Editor's note: Every year, my favorite professional development event is the Catholic New Media Conference hosted by SQPN. This year's event promises to be even bigger and better as the CNMC joins forces with the Catholic Marketing Network and the Catholic Writers Guild and holds the first ever International Bloggers Summit. To learn more about and join us at the CNMC, click here.

The CNMC is pleased to announce additional speakers for the International Bloggers’ Summit to be held as part of the 2012 Catholic New Media Conference.  Due to the large number of excellent submissions, we were able to expand the schedule into two tracks!

Joining Jennifer Fulwiler and Elizabeth Scalia for the International Bloggers’ Summit on the final day of the CNMC will be:

Julie Davis - Raised by atheists and a convert to Catholicism, she is an author and a blogger at Happy Catholic (happycatholic.blogspot.com) and podcasts atA Good Story is Hard to Find (agoodstoryishardtofind.blogspot.com).  Her presentation is entitled “Catholic Bloggers: Are We the 1st Corinthians of the Internet?”

Dorian Speed is the Web Editor of Dappled Things literary magazine and has written for various online and print publications.  She also blogs at Scrutinies(scrutinies.net).  Her presentation is entitled “Gather Round the Combox, Y’all!: Building a Blog Community”

Sarah Reinhard  is author of several books, including the recently publishedCatholic Family Fun: A Guide for the Adventurous, Overwhelmed, Creative, or Clueless.  Her blog is the popular Snoring Scholar (snoringscholar.com).  Sarah will speak about “How does blogging fit in with your real life?”

  

Patrick Carney & John Lindner from Catholic Relief Services.  Utilizing the experiences of CRS, they will present examples of the best-kept secrets and little-known pearls of the Catholic Church in their presentation “How to Tell the Global Catholic Story”.

Dr. Jim Coyle – A Communication Arts professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville,  Dr. Coyle will share his experiences designing and maintaining blogs as a means of personal outreach, with his presentation “Blogging to Share and Serve: Essential – and Free – Themes, Plugins and Tools for Your WordPress Blog and Website”.

Lisa Jones & Shelly Kelly  are sisters who blog together at Of Sound Mind and Spirit (www.soundmindandspirit.com). Their presentation, “Go Out in the World: Engaging Community”, will present five non-technical strategies designed to help the average blogger amplify their faith filled message in New Media.

Lisa and Joel Schmidt blog at The Practicing Catholic (thepracticingcatholic.com).   They will share their enthusiasm for evangelizing in the digital continent with their presentation “Starting a Blog Without a Clue: 10 Basic Things We Learned in the First 2 Years”

ABOUT THE CNMC

The 5th annual Catholic New Media Conference will be held at the Arlington Convention Center (Arlington, TX) on August 29-31, 2012.  For the first time, the CNMC will be meeting in the same location as the Catholic Marketing Network trade show and the meetings of the Catholic Writers Guild.

The CNMC  is a festive, educational, and international conference focused on evangelization and building community through the use of new media. This event is designed to connect, guide and inform Catholic communicators as a response to the Church’s call for new evangelization.

All interested in Catholic communication, new media, and social media are invited, including young adults (18+), ministry leaders, and priests and religious, to whom Pope Benedict appealed in his 2010 World Communications Day message, to “become an ever more pastoral presence on the web.”

The final day of the CNMC is dedicated to blogging and is titled the “International Catholic Bloggers’ Summit.”  We are confident that all involved in Catholic communication will find this day both fun and informational.

To learn more about and join us at the CNMC, click here.