Echo Conference

ECHO will be held at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas. Above is a great shot of their brand new worship center where all of the ECHO keynote sessions will take place. On the right side of the photo you can see a walkway that connects the new building to the existing Watermark office building, where most of the breakout sessions will take place.

This is the auditorium of the new worship center. It seats 2200 people and has state-of-the-art av equipment, a 5 screen set up, 16x9 HD screens… and many more capabilities that you will all get to experience during ECHO.

And this last shot is just a really cool picture of the lobby of the worship center.

For more photos of the ECHO Conference location check out our Flickr Feed at www.flickr.com/photos/echoconference.

We are so excited to announce our final keynote speaker…

Brad Abare

Brad is an inoperable idealist with an appetite for discovering and deploying dreams. An entrepreneur at heart, Brad started his first company at age 14. By the time he got his driver’s license, he would launch a publishing company and, by age 19, he would start a design and marketing firm. Before the close of the twentieth century, a national magazine would recognize Brad as one of the top 21 young men for the 21st Century.

Today, Brad is the assistant vice president and director of communications at the central offices of The Foursquare Church. The Foursquare denomination includes over 6 million members, over 50,000 churches and nearly 60,000 ministers worldwide. Brad oversees publications, video, web, events, promotions and communication to the U.S.

Brad is also president of Personality™, a marketing and communication consultancy he founded in 1998. Personality™ believes that organizations are just like people, they have a personality. Understanding that personality creates a framework for effective decision making and helps to stop wasting money on marketing that doesn’t fit.

Brad also serves on several boards including the Center for Church Communication, the non-profit organization behind Church Marketing Sucks.

Brad is a very busy guy, but still finds time to keep up with several blogs. Check out his blogs at www.bradabare.com, Church Marketing Sucks, and Personality.

We have an amazing group of speakers who will be leading our keynote sessions during ECHO. Take a moment to get to know our speakers and I know you will be just as excited to hear them speak as we are to have them as a part of ECHO!

Donald Miller

Donald Miller grew up in Houston Texas. Leaving home at the age of twenty-one, he traveled across the country until he ran out of money in Portland, Oregon, where he lives today. Harvest House Publishers released his first book, Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance, in 2000. After the release of his first book, Don spent three years as a campus minister to the students at Reed College, which was recently selected by the Princeton Review as the school where students are most likely to ignore God. It is from this experience that his second book, Blue Like Jazz, was born. The success of Blue Like Jazz ensured Don a writing career for a long time to come, and since then has released Searching for God Knows What, Through Painted Deserts, and To Own A Dragon. Don’s next book, Let Story Guide You, will be released in 2008. Check out Don’s blog at www.donaldmillerwords.com as well as downloads of talks he has given around the country.

Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson serves as the lead pastor of National Community Church (www.theaterchurch.com) in Washington, D.C. One church with multiple locations, NCC meets in movies theaters at metro stops throughout the DC area. NCC also owns and operates the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill, Ebenezers Coffeehouse. Focused on reaching emerging generations, 73% of those attending NCC are single, twenty-somethings and 70% were unchurched or dechurched before attending. Mark is the author of ID: The True You and In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Check out Mark’s blog at www.markbatterson.com.

Matthew Paul Turner

Matthew Paul Turner is the best-selling author numerous books, including The Christian Culture Survival Guide, The Coffeehouse Gospel, Provocative Faith: Walking Away From The Ordinary, and the upcoming release, Hokey Pokey: Curious People Finding What Life Is All About. Before Matthew began writing and speaking full-time, he served as editor of CCM and music and entertainment editor of Crosswalk.com. Check out Matthew’s blog at www.JesusNeedsNewPR.com.

Mark Steele

Mark Steele is the president and executive creative of Steelehouse Productions where he creates art for business and ministry through the mediums of film, stage and animation. He has received national acclaim as an actor, comedian, film and stage director, producer, and writer. Mark has produced, written, and directed award-winning commercials and film shorts for over 17 years. He has directed over 40 short films including several award winning short films for the North American Mission Board, Women of Faith, Sonic Drive-In’s, QuikTrip Corporation, Josh McDowell Ministries, and Honda. He has also written, produced, and directed national youth gatherings with over a million teenagers experiencing his work in video and live-dramatic presentations. Mark is the author of Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself and the upcoming book, Half-Life / Die Already which will be released on April 1, 2008.

Todd Wagner

Todd is the Pastor of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, one of the most innovative and exciting new churches in America. He and his wife, Alex, are busy investing in their six kids, so though he is a much sought after speaker/teacher at conferences and camps around the country, he currently says no much more than yes. He is a graduate of both the University of Missouri and Dallas Theological Seminary. Todd has extensive experience in both church and para-church ministry, having served on both Young Life and K-Life staff as well as 10 years at Kanakuk where he last served as Assistant Director at K-2. After leaving Kanakuk in 1990, Todd has been leading in the local church.

An echo can be defined as a repetition or an imitation… which begs the question, a repetition or imitation of what? As followers of Christ we are called to do just that - to follow, imitate, and repeat our perfect example. The purpose of ECHO is to help church leaders discover new and creative ways to resound the truth of Christ through the power of media and technology. We hope to inspire you to creatively use media to serve your church body and to reach those outside the church. The more we explore original uses of media in the church, the better equipped we will be to communicate the greatest message on earth.

ECHO will be August 14-16, 2008 in Dallas, TX so mark your calendars now! We’ll be posting all of the latest conference news and updates here, so be sure to add us to your reader and check back often.

We are so excited for ECHO and look forward to seeing you here in Dallas in August!