SYMC Tech workshops

At SYMC I had the pleasure to sit under the tutelage of one Brandon Early, a youth pastor in Rockford, Ill, who I consider a youth ministry/technology Jedi.  You should check out his website and follow him on Twitter: @uthguy9. Here's a run down of some of the many cool things I learned:

Apple TV, a new one just got released with 1080p HD capability, will among other awesome things wirelessly mirror your iPad 2 or 3 as well as your iPhone 4s.  Meaning if you want to wirelessly share a video, a picture, a song, a slideshow, etc from your iOS device to a TV or projector, you can do so over a wireless network.  Pretty awesome. $99.

Use Photoshop to create slides for presentations.  This allows me to use the freedom of Photoshop to create my presentation slides exactly as I want them, rather than being restricted by the formatting of Power Point or Keynote.

Pinnacle Studio HD video editing software.  I just bought this and I cannot wait for it to show up.  I got it shipped for $57, which is a steal.  It handles AVCHD video formats, unlike Windows Live Movie Maker which I was using and it has the coolest feature, Smart Video.  Brandon said this is the only reason he owns a PC.  It will take your photos and videos and combine them automatically, in beat with the music, to one of the many templates provided.

Graphics depots.  Check out:

stufficanuse.com seeds.churchonthemove.com open.lifechurch.tv resources.elevationchurch.org creationswap.com newspring.cc/resources vintagechurch.cc sxc.hu flickr.com (use flickr storm to search the entire flickr database)

These are just a few  of the super cool things I was introduced to in these workshops.  I hope you find them helpful, and if you have any other techy goodies you want to share let everyone know via comment.