Misty Phillip
COO | Trilogyworks

Search referrals to small publishers have fallen roughly 60% in two years, and most of us are being asked to do more with AI while our readers tell us they want it disclosed — and trust us less when we do. This session cuts through both problems. You’ll leave with a three-zone “trust line” that settles what AI may and may not touch, six editorial workflows where it genuinely earns its keep, a reusable voice file that stops AI from flattening your publication into generic prose, and a one-page AI policy you can write this month. Practical, honest about the tradeoffs, and built for teams of one to ten.

What you will learn:

• Come away with a written AI use policy and disclosure language
• Six AI-assisted workflows plus the prompt patterns that make them work
• A 30-60-90 rollout plan

Marianne Howard
Director of Marketing | D6 Family Ministry

Turn one clear idea into a connected digital campaign that moves from strategy to execution across email, social, web, and paid media.

What you will learn:

• Clarify the message before creating the content. Know who you’re talking to, what they need, and why they should care.
• Apply StoryBrand principles. Create clear, audience-focused messaging that positions your brand as the guide and leads to a clear next step.
• Build campaigns, not content piles. Give every email, post, landing page, and ad a strategic job to do, with every piece working together toward the same goal.
• Start with the finish line. Define what success looks like, build backward from the desired action, and design every campaign around a clear next step rather than simply generating attention.

Brooke Miles
Social Media Stragetist | Delaware ShoutOut

Are you tired of using LinkedIn like a digital billboard, i.e., posting and hoping for the best? Most professionals focus entirely on what they publish, when there’s a secret (and much more fun) ingredient to LinkedIn success: a deliberate engagement strategy. A smart engagement plan is the fastest way to boost your visibility, build real connections, and drive your organization’s growth.

What you will learn:

• Seek the “right” connections to strategically build your network
• Comment in a way that gets people’s attention and sparks conversations
• DM in a “non-spammy” way that moves conversations off of LinkedIn and to the place where real business happens
• You’ll walk away with strategies you can easily use right away to finally make LinkedIn work for you!

Jon Hirst
Chief Innovation Officer | Generous Mind

Changes are coming to how your creative teams work. Many of us are making cosmetic changes in the form of AI-enhanced tools. But the real change comes when roles are evaluated, work is automated, and new human work is codified in job descriptions. At the end of the day, you might be surprised how much more you are able to do and how different it will look.

Jason Malec
Co-Founder | IDE8.org

Most content teams have people using AI. Very few have AI doing work. This session gives attendees a five-rung ladder for the distance between those two things: Chatbot, Skill, Automation, Workflow, Agent. Each rung gets an editorial example, from headline variants at the bottom to a system that watches the content calendar at the top. Attendees map one of their own processes onto the ladder during the session and name who approves the output at each rung. They leave with one named process, one target rung, and a date.

NOTE: Take this short AI readiness assessment, built for leaders. It runs about six minutes and gives attendees something concrete to take with them after the session ends.  thenextmountain.ai/ai-edge

Brian Erickson
Co-Founder | King Grizzly

AI can generate a polished design in minutes, but that doesn’t mean the role of the designer is disappearing. It does mean the way we design is changing. So what does a designer bring to the process when anyone can generate layouts, images, and ideas on demand? Join designer, developer, and agency founder Brian Erickson for a friendly, optimistic look at how AI is changing design and collaboration, where designers bring the most value, and why AI might even become the first tool that actually follows your brand guidelines.

Click on the ON-DEMAND SESSIONS tab above to see the selection of videos from past conferences. Two of these will be unlocked each day of the conference. Once unlocked, they can be watched on-demand anytime.

Seana Scott
Founder | Well Soul Life

Substack is one of the fastest growing platforms for today’s writers to reach wider audiences and monitize their content, but is Substack for you? Join Seana Scott, a freelance writer, share her story about how Substack has helped her in her writing journey, the pros and cons, and what to think about before you get started or to take the next step in your Substack journey.

What you will learn:

• What is Substack and how is it helpful for today’s writers and communicators?
• The features and limitations of Substack (and is it right for you?)
• Suggestions in how to maximize Substack for your personal or organizational goals.

Katie Allred
Communications Strategist and Author

A hands-on look at how content creators can responsibly use AI to streamline writing, editing, and design workflows without losing human voice or theological integrity.

Christopher Benek
Pastor & CEO | CoCreators

A forward-looking session examining how AI-generated media, AI-powered search and “answer engines,” personalization, automated communication, and emerging AI agents may reshape Christian publishing and digital communications—and how Christian organizations can begin preparing strategically now.

Caitlin Curry
Client Success Manager | Infinity Concepts

Micah Voraritskul
Founder | VerifiedHuman

AI is really good at one thing a publication needs most right now: helping editors, writers, and teams hear from their own readership with clarity. When given the right inputs – reader letters, comments, regional news, the publication’s own historical archive, AI can surface concerns the audience is circling and also the sometimes hard-to-see connections between their world and the news that might get lost in the shuffle. The discipline is the whole point: AI can show editorial teams what the angles might be and present options, then allow teams to bring their own Spirit-led discernment to it. The machine maps the audience. The editor still decides. It’s a hands-on session with a workflow a team can actually run.

Akosua Frempong
Founder | Listening Ear Communications

Many people or brands deal with the challenge of being excellent but having few subscribers and views on YouTube. The truth is, nobody tells you how to grow your YouTube channel in the ways this workshop would show you, not even on a Google search! This session is for digital magazines trying to build a following and independent journalists trying to showcase their work.

In this workshop, digital magazine brands and freelance journalists will learn how to gain visibility through YouTube. They’ll also learn how to grow an audience.

This session is pre-recorded

Click on the ON-DEMAND SESSIONS tab above to see the selection of videos from past conferences. Two of these will be unlocked each day of the conference. Once unlocked, they can be watched on-demand anytime.

Ben Stapley

Organizations use video testimonies to tell powerful stories. These personal stories work best when the interviewer and interviewee know each other well. Because a friend conducting the interview allows for greater vulnerability. But often the friend isn’t experienced in this craft. This talk will present a checklist to train and prepare any unseasoned interviewer.

Thomas Umstattd, Jr.

Podcasting has grown into a powerful tool to help writers and publishers expand their digital platforms. But that is just the beginning! Discover new ways you can use podcasts to build your audience.

Lora Campbell

Unlock the power of graphic design with “Canva Secrets: Effortless Design for Publications.” This workshop will guide you through essential graphic design elements to captivate and engage your readers. Discover how to leverage Canva’s intuitive tools to streamline the design process, create on-brand publications, and produce visually stunning materials that resonate with your audience and have your work stand out.

What you will learn:

• Master Design Elements: Learn how to effectively use color, typography, and imagery to enhance storytelling and create a deep connection with your audience.
• Create Cohesive On-Brand Publications: Understand how to craft a brand style guide that ensures consistency with your publication and facilitates collaboration among multiple team members on projects.
• Enhance Workflow with Bulk Creation: Gain practical skills to design attractive workbooks, magazines, and multi-page publications utilizing Canva’s bulk create features to maximize efficiency and stay on-brand.

Dustin Stout

In this eye-opening session, you’ll discover why most people are getting mediocre results from AI tools and the exact framework that will transform your AI interactions from frustrating to fantastic. You’ll walk away with insider techniques that will immediately 10x your AI output quality, whether you’re crafting articles, generating research, or creating compelling content that resonates with your audience.

What you will learn:

• Context Creates Champions: Learn why feeding the AI the full picture transforms mediocre outputs into masterpieces.
• Personas Pack Power: Discover how assigning specific roles to AI unlocks laser-focused, expert-level content
• Progress Needs Patience: Master the art of iterative prompting to polish your AI outputs to perfection
• Probe for Precision: See how simple follow-up questions can surface surprising insights and fill critical content gaps

Jacob Stout

AI is the most disruptive technology since the advent of the Internet, and many journalists, creatives, and marketers are still struggling to determine its proper place. In this session, we’ll cover some practical tips on how to use AI to immediately improve your day-to-day work, while posing important questions for newsrooms and creative teams to work through in the long term.

What you will learn:

• Quick wins for AI in your daily workflows
• Leveraging “Deep Research” for greater efficiencies
• Best practices for generative AI and journalistic integrity
• How to establish boundaries and ethical standards for AI usage

Dave Offord

The fundamentals of SEO remain critical, but Google’s AI‑generated search results introduce new opportunities and challenges for visibility. In this session, you’ll learn how to strengthen your technical SEO foundation, enhance content for AI summaries, and future‑proof your strategy to keep your clients ahead of the curve.