I went to the Ancient Faith Writing & Podcasting Conference

For a couple of reasons I made the trek over to Western Pennsylvania and spent some time with the people of Ancient Faith. The first is that my wife wanted me to go and no man with any sense stays home when his spouse opens the gilded cage of the rectory and lets this little birdie fly free for a weekend. The second is that this blog is going to have a lot more interviews and original content developed than it has to date. Keeping abreast of Orthodox events is important, but people are doing interesting things and their activities aren't getting enough attention.

Here are a few words on my experience at the event.

Here's the boilerplate on the conference:

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The Ancient Faith Writing and Podcasting Conference is a professional development and fellowship opportunity for Orthodox Christians who want to enrich their creative work or break into a new media field. The Conference is open to published and unpublished attendees. If you want to be here, we want you to be here!

The Conference will provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity to network and collaborate with well-known Orthodox authors, podcasters, editors, and publishers, and to gain inside perspective on the Orthodox media world. Guests will enjoy time for fellowship in a beautiful and peaceful environment. Community building and spiritual refreshment are important goals of this gathering.

The Conference is committed to mentoring the upcoming generation of Orthodox writers and podcasters! College students are warmly welcomed.

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I arrived early because I had things to do that had to be finished before "close of business" hours. As such, it was me sitting in the library on a laptop while people arrived in small batches (most often deposited by the airport van). The ruckus in the lobby grew to the point where I was drawn to see who had arrived, but I realized I had not gotten lunch and made a Sheetz run. I returned with two red plastic Sheetz bags to a rather full lobby. From then on it was people not only in the lobby, but all over the Antiochian Village chatting in clutches at all hours.

Your question is probably going to be "Who goes to this sort of thing?" The answer is that it's a mix of people. Lots of authors and podcasters and bloggers under the Ancient Faith brand who are Orthodox-household names. Their books are in your parish libraries and their podcasts and blog posts dot your social media feeds. Then there were people who do things for non-AFM publishers who got equal placement in the AV bookstore and on the stage. There were lots of what you might call "mommy bloggers" - I'm not using it as a pejorative, but as a pretty fair descriptive of the content and the audience for it. Many people were content creators of all stripes who had not yet published anything, but wanted to soak in the literary milieu, get inspired, and find some kindred spirits to draw motivation from. I can't forget clergy; we were sprinkled around as well.

The schedule followed the normal conference flow. There were meals between talks between breaks. Just add in religious services as bookends and you have the idea. Sometimes there were multiple speakers at once in different rooms and at other times there was just one speaker scheduled. Q&A time usually followed, but was often shorter than the queue of people hoping to ask questions. That stopped no one though, because they just made another line to ask questions off-mic after the speaker walked off the podium. A good speaker often missed most of his next mealtime like that - smiling, shaking hands, and politely nodding understanding.

The next question people ask is "Didn't they just record this event? Why do I need to spend the money to go?" Yes, the talks will be posted on the ancientfaith.com website. Most of the value of this conference was in the things that happened around the talks themselves. I spoke with authors and asked questions about their books. I talked with podcasters and to their producers to learn how the sausage was made. I chatted with a Coptic bishop, an Orthodox rapper, a webmaster for a jurisdictional website, friends and friends of my wife, and people who I knew not at all. If you've ever wanted to ask person X a question, he was there to talk to. That, I think, is the value of the conference.

"Would you go back next time?" seems a good final question. Sure. I think I might plan my experience a bit better though. If I had spent more time learning who was coming, I might have gotten more out of it. I also avoided some talks because they didn't interest me and went to talks on things I already knew a lot about. Next conference I'm going to flip that and spend time in the uncharted territory of topics I know nothing about and use lunch to chat with speakers on the topics I'm familiar with.

The lasting value of this conference will be in the connections made. Several of the upcoming interviews to be posted here are with people I talked to there. So, my wife willing, I'll go to the next Ancient Faith Writing & Podcasting Conference planned for 2021.

Finally, a few things I'd do for the next conference...

• Places to talk - Open a secondary or larger place for people to congregate in the evening. The lobby space is comfortable, but quickly fills up.
• Lightning talks - I'd add in an hour or so at the end of the day for people who have smaller topics to bring up. Sign up to speak for 15 minutes and speak on a topic that wouldn't normally be given podium space. Much less official and intimidating for people and a good feeder for future conference topics.
• Rejigger the talks - Sometimes there were three talks going on simultaneously and sometimes there was just one speaker. The libertarian streak in me wants options at all times.
• Kotar's coterie - Bring Fr. Dn. Nicholas Kotar back. His social commentary and macro-level thinking are very important. There are other speakers who are similarly well placed to speak on the topic of the confluence of Christianity and the modern world. Understanding this interplay is, I believe, the foundation for good Orthodox writing that speaks most piercingly to that which the pilgrim-hearted is searching: Who am I, what is this place, why am I here, and how can I glorify God?