Last Saturday, I got up, got ready, had breakfast and read the paper, then sat down in front of my laptop to lead two workshops. The workshops were held at The Baptist Theological Seminary of Kentucky as part of their annual Christian education emphasis. I live in Macon, Georgia.

My workshop was titled “Using Digital Media in Christian Education.” The focus was on helping churches discover ways to use media in their educational programming. Ministers, educators and other church leaders from around Kentucky were in attendance.

I had originally hoped to be at the conference in person to lead the workshops, but plans changed and I was unable to make the trip. My wife had the idea “why don’t you lead the workshops over the internet.” I should listen to her more often.

In the weeks that led up to the workshops, I worked with my former Seminary classmate and friend, David Adams, to work out the details. David is the organizer of the event for the school.

The classroom for the workshop included a full sound system, a projector and screen, and a DSL-driven wifi connection. So, we used a MacBook Pro on each end (these have built-in webcams), and fired up iChat AV. I used an external USB microphone and earbuds to make it easier for the participants to hear me (and me to hear them).

In advance of the workshops, I sent two files to David. One was the presentation file, and the other was a brief video. I created the presentation in Keynote , then exported it as a “clickable” Quicktime file. This meant that the presentation would only advance to the next slide when clicked. Saving it as a Quicktime file made it easy on the remote laptop... since it removed the need to have Keynote installed, or to synchronize the fonts used. I also created a simple workshop blog on Caleb's Cafe  (a social network for Christian groups) that held links mentioned in the workshop, as well as info I didn't have time to include.

As people entered the workshop, they could see me on the screen, and I could see them on mine. In between sips of coffee, I would catch up with old friends who happened to attend, and meet new ones. It was far more personal than I’d expected. During the workshop, another person (at the Kentucky location) helped by advancing slides, adjusting sound levels, and launching the video when needed. If I had difficulty hearing a question from the group, he was ready to repeat it for me. However, we never had trouble with the audio.

Next time, we hope to use VNC to allow me to completely control the experience on the other end. We attempted it before the conference, but the bandwidth simply wasn’t sufficient for a smooth experience.

What did I learn? First, always look at the camera, not the screen, when speaking to the group. Second, choose your approach based on what looks and sounds the best from the audience side of the conference. Third, leading the workshops using simple and readily available tools was remarkably effective, and saved money and time.

I led two sessions of the workshop... then got up, headed to my favorite sofa and caught a Saturday afternoon nap. Nice.