I can’t believe that its been one year since we launched Velocity Productions.  I can’t begin to thank all of the people that have helped me this past year.   Thanks for the support, prayer, encouragement, advice, and patience.  God is truly blessing this company.  I don’t understand Him or how He works.  All I know is that we’ve been given this tremendous opportunity and we are doing our best to be a good steward of it.

Here are some of the very fun stats from this year.

First of all, we now have 5 total staff.  Some amazingly talented people.  Sheila Shouldeen, Ryan Richards, Patrick McEwen, Quinn Adamson, and myself.

We’ve served over 50 events.  Some of the people we served were Chick-fil-A, Delta, Pure Melon, Westfall Group, Foursquare Church, Sprite, Passion, Q Conference, Plywood People, Do Good Conference, Move Conference – and many more.  That means we were in front of over 100,000 people over the course of the year and got to do some pretty amazing stuff.  Halograms, projecting on airplanes, Truett Cathy’s Birthday Party – just to name a few.

Of all of the fund raising events we served – they raised over 25 million dollars for the kingdom.

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To say that it has been a good year would be an understatement.  We are truly blessed.  I’m just thankful that I get to do something I believe God has called me to do.  I get to do it with people I love, and I get to continue to make God’s name great while doing it.

So again, thank you and hang on because we are just getting started.

Brian

Follow us on twitter @velocityprod for current updates

I’d like to share with you one of my favorite things about Christmas. It’s the song “O Holy Night.” I pretty much like all versions of the song but my favorite lyrics are from an english version.  Faith Hill’s version is my current favorite. I have nothing against the French version saying Noel, but here’s why  I like the english version!

I’m a native Atlantan and from 1942 to the mid 1990′s the Downtown Rich’s Department store put a huge Christmas tree on top of the bridge that crossed over Forsyth Street and lit it Thanksgiving night – The Rich’s Great Tree. The bridge had four levels and on each side of the bridge a choir would sing a few songs and then they’d move to the next choir lighting the bridge as they went up. A total of 8 choirs would sing throughout the night. The last choir on the top would sing “O Holy Night” and when the soloist hit the high note on glory during the phrase “His power and glory will ever more proclaim” they’d flip the switch on the tree. Forsyth Street on both sides of the road would be filled with people and they’d go nuts.

Here’s where it gets personal for me. We’d go every year to see the lighting of the tree because my Dad use to work for the electrical contractors that put the lights on the tree.  So we’d get to sit on the roof of Rich’s and see the entire show like VIPs. Even cooler though – my Dad was the guy who would flip the switch on the high note. That was just the coolest when you’re a kid. To say – “My Dad flips the switch for the lights on the Rich’s tree.” Even cooler for me was my Dad would send me up with an electrician, to the top, just under the tree, and my job was to count the lights that were out. I thought I had the most important job in the world at the time. To top it all off we’d get to be some of the first kids to ride the Pink Pig. If you’re from here – you’ll know about the Pink Pig. If you’re not – it’s a really infamous ride on the roof of Rich’s but special to all of us who got the sticker that said “I rode the Pink Pig.”

So “O Holy Night” has a special place in my heart because of my very fond childhood memory.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Now I realize she looks more grown up than normal because of the makeup they make you put on them, but the point for me is that my little girl is growing up.

Think about it this way.

She’s 5 now.  She’ll potentially leave our home at 18.  That means she’s almost already spend 1/3 of her time at home with us.

My wife and I have been married for 8 years.  Seems like yesterday to us.  In 8 years Addison will be 13. I’ve heard that any where between 12 – 14 years old parents start to lose their influence with their teenagers.

So I feel as if we are running out of time with her.  Even though she’s still a child.  Time sure does fly and the next thing I know – we’ll be empty nesters.

So today will count.

As many of you may know, the past 5 months have been some of the most interesting months of my life.  After tons of prayer, counsel and discernment,  I have decided to start my own company – Velocity Productions.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to have worked with BigStuf and the experience I gained while there.

I am extremely excited about the potential of this company and the opportunity to serve the Kingdom.  I’m committed to continue to serve faith-based ministries by providing high-quality service and production while understanding the greater goal of the event.  I also have a strong desire to immerse this company into the corporate market and industries that need strong Christians to show them the love of Christ.

My Vision:  To help people and organizations create environments where people can experience Christ in new and fresh ways.

My Strategy:  To provide excellent, personal, and high-quality service while providing highly advanced and innovative staging solutions through strategic partnerships.

Your support through this entire process has been encouraging and humbling.  Amanda and I will never fully understand God and the way He works, but I do know that He has given me this opportunity and I pray I’ll be a good steward of what He’s put in front of me.

If you need me, you can always reach me by calling my cell phone at 404-271-5201; or email me at brian.pirkle@velocityproductions.com or bpirkle@mac.com

Thanks,

Brian

I have been asked and given the privilege to be the producer for the Story Conference.   If you knew what I know about what’s going to happen you’d sign up now.  Trust me it will be worth it.  Not to mention – it’s in Chicago in the fall.  Here’s a brief description.

STORY is a conference for the creative class in ministry on September 23-24, 2010 at Park Community Church in downtown Chicago. The purpose is to fuel the church’s artists, writers and producers in communicating the greatest story ever told. You’ll hear from some of the best creative practitioners in both ministry and the marketplace, from filmmakers and authors to actors and musicians. Presenters include:

Dan Allender – best-selling author, professor at Mars Hill Graduate School
Charlie Todd – creator of Improv Everywhere in New York City
Princess Zulu – AIDS victim from infancy, advocate for the oppressed
Jason Fried – founder of 37Signals, creator of Basecamp, author of Rework
John Sowers – president of Donald Miller’s The Mentoring Project
Shauna Niequist – former creative director at Mars Hill, author of Bittersweet
David Hodges – formerly of the band Evanescence, award-winning songwriter
Leonard Sweet – futurist, author of 40 books, professor at Drew University
David McFadzean – creator of Home Improvement, producer of Roseanne
Richard Walter – accomplished screenwriter and professor of film at UCLA
Sean Gladding – member of Communality, a new monastic community
Andrew Klavan – author of True Crime (Clint Eastwood) and numerous novels
Gary Dorsey – founder of Pixel Peach Studio in Austin, TX
Music by Vicky Beeching, Kari Jobe and Carlos Whittaker

Seating is limited to just 500 attendees, and the event is scheduled on a Thursday and Friday so you can enjoy the weekend in the city. Following its inaugural event in 2009, STORY is now a two-day, main-stage event with no breakouts or workshops; just an intimate audience with the top creative minds. You’ll be able to ask questions during the event and continue the conversation after it’s over. Visit www.storychicago.com.

- 13.9 Billion minutes Facebook users spent on the site in April, a 700% increase from April 2008

- 95% of business decision makers worldwide use social networks to some extent

- 35% of Americans 18 and over used a social networking service in 2008

- 8% of Americans 18 and over used a social networking service in 2005

- 87% of adults said they prefer dealing with others in person instead of via computers or smartphones

- 2000 random tweets were analyzed by Pear Analytics and described as follows:
– 4% spam
– 6% Self-Promotional
– 9% Moderately Interesting
– 38% Conversational
– 44% Babble

plus my travel schedule – it’s been pretty crazy.  It’s tough trying to balance being a Husband first, father second, and building a company somewhere on the list.

anyway if you’re still out there here’s a quick update of the past couple of months.

July 12 – Brooklynn Born

8 days later I was at BigStuf Camps in Daytona

Then in August we took a vacation to Myrtle Beach

Right after vacation I left to do a week tour with Chick-fil-a in Cincinnati (I could write an entire book about that trip) – and thanks to the FEE Band for the ride.

After the CFA tour it was full speed ahead prepping for the National Youth Workers Convention and Catalyst Conference which includes lots of meetings.

Even though we had several events at the end of August and beginning of Sept – I was fortunate enough to stay home.  Even finished the 1/2 bath remodel.

Sept 21 started a run of about 30 plus events for us.  That week we did four of them and one of those was the National Youth Workers Convention in LA.

yep it looks just like BigStuf – maybe no one will notice.   But the set was to cool to just pack away to never reappear.

Today is the Saturday before Catalyst Conference.  I believe by God’s perfect timing he’s given me a quiet day to take care of Brooklynn.  My mom took Addison and Avery to her house for the weekend and Amanda’s is at work.

Other than the un-timely visit from the Jehovah Witnesses – I should have a day to study and put the finishing touches on the Run of Show.

So thanks for reading.  I’ll try to post some pics from the week – at least on Twitter.

Here’s why:

So when this settles down and I get back in the swing of things – I’ll be off the grid.

see ya

Brian

Anyway, a lot of you don’t know that I ever served. It’s something that I’m very proud of. It was something that I desperately needed when I was twenty years old. It’s hard to believe that I enlisted almost 20 years ago. I loved it for the most part – joined the NAVY and saw the world – mostly Asia – but a lot of it.  I’ve attached a few pictures of the hundreds of pictures I have from then. So I’ll give you a little mini photo Journal.

This is the ship I served on from 1991 – 1995.  The USS VINCENNES (CG-49)

We’ll here you go.  It is what it is.  I love the glasses.  Got out as a YN2 – Petty Officer 2nd Class.

This was my boss and good friend – Mike Leone.  Unfortunately I’ve lost touch with him.

Some Sunday’s when we were out at sea we had “holiday routine.”  We would set up a volleyball net on the flight deck and would tie the volleyball to the top of the net.  Or maybe I put this picture in wishing I was still in that good of shape.

This was my home for 3 1/2 years

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On my first deployment my Dad and brother were able to ride the ship back with us from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  This was pretty cool for me after being on deployment for 6 months.

This is our ship pulling into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in Dec 94.  This was my last day on the ship.  I detached in Hawaii and they flew me back to San Diego where I ended my active duty.  The picture of the flag on our house (which started all of this today) was the flag the VINCENNES was flying when we arrived in Pearl Harbor.

Thanks for letting me take you on a little journey into my past.  Happy 4th of July and to everyone who has served and is currently serving in our military.  I thank you for serving and giving me and my family the ability to live in a free country.