Comm Lab in Indiana
The Keynote Creative Communications Group held our second annual Comm Lab from March 22-24. This intensive communication skills training was attended by over 50 people from several Campus Crusade for Christ ministries around the country. Seminars from master communicators Tim Downs and Tim Muehlhoff were interspersed with practice drills and hands-on coaching.
Here are a few comments from the week:
- “Wow! What a great week! Thanks for all you did to put this together. Very helpful and personally challenging. I think it’s the kind of training that really brings about change.”
- “I loved the Comm lab because it got all of us out of our comfort zones and gave us a chance to practice in front of people that don’t know us or haven’t heard us speak before.”
- “I believe the Comm Lab is a must for EVERY [Campus Crusade] staff member.”
We are already receiving requests for information on next year’s Comm Lab, and our prayer goal is that we will soon need to hold two Comm Labs per year!
Training Team in Guatemala
There’s a story behind Keynote’s April communication training in Guatemala. It starts in 2008, when a team of Keynote communication coaches went to Panama to train a group of musicians involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. When they arrived, they discovered that the trainees would also include college students and business professionals involved in the ministry. The Campus Crusade staff members in Panama were so thrilled with the results that they invited Keynote to come back the following year to train even more people. So in 2009, we sent another team to train another group in those same skills. But that’s not all they did: they also taught four of the 2008 trainees to become communication trainers.
In April, three of those new trainers – two Panamanians and one Guatemalan – joined three Americans (two from Keynote, one from the Campus Ministry) in Guatemala City to teach 23 Guatemalan students and staff members. The three Central Americans proved to be excellent trainers, and the Campus Crusade national director in Guatemala told all six trainers that they had made a significant contribution to the growth of young leaders in the ministry there.
I love happy endings…but I have a feeling that this story has only just begun!