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.

ROOM: GRAND C

Master Camp | Design

Design Thinking: Approaches to Contemporary Redesign

More than ever, news design requires a careful and strategic approach to information organization and architecture. As news organizations become more and more focused on cross-platform storytelling, redesign has become a significant approach to seeking new solutions and tactics for engaging audiences. Design gives form to content in print and digital environments.

Likewise, every redesign project is different and must reflect the specific readers and community a news organization serves. However, there are a number of phases in the redesign process that should be observed to ensure the project breathes new life into your publication and gives the entire staff – from editorial to advertising – new strategies for telling stories and engaging readers. This workshop will explore the redesign process, including key considerations for typography, color and structure, the successful integration of print and digital products, best practices in prototyping and the art of information layering. Participants will also learn some useful design thinking strategies to help staffs determine how best to approach redesign and reimaging content strategy.

Target Audience: All designers and publications leaders who are considering a redesign or just want to tweak what they already have.

Dr. Jennifer George-Palilonis is a multimedia expert with an interest in multimedia as a teaching tool. She is a professor in Ball State University’s Department of Journalism and director of the Center for Emerging Media Design & Development (EMDD).
Palilonis has been a media design consultant for 15 years and has worked on redesigns of 30+ newspapers, for the Chicago Sun-Times as a news design editor and for the Detroit Free Press as a business art director. She wrote “The Multimedia Journalist” and “A Practical Guide to Graphics Reporting.”

In 2017, she led a team of EMDD students in developing a global social media campaign — The Blue Roots Project — to show the value of water. The team collaborated with Circle of Blue, a non-profit group that covers the world’s resource crises. The project gained Vatican attention and the EMDD team joined Circle of Blue in Rome to produce the conference — WATERSHED, Replenishing Water Values for a Thirsty World — on World Water Day.