Tag: The Summit

  • Four Hours of Summit Videos

    Four Hours of Summit Videos

    Go ahead and melt your brain for the next four hours with these Summit videos. Go back-to-back 19 times. Amazing stuff.

    Today we are announcing the first round of speakers for The Summit 2014 in Nashville. We’ve also extended the event to 2 full days at no additional cost. (We used to charge $40 for Pre-Summit sessions, they are now included.)

    We’d sure love to have you there.

    Perks! If you register in the month of May for $149 ($20 cheaper for groups) we’re giving you $145.99 in perks. Like I said, we’d sure love to have you there. 

  • 10 Things I’m Excited About for The Summit

    The Summit: A chat with some of the presenters from The Youth Cartel on Vimeo.

    With just over 100 days until The Summit, I thought I’d share 10 things I’m excited about.

    1. The theme. After the insanity of the past 3-4 years, the idea of linking arms– taking a big, deep breath, and looking at where we are at and where we need to go. Gosh, that’s so needed.
    2. Awakening dreams. Each of us in youth ministry went into this thing with some dreams. To have 2 days to intentionally awaken them, spurring them into action? Bring it on.
    3. An incredible line-up of presenters.There’s depth in this line-up. We have a wide variety of leaders from a wide array of background… it’s broad in that aspect but really, really specific in its aim to elevate youth ministry.
    4. A fresh schedule and approach. Yes, the main sessions are very much TED-like. There will be 5-6 presenters, a couple surprises, and a theme. But I also love that we’re creating feedback space when you can go and connect with presenters. No one is zipping in and out. Our presenters are coming to help you become a better leader.
    5. It’s in a church! I think events like this belong in churches. Plus, Josh and the kind folks at Fellowship are a blast.
    6. It’s cheap. $129 for groups and $149 for 1-2 people… when you compare that to any other event… it’s a great value for what you’re getting. Plus, it’s just 2 days… so you can do 1 night in a hotel instead of 3-4.
    7. Really fun partners. Oh baby, our partners are making The Summit even more fun for everyone. We’ve got some great giveaways and surprises coming.
    8. Marko & Adam unleashed. Over the past year I’ve heard over and over again how cool our partnership looks. Well, come to The Summit and you’ll see it on full display.
    9. My favorite people. We’re a small business and Marko and I are very involved in every aspect of The Summit. Each time someone buys a tickets we’re like… “OH YES! ____ is coming!” I know that sounds cheesy, but the room is going to be full of really cool people.
    10. It’s new. I mean, I like new. Don’t you?

    How can you help? Here’s 2 things we really need at this stage in the game.

    1. Register now. I know the deadline for the early bird rate isn’t for another month… but if you are coming it helps us the most if you buy your ticket now.
    2. Help us promote it. Our biggest weakness is our size. We know this is a great event. But we just don’t have a big marketing budget. (This is directly related to our price, by the way!)

  • I see your faith in action

    A year ago I stood on the edge of a giant cliff. And jumped.

    No regrets. No turning back. Hit the play button on Tom Petty’s Free Falling.

    My jump involved leaving a life of the bi-weekly paychecks behind and launching McLane Creative & The Youth Cartel. It wasn’t a faith step in that resolution or self-correction kind of way. It was a big old leap of faith with no parachute and carrying along a wife & 3 kids.

    But I’m not alone. I actually have a front row seat to a few friends who are taking similar leaps. It’s exciting and important for the Kingdom that faithful people line-up in faith and jump.

    Here’s a few of them whom I want to affirm today.

    I see you:

    • Marnie Nair & City Heights Prep –  Our community has a significant problem that Marnie is setting out to address. City Heights, the San Diego community we live in, exports most of its teenagers every day for school. This communicates a powerful message that in order to be successful you need to leave City Heights. City Heights Prep is a brand new college prep middle/high school launching this Fall. I’m pretty pumped about it.
    • Jeremy Lee, Parentministry.net, Parentzilla.com, and UthMin.net – Jeremy is a life-long youth worker working on a big dream. He’s made a huge investment in developing unique and useful content for parents and youth workers. I’ve walked with Jeremy through the web development end of this project and gotten the chance to see all of the premium content. Gosh, it’s really good stuff. In a world of free he’s gambled that you’ll be willing to pay for the best stuff and the community that forms around it. I like it, this is actually where most internet stuff is headed.
    • Phil Cunningham & Steps of Justice – How many people do you know that put their family in an RV to go on tour for a year. I know one and his name is Phil. It’s one thing to say you care about social justice and praying for change. But to walk away from everything you’ve known, sell it all, and go on tour to raise awareness? That’s not a step of faith, it’s holding your breath and jumping.
    • Ryan McRae & Geek in Afghanistan – Earlier this year Ryan, approaching 40, decided he needed to take a step of faith. So he quit his job at a university and moved to Afghanistan to take a defense contractor job. We’re not talking about locked away in a cushy base in Dubai. We’re talking about going to places where things blow up and people are killed every day. He’s blogging his journey and using the experience to reboot into his next stage of life. Totally love it.
    • The Summit – OK, so this one is tied to me. But for Marko and I it’s a big huge leap for our little, bitty company. We couldn’t be more excited about how the program is developing, how partnerships are forming, and all that stuff. At the same time, we’ve got no guarantees that it’ll work. (The biggest thing you can do to support this effort is to buy a ticket. Heck, gift a ticket to a youth worker who needs to be there if you can’t come!)

    What about you? How can you affirm people in your life taking big leaps of faith? 

    photo credit: Simon Hooks via Flickr (Creative Commons)

  • Freebies for registering early – The Summit

    This week we opened registration for The Summit. This is our brand new, TED-like, national youth ministry event. [Here’s the announcement]

    And, as excited as I am about The Summit, this post isn’t really about the event itself so much as it’s about the type of ministry organization we want to be.

    Here is a phrase from the announcement:

    We have lots of freebies to reward you for registering early. Why? Because we think early adopters should get the most rewarded. (Duh!)

    You might not know this but that is an upside down methodology within the marketing world. For instance, I get regular emails from Southwest Airlines offering me great deals from San Diego to the places I visit most often. But why is Southwest offering me those special prices? Because the market isn’t buying them at their regular fare price, so they’ve discounted them to try to entice me to buy low. And it works! I’ve actually booked trips I wouldn’t have booked simply because the flight cost was so low!

    But, for me at least, I would like to think about The Youth Cartel as the type of organization who rewards our most loyal folks with the best possible deal. We’ve done it in some small ways by offering pre-order specials on books and curriculum and gotten a great response.

    For The Summit — we’ve ramped that WAY UP to make it so that the people who register first get the absolutely best deal on price & rewards. Our early bird price is valid all the way through August but if you register in May you’re going to get all sorts of stuff for free that people who register in September won’t get. (Or will have to pay for.)

    • An invite to our private Friday night after party
    • A vote for who gets to speak in the soapbox session
    • Video downloads of every session
    • One registration to a pre-event session
    • Entered in a raffle to win things like… free lodging, car rental, and other fun stuff we’ll dream up.
    • MP3 downloads of every session
    And then, as we get closer to the event these rewards start to go away. So folks who register now get the best possible deal and those who wait get a little less.

    So that’s my theory. What do you think? Is it a crazy theory? Do you think it’s better to go the traditional way and discount stuff when it doesn’t sell?

    And… are you planning to attend The Summit? We’re hearing from youth workers all over who are planning to come, which is rad! Are you registered yet? If not, what are you waiting for?