8:00 PM – 10:30 PM: Revive! Track: MARRIOTT GATEWAY BALLROOM

Doug Tooke is the Director of Youth Ministry events at the Diocese of Helena, the Executive Director of Reach Youth Ministry and the owner of Monarch Catholic Ministries. With Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Philosophy and Theology and a Masters in Pastoral Ministry he has over twenty years of professional ministry experience. He has traveled to over 75 Diocese in the past 15 years teaching, keynoting conventions, and training youth ministers. He has spoken at World Youth Day, NCYC, NCCYM and continues to serve as a leader in the field. He is blessed by his wife Becky and five daughters Mederise, Lilian, Joelle, Ainsley and Gwendolyn.

Thursday 5:00 – 6:00 PM

Location: Gateway 2

This session will spark new ideas for increasing value of your publication. By making small changes to things you are already doing and by taking advantage of new opportunities, you can open up possibilities for new streams of revenue while enhancing relationships with key constituencies.

Amy Kawula has served the Diocese of Green Bay the past 30 years and is currently the advertising and marketing manager at The Compass. During this time, she has served nearly every department of the diocese. This has allowed her to develop the relationships with staff, parishes, schools and the community that have contributed to successful marketing strategies and increased revenue for The Compass. In addition to being the only advertising sales person, she manages circulation, annual pilgrimages and several diocesan events each year. She has been instrumental in implementing and launching two new websites for The Compass by creating the advertising rate card, implementing online ad sizes and following through with sales. Revenue from print/online advertising sales and pilgrimages has increased annually over the 10 years she has served in her current position. She believes in honesty, integrity and genuine care for the unique needs of each person is critical to leading a successful team.

Thursday 3:30 – 4:45 PM

Location: Grand Ballroom F

Communication is who we are, but how do we deal with our daily stress? Lose it, use it, or diffuse it? It’s all in the beatitudes. In this session we will review the master plan for communicators as Jesus laid it out in the Sermon on the Mount.

Sr. Mary Lea Hill (aka The Crabby Mystic) is a Daughter of St. Paul currently stationed in St. Louis. She is a writer and editor for Pauline Books & Media who has worked in various forms of communication including filmmaking and animation. Sister Lea, originally from Lynn, Massachusetts, entered the convent in 1964 and has lived happily ever after. Her most recent publications are Blessed Are the Stressed: Secrets to a Happy Heart from a Crabby Mystic (2016); Prayer And You: Wit and Wisdom from a Crabby Mystic (2014); Saints Alive: The Faith Proclaimed (2013); Saints Alive: The Gospel Proclaimed (2013) both in collaboration with Sr. Marie Paul Curley, fsp; and Basic Catechism with Sr. Susan Helen Wallace, fsp (revised 2013).

Thursday 3:30 – 4:45 PM

 Location: Gateway 5

Podcasting is one of the fasting growing communications tools in the world today—and it happens to be one of the easiest and cheapest to produce. Not every (arch)diocese or organization has the ability to produce a radio show every week. The cost of traditional broadcast is incredibly expensive to start and maintain. The web offers boundless options for producing high-quality media that is not only available to literally anyone, but it is also easily shareable! Now that’s evangelization! Learn more about the theory behind podcasting as well as the practical tools you will need to podcast successfully. You’ll leave with all the knowledge you need to get started right away.

Billy Atwell is the Director of Communications for the Diocese of Raleigh, and Second Vice President and member of the Executive for the Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals. For the Diocese of Raleigh, he serves as the primary spokesperson for the Bishop, oversees diocesan media relations, video and audio production, the diocesan website, social media, and the publishing of NC Catholics magazine. He is featured on Raleigh to Rome, a 6-minute weekly video/audio podcast news brief in which he covers local and global Catholic news. He hosts a regular video/audio podcast called A Catholic Life, in which he speaks with guests about news within the Church as well as inspiring stories of faith.

He also hosts the Catholic Academy Podcast, which can be found on iTunes or SoundCloud.com/CatholicAcademy. He speaks with guests about topics such as social media, podcast production, strategic communications and planning, email distribution, business leadership, and more.

Find him on Twitter: @BillyAtwell

Wednesday

3:15 – 5:30 pm

Location: Grand Ballroom E

Come join “Miracle Hunter” Michael O’Neill as he explores the inner workings of the official investigative process of the Catholic Church into the supernatural. The workshop will include case studies and methodologies used by the Vatican for discerning claims of the miraculous and elucidate and unravel the complexities of the statements and other signals that are issued by the Church when recognizing a miracle as worthy of belief. O’Neill will also provide helpful tips on how to report all this back to the Catholic and secular public.

Target Audience: Communication Directors, reporters, broadcasters and aspiring miracle hunters!

Michael O’Neill is an author, speaker, and creator of the website MiracleHunter.com, the web’s top resource on Marian apparitions cited in news articles and blogs around the world and throughout renowned Mariologist Fr. René Laurentin’s comprehensive work “The Dictionary of the Apparitions of the Virgin Mary” (2010 Edizioni ART).

O’Neill, a graduate of Stanford University and member of the Mariological Society of America, has been interviewed about his research numerous times for features on Catholic television programs like EWTN’s News Nightly and Bookmark and radio like the Catholic Channel on SiriusXM and secular media outlets like “Fox & Friends” and Live Science magazine. He was a consultant for the National Geographic December 2015 cover story and map about the Virgin Mary “The Most Powerful Woman in the World” and was interviewed as the Marian expert on the corresponding television piece for NatGeo Explorer.

O’Neill is the host of the weekly Relevant Radio program “The Miracle Hunter™” and on December 8th, 2010, O’Neill served as the Marian expert for Relevant Radio on the live broadcast of the Mass in Champion, WI where David L. Ricken, Bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, gave his official declaration on the authenticity of the 1859 Marian apparitions to Adele Brise, the first such approval in the history of the United States. He co-hosted the television special Miracle Hunters (UpTV 2014) and is author of the books “365 Days with Mary” (Salt Media 2014) and “Exploring the Miraculous” (Our Sunday Visitor 2015).

1:30 – 3:00 PM: Exploring the Miraculous: How the Catholic Church Investigates and Reports on Miracles

Location: Grand Ballroom E

Come join “Miracle Hunter” Michael O’Neill as he explores the inner workings of the official investigative process of the Catholic Church into the supernatural. The workshop will include case studies and methodologies used by the Vatican for discerning claims of the miraculous and elucidate and unravel the complexities of the statements and other signals that are issued by the Church when recognizing a miracle as worthy of belief. O’Neill will also provide helpful tips on how to report all this back to the Catholic and secular public.

Target Audience: Communication Directors, reporters, broadcasters and aspiring miracle hunters!

Michael O’Neill is an author, speaker, and creator of the website MiracleHunter.com, the web’s top resource on Marian apparitions cited in news articles and blogs around the world and throughout renowned Mariologist Fr. René Laurentin’s comprehensive work “The Dictionary of the Apparitions of the Virgin Mary” (2010 Edizioni ART).

O’Neill, a graduate of Stanford University and member of the Mariological Society of America, has been interviewed about his research numerous times for features on Catholic television programs like EWTN’s News Nightly and Bookmark and radio like the Catholic Channel on SiriusXM and secular media outlets like “Fox & Friends” and Live Science magazine. He was a consultant for the National Geographic December 2015 cover story and map about the Virgin Mary “The Most Powerful Woman in the World” and was interviewed as the Marian expert on the corresponding television piece for NatGeo Explorer.

O’Neill is the host of the weekly Relevant Radio program “The Miracle Hunter™” and on December 8th, 2010, O’Neill served as the Marian expert for Relevant Radio on the live broadcast of the Mass in Champion, WI where David L. Ricken, Bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, gave his official declaration on the authenticity of the 1859 Marian apparitions to Adele Brise, the first such approval in the history of the United States. He co-hosted the television special Miracle Hunters (UpTV 2014) and is author of the books “365 Days with Mary” (Salt Media 2014) and “Exploring the Miraculous” (Our Sunday Visitor 2015).

Wednesday

9:00 – 11:30 AM & 3:15 – 5:30 PM

Location: Gateway 4

The world is a noisy place. Some sources report the average consumer is exposed to up to 5,000 advertising messages per day. Pope Francis has reflected “The speed at which information is communicated exceeds our capacity for reflection and judgment.” Needless to say, there is a lot of competition out there for people’s attention, so how do you rise above the clutter?

Effective church communications is more than just a fancy website, the occasional tweet or one more press release about a recurring event. That’s right, communications this day and age calls us to prioritize, strategize and plan in order to be proactive and remain relevant in today’s society.

This Master Camp will take a closer look at ministry collaboration, audience segmentation and message mapping to aid in integrated communications planning.

Target Audience: Catholic communicators charged with organizing and/or leading communication efforts at a (arch)diocese, ministry, parish or other organization.

Katie Pesha serves as the Executive Director of Communications and Planning for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Her responsibilities include oversight of archdiocesan public relations, marketing, mission awareness, publications, pastoral planning, website content and social media engagement. Under her direction since 2011, the entire communications process has been transformed toward a unified effort with fewer silos and strong results, including national awards for diocesan website, appeal promotional videos and publications.

Katie also serves on the Development & Marketing Advisory Committee for the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, leads the Communications Committee at her home parish of 5,000 families, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cottleville, MO, and is an active board member of Genesis Ministry.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Quincy University in Quincy, IL and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Webster University in St. Louis, MO. Prior to her time at the archdiocese, Katie worked at USA TODAY as the National Director of Higher Education Programs.

Katie and her husband, Frank, have three young children, Gavin (6), Skylar (4) and Sadie Mae (7 months).

Wednesday

9:00 – 11:30 AM & 3:15 – 5:30 PM

Location: Gateway 1

Let’s leave the big mysteries to God. But when it comes to good writing, God helps those who helps themselves – with hard work and a strong grasp of mechanics. This day-long master camp will be jam-packed with practical tools any writer can employ, whether working on an elegant essay, a substantive issues piece, a compelling personality profile, one of those pesky social-media posts or even a keep-‘em-the-pew sermon. The day’s catechism:

• Six (or seven) commandments of the writing process: What you have to do to make a story work
• Loaves and fishes of story ideas: How to find fresh angles and practical approaches to any event, idea or assignment
• Saints and sinners: Reporting and writing compelling personality profiles
• Structural rocks upon which stories are built: Fail-safe ways to organize your material
• Disciples of discipline: Understanding and addressing your individual writing habits from the inside-out
• No-penance confessional: Round-robin problem-solving of your own writing challenges

IMPORTANT: Please bring hard-copy printouts of three pieces of your original writing (not heavily edited by someone else), and three different colored highlighter pens. The pieces can be of any style or length, but should be substantive enough to demonstrate writing patterns, and represent the kind of work you typically do.

Jacqui Banaszynski worked in newspapers for 30 years, and now teaches students and professionals around the world. She is a Knight Chair Professorship 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 edited have won national awards for business, investigative, social issues, environmental, human interest and sports reporting.