Organizers of the largest trade show in the U.S. for Spanish-language Christian products will launch several new initiatives next month, including a media summit, inspirational short film competition, photo contest, leadership seminars and more free products.

Running May 2-5 at the Doubletree Hotel & Miami Airport Convention Center in Miami, the 21st annual Expolit convention, which is open to the general public, is expected to draw more than 3,200 daily attendees.

"It's going to be bigger and better," Expolit spokesperson Marie Tamayo told Christian Retailing. "We're starting up new things this year to show that Expolit is for everybody, not just well-known speakers or artists. It's more of a fair than a trade show."

But some big names will be there. General session speakers include Stormie Omartian, Tony Evans, Jonathan Cahn, Nicky Cruz and Lee Grady.

Capitalizing on the 350-plus Spanish media representatives who usually attend Expolit, the Hispanic Media Summit will be held May 1, a day before the event starts. The summit is being organized by ComunicadoresUSA, a National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) support group for Hispanic broadcasters. The keynote speaker for the summit will be veteran TV and film producer Phil Cooke.

Hispanics are "bicultural and bilingual, and as skilled as anyone with the social media," said Christian Broadcasting Network News Senior Producer and NRB board member Stan Jeter, who serves as ComunicadoresUSA's president. "We want to give their pastors training tools, so they can turn their youth into a media-savvy force for evangelism and discipleship."

Another Expolit initiative is the Christian Film Festival Miami, in which $10,000 will be awarded May 4 by the video production company Yes He Is.

"We're encouraging churches to create and enter their short films, and use them to evangelize," Tamayo said.

Meanwhile, the Expo Photo Contest, sponsored by Intentional Traveler, offers

attendees the opportunity to submit online inspirational photos.

"The photos must be of the street where you live, and they must be beautiful, inspirational," Tamayo said. "People can vote online on the photos on Expolit's website."

For more information on the event, visit www.Expolit.com.

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