Kotimaa a religious publication house based out of Helsinki brought together over 200 people from their affiliated churches including parishes and religious heads (and of course other digital enthusiasts) for a day of understanding why the web is becoming a significant part of the engagement even if you are one of the most ancient (if not the most) organization in the world.

Kotimaa publishers various magazines, operates online portals to spread the wings of christianity, educate and bring awareness to the people of leading a good disciplined life wanted to educate their heads about the growing need to be online and the various digital movements that are sweeping the way we eat, play, work and pray too. SIME brought together over 15 speakers with the aim of spreading knowledge about digital opportunities covering the breadth of the online spectrum.

Morning session started with introduction to the world of digital opportunities by SIME moderator and chairman Ola Ahlvarsson on the big forces in motion, the change in engagement behavior, the attention economy and a case safari in some of the fastest growing companies in the space. The first panel of the day was Digital spirituality featuring CEO of Voxbiblia Johan Jorgensen CEO and co-founder Muxlim Muhammad al Fatatary who spoke about their experiences in using religious identity as a basis of engagement online. While Muxlim is the world’s largest lifestyle muslim community, Voxbibilia translates and makes bible into digital formats and audiobooks.

Joakim Jardenberg, the social media pundit and CEO-whisperer from Sweden showed videos on how the technology and the consumers are finally there for brands and organizations to take full use of with the underlying theme to be and do good. Gone are the days where brands can say anything and get away with good PR. Today, the users are your best PR and no one is afraid to say what they feel and join cults and movements to promote and kill your brand. In this increasingly “honest online” world, transparency is the currency that sets good and great brands apart. Ola Ahlvarsson, spoke about his thoughts on transparency and the increasing need to accept faults and be honest online and offline, true to the Christian spirit.

The next session focused on sparking conversations online and offline – the need to be ubiquitous and spread your message as much online and offline by Tehri Paananen – using best practices on engaging with a diverse set of users and their needs online just like the church does offline.  To add an anti-thesis to the day and to make the audience understand that for every sweet side there is a dark side too, we had a session on the dark side of the web a la the negativity prevalent online today – from hate groups, to cyber terrorism, trolls, the safe heaven of unlimited power giving birth to child pornography, terrorist groups etc. In the end, the internet hasn’t made the world less safer but has given the power to the bad to be more evil.

One of the penultimate session was on the ubiquity of mobile by Maks Giordano , the device that is now more precious than the body part (in a crowd of 200 not so tech savvy users, everyone voted that they would rather have their mobile phone than lose a pinky even if painlessly removed for the rest of their lives), that accompanies us everywhere and why mobile community is giving rise to a third wave of applications, engagement opportunities and consumerism. The final session of the day was on passion and compassion, as quoted by Jan Eliasson, former UN Secretary General. Featuring Daniel Daboczky from Funded By Me and Therese Engstrom, one of the directors of SIME Non-Profit talking about using the web to reach to people for causes and beliefs that are making the world a better place.

The day was eye opening as you realize that digital is truly touching, changing and revolutionizing all the rudimentary aspects of our lives – from our communication, relationships, knowledge, work, play, life – name it and there is a digital component involved. And if religion is one of the glues behind our society from the ancient days to the modern times, it is almost a no brainer for such an organization to be online more.