conferences

Notes from 2012 NTC - Day Two

The astute observer may note that I’m actually posting notes about day two of NTC on day three of NTC — take it as a sign of how packed day two was. 

Another long but fulfilling day of conversation. I spent an alarmingly large part of the day, and drank an alarmingly large amount of coffee, at the hotel restaurant, which essentially became the office for dozens of NTC attendees all day. There were times the waiters looked a bit annoyed with tables of six people spending $8 on coffee, but I know they made out on the breakfast and lunch tabs so hopefully it evened out for them in the end. 

Highlights:

  • Great meeting with Donna Wilkins of Charity Dynamics. Besides being an expert on social and mobile fundraising, Donna is an astute industry observer. I always enjoy thinking big thoughts with her.
  • Spent some more time with the leadership team at StayClassy, specifically planning for a fantastic new social impact conference later this year. Stay tuned!
  • Our team had a chance to sit down with Nyla and Amy from Mama Hope and hear about their take on development and how to turn it on its head. Exhiliarating and Inspiring.
  • Interesting meeting with Jonah from Altruicity — he’s trying to bring richer outreach and phone experiences to the space. Some potential applications for our clients.

I’m not sure if the above sounds like much, but that takes us to 6:00 last night and a very tired NTC attendee! A highlight of the evening was going with the kick-butt Event 360 team over to House of Nanking for dinner. WOW. Yum. 

Okay, no more procrastinating — I’ve got to put some final touches on my presentation for later this morning. Just keep swimming…

The presentation is being streamed live, so I hope you’ll come along!

 

Notes from 2012 NTC - Day One

A great day at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference so far. Wanted to send some quick notes.

The Hilton in San Francisco is absolutely buzzing with activity. (Now that I write that, I realize what a lame analogy it is. But picture a really, really busy hotel lobby with people connecting, re-connecting, networking, re-networking. Not sure if that is “buzzing,” but that’s it.)

My day so far has been full of a bunch of different connections:

  • Started with a meeting with GoodThreads CEO Brandon Hance. Great guy. I love what they are doing. Lots of applications for our clients. 
  • That led to a short (and then later, a slightly longer) conversation with Debra Askanase, also known as @AskDebra. If you are in social impact in the Twittersphere (odd that the previous phrase probably makes sense to a lot of people), you know who she is and what she does. She was very complimentary about Event 360’s content strategy, which meant a lot coming from her. 
  • Interesting meeting with the guys at Avectra, the leading association management software. I’m somewhat familiar with the space from a past life. Interesting to hear about the social integration in their platform. Interestingly, they are one of many groups who found out about me through this post
  • Great, great inspiring meeting as usual with the fantastic Jane Kim of Ink-Dwell. So thrilled to be working with her. 
  • The usual fantastic exchange with the incomparable Pat Walsh and Scot Chisolm of StayClassy. Nothing more to say about that. Need to go find them down on the floor somewhere. 

Countless other interactions. I’m getting lots of comments about my session coming up on Thursday, so no pressure! Gotta practice some crunching on that dataset. My session is taking place Thursday at 10:30 Pacific, and if you’re not here you can register to watch it, and lots of other great sessions, online at 2012 Online NTC. Check it out!

More to come…

Nonprofit Technology Conference 2012

Hello everyone from San Francisco, where I arrived late last night for one of my favorite weeks of the year: the Nonprofit Technology Conference. It’s a week to learn from some of the most innovative people in the industry about how they are using technology to drive social impact.

It’s also a week when I traditionally experiment with the time-space continuum to see how many meetings I can cram into 72 hours, and when I conduct a bit of a workplace Lord of the Flies test with my director of marketing: At what point will she skewer me if I still don’t have my presentation materials ready?

All of these things and more I will try to share in bite-size increments throughout the week. Stay tuned!