership. Drawing from more than a decade of experience growing multi-million-follower mainstream digital newsrooms, Edric has transferred the expertise to build influential Christian discipleship and outreach portals in Singapore, with a view to regional expansion in the coming years. Come learn how to build your digital platform to save souls and impact the nations.
What you will learn:
• How to build a Christian online newsroom
• Core values for an effective digital strategy
• How to harness digital media for evangelism
• How to forge Kingdom partnerships for digital impact
4:00 PM (ET) - 5:00 PM (ET)
Click on the ON-DEMAND SESSIONS tab above to see the selection of videos from past conferences. Three of these will be unlocked each day of the conference. Once unlocked, they can be watched on-demand anytime.
ON DEMAND -
You have a website, but what kinds of content are you creating? How are you promoting that content? Is it connecting with your audience?
• Identify what makes your Web content shareable
• Recognize why your audience shares your content
• Apply our best practices from Cru and other ministry websites
• Implement ideas for promoting your content via social media, even with limited resources. (Bonus: Learn about two great Cru resources!)
ON DEMAND -
It’s no surprise that no one likes change, even when it helps us. But COVID has opened up opportunities like never before, especially in digital media. As leaders, how do we navigate it all and get others on board without losing our sanity?
ON DEMAND -
Content, in every form of media, is king, but it is most significant on your website. If you want to inform, engage, and retain your audience, you must have content that is compelling and memorable. Creating balanced, quality content is a demanding process, but it doesn’t have to be painful! Participants will learn fundamental and essential techniques for creating key content for any web-related formats (e.g. websites, landing pages, e-newsletters, etc.), as well as simple methods for optimization. Various applications/tools will be discussed to help leverage productivity and save time.
What you will learn:
• Define what content is and where it is used
• Discuss content formatting and how it can affect audience engagement
• Explore ways to create, format, and optimize content using various web-based tools and applications
ON DEMAND -
Is the content you are creating producing the results you want? Just because you have a digital presence, does not mean you have a digital strategy.
And great content doesn’t guarantee success. In this workshop we will walk through the steps of creating an effective digital content strategy that will connect you with the people God has called you to, so you can produce content that will engage your audience and ultimately reach your goals.
You will learn:
• The essential questions to ask as you develop your digital content strategy
• Where your audience is and what content they prefer
• Processes and systems to analyze and audit what you distribute
• How to measure success
ON DEMAND -
What are the key skills needed to lead a virtual team and support the success of the organization? In this session, you will be introduced to concepts surrounding team dynamics and the ways they are more challenging in the virtual environment. Melody Rawlings, Director of the Center for Advancement of Virtual Organizations at Northcentral University, will share strategies to overcome the challenges and maximize virtual team performance.
What you will learn:
• The most effective leadership styles for virtual teams
• The importance of practicing authentic leadership
• The art of virtual coaching
ON DEMAND -
Do you spend too much time on your social media…with not enough results? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to streamline your social media marketing program while upgrading the quality of your posts and increasing your exposure. Discover how to:
• Choose the best social media sites (and ignore the rest)
• Easily find content your audience will love
• Streamline your process for crafting posts
• Tap into time-saving, third-party tools
• Understand which social media activities are most effective for business
You’ll walk away with lots of practical techniques to enhance your social media in less time!
ON DEMAND -
Millennials and GenZ’ers think differently, act differently, and look for different types of content. They are deeply concerned with how Christianity connects to everyday life, and desire to see how the Bible speaks to social issues like poverty, politics, sexuality, and creation care. Those in their 20s and 30s often see a disconnect between their faith and real-life, and sometimes that is directly related to the way the church tries to reach them. Daniel Day is the Director of Reclaim Today, a lifestyle content brand that creatively explores how we connect with God in the ordinary, extraordinary, every-day moments of life. His team specializes in using social platforms like Instagram, and he will be describing what it looks like to reach younger and more diverse audiences.
ON DEMAND -
In this workshop, we’ll discuss digital strategy for finding readers, subscribers and donors for faith-based publishers. We’ll look at examples from peer publications and how they are funding their journalism by raising more money online through subscriptions, donors and advertising.
What you will learn:
• The importance of email newsletters
• How new products can repurpose your content to attract new readers and advertisers
• What role social media should play in your overall digital strategy
• Why your web site navigation is critical to your publication’s financial sustainability
ON DEMAND -
From the pitch of a story idea, prayer, planning and trip preparation, to travel, creative development, editorial production and the subsequent publishing of an online photo story, join a panel of Cru Storylines’ staff as they take you on a tour of the process of creating an engaging digital photo feature story.
What you will learn:
• How to develop key steps and plan logistics for a successful story
• How to capture photos that tell a story
• Three types of journalistic writing styles
Bonus: 10 important packing tips for traveling journalists
There are fifteen sessions featuring ministry and industry leaders, individuals who have risen to the top of their professions and are widely respected for their skills and knowledge. This is where you will be challenged, trained, and equipped to take your skills to a higher level.
Dr. Jen Bennett is a driven, visionary communicator who has a unique way of connecting with her audience. She enjoys teaching, leading, and building and is committed to helping others be successful. As a Strategic Communication Professor at Indiana Wesleyan University, Jen equips college students to discover their voice, develop their expertise, and lead with influence to impact culture for Christ. Jen provides students with real-world opportunities that help launch them into the careers and professions that they are called to.
Jen has consulted various entrepreneurs, small business owners, ministries, organizations, and college students in social media, personal branding, marketing, and public relations. Jen was named as one of 65 Women in Digital You Should Be Following. In 2019 she was chosen as one of 55 social media influencers (out of 700 applicants) to attend #NASASocial for the Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch. She is also the author of the book, #BeWorthFollowing: How to Be Different and Influence People in a Crowded Social World. In April of 2021, Jen launched the She Impacts Culture podcast, a podcast for trailblazing, faith-based women who want to lead with influence and impact culture for Christ. And in 2022, Jen co-founded Faith First Digital Marketers, a community of Christian digital marketers seeking to put Christ first in their businesses and lives.
Website: drjenbennett.com
Jen Bennett | She Impacts Culture Podcast
Barbara is a mentor and senior strategist with a communication degree from the University of North London. She is the founder of Word Revolution (a communication and branding agency for Christian ministries), the brain behind The Church Communicator Bootcamp (a training program for accidental church communicators) and the creator of the Church Communicator Conference. She a Christ follower, forever curious strategist, minimalist designer, storyteller and geek. Barbara is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. She has lived in 3 continents and more than 10 cities in the world.
Website: barbaracarneiro.com
Barbara Carneiro | Word Revolution
Brian Erickson leads design and website development at King Grizzly. Driven by relentless curiosity, he loves partnering with like-minded clients across a wide range of industries. With extensive experience inside and outside of the publishing industry, Brian is able to combine the best of both worlds solving new publishing projects.
Website: kinggrizzly.com
Brian Erickson | King Grizzly
Robb Erickson leads marketing and strategy at King Grizzly. He has a passion for helping brands grow online and spends his days supporting business owners and their marketing teams. You’ll typically find him doing things like SEO research, PPC advertising, content marketing, and website strategy.
Website: kinggrizzly.com
Robb Erickson | King Grizzly
Ron Forseth is currently the CEO of the business strategy firm Forseth Development, Inc., and co-founder and CEO of America’s Top Lists which offers disruptive business-to-business data solutions in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. ATL has built a robust database of over 20 million records and over 15 million email addresses in a wide array of industries including the church and ministry space.
For more than 10 years Ron served as Vice President at Outreach, Inc. and was concurrently general manager of Outreach Media Group and Outreach Web Properties. While at Outreach, Ron was general manager of SermonCentral.com, the world’s largest online community of pastors and church leaders with over 1.5 million monthly visitors. Ron is also founding executive Editor of ChurchLeaders.com which grew to over one million monthly users and over 40,000 pieces of content. He was also on the launch team of FaithIt.com which became the fastest growing website on the internet.
Earlier in his career, Ron was Mongolia Country Director for English Language Institute. While in Mongolia, Ron played a pivotal role in the founding of the Mongolian Bible Translation Committee. Upon returning from Asia, Ron was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Through the Bible Publishers.
Websites: forsethdevelopment.com, americastoplists.com
Ron Forseth | Marketing and Digital Strategist
Akosua Frempong, Ph.D., is a digital, print and broadcast media journalist who has worked as a journalist on three continents: Africa, Europe and North America. In 2021 she was awarded EPA’s Jerry Jenkins Scholarship and she received an emerging scholar award from Common Ground Research Networks. She has lectured in a school of film and media arts in Africa. She has a B.A. in English with French, an M.A. in journalism, and a Ph.D. in communications. She also has a social media certificate from the Poynter Institute.
Akosua Frempong | Digital, Print, Broadcast Journalist
Jason Goff connects business leaders (often “digital immigrants”) to the online world. With over 25 years of experience in customer service, sales, copywriting, public relations, and online marketing experience, Jason has helped business owners, ministries, and sales organizations identify, simplify, and amplify their message so they can have successful, long-term relationships with their customers. Jason has served in contract or full-time work with organizations such as Answers in Genesis (Creation Museum and Ark Encounter), Social Media Examiner, 48 Days with Dan Miller, Vengreso, Delta Air Lines, Chick-fil-A, SermonAudio, and Camp Infinity.
Website: jasongoff.com
Jason Goff | Digital Consultant
Erick Goss serves as the CEO and co-founder of Minno, a kids’ media and tech company that is committed to helping families experience Jesus every day, on and off the screen. After a career in the Navy as a helicopter pilot and Pentagon Spokesperson, Erick became Senior Manager with Amazon just after they had gone public. Erick led the creation of Amazon’s first ebook business, print-on-demand, Super Saver Shipping, the Amazon Credit Card, and oversaw North American book buying.
When God planted a deeper calling to use his expertise in building a Christ-centered company, Erick left Amazon to serve as a Chief Marketing Officer for an e-commerce company in Nashville. In time, he and a partner launched Minno. As CEO and Co-Founder, Erick brings his left-brain business expertise and his right-brain creative to Minno.
Minno makes screen time count by curating and creating shows, books, and resources that put kids first and support families. The Minno app, available on all platforms, includes more than 2,600 episodes in 125 shows, including 100 original “5 Minute Family Devotionals.” Minno Life parent resources offer expert-written blogs, Life Guides on key topics, activity packs, and downloads, as well as the Minno “Raising Boys and Girls Podcast” (2M+ downloads). Minno Kids Publishing offers the fastest-selling, Christian Book Award-winning children’s Bible, the “Minno Laugh and Grow Bible.”
Website: gominno.com
Erick Goss | Minno
Formerly the social media strategist for Focus on the Family, Haley Jersey has more than ten years of marketing experience in the non-profit world and is currently the Marketing & Communications Director at 410 Bridge, an international non-profit.
Haley Jersey | Social Media Strategist
Over the past fifteen years Eddie Jones has published hundreds of books through KDP and IngramSpark. During that time he evaluated countless book proposals. He can gauge whether a manuscript has potential for publication and sales. Now he advises clients on the best ways to get their books released for the least amount of money. He also works with his clients on Amazon and Facebook ads, keywords, Amazon category selection and much more.
Website: writerscoach.us
Eddie Jones | Writers’ Coach
Founder of Spark Media, Misty Phillip equips Christian Communicators and podcasters through events, the Spark Media podcast network, Spark Media magazine, Spark Collective a thriving membership community, and the Spark Radio Initiative. She is the host of the By His Grace Podcast ranked in the top 1.5 percent of all podcasts, and the co-host of Spark Influence podcast ranked in the top 5 percent. Both podcasts are featured on the Spark Media Radio Hour featured on KHCB’s Upliftd Stream. Sought-after inspirational speaker and the author of the award-winning #1 Amazon New Release Bible Study, The Struggle is Real: But so is God, and the Spark Podcast Planner.
Website: mistyphillip.com
Misty Phillip | Spark Media
Edric Sng was a key editor at national mainstream media newspaper, TV and radio newsrooms for more than a decade in Singapore. He was responsible for converting regional broadcaster Channel NewsAsia into a digital-first brand, with more than 50 million pageviews per month. He is the editor of Thir.st and Salt&Light, which are recognized as Singapore’s leading Christian websites, with more than one million unique visitors a year.
Edric Sng | Thir.st Collective
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is a professor and dean at Wheaton College where he also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches; trained pastors and church planters on six continents; earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates; and he has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. He is Regional Director for Lausanne North America, is the Editor-in-Chief of Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited in, interviewed by, and writes for news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. He is the Founding Editor of The Gospel Project, a curriculum used by more than 1.7 million individuals each week for bible study. His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates. He recently served as interim teaching pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in New York City and serves as teaching pastor at Highpoint Church.
Ed Stetzer | Wheaton College Billy Graham Center
Thomas Umstattd, Jr., built his first website at the age of 13 and taught his first web design class at only 16 years old. He founded Umstattd Media, his first web design and media company in 2007 while still in college.
In 2009 he started AuthorTechTips.com, a website to help authors use the web to promote their books. The site was twice featured in Writers Digest as one of the 101 most helpful websites for authors. AuthorTechTips.com changed its name to AuthorMedia.com in 2011. Umstattd Media was incorporated as a Castle Media Group, LLC in 2012.
In 2014 Thomas took on the role of Marketing Director for Enclave Publishing where he doubled sales over the following 18 months. In 2016, Thomas was hired by Fahrenheit Marketing as Marketing Director.
As a podcaster, he hosts the Novel Marketing Podcast, and the Christian Publishing Show. He also hosted The Creative Funding Show, and Liberty Buzzard podcasts which have concluded.
Thomas still serves as the CEO of Castle Media Group LLC, the parent company of Author Media.
As an award-winning speaker, Thomas teaches audiences all over the world. His friendly speaking style blends multimedia and audience participation. He offers audiences a unique perspective to help them use the web in a whole new way.
Thomas Umstattd, Jr. | Castle Media Group
If you are a current member of one of the following partner associations, you qualify for the discounted member rate:
ACP, BCA, CAN, CCCA, CIPA, CNA, ECPA, EPA, MTI, NAE, NRB
All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-0400, New York USA).
A few days before the start of the event, you will receive an email with the URL and login information for the Whova event platform. If you do not receive it by Oct. 22, please send an inquiry or call 480-868-2466. Login will require you to use the same email address entered on your registration form.
The Whova event platform can be accessed on desktop and laptop computers as well as with an app for mobile devices. While computers may provide a more pleasant viewing experience on a larger screen, some networking and interactive experiences are optimized for the mobile app. It is possible to use both a computer and mobile device simultaneously.
All the sessions will be recorded and available a few days following the event for viewing for 90 days after the live event ends. Registered attendees may sign in to the Whova platform anytime during that window to view the sessions.
Most sessions will include live Q&A with the speakers as well as a chat feature to interact with other attendees. Virtual meet ups will be available for anyone to schedule.
Call 480-868-2466 or submit an inquiry.