Previous Conventions
The annual convention of the Religion Communicators Council provides attendees a wealth of information to enhance their professional skills and pick up new ones.
You can explore some of our past conventions and read summaries of our many workshops and plenaries, as well as recaps of the DeRose-Hinkhouse and Wilbur award winners, the RCC annual business meeting, and more.
2024 Convention - Louisville
The Religion Communicators Council (RCC) has concluded its highly successful annual meeting, held from April 4-7, 2024, in Louisville, Kentucky.
With the theme “Harnessing Our Collective Power,” the event brought together professionals and practitioners from diverse faith traditions and communication disciplines to explore innovative approaches to religious communication in the digital age.The conference featured an impressive lineup of speakers and engaging workshops, providing attendees with valuable insights and practical strategies to enhance their communication efforts. Among the distinguished speakers were:
- Jud Hendrix with Louisville Interfaith Paths to Peace, covering “The Radical Catalyst of Faith – Inspiring Faith to Action”
- Adam Graber with Faith Tech presenting “Communications After Artificial Intelligence”
- Allison Norton of the Hartford Seminary speaking on “Faith Communities Today”
- Angela Redding of the Radiant Foundation sharing “Communicating Faith in a Faithless World”
- Laura Buchanan, with United Methodist Communications, on “AI and content creation: shortcuts that boost productivity”
In addition to the keynote presentations, attendees had the opportunity to participate in a wide range of workshops and panel discussions led by industry experts. Workshop topics included:
- An interfaith panel on “Talking About Democracy Through a Faith Lens: Election Year Edition” with panelists Chris Crawford with Protect Democracy, Lauren Reliford with Sojourners and Coco Xu with More in Common US
- a discussion by Braver Angels representatives Steve Clements and Eugene Rutz
- Jenna Ahern and Ryan Quinn with Guardian Owl Digital sharing on “Social Media and the Spread of Disinformation”
- “Spiritual Seekers” presented by Ryan Dunn with United Methodist Communications
- panel on “Earth Stewardship – reaching beyond your traditions for a common cause” with panelists Kyle Kramer, with the Earth and Spirit Center; Sr. Carol Curtis, an Ursuline Sister of Louisville; and Jessica Maudlin, with PCUSA
These sessions provided practical tools and insights for religious communicators to engage with diverse audiences and effectively convey their messages in today’s rapidly evolving media landscape.
The highlight of the meeting was the presentation of two awards celebrations: The DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards, which honors RCC members for their outstanding contributions to journalism, public relations, marketing, and digital media in service of faith communities; and the Wilbur Awards, which recognize excellence work by secular (non-religious) media in promoting faith-focuses themes and values.
2023 Convention - Chicago
2023
April 19-21, Chicago
The 2023 convention was full of great presentations and networking opportunities, and was our first time to once again gather in person. Our keynote speaker was Deborah Douglas, director of the Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub – Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. She spoke about the war in journalism over objectivty, a method that drives how we frame and source stories, how we need to ask questions and craft the narratives that create our understanding of the world.
2022 Convention - Chicago
2022
Bridging Cultural Divides: Better Ways to Tell Our Stories
May 10-13, 2022
Storytelling. It’s an art. It’s your passion. It’s also the very thing that will heal a hurting world.
This year’s conference theme, Bridging Cultural Divides: Better Ways to Tell Our Stories, inspired communicators in crafting stories that bring truth-telling to a new level. A variety of plenaries and workshops explored how to weave diversity and inclusivity into powerful narratives across all medium, from traditional print to digital storytelling.
Now more than ever, your words matter—and participants discovered how to make them more powerful.
2021 Convention
2021
Opening New Portals, Building Community is designed to help communicators—reporters, editors, publishers, writers, marketers, freelancers, videographers, photographers, graphic designers and more—who work for the religious and mainstream media, denominations, religious and other organizations and non-profits and others to be supported and encouraged as people of faith and to network and develop and improve their skills.
In addition to plenary speakers, panels and workshops, it will include the business meetings and award ceremonies for the Associated Church Press, Religion Communicators Council and the Canadian Christian Communicators Association.
2020 Congress
2020
Since 1970, the Religion Communication Congress has been a once-a-decade gathering of professional religion communicators from a wide range of faith traditions. Planned by a diverse team of religion communicators, including members of RCC, Religion Communication Congress 2020 moved to a virtual format in order to deliver a variety of the presentations planned for the physical event. Under the theme of “Communicating Faith in the Public Square,” RCCongress 2020 continued to provide a space to broaden perspectives and foster greater understanding and cooperation for communicating about religion in a multi-faith world.
2019
When we consider the time in which we live, as religion communicators and journalists too often we see situations and experiences in the same old ways. During our 2019 RCC-ACP Convention, we strove to see in new ways with new possibilities and perceptions to reach existing and new audiences with a refreshing message of truth, justice, freedom, and hope.