CCDA Conference, Part 1: An Appeal

As many of my readers know, I am currently in Cincinnati for the annual CCDA conference. This is a very large event where Christian Community Developers from across the nation join together for plenary sessions, workshops, and networking. This is my second year at the ccda conference. My first was in 2007 in St. Louis. That time, I was a junior in college at Covenant College. Now, I am a college graduate, am living in Boston, and came with several of my coworkers at TechMission (I am currently in the middle of a 1-year internship). Tomorrow (Saturday) is the last full day of the conference.

Check back soon for another blog post or two on my experience at the conference.

An Appeal
If you are a member of the CCDA and are reading this post, chances are you are reading some of my tweets or you have talked to me. For the last year, I have been thinking and praying about what my role as a community developer and technological guru would look like in the future.

I have been working on a business idea off and on that would go something like this: Provide tech resources and consulting specifically for churches and nonprofits. I am becoming more convinced that I am ready to think seriously about these ideas, and to find out what some of the perceived tech needs are for non-profit organizations across the world.

If you would be willing to sit down with me for even 5 minutes tomorrow, it would be much appreciated. To clarify: I do not want to recreate what TechMission does, nor compete with TM. Rather, I want to do hands on tech and consulting work, with a catch: I'm also really passionate and interested in building relationships, and furthering God's kingdom.

If I don't connect with you at CCDA, but you are interested in discussion, I'd love to have an email dialog with you.

Interested? Tweet at me: @davidmwhite, or contact me through my website, www.smoothstoneservices.com.

Check back within a week or two for my thoughts and summary of the conference.

-David

Where have I been???

So not that anyone who actually reads my blog cares that I haven't made a post in over two months... but just in case, let me explain. Things got busy. But, the thing that was the biggest source of my silence was: my laptop died. And I'm a computer techie. A dead laptop + computer techie + americorps budget = not a very good combination. Fortunately, I have a computer at work, so I am using that for personal stuff during off hours. In addition, I have an iPod touch, with which I can browse the web, write emails, etc... In fact, that is what I'm using to write this blog post. Now that I know for a fact that it's not that hard to do, I might start blogging more often again. However, it always takes longer to type on the iPod touch, and it is easy to make typos.

This is going to be a fairly short blog post. Work is continuing to go well. However, I am already thinking about what's next. I would probably have the opportunity to extend my internship another year, but I'm not sure if I want to. I have certainly learned a lot.

Regardless, I think that I would like to stay up here in Boston for a few reasons. I have made some really good friends up here, and have gotten involved at Reunion Church. I feel like there would be some good ideas for me to consider in this area. However, I am also really interested in thinking about possible work over seas and/or launching my business that would do IT work for non-profits. (Check out Smooth Stone Services for what I currently do. If I decide to launch something full time, I will rebrand myself and have different services for a specific target market in mind).

In two weeks, I will be at the CCDA Conference. I hope to be able to network with people, andaybe get some ideas. In the meantime, I will continue to trust that the Lord has something good planned for me!

Peace,
David