$3,324,721 in donations =

• 8 border monitoring stations and safe homes in Nepal
• 23 rescue operations and a two-year aftercare program for freed forced labor slaves in India
• 12 apartments for survivors of sexual exploitation and a Child Exploitation and Online Protection Squad in Atlanta
• 1 crisis center for rescued victims of human  trafficking in South Africa
• 1 safe house for rescued child slaves in Haiti
• and much more.

Kinnaman, the president of The Barna Group, delves into why so many young adults with a Christian background are disengaged with faith. He conducted in-depth research and interviewed 18- to 29-year-olds. From the results, he offers practical suggestions for church leaders to improve communication and encourage those who have left the church to return. Publishers Weekly called it “a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of Christianity.”

Habitudes for Communicators
By Dr. Tim Elmore

Available in January, the latest book in Elmore’s Habitudes series shares principles that form leadership habits and attitudes for good communication, especially between different generations. Each chapter contains discussion questions, personal application and practical suggestions. Elmore also leads 90-minute to full-day workshops on the topic.

See more Rejuvenate recommendations and suggest your own to add to our bookshelf.

Motivating and inspiring your team is among the financial and business expert’s main principles for courageous leadership, which range from big picture items such as vision, communication and relationship to the nitty-gritty like debt and time management. Here are some of Ramsey’s tips for recognizing employees:

➔ Recognize in writing.
➔ Recognize in front of peers.
➔ Recognition doesn’t have to be expensive.
➔ Remember birthdays.

Learn more about Dave Ramsey here.

“One of the greatest things is when we see the impact a story can have in the lives of our clients. As we tell great stories and see other people resonate with that story, that’s a win for us.”
—Andy Thoms, See.Spark.Go

“I love what I do and to work for the church I grew up in is an amazing opportunity.”
—Sara Hotchkiss, The United Methodist Church

“The people and the challenge of the job. I love that each day is new and different, and there’s a new challenge and new people to work with. And it’s great that I’m helping by offering a service to them.”
—Angela Hammond, CASE, Experience Columbus

“Even if I’m only setting off a chain of events that leads to someone coming to know Christ, it’s making a difference.”
—Zach Norman, Midwest Christian Retreats

“My faith in Christ gives me inspiration, as well as knowing that I’m a role model for my family. And I understand that I represent not only the Little Rock CVB, but also a number of employees and organizations and attractions—and essentially the city—to many people.”
—Joshua Townsend, Little Rock Conventions and Visitors Bureau

“Having the opportunity to encourage people.”
—Annette Frisby, Lifeway’s Ridgecrest Conference Center

Event: Annual three-day events—Catalyst East, Catalyst West and Catalyst Dallas—and regional Catalyst One Day conferences attract tens of thousands of young leaders to hear speakers, attend workshops, and be inspired to think and act unconventionally. An in-house team, consultants and a third-party design team brainstorm what issues are resonating with the church presently to come up with event themes. “We start coming around a word or a phrase, and then drill home into what’s going to invite people to come and be a part,” says Sally Heffner. In October, Catalyst East, held in Atlanta, debuted the theme, “Be Present.” It will be incorporated into the West Coast and Dallas events this spring.

Execution: “We begin with design—the website, emails, marketing—and then work with speakers down to the event level, directing the conversation around touch points on stage,” she says. At Catalyst East, pastors, authors and business leaders incorporated the “Be Present” theme into their presentations. “It really all has intention and purpose,” Heffner says. “It connects the dots, connects the entire experience.”

Injecting Humor: Conference organizers think of creative ways to bring the theme to life in fun ways. A contest during the event challenged two attendees to stay in large “Present Tents” on the arena floor for the entirety of the conference. Costumed bees ran around committing random acts like wrapping cars in the parking lot like presents. “The fun is meant to awaken creative thought,” Heffner says. “We might have just had a heavy, intense session, and [a light moment] can really clear the mind and shift gears before we dive back into a heavy subject. We operate better when we can step back and take a deep breath. A lot of times more ends up sticking.”

Challenges: “The curve is always moving, but we personally push ourselves to do our job well and with excellence,” says Heffner. “We push each other to raise the bar each time. What can we do to provide the best environment and the best experience for people who come and spend a day with us? It’s an everyday thing for us not just an event.”

Solution: “We are all involved in other things in and out of the church, and try to be aware of what other people are doing, and be aware of what’s going on now and tapping into what’s ahead,” she says. “We hope to come up with some creative, fun, maybe innovative thing—maybe working with an iPad or something someone has never been exposed to—and it might give nonprofits or churches ideas to do on their end. We like to get as many ideas out there as possible.”

Excellence: “We’re not striving to be on the front end,” she says. “We’re just striving to do our best, and use the resources we have. We see it as an opportunity to pour back into these leaders. We just see the work and ministry they’re doing, even nonprofit and lay leaders, and if we can model striving for excellence, we hope that carries over to them and their ministries. We don’t want to be the name behind it; we want to propel them to carry out the roles they’ve been called to.”

Advice: “Keep all elements (serious and/or fun) directly related to a theme. From start to finish, all the pieces should connect and have purpose,” she says. “And filter all decisions with the attendee in mind. Go through the program as if you were sitting in the seat.”

Inspiration: “The opportunity to serve alongside a team united in vision, and partner together in something that is awakening hearts, leaving lives inspired and changed,” she says.

| In Heffner’s Words |

When I’m on-site at an event… 

I can’t live without my Chapstick.
I communicate using an iPad.
I am most inspired by volunteers. A majority are past attendees who now partner in the vision so others can have the same experience they did—amazing people, incredible stories.
I most miss sleep.
I learn the most from our director, Brad Lomenick. He is a brilliant and incredible leader.

Layout Changes
The changes mostly affect the organization of elements on the platforms. Some are minor (a simple name change) and others can throw users off (the profile box and news feed swapped sides on the web platform).

The new tabs at the top of the desktop site and on the bottom of the mobile site basically rename existing features, group some elements together and add functions.

Home–This tab is your news feed, or the tweets of everyone you are following. In some ways, the changes within the feed make the site more like Facebook: Photos or videos in a tweet now drop down directly below the tweet instead of opening in a new page or column. Replies, retweets and favorites are displayed with a tweet like comments and likes on a Facebook post. Before, retweets were good for your brand because they sent your message to more people, and now it’s even more beneficial because followers can see all the attention a tweet receives in one place.

Connect–Any activity about you appears on this page: replies, mentions, follows and list additions. The search field located at the top of the page is specifically to find and connect with other users. This tab is helpful to track activity about your account in one place.

Discover–This is the most enhanced section of the site, and possibly the most obvious section for Twitter to place promoted and paid content. The search field at the top is for people, keywords and hashtags. Stories, hashtags, people to follow and other search categories related to your account populate this page. This is where attendees can follow a hashtag for your event.

Me­–Your Twitter profile is much easier to access from the mobile site now since it has its own tab. It has the same functions, but in a cleaner, easier-to-find layout. Direct messages are also in this area, though it would probably make more sense to be on the Connect page. The web layout is not much different than the previous version.

New Features
Two new functions enhance Twitter’s presence on your website. Embeddable tweets allow you to post interactive tweets to your website. The live tweet has the same capability as it does on Twitter, which means viewers can reply, retweet, favorite or click on links within the post. Enhanced Twitter buttons added to your site allows users to share content and connect with others with one click. The new hashtag button auto-populates a tweet with the hashtag, ensuring followers are using the hashtag you want them to use to talk about you or join a conversation.

Enhanced profile pages are another way Twitter is taking on Facebook. The pages have only been rolled out for certain clients right now, but eventually brands will be able to customize their profiles. See examples of enlarged promoted tweets at the top of pages and custom headers at @AmericanExpress and @McDonalds.

Read other reviews and helpful hints about the new Twitter on Event Manager Blog, Fast Company and Mashable.

Don’t get too comfortable. Rumor has it that more changes are ahead, especially as the company continues to look for ways to monetize.

2. Why are face-to-face events important?
What it does is create a shared experience for the audience. When you have a shared experience, you have alignment, which is one of most important things one can create in an organization. If they can get their minds around what I’m presenting and leave with the same body of knowledge, they can act on it together.

3. What advice do you have for planners when selecting a speaker?
Don’t get misled by what I would call secondary things when booking a speaker. The best speakers are not always the ones with impressive academic credentials—we’ve all been bored by people with Ph.D.s. And don’t get sidetracked with who just happen to be best-selling authors. It’s not all about [the speaker]. It’s about the audience, and focusing on their needs, their dreams and tapping into that. When booking, does the speaker have a way to get the word out about your event? Can they be proactive and actually be a marketing channel that you use that’s helpful as well?

4. How has life changed since you retired as CEO of Thomas Nelson this past spring?
Retired? I call it re-fired. I would say what’s different is practical things. I don’t have a commute. I’ve reclaimed that time. This is the most creative time of my life. My whole life is spent speaking, thinking, writing—writing every morning, all morning long. I love this season. I’m busier than I’ve ever been, but I rarely go to meetings any more. My meeting today is lunch with guys in a mentoring group. For me at this point in my life, giving back and making sure I’m passing the baton to the next generation is really important. I was challenged to start that group—eight young men who meet every two weeks at my home. We read through books together, talk about things from marriage to business ideas to life planning.  I think you’ve got to be the illustration of a healthy lake or body of water and not the Dead Sea. You have to have an inlet and an outlet. You’ve got to have something you’re pouring life into, giving back. If you’re not developing other people, you’re really not a leader. You may be a very effective manager.

5. How do your leadership messages apply to meeting planners?
I can almost measure growth spurts in my life from either a book that deeply impacted me or a conference that deeply impacted me. I believe in the power of live events to change the course of people and make a life impact. Meeting planners are leaders. The very fact that they have the willingness to assemble a group of people, figure out what this group needs, and to prepare and anticipate the needs of the audience is the essence of leadership.

Some provide hands-on service opportunities in the host city. Catalyst, which drew 13,000 next-generation leaders to Atlanta Oct. 5-6, took giving back to a new level. In every one of the 10 main sessions, the spotlight was on an organization or individual leading the way in a certain area, and the Catalyst team used its resources to give first and ask attendees to follow. After Katie Davis, a 22-year-old with 13 adopted Ugandan children, spoke to the crowd, Catalyst Director Brad Lomenick announced Catalyst would send all of her children to school. Catalyst, Convoy of Hope and Venture Expeditions joined forces to raise money for tornado victims in Joplin, Mo., and cities across the Southeast through pledges made for 13 cyclists who rode from Joplin, Mo., to the conference in Atlanta. The goal was to raise $100,000 in addition to the diapers, canned goods, blankets and towels, and gift cards attendees brought to the conference. For more examples of organizations the conference gave to, visit the Catalyst website.