Matt Silver and I had a great day here in Nashville. We walked around the floor some at CBA this morning, picking up some catalogs of books and talking to some people at booths. Talked to a guy who appeared by the way he was talking to be a proponent of mega-church franchising/branding, only to find out that he had written his book directly against it. Whew. I was confused for about 10 minutes. Good thing. His explanation of church marketing was a sick caricature of the movement that I could only hope was fake. In the end, he was just explaining it to us. Next, we talked to a guy who thought that he would fleece 1000 churches in America by installing 3D projection systems so that kids can watch "clean" cartoons and adults can experience the Vatican as an immersive "walk through" that "only popes have seen." "Our clients include Disney and Boeing. This is new technology that no one has." Whatever. They were just basic 3D glasses. I said, "How does all this work?"
"How the h--- do I know?," he shrugged. Moments like this make one wish to chuck the whole thing. Except the Christian part.
Then off to a lunch at Baja Burrito with Andy Osenga, Cason, and a friend of theirs named Whit. After we were somewhat (somewhat?!) lost on the way there, Cason had to leave to go over to work on Sandra McCracken's new record for the afternooon. We went over to Andy's home for about an hour and talked about the new Square Peg Alliance and how to develop the brand for their music community. Eye-opening discussion.
Back to CBA to meet with Barbour Publishing and had dinner in Nashville with Chris Hartzler and Jeff Gray from BJU Press---great, great friends.
Posted by bmcallister at January 26, 2006 01:40 AM | TrackBack