So, I’ve been a little quiet about the Illuminate Conference this fall. Normally I’m promoting it pretty heavily already. In case you’re a new reader, Illuminate is a conference that I launched a few years ago at my church. Illuminate’s goal was to equip, empower and encourage those who serve kids in the local church. It was a conference that was both local and affordable, designed specifically for the volunteer in mind. No other conference put together such a high quality lineup of communicators for such an affordable event for volunteers. Oh, and Illuminate has been so successful. The first year saw nearly 1000 attendees in three cities and the second year saw nearly 2000 participants in five cities. What a fun ride.

So, what’s new this year? Well, my vision for Illuminate became bigger than my capacity to run it on my own (remember, I’ve got a full time gig too). So, I asked Orange to come in and help me take Illuminate to the next level and I’m so excited to see what Illuminate is becoming. Sue Miller and Amy Fenton have taken the reigns and are putting together an amazing team of communicators and assembling top notch content and are packaging it in a format that is new, but even more strategic than I’ve done in the past.

This year Illuminate will visit five cities (three of them brand new to Illuminate):

  • Fort Lauderdale, FL – January 25th
  • Hampton, VA – February 1st
  • San Francisco, CA – February 8th
  • Grand Rapids, MI – March 8th
  • Memphis, TN – March 29th

This year’s format includes concentrated volunteer content in the morning, two general sessions and a breakout. It makes it easier for volunteer to attend when they don’t have to give up their entire Saturday. The afternoon is reserved for leaders… specific training related to leading volunteers and ministries. The theme of this year’s conference is Live To Serve hence the new URL below.

Lastly, I’ve never been passionate about local training events than I am now. I invest the appropriate resources into local training because I know that what my volunteers can get out of an event like this is worth it’s weight in gold and I believe in Sue Miller and Amy Fenton’s leadership… great things are in store for this year’s events and events yet to come!

For more information, head over to illuminateconference.tv or the new URL, livetoserve.co.