Launch 2017: The EFCM Comms & Media Conference

0 Posted by - March 13, 2017 - Articles

Launch 2017 is the name for the first ever EFC Malaysia Communications & Media Conference. The name “LAUNCH” is somewhat appropriate considering that after this conference, there will be more to come on a regular basis. A full day conference, it began at 8am and ended at 8pm.

A total of 50 delegates attended which surpassed the original expected total of around 35. A fair number of EFC Malaysia churches were in attendance, namely: PJEFC, Hope EFC , Emmanuel EFC, Kepong EFC, Grace EFC, Faith EFC, EFC Gospel Centre, and even Seremban EFC. A few others from non-EFC churches such as SSMC, FGA, and St. Gabriel also attended as part of Rapha Ministry.

Three technical tracks were covered: Audio, Photography and Film-making. As church communications has to begin from the top a special Leadership and Pastoral track was included and a total of 11 Pastors and Ministry leaders attended. The Leadership track also had the benefit of having Alex Lam, Strategic Communications director at Kingdom City KL, share insights and church challenges. Alex also brought his previous experience at DUMC.

The opening keynote by PJEFC’s Strategic Communications Director, Mark Grunden set the theme of the conference which was focusing on Culture and Engagement, in the light of the many cultural and generational gaps in our EFC churches. From the post-conference survey, a majority of the delegates felt that the keynote was highly relevant to themselves personally and to their churches or ministries.

The three technical tracks were delivered by PJEFC”s own Tim David, Leon Lai and Eugene Khoo. Consisting of two 90-minute sessions, it was difficult to compact 1.5 days of instruction into 3 hours as well as being able to cater to a wide range of experience and delegate skill levels. At 3pm, the tracks were merged together for project time. To goal is to create a promotional or publicity video for a ministry or church. It was a frantic rush to brainstorm, shoot the promo with team members playing roles behind and in front of the camera, editing, recording sound and presentation as the final output had to be ready for viewing by 6pm. The results were quite good with the time constraints. The project session was not as structured and well-planned as we would like so there were the initial chaos but after which most commented that the joint working environment and bonding time with team-mates from various EFC was the highlight of the project time.

The conference ended with several participants sharing some good feedback and with that, our Deacon of Communications, Debbie Loh closed off the conference with a prayer  and everyone adjourned for a much needed dinner at Yellow Apron.

Some photos from the “project” time.