ROOM: GRAND G

Session-Business

Campaigns for Increasing Circulation

Want new subscribers? Need to broaden your advertising base? Looking to evangelize and make your newspaper more relevant? Then look no further because this workshop is for you!

Discover how the editorial and marketing teams at The Michigan Catholic joined forces to accomplish these things and more.

Learn the techniques, which helped us launch: #liveyourbestlent, The Michigan Catholic in Schools, Unleash the Gospel, The Sistine Chapel Choir Ticket Contest and the beatification Mass of Blessed Solanus Casey campaigns….which increased subscriptions and donations while evangelizing our readers.

You’ll walk away with ideas which you can easily translate into your own success. In fact, we created The Michigan Catholic in Schools program in part from what we learned from a workshop at the 2017 Catholic Media Conference in Quebec City and it brought in $30k from the Archdiocesan office of schools and more subscribers and ad revenue.

Join us as we share the concepts we used to create successful campaigns by the opening windows of opportunity in Detroit. We know we can help you learn to do the same in your city!

Michelle St. Pierre is a multimedia professional who has more than 30 years of communication experience.   She is a former ABC Radio Network journalist, where she worked with famed sportscaster Howard Cosell and covered four Olympics for the network.   St. Pierre has freelanced with USA Today and has produced local radio and TV newscasts as well as features on EWTN and Ave Maria Radio.  She specializes in media training and is a frequent guest on media programs in the Detroit market.   Her most recent work history has been in leading non-profits to achieve success in fund raising and brand awareness through award winning integrated marketing campaigns.  She has lead marketing teams at The Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul and The Michigan Catholic newspaper, where she currently works as head of marketing.

Mike Stechschulte is managing editor of The Michigan Catholic newspaper, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Detroit, a position he’s held since 2012. His work has also appeared in the Times Herald newspaper of Port Huron, Mich., the Knights of Columbus’ Columbia magazine and The Chesterton Review, a quarterly journal of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture. In his spare time, Mike enjoys playing ice hockey, golf and spending time with his wife, Christine.

Remember to keep your questions open ended. (Avoid yes/no questions.)

Silence is okay in a small group. Sometimes the youth need time to think and process the questions before answering them.

As the leader of the small group, avoid talking too much. This is a time for the youth to process their thoughts. If they have questions or need mentoring, give a shorter answer and let them know you can talk more together after the small group.

The questions below are meant to be a springboard for you to ask further questions and facilitate conversation among the group. You do not need to ask every question. Feel free to ask follow-up questions as they process. You can ask even more specific questions from the keynote content.

Tap here for a PDF of the Small Group Questions

ROOM: GRAND A

Master Camp | Parish/School

VIEW PRESENTATION

Getting Past Likes and Follows: Strategies to make real connections with parishioners &  our community online

Learn how to cut through the noise and clutter of the digital space and deliver your message with impact. Communications and social media specialist for the Diocese of Syracuse Nicole Ossevoort will outline tools and tactics for effective digital communications, from rethinking basics like websites and bulletins to tapping into the power of email and video to laser-focusing your efforts with SEO and analytics.

Bring your preferred device for this hands-on workshop.

Nicole studied English Literature at SUNY Oswego and her writing is featured on Moz.org, the National Catholic Education Association blog, CNY Woman Magazine, and The Catholic Sun. She is the inaugural winner of the Fr. John Catoir Social Media Evangelization Award and serves on the Catholic Press Association Award Committee.

ROOM: GRAND H

Master Camp | Communication

Handling Hot Topics and Sensitive Subjects

This Master camp is an expanded version of a session conducted during the 2017 CMC. This camp will provide hands-on advice and best practices to help communicators deal with sensitive issues internally and externally. Learn how to be proactive and prepared for the next issue whether it’s personnel, lawsuits, bankruptcies or school closings. Participants will work through actual case studies and practice message mapping, crafting statements, timing messages, crisis prep for spokespersons on all those subjects you can only share with people doing the same work you do. Work with other participants on best practices for media relationships, how to handle fallout and feedback and get advice and tips for handling the stress of it all. This session will also offer tips for all those communication professionals responsible for publications, broadcast, social media—“the two-hat syndrome.”

Panelists: Helen Osman, owner of Greater Wings Strategic Planning and Consulting, President of SIGNIS
Jerry Topczewski, Chief of Staff for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Facilitator: Penny Wiegert, Editor/Communication Director, Diocese of Rockford

Helen Osman is president of Greater Wings, a firm specializing in communications for mission-driven organizations. Her portfolio spans local, national and international projects, including shepherding media and communications efforts for the papal visits to the United States of Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and Pope Francis in 2015, as well as supporting Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during the historic pan-Orthodox Council held in June 2016. She has served as president of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, and received its highest honor for personal achievement, the St. Francis de Sales Award, in 2012. She is president of the international board for SIGNIS, World Association of Catholic Communicators.

Jerry Topczewski serves as Chief of Staff and Chief Communications Officer for Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee. He came to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1997, where he worked for Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Archbishop (now Cardinal) Timothy Dolan and served as media spokesman during the clergy sexual abuse crisis. He also served as part of the media relations team during Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in 2015.

A native of Milwaukee, Jerry earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication in 1985, and a master’s degree in administrative leadership in 1998, from UW-Milwaukee. As an adjunct faculty member, he has taught courses in public relations at Mount Mary University and Marquette University.

Jerry has also been Director of Public Relations at Celtic Advertising in Brookfield; head of communications and marketing for the Women’s International Bowling Congress; and part of the sales and game-day promotions team for the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club. He has served multiple terms on the board of directors of the southeast Wisconsin chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and has assisted with chapter programming. He has earned five chapter PRSA awards of excellence and merit for public relations program.

ROOM: GRAND D

Master Camp | General Interest

Viral Video: How to create or outsource production to make videos that connect

This session will help you learn how to produce eye catching and engaging videos. From a small, cost efficient production, to full time, professional videographers, this session will not only give you tips and techniques on how to begin video production for your organization, but if you are already producing videos, how to take them to the next level and produce eye catching, evangelizing, and award winning (if that’s your thing) videos. With a vast knowledge of TV news, production houses and independent videography, Tim and Allen will give you the tips and techniques needed to make your Catholic-centered videos look and feel like all the secular videos filling up your social media feeds.

Allen Kinzly was born in Douglasville, Georgia and has lived his whole life except one year in the Peach State.  After graduating from high school in Peachtree City, GA, he attended one year of college in Birmingham, AL but ended up transferring to and graduating from the University of Georgia.  While at UGA he spent 3 years as the mascot for the Bulldogs, donning the outfits of Spike and Hairy Dawg.  With a degree in Sports Communications in hand and a year of interning at the Atlanta FOX affiliate under his belt, his first ‘real job’ after school was as the weekend sports anchor/reporter at the ABC and FOX duopoly in Savannah, GA.  As a ‘one man band,’ he shot, edited, produced, wrote and presented local sportscasts for 5 years in the Coastal Empire and South Carolina Low country.  After returning to Atlanta, Kinzly held many jobs as a producer, photographer and editor at both The Weather Channel and at the #1 ABC affiliate in the country, Atlanta’s WSB-TV.  In the summer of 2014, the Archdiocese of Atlanta created a ‘multi-media specialist’ position in the Communications department that would have a heavy emphasis on videography.  He was offered the job and has been building the position, video library and communications within the Archdiocese ever since.

He is a CPA award winner for a variety of categories and enjoys the “better hours and less stress than a TV newsroom.”  In his free time, Kinzly plays and refs soccer, competes in triathlons (half Ironman finisher!) and attends sporting events of his beloved Georgia Bulldogs and Atlanta sports teams.

Tim Williams is a native of Savannah Georgia. After developing a passion for photographer and photojournalism he began working at Savannah’s CBS affiliate, WTOC-TV out of high school. First as a News Production Assistant, than a Videojournalist, and for the last 7 of his 10 years with them as a Commercial and Marketing Videographer. During his time with WTOC he was responsible for newscast production, shooting and editing news stories, producing local and regional TV commercials, long-form videos and documentary pieces, and multi-cam live TV shows in the field such as parades and specials. In January of 2016 he began working for the Diocese of Savannah’s Communications Department where he oversaw the installation and operation of a multi-cam video system in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, as well as producing video projects around the 90 county Diocese in south Georgia. When not traveling and working around the Diocese, Tim enjoys still photography, as well as camping and hiking.

Location Grand Hall E

Nataša Govekar was born in 1975 at Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia. She studied Theology and Slovene at the University of Ljubljana. She received her Doctorate in Missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, writing her doctoral thesis on ‘The Transmission Of Faith Through Images.

She currently serves as the director of the theological-pastoral department of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication.

ROOM: GRAND F

Master Camp | Editorial

The Greatest Stories Ever Told

From Beowulf to the Bible to the weekly church bulletin – stories that are meaningful and memorable are stories told using the best tools of the narrative craft. We’ll do a deep dive into narrative elements and explore how they can be applied to the work you do every day, elevating even the most mundane copy. We will examine the difference between an informational article and a compelling story, when and how to weave the two, and cinematic approaches that paint pictures in the mind’s eye. This seminar will be hands on, with short writing exercises that prove you are all storytellers at heart.

Please bring a notebook and pen (or laptop, though writing longhand is better for storywork), a couple of story ideas in progress (or something you recently finished but thought could be better), an open mind and a willingness to stretch.

Jacqui Banaszynski

Jacqui has worked in news and enterprise journalism for more than 40 years, and teaches students and professionals around the world. She is a Knight Chair Professor Emerita at the Missouri School of Journalism and a faculty fellow at the Poynter Institute. While at the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, her series “AIDS in the Heartland” won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. In 1986, her eyewitness account of the African famine was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting.  Projects she has reported or edited have won national awards for business, investigative, social issues, environmental, human interest and sports reporting.