I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving day and weekend.

It’s good to be around friends and family you haven’t seen in a while to reminisce and relive fund memories.
To eat more than you should and enjoy the foods you haven’t had in some time.

It’s a good thing Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, though, isn’t it?
It’s so you can rest on the weekend for the coming battle of making it through the next month.
Because you know as well as I do that it’s a race to create the best Christmas program that you can to date.

Whether it’s a quaint service that illustrates the reason for the season.
Or if it’s a full blown extravaganza with real animals like Prestonwood Baptist Church’s The Gift of Christmas or Bellevue Baptist Church’s The Singing Christmas Tree.
In either case, having appropriate and proper tech and technicians to get you through the high anticipated season becomes more paramount as the days rush ahead.

Seven things to consider when preparing for the technical endeavors of the end of the year are:
1) Is our sound system adequate for the task of musical and vocal reproduction?
2) Do we have enough microphones or do we need to rent some?
3) Are we streaming this, and if so, do we have the right camera system and enough bandwidth for our viewing audience?
4) Is our lighting system appropriate for what we’re trying to do?
5) Has our tech team been given the appropriate support and time to pull off our endeavors?
6) Should we hire professionals for the critical areas i.e. a professional sound engineer, director, and/or lighting director?
7) Have we marketed to the surrounding community enough to for them to know they’re invited to our programs / services?

It’s never too late to assure that your plans are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based.

A lot more often than not, we have big goals without considering all the ramifications of what we’re trying to accomplish. But this year will be different.

Tech doesn’t have to be difficult.
Having trained, competent technical staff doesn’t have to be a wish.
Producing excellent work doesn’t have to be a dream.

The right counsel and preparation will produce successful results based on the efforts.
And getting ahead of your technological challenges will be the first step to having a very Merry Tech-Christmas.