Yeah, the supporting agency, GospelCom went out of business. They were purchased by Zondervan. Z took biblegateway.com and gospel.com, but didn't want the conference. A lot of people are missing the conference, but I haven't seen anything that is certain. I know the last organizer personally and he's expressed that he'd really like to see it keep up (as well as many others) but people just don't have the time. It is expensive and time consuming.

@Josiah could you link me up with the organizer. I don't want to see this die and even had some thoughts for furthering it. :)

Hey Matt,

there has been talk of the CMA taking it over - but there's nothing in the 2009 brochure for the conference except their leadership track for IT ... and its decidedly weak on the web side.

I've emailed Robby Richardson - who if anyone would know - he would. I just don't think we're going to see another gospelcom type conference unless someone with money takes the lead...

I'm not sure we need it... I think there needs to be some discussion there... but I'm in for sure if we do want to talk about it :)

2 others - hit me up via email for their names.

Rod

Really what I'm looking for is a conference for people who develop good stuff for Churches and the mission of the church. Part networking, part sharing ideas, part showing off, part challenging each other to step up, and part sharing knowledge. We need more of this badly because this is an area the church is playing catchup in.

I realize this isn't exactly what the IMC was... at least from the sessions I saw. Maybe I'm wrong.

Does this make sense? Is there anything like that out there already like this?

IMC was mostly a parachurch thing. Some churches did come, but it was originally called GospelCon and was for members of the GospelCom Alliance only. The membership included some bigger ministries like Answers In Genesis and RBC. They opened up the conference to the public, changed the name to The Internet Ministry Conference and moved away from a technical appeal to more of a business approach. They had tracks on marketing, evangelism, and discipleship along with a tech one that was more introductory stuff. I attended three of the last four and really appreciated them.

The sessions were about bringing in speakers with strong background in the sessions, but the sort of cooperative things you mention definitely happened around the meal tables and in the hallways. I did skip sessions sometimes to continue a good conversation and have built up some friendships directly as a result of this sort of activity. I could totally see it going the direction of DrupalCon where the community suggests topics they'd be willing to speak on, people vote and things get pulled together. That would certainly help reduce some portion of the work and expense.

IMC had a variety of sponsors. 5Q Communications and Agathon were both strong supporters, along with some others that don't come to mind at the moment. I wonder if Zondervan would consider sponsoring since they have that connection now.

http://web.archive.org/web/200...

Maybe it's time for a new conference to replace it? Anyone interested in something like that? Something that is more of a drupalcon style? Some other style? I'm just curious what people think.

5Q, AgathonGroup and Dr. Paul Kulp would be interested in something ... already chatted with Chad (5Q) and Paul...

We're setting up an online church community this year and it's something we'd be really interested in. We'd heard of the IMC but, as you say, it no longer exists. We should definitely come up with a way for folk to network a bit.

I'm not aware of any work to replace it at the moment but a lot of people want to. If anyones interested in it please let me know. I'm willing to help get people talking.

Matt,

My name is Laurel MacLurg and I am the Sponsorship Director for the Christian Web Conference. When you posted about finding a conference for networking, idea sharing, collaborating, and knowledge sharing, it brought to mind the mission of the Christian Web Conference (www.christianwebconference.com). The conference takes place on September 11-12 @ Biola University.

At the Christian Web Conference we will learn, share, and inspire a community of leaders to use the web well. Speakers such as Tim Challies, Abraham Piper, Drew Goodmanson, and John Acuff will present ideas at roundtable sessions that will lead into a time of discussion. Built into the conference schedule is a focus on networking and mingling time.

Cynthia Ware and Dave Bourgeois (both speakers at IMC) are excited to be a part of this conference. At this time our main sponsors include Torrey Honors Institute of Biola University, High Calling, and Desiring God. You are right when you say more Christians need to become innovators rather than play catchup. Feel free to email me and I would love to give you more information.

- Laurel MacLurg
www.christianwebconference.com
laurel.maclurg@gmail.com

Thanks Laurel, that does look like an interesting conference. I also recognized Paul Watson and Drew Goodmanson from their IMC appearances.

Matt,

Resonate Media Group would love to help get a conference going!

Email me at jesse@resonatemediagroup.com

You're not the only one interested.

Unfortunately I can't do much more than talk about it at the moment. I'm working on a conference that's happening next month. That has to pass before I can talk about another one :).

What kind of thing are you looking for in a conference?

For those interested there is an existing 8,000 member organization that seeks to pick up the mantel for a major technology conference for ministries and churches. Shoot me an email if you are interested in participating.

I'd also recommend http://www.christianwebconfere... as Laurel said.

See above.