Conspire Conference in Chicago (Part 4)

The second day at Conspire started with a session w/ Phil Vischer on kid's media. I saw the same presentation at NRB last month (which was great) and he commented on how I had seen it before. I felt like "Fred" in "Cars" ("He knows my name!").

The presentation was great and I can't wait to read more about Jelly Telly at Phil Vischer's blog: http://www.philvischer.com

He shared some great info:
* Kids 8-18 years old watch about 4hr of video, 1.75 hr music and 2 hours of games/internet per day.
* Christian TV is usually pay-to-air like infomercials so the model doesn't really work for filmmakers
* Christian media is behind the curve for the industry and Christian retail is on the decline

Kids TV is plentiful, good and mostly moral so there's no motivation to go looking for something to pay for. Therefore there's no platform for Christian filmmakers to work and grow.

The new model must:
* use new technology
* scale to match audience size and economics
* create opportunities for entire Christian creative community
* must create something to aim for: community w/ Christian families and long-term teaching relationship w/ Christian kids

Enter Jelly Telly! multi-platform, Christian kids mini-network online: new model, "open source", 2-5 min shows, ministry driven.

It's something to also "connect the dots" btwn the Sundays for kids. Hopefully it can keep Sunday school from being the one time a week kids get good Christian input.

After the first session, I went straight to the second session room for a couple reasons. The second session was a discussion group about Phil's book, "Me, Myself, and Bob" and I was most looking forward to this session. I wanted a good seat.

Also, I wanted to let other people have a chance to talk to Phil. I tend to try to hog his time. I had just re-read his book and God speaks to me so clearly and directly in it. I have asked Phil a few times w/ help in direction, but I felt I had it now. Read the book and you'll get that I felt I needed to rest, wait, listen and trust. Not that you need to read the book to understand that, but you'll see how I felt.

More next about the second session w/ Phil, Timbuktoon guys and more!