“Prepare to be surprised,” advised Dan Rupple, former supervising producer at CBS.

These few but thoughtful words were the perfect summary of this year’s Biola Media Conference.

Saturday May 1 marked the 15th annual Biola Media Conference hosted at CBS Studios. The event has become the largest gathering of Christians in the film industry in the countryand this year saw 600 guests come together to discuss the newest developments in media. This year’s theme was “Worlds Collide,” with a focus on the challenge that Christians face navigating today’s ever-changing media.

As Phil Cooke (TWC Films, Cooke Pictures) put it as he welcomed the sleepy-eyed crowd in the morning, “the industry is changing.” Cooke went on to iterate how Christians are witnessing the biggest shift in Hollywood history, and it is a very exciting time to be involved in the industry.

But the conference has not always been such a huge event. Rupple has been a part of the conference since its birth.

“It all started with Rick Bee and Tom Nash” he said.

At the time, they went out and met Christians in the industry, which led to the formation of the Studio Task Force. The STF is a group of Christian industry professionals who support the study of film at Biola.

“We needed to have a meeting so that we could have students meet these guys,” he said.

Thus the conference was born. It started out small, “we met on the grass to the side of Calvary Chapell,” Rupple revealed. “You know it was small when I was the keynote speaker five years in a row!”

The day started in Sound Stage 14, where the former Chairmen of Disney, Dick Cook, was the first speaker of the day. He told the crowd the story of his rise from driver of the steam train in Disneyland to being in charge of all media that Disney produces. In today’s world, he emphasized that content is still king.

“It’s all about story and characters” Cook wisely reminded.

When he finished, it was on to the first of three workshops. With 8 possible choices and several happening at once, guests had to choose which workshop he or she was most interested in. “Scoring Big Time,” which was headed up by composer James Covell (”The Elevator”), songwriter Adam Watts (“High School Musical”) and Sony Music marketing official Jennifer Campbell. Each gave the audience a small taste of the scoring process and tips on how to interact with an artist in order to find the perfect compliment for a film.

The next workshop was called “Creating and Marketing Digital Content in a Convergent Universe,” taught by Rupple, Cindy Ronzoni (media strategist), Brian Boyd (BoydGroup Solutions) and Matt Meeks (social media and digital marketing). The workshop taught how to use the Internet and all of the social media available today to market films. Many examples were given of how companies are now using various social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare to help create a relationship with their fans.

The last workshop was “The Moral Premise,” taught by Stan Williams (script consultant). He went over the common items that all major box office hits share and practical ways to apply them to our own stories. Above all, Williams stressed the importance of having an evident moral truth in the stories Christians make that agrees with the basic moral law that God has placed in each of our hearts.

The last session of the day was back in the sound stage as Michael Flaherty, President of Walden Media, took the stage. He discussed how he and his partner started Walden Media and how they were able to get the rights to “The Chronicles of Narnia.” They then showed a trailer for “Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” which wowed the crowd.

Cooke, the MC of the conference has been involved with the conference for the last seven years.

When asked what the biggest change was that he had seen in the conference over the years, he revealed it was “the move from Biola to CBS in the heart of Hollywood. It has become a real event,” as the location has given the conference more prestige and influence in the industry. He sees it as “only getting bigger as the influence grows.”

Jack Hafer, now in his second year as chair of the CMA department, is a newcomer to the conference but in the short time he has been involved he has seen amazing advances in the conference.

“It has been encouraging” he said when reflecting on the last two conferences that have happened while he has been chair. “It continues to get better.”

Hafer expressed that he would like to see the conference cover more church media and explore its possibilities.

“There is a church that makes a full video every week,” Hafer said. “Could you imagine how good you would be if you were able to do that?”

By the end, the conference had shown the many sides of the film industry and the role of Christians in it, but above all, encouraged its attendees to not give up on their dreams.

“Most fail because they don’t know how close they were to success,” said Cooke.