Quick Facts

• 187 suites
• 5,000 square feet of meeting space
• Daily complimentary breakfast
• Expected completion: Spring 2014
• woolleysclassicsuites.com

Quick Facts

• 326 guest rooms
• 13,500 square feet of meeting space
• Expected completion: Spring 2015
• westin.com

The Obama administration is coming under attack for subpoenaing phone records for AP reporters who published a story on a planned Al Qaeda attack in 2012. One reason the administration might be sensitive to the leak is it compromised a covert informant from within Al Qaeda in Yemen, the L.A. Times reported.

New York Senator Charles Schumer has asked airlines to reconsider its fees for changing flights, arguing the fees make it difficult for families to travel. Four major airlines (Delta, United, American and U.S. Airways) raised fees from $150 to $200.

Travel salaries are on the rise in a big way. In April, travel salaries were up 1.44 percent over March, but they were up 15 percent over April 2012 numbers. This is yet another sign that the economy is getting back on its feet after the Great Recession.

Boeing has become the “it” stock among hedge fund managers in 2013, according to FactSheet. The aircraft manufacturer has seen its stock rise 31 percent this year thanks to $1.6 billion coming from hedge funds, another good sign that the travel industry is about to enter a bull market.

Would you rather be called Kid President, or Robbie, or something else?
Kid President: You can call me whatever. I sometimes go by Kid President. Sometimes Robbie.

Who is the real Kid President?
KP: Robbie Novak.

How did you all get the initial idea to start Kid President?
Brad Montague: Every person wants to impact the world for the better—especially kids. I thought it’d be interesting to see what would happen if a kid just took it upon himself to fix all the world’s problems. So we set out to see what that might look like. The initial idea was that we’d only do three or four videos, but it’s turned into much more.
KP: Brad asked if I had a suit and I said, “No,” so we bought a suit and just started making [videos].

How old are you?
KP: Nine.

Where do you live?
KP: Henderson, Tennessee.

What do you want to be when you grow up and why?
KP: Not president. Too much paperwork. I want to do something with sports, but don’t know what yet.

If you do become the president, how will you change our country and world?
KP: School would be more fun. Grown-ups would dance more. People would be nice. Also there’d be no smoking.

What is your mission as Kid President?
KP: [My] mission is to make the world more awesome.
BM: We started this as a way to spread joy on the Internet and out of the belief that every child has a voice worth listening to. I want to continue to create things that hopefully inspire people, entertain people and move them into action in their lives.

Why do you think Kid President has become such a wild viral success?
BM: The Internet can be a dark place sometimes. I think this stood out simply because it’s just so positive. We’re still scratching our heads as to why it’s spread as far as it has, but I feel like a lot of it has to do with the fact that it’s a kid reminding everybody why we wake up in the morning. Kids have a great way of giving us all a better perspective of ourselves and of the world.

How has that success affected you?
KP: People know who I am at the airport and stuff. My friends are cool about it.
BM: It’s been objective No. 1 for the family to help keep all of this as pure as possible. We’ve had to say no to all sorts of things because we don’t want this to affect him in any negative ways. We all want him to stay the awesome normal kid he is and give him the space he needs to grow into the awesome man he’ll be one day.

How are you and Brad related? How has Kid President changed your relationship?
KP: Brad is my brother-in-law and my friend. Well, it hasn’t really. We have to work and film stuff more, but it’s been fun.
BM: We’ve had the chance to travel a lot more together and that’s definitely been memorable. Also because we’ve made so many things together now, we have a sort of shorthand in how we communicate with each other. This all started out of us enjoying being together and we want to keep it that way.

Kid President, if you were blowing out a birthday candle right now, what would you wish for?
KP: For everybody to be happy. And a dirtbike.

What are some of the opportunities you have gotten to have because of Kid President and what do you think about them?
KP: Got to go to Washington, D.C., and meet President Obama. It was awesome.
BM: That was definitely a huge moment for us, being in the Oval Office and feeling the gravity of that space. We are both pretty overwhelmed with how far this has taken us.

Who are some of your favorite other people you have gotten to collaborate with through Kid President?
KP: [“Nashville” stars] Lennon and Maisy were fun. We did a song and posted it on YouTube. Nicolas Cage was cool. I also got to meet Emma Stone.
BM: Inviting guests to be part of our show is really fun. It’s almost like we’re knocking on their doors and asking if they want to come out and play. I love how much they all let their guards down and have fun all because they’re being interviewed by a kid. To see a bestselling author like Nick Hornby act silly or singer Josh Groban hold a phone made out of can and string to his ear is such a fun image. Everyone has been so fun and so kind. It’s also really cool for us because so many of the guests have been following our journey even after they were part of the show. So we’ll get encouraging messages from them letting us know they’re proud. It’s a weird little family we’ve built.

What events have you shared your story at? What events would you like to speak at?
BM: We loved getting to be part of Catalyst in Atlanta and will get to be part of Catalyst West and Catalyst Dallas. We’ll also be at Bob Goff’s Love Does event coming up in May. This is a big deal for me because I adore Bob. He’s been so encouraging to us from the beginning. Just found out we’re going to be headed to France for the Cannes Festival of Creativity in June! We’re very excited to be able to share what we’ve been doing in front of so many people we respect and have been inspired by.
KP: We went to Seattle for We Day! It was big, loud and awesome.
BM: We Day was very fun. It’s an event that started in Canada and just launched in the U.S. The idea is they fill an arena with students who are impacting the world locally and globally. We were blown away by the stories of these students and the amazing scale of the event.

If an event planner wants you to share with them, what’s the best way they can get in touch with you?
BM: Visit kidpresident.com and connect with us there.

Watch Kid President do the Harlem Shake, ask Emma Stone to be his girlfriend, meet President Obama and try to make the world a better place at youtube.com/soulpancake.

“When you pray, move your feet.” Those are the words of an old West African proverb, and it’s an adage that can be applied to today’s religious meetings, especially those with younger attendees. Throughout the meetings and events world, the sage-on-the-stage model is giving way to more interactive events. This is especially important at youth conferences, where they expect to be involved, engaged and active participants in the program. Whether through music performances or dance sessions, you need to expand the ways young people interact during your meetings, which increases their engagement, boosts their confidence and deepens their faith experience. Stop hiring speakers. Start incorporating your attendees.

SMALLER GROUPS EQUALS GREATER INVOLVEMENT

One of the most important ways to involve youth at events is with music. Larger events usually require a musical worship leader with a marketable name to attract a crowd, but smaller events give students a better chance to get involved. For example, at the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s summer camps, students perform in praise bands organized on-site during the week, says SCBC Youth Ministry Group Director Steve Rohrlack.

The convention holds camps five weeks during the summer for middle and high school students. About 500 to 600 attend each weekly camp at the White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro, S.C. The smaller groups foster greater involvement, which is core to the summer camps, says Rohrlack. Bands can include eight or 10 musicians or as few as four or five, depending on the results of auditions.

In contrast, a big South Carolina Baptist rally at the end of the summer at Carowinds, a Charlotte, N.C., theme park, attracts 3,000 to 4,000 people, but hires a worship band rather than involving students.

“You really have to take the temperature of the event,” says Rohrlack. A larger event, lasting two hours with a speaker and two bands, has a quick pace and doesn’t lend itself to youth involvement on stage.

Two of the five weeks of the summer camps feature a specific emphasis on music and arts. “We try to provide an outlet so students can experience their interests, not just study,” says Rohrlack. Partnering with the South Carolina Baptist Convention Worship Office, the camps include specific tracks devoted to music, drama or other arts. Special breakouts might focus on guitar, with beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. In drama sessions, participants perform skits. Attendees can also become involved in backstage functions such as lighting, production and sound mixing. Creativity is a requirement for campers in percussion breakouts. Anything that can make a sound is put to use. Buckets, trash cans, the linoleum floor, sticks, washtubs, lids from trash cans become instruments for musical creation.

After all the breakout sessions, there’s a payoff: The group performs for a larger session at the end of the week. In all, Rohrlack estimates 150 or so students are involved in the music and arts tracks during the weeks they are offered. “Interest is a great motivator, whether they like music, drama or behind-the-scenes production,” says Rohrlack. The program is a big hit among students, and it makes life easier for local youth ministers. They appreciate the opportunity for their students to use various talents in the context of a single camp, rather than having to find multiple camps to address various interests. Students and youth ministers often choose specific weeks of camp based on the activities being offered.

KEEP IT UPBEAT

A willingness to try new things can increase youth involvement in programs, says Chris Carson, director of events for the Coalition for Christian Outreach, which produces the Jubilee Conference for college students. “It’s better to try and it not work out than not to try,” he says. “The first time you try something, people can be wary if they haven’t done it before. The more you do it, the more you get used to it. It may take a couple of years for people to get on board, but then they are really excited.” And above all, keep it upbeat and exciting, he says. “People like to be part of things that are exciting and make sense to them. We just let people have a good time. They appreciate it and have fun with it.”

The Coalition for Christian Outreach is a campus ministry that partners with churches, colleges and other organizations to help college students live out their Christian faith in every aspect of their lives. The organization has 200 staff members, many working on-site at 105 college campuses in East Coast and mid-Atlantic states. For 36 years, the Jubilee Conference has provided college students an opportunity to talk, learn, think and dream about the public implications of their personal transformations. Featuring 50 or more speakers representing various disciplines, the conference helps college students consider the role of faith in their lives, whether they are interested in engineering and science, art and music, law and politics, medicine or any other topic. The format is a combination of large-group “gatherings” and smaller-group “workshops,” each designed around various subjects. The latest Jubilee Conference, held in February at Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center and adjacent Westin Pittsburgh, involved around 3,000 attendees.

College students aren’t ready for bed at 10 p.m., so late-night sessions are a feature of the Jubilee Conference, where a variety of fun and rewarding experiences are offered on Friday and Saturday night during the conference. One year during a late-night session, attendees assembled packaged meals to send to Haiti. Last year, an open-mic night was one of the late-night options, and around 25 students shared their musical abilities, spoken words or other talents to a group of more than 200 attendees. “It could have gone on all night,” says Sarah Winkler, assistant director of events for the Coalition for Christian Outreach.

This year, in partnership with the Pittsburgh Kids Foundation and Outreach Inc., participants worked until 2 a.m. transforming huge pallets of rice, beans and other food into 80,000 individual meals. Another late-night option this year was salsa dancing, and 300 to 400 students jammed into the interactive session. Other late-night events included a concert benefiting Resolution Hope’s 13A National Awareness Campaign to end human trafficking and an event in partnership with Toms Shoes, a company that provides a pair of shoes for a child in need for every pair it sells. There was also a late-night option of quiet, reflective prayer.

The decision to make events more interactive has to come early in the planning stages, and it should be communicated to all conference participants, including speakers. This year, each Jubilee Conference speaker was encouraged to leave at least 30 minutes open at the end of a session for extra questions and answers to encourage audience participation. A giant screen outside the hallway at the conference provided a loop of Twitter feeds using the hashtag #Jubilee2013. Prior to the event, Jubilee hosted an essay contest in conjunction with The High Calling, an online magazine. There were 50 submissions, and the winner received $1,000. And in an effort to reach out to even younger participants, Experience Jubilee, an event on Saturday during the conference, invited high school students to attend a panel discussion with four college students who shared experiences about what college is like for a person of faith.

KNOW YOUR GROUP

Even outgoing young people can be apprehensive about performing in front of a big group of their peers. Finding willing participants for conference programming can be a challenge, but Rohrlack says it’s manageable. “I would encourage anyone to work their sources,” he says. Find out what participating churches have a good praise band or a good visual arts ministry. “Youth choirs can be really effective depending on what the music is even for one or two songs,” he says.

Youth can also be called on to participate as speakers at religious meetings, but large crowds can be intimidating for inexperienced speakers. “As the crowd size grows, you have to be careful how you do it,” says Rohrlack. “A large crowd doesn’t prevent a student from speaking, but it means they should be prepared. Find a student who has been a part of something and has a story to tell. Then prepare them to tell it.” Students can also be called on to pray and read scripture, even in sessions involving adults.

Rohrlack warns against doing improv with young people, who lack the life experience and “filters” that older people and professionals have. Rohrlack’s summer camps have been fortunate to have gifted college students available, many who attend two nearby Baptist colleges, who can lead the drama classes.

HAVE A PURPOSE

Youth involvement can begin at the individual church level. “We do our best to involve as many students as possible in leadership of worship, to help develop ownership of our program and the things we do here,” says Clay Smallwood, assistant director of student ministries at the University United Methodist Church in San Antonio. “We are all about a team approach to things, and that involves our staff and volunteers as well as students.” Aaron Buttery, the church’s director of student ministries, has helped to foster the team approach.

University United Methodist Church has about 6,000 members, and Sunday services typically draw crowds between 2,400 and 3,000. Youth programs involve between 250 and 300 students with between 100 to 150 students at each event. At the conference level, the church works with the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. This year, it’s hosting the South Worship Conference. Bands from throughout the conference lead worship, including University United Methodist’s worship band, the local student ministry worship band and another contemporary worship band from nearby Austin.

Smallwood is one of the staff of five and team of volunteers that tries to involve students in programming in various ways. At the church, the student band leads a weekly worship service, as well as larger events such as a student ministry gala fundraiser. In addition to leading worship, seven students also work on technical and media jobs at University United Methodist. “We develop a covenant with one another, including an expectation to be present at our gathering and events,” says Smallwood. “He adds that getting students involved can be a catalyst for revival in a family.

This spring, University United Methodist Church is presenting a talent show as part of its third annual gala to raise money for middle and high school student mission trips. The event includes a silent auction, live auction and dinner, with the talent show serving as the entertainment. Students audition for the show and rehearse for weeks. There are seven or eight acts, and high school seniors will be involved as emcees to introduce the acts. Another dozen or so students will perform their own skits, and additional students will work to set up and tear down, serve drinks and assist with auctions. A talented adult volunteer is working with the students to develop the show. “It’s important to give students ownership of what they’re doing,” says Smallwood.

Youth events serve a larger purpose. “Our purpose is to raise up disciples first, and leadership springs forth from disciples,” says Rev. Dr. Rusty Freeman, director of Youth Ministries for the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The organization’s Youth Worship Conferences involve 400 students and provide opportunities to learn about different aspects of worship such as dance, drama, choir, media, video, theology and music leading. “Youth are the now generation, and raising up the next generation of leaders is crucial to the ministry of the church and advancement of the gospel,” says Freeman, 44, who has been leading the programs for 13 years. Developing leaders means increasing their involvement. The conference identifies youth with leadership potential and stands by them as they take servant and leadership roles.

Freeman says local church pastors love how students return from a camp or a retreat to take leadership in their churches. “Countless parents have complimented me on the maturity of their children once they come to our events, and I think this is because we empower, enable and encourage discipleship to happen,” he says. “Trust them to lead, but don’t leave them to sink or swim,” says Freeman. “Walk with them as a coach, mentor or discipler, allowing them to stumble but helping them to succeed.”

In other words, faith-based events change lives. They inspire people to start a movement, get involved with a cause or become someone new. There’s something about getting away from the distractions of the world, coming together and listening to gifted communicators that lifts people up. Jamie Wagner, Ken Wytsma, Delaney Melaven, Zach Norman and Eric Wood all attended youth events that set them on new paths. They are proof that religious events can make a difference.

The Planner

Jamie Wagner, Director of Conferences and Events, Cru’s Great Plains Region

Today, Jamie Wagner plans the conference that changed her life in college.

Like many college freshmen, Jamie Wagner struggled to find fulfillment and really wanted to be popular when she began her college career at the University of Missouri. She was a Christian, but “Christian was just another term that described me,” she says. She asked about Bible studies when going through sorority recruitment but ended up in one of the wildest chapters on campus. “I felt like I was in this internal war, the way most college Christians feel,” she recalls. “I didn’t have any clue how to walk with God in college.”

Her friend Ryan from high school, who later became her husband, invited her to a Cru meeting one week. At that first meeting, she met Cru staff member Jamie Hunsberger, who that night would convince Wagner to lead a Bible study in her sorority, and Hunsberger continued to meet with Wagner and mentor her throughout college.

Wagner was immediately drawn to Cru’s Denver Christmas Conference that year when she heard about it. “I had only gone to one other Christian conference in high school, and that’s where I became a believer,” she says. “I equated making big steps in my life with going to a conference.”

DCC exceeded her expectations. The last day of the conference became Wagner’s no-turning-back moment. Being with thousands of college students who shared her challenges and desires solidified her commitment to live out her faith in college. Additional Cru conferences developed Wagner’s faith throughout college. The Legacy, a conference for Greek students, honed her leadership skills and introduced her to friends familiar with the experience of being one of a few Christians trying to make a difference in secular environments. Summer Project, which she describes as a 10-week conference, gave her intensive teaching, training and hands-on experience. At Opportunities of a Lifetime, which helps juniors and seniors prepare for life after college, she began considering joining Cru’s staff.

Today, Wagner has planned or is currently involved in the planning of each of those events, and her fellow staff members share similar life-changing Cru experiences from college. In preparation for DCC, the planning team pulls in people from other departments to review the last conference and brainstorm for the next one. Staff members always bring up stories of crucial moments that took place at Cru events while they were in college—from becoming a believer to clarity on major decisions or the desire to come on staff.

The team’s insight into what students are thinking is an important advantage when planning. “Every year I relive all those thoughts I had as a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior,” she says. “I continually remember to get in the shoes of the student: How do we plan a conference that really meets the spiritual needs and answers the questions that they’re asking?”

Cru events anchor a year-round ministry of relationships. “We say that DCC is a semester’s worth of discipleship in five days,” explains Wagner. At Christmas Conference, the students hear about Summer Project, then those 10 weeks at that event springboard them into the fall. “[Events] propel entire movements on our campuses,” Wagner says. “They come back not just emotionally fired up…but with tangible tools about how to be effective.

“If you have students showing up expectant, students that are not distracted by the outside world for whatever time you have, who are listening and eager to hear from God, you have the right elements combined with a breeding ground for the Holy Spirit to work in a student’s life,” she says. “I am the personalized version of those reasons.” 

The Author

Ken Wytsma, The Justice Conference Founder, Author of “Pursuing Justice”

An attendee’s state of mind can be just as important as the event itself. Ken Wytsma’s turning point occurred during a summer spent at Pine Summit in Big Bear, Calif., during college. Wytsma broke his jaw in a bar fight right before he went to camp, and once he arrived there, he says he was stripped of his comfort zones, allusions and distractions. He compares that series of events to a shepherd breaking a sheep’s leg to reacquaint it to his voice and care. He says his time at Pine Summit gave God room to speak to him, and the relationships he developed with attendees during the following two summers as a leader at the camp instilled in him a heart for ministry and compassion.

Wytsma went on to found Kilns College, a school of theology and mission, and became a lead pastor of Antioch Church in Bend, Ore., which is known for its internships and residency programs for college students. He launched The Justice Conference in 2010 intending to create results similar to his own story.

“All of those things gave me a firm belief that everyone is hungry to get beneath the surface,” Wytsma says. “A lot of things are just entertainment-driven. Camp can be that way. Conferences can be that way. But everyone, no matter where they are from or what their age is, has a deep desire to connect with something solid, to understand truth and see how it all fits together. That element is what I aim for.”

The message of justice pervades the conference, which drew 4,000 to Philadelphia in February this year, and his new book “Pursuing Justice,” released in January. Each outlet spreads the message in different ways, but he acknowledges the power events have to foster change and action.

Wytsma avoids the hype, guilt and fads often associated with social justice. Instead, he anchors the conference in solid theology, which he says can’t help but lead to a heart for authentic justice. “When you study scripture, you can’t miss the justice, love and compassion that’s there on every page,” he says.

“[Events] transform people because there’s power in gifted speakers teaching,” he says. “There’s something about teaching to large groups. The sermon on the Mount to masses of people—there’s something about boiling down truths in that context that hits people.”

The Student

Delaney Melaven, Sophomore, Webb City (Mo.) High School

Delaney Melaven had never run a 5K before attending Christ in Youth’s Move conference in 2011. She’d not given much thought to the Christian persecution, either. But at the conference, she watched “Love Costs Everything,” a film about the persecuted church around the world. Melaven similarly was moved by a speaker who asked her to come down front, pick up an unlit match to represent shining the light of Christ, and figure out how to metaphorically light that match—in other words, how to make a difference.

“I just knew I wanted to do something. I had no idea what at that point,” says Melaven. Her youth pastor gave her a list of ideas, and one was raising support to run a 5K. The determined teenager set out to plan one instead.

Melaven quickly recognized the power of events, and she organized a small screening of “Love Costs Everything” at her church where people could register for the race. She learned new terms like “break even” as she enlisted local running businesses, gyms and YMCAs as sponsors and locations to post fliers. With support from her church, friends from the conference and the community in Webb City, Mo., she hosted the Ignite India 5K, May 12, 2012, for 65 runners at Ozark Christian College in nearby Joplin, Mo.

That summer, Melaven went to India to see the church planted as a result of the money she raised for Central India Christian Mission. “I was kind of shocked,” she says. “It was very humbling to see what a 5K or anything you do to raise $2,000 can actually look like in another country.”

A second annual 5K is in the works for this spring, and it will benefit the same organization in India. Melaven plans to incorporate new ideas based on last year’s run and her trip to India. A devotional before the race will educate runners about the cause, and they will be able to participate in activities before running. They also will be able to write letters and donate toys for a CICM children’s home she visited.

“Being at a conference calls you to action a little more because you’re surrounded by so many more things that tug at your heart,” Melaven says.

The Missionary

Zach Norman, Marketing and Program Development, Lake Williamson Christian Center

Zach Norman was not interested in attending a church summer camp as a junior high student who thought he knew everything. But the reluctant teen packed his bags for East Bay Camp in Bloomington, Ill., anyway—a decision that changed his outlook and set him on his future career path.

Suddenly, stories he’d heard in church were presented in a new way. Men he admired weren’t preaching to him. They were fun to be around and they asked his perspective on the lessons being taught. “It wasn’t just going to church and Sunday school class and then going home,” Norman says. “We were having fun and doing these things together all day, and then we would have conversations about it. Having that opportunity to live among them, see that life unfold around you and hear it all in a short span of time [led to me] making some of the decisions and career choices I’ve made.”

Peggy O’Neal, who Norman met at camp, invited him to be in the UMC Illinois Great Rivers Conference youth leadership program while he was in high school. The committee worked at camp and planned statewide retreats. Norman planned the annual youth retreat at Lake Williamson Christian Center, where he would later intern in college and now manages marketing and program development.

At Lake Williamson, he helps group leaders create the life-changing environments that affected him. “There are 1,000 things people want to do here, but they almost always want to unplug from their lives and focus on something else,” he says. “They’re planning a meeting or a larger conference with workshops and general sessions. My focus is to ensure the guest experience remains distraction-free but feature-rich at the same time.” Feature-rich means, for example, making sure the retreat centers provide any AV equipment planners might want.

Norman began to feel separated from the pivotal aspects of conferences he loved so he began coordinating mission trips to South America. “The work I’d done in planning events and being on the supplier side of the table showed me I had a knack for travel and details like getting visas, transporting medications in and out of third-world countries, and getting teams ready to go into remote villages,” he says. “I look back at my professional experience as preparing me to blast off into the mission field.”

While working at Lake Williamson, Norman is pursuing a degree in nursing at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. When he graduates in December, he’ll be able to provide medical aid on his trips to Bolivia.

The Pastor

Eric Wood, Connections Pastor, Valparaiso Nazarene Church

Hundreds of Nazarene church leaders around the country can attest to the impact the Nazarene Youth Conference has on the thousands of students that attend the national conference every four years, but Valparaiso Nazarene Church specifically has benefited from the conference. Its last two youth pastors were called into ministry at the event.

Eric Wood says he didn’t have high expectations when he went to the 1999 Nazarene Youth Conference in Toronto with his Valparaiso youth group, but it was there that the lessons he had heard in youth group and the interest he had in how his youth pastor prepared and delivered sermons began to make sense.

“It’s the vastness,” Wood says. “You’re overwhelmed by that many people worshipping at the same time. [The conference is] every four years, so the planning and execution of the event is very thought out. It has the definite feel of having been prayed over consistently, and the spirit is very heavy at the conference.”

Wood began to feel led into ministry during a conference session about finding your calling. He immediately spoke with his youth minister, Shawn Evans, and became more involved in the youth group when he returned home. He joined the church band and began working on his degree in youth ministry at Olivet Nazarene University. He later took over as youth pastor for Evans, who is now executive pastor at Valparaiso. Current Valparaiso youth pastor Mike Denny followed a similar path, speaking with Wood when he felt the call into ministry at Nazarene Youth Conference 2003 in Houston. Denny filled Wood’s position as youth pastor when Wood became connections pastor.

Wood has attended the conference four times now, and it’s the work put in before, during and after the conference by leaders that makes it a conduit for change, he says. Digital resources and materials at the conference help leaders prepare students for the conference and help them once they return home. Wood’s focus on discipleship surrounding the conference makes sense. His turning point occurred at an event, and follow-up made it stick. “I’ve seen both lasting impressions and spiritual highs come out of it,” Wood says. He advises conference planners to offer resources for leaders that help disciple students and put less emphasis on big-name speakers. “They’re talking for 50 minutes, and then they’re out of students’ lives forever.”

“The community aspect of [an event] is crucial,” he says. “It’s all about the relationship. During [the conference], you help unpack what they are dealing with, and post-event is keeping them accountable for decisions they made.”

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• 17,000 square feet of meeting space
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• Expected completion: Summer 2013
• radisson.com

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• 60,000 square feet of meeting space
• 32 meeting rooms
• 13,430-sq.-ft. ballroom
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• LEED-certified building
• Main hall will accommodate 300
• Expected completion: Spring 2014
• visitprairiefire.com

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• 14,000 square feet of meeting space
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• doubletree.hilton.com