October 8, 2009 by jcollins.

Wow, can it really be that we are done? Over 150,000 people have been touched by our technology since we started this tour back in June. Today was the last official event, another great Plan Your Meetings live event, this time in Dallas.

The event went flawlessly. Afterwards we were able to share a meal with David & Shirley Quine and their son Ben. We had a wonderful time with these pioneers in the homeschooling movement. David and Shirley are almost finished homeschooling their 9th child. It was very neat eating Chinese food with the author of the A Heart 4 You China curriculum. And believe me we didn’t miss the irony of ending our tour with the author of Starting Points.

Posted in A Heart 4 You China, David Quine, Starting Points curriculum, Plan Your Meetings, audience response, PYM Live, Total Interactive Events | No Comments »

October 4, 2009 by jcollins.

After another flawless audience response event this morning we headed south to San Antonio. Our travels did not call for a stop in San Antonio, but somewhere along the route, Kristi wanted to work out a swing through town on our way to Houston. We jokingly call their home the McManus Bed & Breakfast, but The McManus Bed, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Snack would better describe it. Amy’s husband Adam loves to cook and entertain. He prepares feasts fit for royalty and much to our delight, he offers them humbly to all his guests.

Upon our arrival we dined on BBQ ribs, so delicious they made anything in Memphis pale by comparison. After the desert cheesecake

and while the children fell asleep around us, we talked into the wee hours of the morning. The wide ranging conversation covered everything from current events, their upcoming adoption, Facebook, and we even threw in a little discussion of Theonomy to lighten things up a little.

Early Sunday morning we arose to another feast; eggs and sausage, homemade muffins, and a HUGE bowl of fresh fruit. We dressed, ate, and scurried off to church. A delightful church service which included a video clip of “man on the streets interviews” asking random individuals how they would get to Heaven. Most were confused as to how to get to church, let alone Heaven, and some so brazen as to say they don’t believe in Heaven and will take Hell if it comes.

Sunday afternoon we joined a large group (2,000 or so) individuals in the Life Chain San Antonio, taking signs to the roadways to show our support for adoption, prayers for the end to abortion, and to remind all of us that Jesus heals and forgives. Some drivers honked in support, some waved, and some gave us the finger and a few choice words. Lord help us for not saving the babies who need our VOICES!

Kristi, Amy and Katie spent a little time shopping while Adam and I return to the house for a snack and relaxation. The night’s continued conversation included getting to know each other better and a funny 1980s movie “What About Bob” starring Richard Dryfuss and Bill Murray. The kids stayed awake during the entire movie however we lost both Kristi and Amy- ha!

Monday morning we joined for a quick meal, prayed for the McManus’ and parted ways. We love the hearts of Adam and Amy, and will keep them in prayer about their adoption next month. We can’t wait to hear the laughter of the new child in their home.

Posted in San Antonio, amy mcmanus, adam mcmanus, audience response | No Comments »

September 25, 2009 by jcollins.

The How to Take Back America conference in St. Louis, Mo is in full swing. Today we heard from Rick Heil of SonicFlood, Dr. Rick Scarborough, Janet Porter, Phyllis Schlafley, US Representatives Tom Price and Steve King, and even Joe the Plumber. The live audience, as well as those watching worldwide on the web, are using our Total Interactive Events technology to text in questions, comments and contest enteries. Tomorrow morning we will be using the audience response system. We also are recording YouTube videos from speakers and attendees that you can view here.

Here’s a photo of Sam with US Representative Tom Price.

Posted in Steve King, Janet Porter, Tom Price, Phyllis Schlafley, Joe the Plumber, Rick Scarborough, Sam Collins, Total Interactive Events, text message service, audience response, St. Louis, How To Take Back America, Uncategorized | No Comments »

September 23, 2009 by jcollins.

John Collins will appear on over 200 radio station worldwide on Thursday September 24 at 1pm CST, on the Faith2Action radio program to discuss the different technologies that The Extreme Group will be providing at the How To Take Back America conference in St. Louis this coming weekend. On tap for the event, The Extreme Group will provide an audience response, texting services, a YouTube channel with updates throughout the day, and an emergency communication system.

In conjunction with the live webcast, The Extreme Group will keep the audience watching at home involved by allowing them to text in questions for the presenters, submit videos to be broadcast on the YouTube channel, and enter contests where you must be present (either physically or virtually) to win.

Click the following link to find a radio station in your area: Radio Station List

Posted in St. Louis, How To Take Back America, customer service, audience response, emergency communication system, Total Interactive Events, text message service | No Comments »

September 19, 2009 by jcollins.

Today was the last official Rebelution conference of the ‘09 tour…
It was the best finale to the year I could imagine! Yes, set-up yesterday was very trying on us and the Harris’ crew but today was worth every second of it…
The morning started off early (6:00 a.m.). We headed to the conference center and started prepping the keypads. All went well, and soon we let my friend Samantha and her family in early. (I guess for once we were those ‘higher connections’ everyone talks about…:)…)

Everything went perfect during the distribution! This was an awesome ‘touch-team’! They got everyting done promptly, efficently, and happily. Kudos to the DC Rebelution Touch-Team!!!
I sat with my debate friends for most of the day, and for once, experienced the conference almost like an actual attendee. It was even neater when I soon found out I had another friend there from the NCFCA… Timothy Pierce. I had debated him at a practice tournament in January during last tournament season. He is a philosopher-wannabe whom I find to be interesting, as he takes a pure logical look at everything. Different from me and my other L-D friends like Samantha and Justine who just look for an understandable connection that is logical. It was good to catch up with him and discuss this year’s new Resolution- Resolved: that competition is superior to cooperation as a means of achieving excellence.

About a hundred people said they’d like to accept Christ and about that many must have stood up- more than ever before I would say! It was amazing. Like no conference before, Mr. Harris and many others were brought to tears before it was over…

This was my favorite conferance so-far I think. I probably say that after every conferance but this time it is completely true!

We went to dinner with the Fansler family (Chick-fil-a) then picked Daddy up at the airport…
I hope we can come back to DC next year!

Signing Off After THe FINAL Rebelution,
Katie

P.S. Less than a month left till we get home!!! See y’all soon!!!

Posted in Gregg Harris, Rileytheband.com, Sono Harris, James Harris, Isaac Harris, keypads, www.theextremegroup.com, philosophy, logic, Timothy Pierce, Katie Collins, touch-team, Sarah Harris, Bret Harris, rebelution, NCFCA, Debate camp, audience response, Total Interactive Events, homeschool, Samantha Fansler, L-D debate, Alex Harris, Harris family, Harris, Justine Strickler, text message service | No Comments »

September 18, 2009 by jcollins.

This morning Kristi and the kids dropped me off at the Richmond Airport for my flight to Tampa. Once again I had to run from my first flight in order to make my second flight of the day. The Delta baggage handlers evidently don’t run, as my bags did not make it Tampa with me. After a quick stop by the Marriott Westshore to check with the non-existant AV crew about Saturday’s meeting setup and having lunch at Latin Flavor, one of my favorite little family run businesses in the city, with Tom and Shawn, it was another trip back to the airport to pick up my baggage.

I was thrilled to find the house in great shape, but oh that pile of mail… More junk than anything, followed by bills and magazines.

Time to get ready for my show tomorrow, trouble shot for Sam, and work on technical issues in the office. Overall it’s not too bad for having been gone for over 60 days.

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September 16, 2009 by jcollins.

We had another great event with Plan Your Meetings Live in Atlanta. The weather was horrible, but the brave meeting planners braved the storms and got see our audience response systems and live texting. We met some wonderful people and saw some old friends. It’s always a pleasure working with the PYM team, but this time seemed especially good. The food was great, speaker was good, and the crowd was gracious. As soon as the event was over we began our drive north. We ended up somewhere across the South Carolina line.

Posted in Plan Your Meetings, PYM Live, audience response, Total Interactive Events, text message service | No Comments »

July 18, 2009 by jcollins.

We made it to Sioux Falls, SD. This is one of the few states that Daddy has never been to. We had a game show to do this evening. While we set it up, Momma took the RV to get the oil changed. It’s a good thing Momma went and Daddy didn’t because she got back just as the show was starting. The game show was for a company’s customer appreciation event and they had over 700 people in attendance. Everyone loved the game show and we enjoyed a great meal. As soon as the event ended, we packed up the RV and headed to the falls for a light and sound show that talked about the history of Sioux Falls. The show lasted until about 10:45, we were pretty exhausted by the time it ended. We were able to take some really neat photos at the falls, take a look.

They even had an Oragami Sculpture:

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July 12, 2009 by jcollins.

Downtown, Chicago, Illinois- Last night I ironed everyone’s clothes so when I woke up this morning everything I needed was hanging above the table. I was awake at five forty-five and after dressing, playing quietly for a few minutes, and working on a letter to my friend Brittany Telford it was seven o’ clock. I put a few biscuits in the oven then woke Sam. He dressed, and when the biscuits were finally finished I woke Mommy and Daddy.

It was seven twenty and after eating I was ready to head in. Sam, Daddy and I set off while Mommy stayed to do a few things. Twenty minutes later Daddy and Sam were ready to begin the texting and I had distributed over half of keypads to the name tag stations. By eight thirty I made a final round to even out the last few keypads between several of the stations. Bethany allowed me to help her finish the morning registration process though I didn’t do much…

Just as I finished I realized I had a new problem, the Rebelution crew had printed over five hundred copies of the pricing sheets, but my film, Unexpected News was not on them… This had been a problem at prior conferences resulting in no one knowing how much they cost, so the cashiers either hunted me down or attendees just didn’t buy copies…

Because she had already finished her work, Bethany helped me search for blank paper. Paper turned out harder to find then we would have guessed, however upon reaching a set of main doors at the farthest end of the church, we happened upon a brochure holder. We jokingly said they would make good signs… after finding enough; I set out for the bookstore with a purple sharpie…

As always, Alex and Brett gave amazing performances as far as I could tell from the number of youth wanting an autograph, or just to say something to them at the end of every lecture. This was a really big event, over 3,500 people attended; from as far away as Finland, Spain, North Africa, Uzbekistan, and Thailand. Though I was not present for Mr. Harris’ lecture either I was able to sneak in the back during the alter-call.

The only thing that went poorly was keypad collection. Someone gave the signal and suddenly half the keypads were collected and Matthew Cunningham, Mommy, I, and the girls I had asked to help us collect them were running around trying to figure out what to do. We just started walking around asking people for them. It almost scared me how easily they gave them to us… only one girl questioned me as to my authority or purpose in asking for them… glad no one else was collecting them to sell or something…

I was able to spend time reading, and hang out with several of the girls I met last night throughout today. I never meet anyone at these conferences so this was especially exciting!

After we packed everything up, we sat in the speakers’ room and waited for Alex and Brett. We figured they would come back to pick up their things but after waiting for a long time we all supposed they were busy. We were going to just wave good-by however when we walked out to the sanctuary the only person alive was the sound booth-guy.

After finding them we talked for a few moments then suddenly a high-pitched sound started blaring. Conversation interrupted we said good-by and Daddy, Mommy, Sam, Brett and I headed toward the speakers room to leave. Brett noticed everyone outside and we headed out. Alex and Joel saw us coming and remarked the fire alarm had gone off. We were supposed to be outside. OOPS! If it had been serious I’m sure they’d have called us though… we were with Brett after all.

Soon firefighters pulled a fire truck up on the side of the road and we all saw a water hydrant in work. Harlan and Joel were walking around taking pictures while onlookers looked at them as though they were wack-o, or something. We laughed and said it wasn’t every day we saw a “fire” in action. Meanwhile Daddy had headed back to the RV and Brett had disappeared. I met Alex’s fiancée, she was taking pictures too.

Upon returning to the RV we found, to my surprise, Brett and Daddy talking… An hour or two later Alex and his fiancée knocked on the door. They had been looking for Brett for quite a while, now they had found him.

We left to look for dinner leading up to one of the longest treks in my life! We left at seven thirty or so I would say… At ten ‘o clock we crossed another road and I prayed to God that he would provide a: smoke-free, alcohol-free, quiet, affordable, delicious meal, and so that we would know it was the right place- he would provide a Christian sign for us. Only one or two minutes later we found the Star of Siam. An answered prayer! If you ever eat their do not eat the skinny, shiny, blackened, thingies. As I was soon to find out I don’t like chili peppers at all… do order thick noodles with beef, egg, and Thai broccoli. One of the best things I have ever eaten!

One taxi ride after dinner we were in bed and fast asleep.

Straight from the second stop of the tour,
Katie Collins

Posted in audience response, text message service | No Comments »