NMC Expenses and Follow-Up

Happy New Year!

It appears the holidays kept me a bit more distracted than I had anticipated. I was planning to post the expenses for the Lexington, KY trip in November after the National Missionary Convention, but I see it is now the 1st of January. My apologies.

I have the totals for the November convention expenses, and a quick summary of how things went at the convention:

NMC Expenses:
Transportation: $518.00
Lodging: $449.16
Food: $85.90
Misc: $89.00*
TOTAL: $1097.56

*Misc. expenses include cash food purchases and other untracked items. As not all misc. expenses may be convention-related, the final total only includes half of these expenses.

Post-Convention Debrief:

Going into the convention, I had three main goals:

• Meet with organizations that have expressed interest in seminars to see if they would like to pilot a seminar.
• Identify new organizations who express interest in the seminar.
• Identify organizations with resources that can help Insight International advance or promote the seminars.

So how did we do? Pretty well, I think.

During the convention, I was able to follow up with organizations that have expressed interest in the seminars in the past. As we expected, there was a unspoken concern regarding the effectiveness of the seminars. Everyone was too polite to straight out ask us to prove our claims (that the seminars create lasting change in the participants's perspectives and lives), but the implication was clear. This was far from discouraging, however, as we expected this response, and most people still seemed interested in the potential to do what we claim. We just need to provide some "proof-of-concept" in order to get people on board. I think the data we gather in the 2011 seminars will help us tremendously in providing the kind of data these organizations were looking for.

I also identified a few organizations who may benefit from the seminars in the future. I plan to keep their contact information and speak with them again once we gather some of the aforementioned data. For the most part, I looked for education-focused or lifestyle-focused organizations, including orphanages and inner city missions. Many of these organizations have programs that could benefit from using the seminars as a foundation. I have also targeted a few select colleges to ask to sponsor or host pilot seminars.

Finally, I have identified several organizations whose resources can help us. These fall into two main categories: logistics (travel agencies, insurance, etc.), and what I will call "networking" groups - groups which help other organizations coordinate and share resources in the field. The first can help us keep overhead down or give us access to better resources - the latter can put us in contact with additional organizations who may need the seminars.

Eventually, I plan to invite representatives from various organizations to pilot seminars over the next several years. I find it is much easier to explain why the seminars are important once someone sees what the seminars actually do. Once we get through our first seminar in San Antonio (see below), we will start planning additional seminars based on the feedback we receive there.

That's the end of the convention summary - it was a great experience, and I look forward to going back next year armed with some real data from the 2011 seminars. The first of these is coming fast - our San Antonio leadership seminar hosted by the Heart of Texas Evangelistic Association (HOTEA). The seminar is scheduled for February 9-13. Registration will be available on the Insight International website; there is a $295 registration fee that covers the seminar, lunch and snacks for all five days. Registration will be capped at 30 people on a first-come, first-served basis. We will have a standby list for anyone who is interested but registers after we have reached capacity. More information coming soon on the Insight International website.

Have a happy new year, everyone!