Barb Dittrich is returning again as hostess for this year’s Inclusion Fusion Tweetchats. Because the Tweetchats were such a popular component of last  year’s Inclusion Fusion, we’ll be doing a wrap-up Tweetchat EVERY NIGHT throughout the Web Summit from 9:00-10:00 PM Eastern…longer if everyone is having a good time. You’ll have the opportunity to connect and share ideas with many of our Inclusion Fusion Faculty, and interact with other pastors, church staff, volunteers and family members from anywhere in the world.

What’s a Tweetchat you ask? Barb is happy to explain the process…

Like to connect with others?  Ask questions and get immediate answers?  Find new, helpful links on the web?  Then TweetChat is for YOU!

While it may seem daunting to those unfamiliar, this real-time group conversation is a fabulous, easy tool.  Here’s how it works.  First, you must have a Twitter account established.  If you don’t already have one, simply go to Twitter.com and set your account up at no cost.  Once you have your Twitter account set up, you are ready to go to your preferred chat  (in our case, #inclusionfusion12 Chat) at the designated time.  To attend the chat, simply go to http://tweetchat.com/room/inclusionfusion12.  You will be prompted through an easy three-step process.

1. When you click “Sign In”, you will then be asked to “Authorize an Application” through your Twitter account.  To attend, you will have to click the blue “Authorize App” button.
2. Once you have done so, merely type in the “Hashtag” or name of your chat that you wish to attend at the top of the page, and click go.  In our case, type in inclusionfusion12.  Now you’re in the chat room!  But you’re not finished yet.
3. To keep most current with the conversation, go to the upper left hand side of the screen and click on “Refresh Speed”.  Slide the tab down to 5 seconds.  This will keep you up-to-date with the scrolling conversation.  Remember, just like on Twitter, you are limited to only so many spaces for your comments…in this case 120.  You do not need to write in #inclusionfusion12 after every post.  Merely being in the chat room will add that to each of your posts.

Of course, if this is too complicated for you, a person can always follow the conversation on regular Twitter by typing in that #inclusionfusion12 in your searches.  This will avail you of much of the conversation.  However, there is nothing like being in that TweetChat room with the live, scrolling conversation that you need not continually refresh.  The discussions with people who share a common passion or interest from anywhere in the world is truly amazing!

I pray that you find this information helpful to you!  I encourage you to try this out prior to our first chat on November 12th at 9:00 PM EST.  We look forward to chatting with you and all of the participants in the Inclusion Fusion Special Needs Ministry Web Summit every night at 9:00 PM during this year’s Web Summit!  This is definitely a mission field worth discussing!

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FOUR DAYS TO GO! Join Barb and over 30 leaders from children’s, family, youth and disability ministry serving as faculty for Inclusion Fusion, Key Ministry’s second annual Special Needs Ministry Web Summit. Inclusion Fusion is made available FREE OF CHARGE to pastors, church staff, volunteers and families everywhere from November 12th-16th, 2012. For an up to date list of speakers, topics, links to speaker blogs and a link for free registration, click here.