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ByDave Hall

‘Busiest start ever’ for AV specialists

The south west is a happy hunting ground for one company that has just had the busiest January ever.

Audio Visual Direct install and repair projectors, screens, TVs, sound systems and streaming equipment.

A first-time exhibitor at CRE, the company, based in Weston-super-Mare, has been operating for many years but for the past five has turned its attention to churches and village halls, installing equipment in more than 400 throughout the region. 

‘This is growing by around two new church users a week,’ said Audio Visual Direct’s Mark Thyer. ‘With 10 installations already we’re having the busiest start ever to the year. We’re looking forward to introducing ourselves to CRE visitors and, where requested, booking a visit to churches requiring a free on-site survey. 

‘We’ll go through your existing equipment, update you on new technologies and see if there are any improvements to be made.’

Audio Visual Direct pride themselves on the quality of their work, have a five-star Google review score and try to keep everybody up to date with details of their work on Facebook.

• Audio Visual Direct are on stand B20 at CRE South West

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

Revealed: the mischievous art of your local organist

The opening bars of ‘Praise my soul the king of heaven…’ may ring out at CRE South West later this month but there’s no guarantee the organist won’t slip into ‘High on a hill was a lonely goatherd…’

Professional musician Richard Copeland, formerly organist at St Andrew’s Church, Moretonhampstead, on the edge of Dartmoor, will demonstrate the attributes of four different instruments on the Viscount Organs Wales stand.He will also pay homage to hundreds of fellow organists who pull out all the stops on Sundays – many of them sending veiled messages to clergy and congregations!

‘I was playing at a wedding where the bride, in her late 60s, was marrying a lad 40 years her junior,’ recalled Copeland. ‘A member of the choir persuaded me to slide in a potted version of “Twenty-one today, twenty-one today, she’s got the key of the door…” to much sniggering in the pews.’

Organists behaving irreverently is a growing phenomenon. Leading Christian web magazine www.shipoffools.comrelates how one disenchanted organist in Glasgow played ‘Send in the Clowns’as the minister and choir processed in. Another played a heavily-disguised version of ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’during censing at Saint John’s Church, Passaic, New Jersey. 

A slowed-down version of Abba’s ‘Money, Money, Money’is a popular choice during the offertory and one reader, Tony Potter, recalled hearing the Dambusterstheme during Remembrance Sunday! ‘If there was such a book as the Basil Fawlty Guide to Political Correctness, this would be the opening chapter,’ he said.

‘Whilst modern worship practices abound, the organ is still an intrinsic part of English church worship and no other instrument can stir the soul like it,’ said Copeland. ‘From the smallest organ with only a few stops, to a large three or four-manual option, it truly is the king of instruments, as Mozart described it. Nowadays, modern digital instruments have become more reliable and a serious option for many churches with an ailing or unreliable pipe organ.’

Many churches have reclaimed much-needed space for domestic essentials by opting for a digital organ. 

‘Whether it is being used solemnly or playfully, the organ is still the main instrument for many churches,’ said Viscount Organ’s Tony Packer. ‘State-of-the-art digital versions are becoming more affordable and we will introduce a range of options to CRE visitors.’

• Viscount Organs Wales are on stand D20 at CRE South West

Photo: Organist Richard Copeland.

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

The Silley way to switch and save

With churches facing unprecedented increases in energy prices Andrew Silley promises to listen – and do something about it!

Andrew, a 63-year-old award-winning energy broker, will be at CRE South West Exeter, to help your church navigate through a complex marketplace at a difficult time. The price hike is hitting non-domestic supplies now, with some churches seeing price increases up to three times what they were paying for gas and electricity as they go into new contracts!  

‘In December 21, wholesale gas prices hit nearly ten times what they were in January 21!’ he said. ‘I can’t stop prices rising but I can provide different ways of helping to make the best of things.’

Andrew started his company 12 years ago, dealing with businesses, charities, conference centres, residential homes and churches. With a heart for God’s planet and the poor, his values of honesty, integrity and transparency can save your church the hassle of dealing directly with energy suppliers and ensure the best prices for your energy needs. He is the first and only independent consultant to win at the prestigious TELCA Energy Awards in 2019.

‘Whatever the size of your energy needs I will cut through the complexities of the energy market, secure the best prices available (with massive buying power and access to all the market’s energy suppliers) and validate bills and deal with disputes,’ he said. ‘I will also work with you to find solutions to reduce your consumption and recover overpaid VAT and Climate Change Levy (CCL) for charities. I’m not necessarily looking to move you from your current supplier, just to secure you a more competitive rate – and this service is offered free of charge.’

Having served as the church warden of an Anglican Church and trustee of a charity, he understands the needs of churches and charities.

‘I will review your bills to see if you’re owed money,’ he said. ‘If you are, I’ll recover it for you. I’ve recovered thousands of pounds of overcharged VAT and climate change levy for charities – without charge! Don’t wait until the end of your contract – it will be too late.’

• Andrew Silley Independent Utility Specialist is on stand D35 at CRE South West

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

Imagination, conversation, teamwork pave way for creative solution

Ever wondered where all those screens and sanitisation stations appeared from when Covid-19 first struck?

For many churches, CRE exhibitor Creative Solutions were on hand, creating a host of new products manufactured on site in Axminster – with rapid turnaround times.

Helping organisations put on bigger, better and brighter displays has been their mission for more than 20 years. The company was founded by a team with a combined 40+ years’ experience in exhibitions, display and the print sector.

‘In 2020 we joined the fold of all businesses, completely disrupted by the events and lockdowns of Covid-19,’ said Ben Whittington, director of Creative Solutions. The company responded by creating large standalone see-through screensfor church leaders to stand behind to deliver their message, freestanding hand sanitisation stations for entryways, printed anti-viral fabric products for displays, posters, QR codes, pavement signs and banner stands. 

‘Combining creativity and the need for protection systems, we chose to help combat Covid by merging individuality and organisations’ branding with custom safety solutions,’ explained Ben. ‘The need for cleanliness was the top priority, but this did not mean the solution needed to be clinical. It had to offer protection and blend into clients’ spaces seamlessly. We spoke with our clients to find out what they wanted. We also scoured the industry to source the best materials available. It sparked imagination, conversation, teamwork – and helped forge longstanding relationships, as organisations now look forward in 2022.’ 

The firm is now creating self-sanitising fabric for displays, ‘Coala Cover Safe’ – a film for anti-bacterial protection that can be applied to almost any high-contact surface like doors and tables, and custom printed social distancing screens for communal areas, bathrooms, offices and busy areas.

‘We are glad to have been able to assist both new and returning clients and combat Covid by creating products to help places stay accessible and safe,’ said Ben.

• Creative Solutions are on stand P32 at CRE South West

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

Singing the praises of a Wren church modernised

History courses through its brickwork – making modernisation technically difficult and aesthetically challenging.

That was how B+H found St James’s Church, Piccadilly. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, prime minister William Pitt the Elder was baptised at its font. The central London church is not just used for services, however. It hosts lunchtime and evening recitals and the decision was taken to share these with larger audiences by filming and streaming. 

Longstanding CRE exhibitor B+H were asked to provide equipment which offered good sound and image quality. It also had to be simple to operate. Andy Felix, project manager at B&H, knew the historic church posed severe problems with cabling and stained-glass windows posing particular problems.

‘Wiring has to be discrete in old buildings,’ he explained. ‘We hid cable under floorboards and followed the architectural lines of the building, minimising visual impact. Wood effect trunking was used to hide cables to the first floor.

‘The stained-glass windows also needed to be taken into account when specifying which cameras to use. There were quite good natural light levels in the building but this could fluctuate and we needed equipment which could cope. The cameras and equipment we installed can start and stop streaming at the touch of a button. Once set up via a PC, they are incredibly simple to operate by the church staff.’

B+H Sound Services was formed in 1978 by Brian Hillson. Nearly 50 years on it remains focused on providing sound, light and AV solutions to the live event industry and has a long history of helping churches get their message across with sensitive use of sound and vision equipment. More recently the company has helped churches with live streaming.

In 2015 the business was acquired by SFL Group enabling it to support a growing number of clients with a team which has risen from two people in a small garage to over 60 skilled operators in two key locations – Peterborough and Reading. The team will be delighted to meet visitors to CRE South West and advise on improving church streaming or sound and vision problems.

• B+H are on stand C20 at CRE South West

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

SAT-7: a new narrative for the Middle East

Faith strengthened, love shown, and joy brought – not to a few, but millions.

It isn’t the usual story we hear coming out of the Middle East but SAT-7 UK, who bring life-changing faith and joy to the people of the region through TV and digital media,will be at CRE South West to share how God is changing things.  

‘We’ll invite your church to help write a new chapter, not just for the people of the Middle East and North Africa but for the people of your church, too,’ said Martin Thomas, SAT-7’s director of external engagement.

As a SAT-7 church partneryou choose a people group to support – for example, Arabic children or isolated believers in Iran. You then commit to giving and raising funds for your chosen people group over the following three years. SAT-7 helps connect you with producers and presenters in the region, through live events and pre-recorded programmes. The organisation also helps you and your church community pray for your people group and the SAT-7 team on the ground.

‘We hope that through this partnership, churches willwitness transformed lives, captured through inspiring stories, presentations and resources for the whole church, small groups and young people,’ said Martin. ‘And in the longer term, we hope our partners will be able to visit one of our studios across the region.’

SAT-7 also offers a way you can support a media project – a one-year commitment where you help to raise funds for a flagship media project, focused on impacting a specific people group across the region.

If you’d like to arrange a specific time to meet SAT-7 at CRE South West, contact Julia Jolley at jjolley@sat7uk.org.

‘We’re really looking forward to being able to speak with people face to face again,’ said Julia.

• SAT-7 are on stand B33 in Mission on the Map at CRE South West

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

Church rotas: new software to make them simple

Love them or loathe them, rotas are a vital part of church life – and now there’s a solution to help make them hassle free.

Cambron Software’s web-based plan2gether.com, available to try out at CRE South West, is the answer!

‘We have one underlying philosophy – keep it simple!’ explained Cambron’s Colin Cameron. ‘There are some very powerful (and complicated) church management systems out there but we wanted to create something that did one thing well – make life easier for the people who organise church rotas. It had to be accessible from anywhere and easy to make changes and send reminders to people. plan2gether.com keeps all your rotas in one place – worship band, security, welcoming, coffee morning, creche, AV, flowers, cleaning – you name it, you can create a rota for it.

Most importantly, plan2gether.com will automatically notify people by email or SMS text when they are on duty. Users can make themselves unavailable and edit their rota duties to swap with others.

‘As churches open up again, now is the time to start organising your church volunteers and helpers using plan2gether.com,’ said Gordon. ‘We’ll show you how at Westpoint.’

You can even create your first event and team for free. For unlimited use, the cost is only £10 per month with a special 50 per cent discount for those visiting the plan2gether stand.

• plan2gether will be on stand D22 at CRE South West 2022

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

How to make light work of recruitment

When Pilgrims’ Friend Society (PFS) wanted to recruit a chief executive and other key members of staff they knew exactly what they wanted – their problem was finding the right people.

Founded more than 200 years ago, the society operates as an umbrella charity and is the group trustee for a number of Christian charities, enabling older people to flourish through its care homes, residential housing and support for churches and communities. It runs 15 care schemes across England and, like other social care providers, struggles to recruit and retain care assistants and carers in many of its homes. 

PFS called in Action Planning, with its outreach across the Christian sector, to tender for the job of recruiting a new chief executive and also carry out research into the retention of care workers and managers at their homes.

‘We placed a notice for the vacant chief executive role on our website and sent it out on our 46,000 strong mailing list,’ said the company’s associate community co-ordinator, Tracy Madgwick. ‘We also put it out to 170 Action Planning consultants, made direct approaches to suitable individuals and searched LinkedIn for potential candidates. We then put forward a shortlist of five strong candidates. We followed a similar process to find a trustee, with additional research carried out through our church contacts and were able to present PFS with a suitable candidate. 

‘We also investigated the problem of care home staff retention by conducting “secret shopper” style visits, gathering first-hand accounts of the challenges staff faced and the incentives (eg salaries and other benefits) that might encourage them to stay on. A similar but more intensive exercise was carried out to find suitable candidates for care home manager roles.’

From the shortlist, PFS selected their new chief executive, Stephen Hammersley, under whose leadership they have begun to put in place Action Planning’s proposals for recruiting and retaining care home managers and staff.

‘They were equally delighted with their new trustee and have discussed the possibility of recruiting more,’ said Tracy Madgwick.

There is always a much smaller pool of candidates for senior posts in faith-based organisations but Action Planning know where to look. If you need help in finding the right person for your organisation chat to their representatives at CRE South West. Action Planning’s David Saint will lead a seminar at the exhibition, ‘Fundraising for capital projects for churches’ (11am, Wed 12 Feb and 3pm Thu 24 Feb).

• Action Planning are on stand P10 at CRE South West

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

Helping young cope beyond Covid

With young people struggling with poor mental health through the pandemic, the Ugly Duckling Company has launched an innovative resource to help them. 

10:10 shows the difference living well can have on their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing. Designed for use in churches, schools, youth clubs and community groups, the initiative has been supported by a £60,000 grant over two years from Allchurches Trust. Providing at least 30 hours of adaptable material, the recource can be used in small groups, lessons, assemblies and lunch time clubs.

Ten themes, built on spirituality and positive psychology, help 11 to 17-year-olds explore different ideas around happiness and the art of living life well. It covers themes such as thankfulness, kindness, forgiveness, healthy relationships, coping strategies and how to look after mind, body and soul. The resource features a series of films, group discussions, creative exercises, experiments and additional downloadable resources.

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey

ByDave Hall

More stands now available as dozens of organisations head west

A sudden surge of interest from companies and individuals wishing to exhibit has meant organisers of CRE South West have increased the number of stands available at the exhibition.

Bookings in the new year include World Vision, Ecclesiastical Insurance, Countdown Creative, Snug Architects, Crosslink Transformation Network (CTN), Cambron Software, Creative Solutions and StageEngage.

‘Most people are optimistic we are at the beginning of the end of the pandemic,’ said CRE event director Brett Pitchfork. ‘They are keen to get back where it really counts – face to face with customers, clients and supporters. Safety is still paramount for all, so we are instigating similar precautions to those we introduced at Sandown Park in October, including wider aisles, and remain hopeful that churches throughout the south west will support our first  exhibition in the region for seven years.’

Expert advice will be on hand in 40 seminars with several speakers from the region including the Bishop of Crediton, Rt Rev Jackie Searle; the Archdeacon of Exeter, Venerable Andrew Deane; Canon Sarah Yardley of Creation Fest, Paul Friend of South-West Youth Ministries and Tim Moyler of Agapé UK. The exhibition will be opened by former Blue Peter and Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas.

The Bishop of Exeter, Rt Rev Robert Atwell, said: ‘CRE was last at Westpoint in 2015 and much has happened at local church level since then,’ he said. ‘It is a great opportunity to access new resources, ideas and practical tools to meet the many challenges of local ministry.’ 

A short introductory video to CRE SW can be viewed here.

Book your tickets to CRE South West! – and save up to £5

Seminar Guide – See the complete guide to seminars at CRE South West 2022

Your invitation – See an online version of the CRE South West 2022 brochure

Our next exhibitions

CRE South West 2022
23-24 February 2022
Westpoint, Exeter

CRE National 2022
11-13 October 2022
Sandown Park, Surrey