Blackbaud’s Nonprofit Conference is from October 20-22 in Washington, DC. Here’s the list of sessions. I’ll be doing a keynote about the Networked Nonprofit on Thursday, October 21st from 8-9:30 am along with Allison Fine (live-streamed here). But, I’ll be in Atlanta at the Independent Sector Conference.
No, I can’t be in the same place – that is physically – at the same time. But with the use of the #bbcon and #netnon hashtag on Twitter and a video, I’ll be there! So if you don’t happen to be attending the conference, I’ll be on the backchannel on Twitter during the keynote.
The video was taped while I was in Boston – a film crew followed me around while I went from one speaking engagement to another. Unfortunately, the weather in Boston didn’t cooperate and at one point I burst into a rendition of singing in the rain. Let’s see if it makes the final cut.
There’s an ignite style event taking place moderated by Frank Barry – here’s the details.
Last week, I parachuted into BlogWorld 2010 in Las Vegas for less than 24 hours. I presented on two panels (How Nonprofits Use Twitter and CrowdSourced Philanthropy) in the Cause Track curated by Chris Noble and the good folks at WhatGives. During the conference, there was a hashtag campaign – #beatcancer where PayPal and SWAGG will donated $0.05 for every hashtag mention to cancer charities. (Hoping someone can update the final results in the comments)
This post is a quick round up of what I learned in Vegas and sharing it here because it’s too good to stay in Vegas!
How Networked Nonprofits Use Twitter
I had the pleasure of designing a panel about how Networked Nonprofits use Twitter with Claire Williams of Twitter and Danielle Brigida from NWF. I love designing panels, not only the content but the interactive piece as well. We had a slight glitch with our panel title that we corrected with some graffiti before we started our session.
The content we presented went from high level overview to on the ground practice, with each chunk punctuated with an interactive exercise with the audience that allowed them to share insights with another people in the room. We did a fun icebreaker having folks take a photo of each other with their smart phones and post on Twitter.
I started with an overview of how Networked Nonprofits become networked nonprofits, using examples from Twitter that illustrated an understanding of networks, simplicity, trust through transparency, social culture, learning from failure, and building relationships.
Cartoon by Rob Cottingham of Social Signal
Next, Danielle Brigida gave a case study about how NWF uses Twitter. We were lucky that Rob Cottingham from Social Signal was in the room cartoon blogging. He captured the key points above.
Danielle @starfocus
Danielle shared a story about making mistakes on Twitter. One where a staff member sent a tweet to the NWF instead of her personal account. It was harmless, (about how excited she was for a new season of a television show). Another instance occurred when a staff member tweeted something about the Gulf Oil Spill that was not based on scientifically proven information. On both occasions, they quickly apologized – and learned that being human and honest works. (Other nonprofits have learned this lesson the hard way)
Claire Williams presented a framework (TWEET) for using Twitter for campaigns and offered lots of on-the-ground practical tips. Claire talked about how people get comfortable using Twitter – some by just jumping in and experimenting. She showed the first couple of tweets from Kanya West and how he experimented. I also loved that she shared Ushahidi’s Twitter account of how to personalize an organizational account. (As a board member, I am hoping that we can be added to the account …)
Crowdsourced Campaigns for Causes: Benefiting social good or just social?
The next panel was organized by Allyson Burns from the Case Foundation and included Judy Chang from PayPal and Julie LaCouture from DonorsChoose. Although we had to fight the room set up (podium, panelists on the stage with mics in front of them, sets in room arranged in military style), we managed to have an excellent discussion on this topic. This panel design was all conversational, no powerpoint – but left plenty of room for audience participants share their thoughts.
The room was mostly filled with people from nonprofit organizations, some of whom had entered contests and others wanting to learn best practices. I did a quick icebreaker asking folks in the room to share two words — what comes to mind when you think about these online contests for nonprofits? As you can see from the wordle, participants viewed them in both a positive and negative light. They were curious, but skeptical of about the value.
Judy Chang presented an overview of PayPal’s contests, including its Regift the Fruitcake. ( I also learned about their giving app). Julie LaCouture offered some insights from their experience at DonorsChoose. (It was great to see that Sarah Bunting to still one of their best free agent fundraisers)
We opened with a question about what we thought were the most innovative approaches in contests. I think those are the ones that have taken a Hippocratic Oath – l “Do No Harm” to the nonprofits. The contests that have balanced a theory of change with corporate mission, that encourage nonprofits to use best practices in using tools, creating a responsive network, thinking strategically about the use of contests as fundraising effort, and building relationships with the influx of new donors to create a lifelong supporter vs an ATM machine. On the nonprofit side, it takes thinking through the value of participation.
Mark Horvath of Invisible People shared an example of how a nonprofit get additional value from participating in a contest. (Hint, drive them to a landing page on your site).
I wasn’t in Vegas long enough to attend all the Cause sessions, although I did catch the beginning of the Social Media OnRamp session featuring George Weiner, John Haydon, Renee Alexander, and Janet Aronica from OneForty. (Janet shared an awesome tool kit for nonprofits. )
Misc. Insights From Vegas
Photo by KK
I ran into KK (Kris Krug) who is a free agent extraordinaire and did an interview I’ll publish later. He spotted the Networked Nonprofit in the Wiley booth on the exhibit floor.
Ran into Dan Pacheco whose citizen journalism work I’ve followed for years and got an update on his newest venture, Book Brewer. It’s a publishing and distribution platform for e-books – think wordpress for e-books. It’s called Book Brewer.
Finally, I didn’t gamble at all, but did happen to see this funny way to promote social channels on the game floor.
As part of my work as Visiting Scholar at the Packard Foundation, I’ll be heading to the Independent Sector‘s Annual Conference “Forging a Stronger Future Together” in Atlanta October 20-22 with over 500 leaders from from across the nonprofit and philanthropic community. On October 21, from 3:30-6:00, I’ll be leading a Networked Nonprofit workshop at the conference.
The conference highlights include honoring General Colin and Alma Powell with the 2010 John W. Gardner Leadership Award in recognition of their tireless commitment to young people, service, and advancing the common good. Darell Hammond, co-founder and CEO of KaBOOM!, which builds play spaces for communities, will receive American Express NGen Leadership Award. (Click here for an amazing guest post by Heather McLeod Grant about KaBOOM! network strategy.)
The conference participants will be mix of perspectives from long-time, established leaders in the field to the younger generation of nonprofit leaders known as NGEN which is intended to improve the nonprofit talent pool by developing the leadership opportunities and professional networks of emerging leaders under 40. NGEN leaders are committed to covering the NGEN track of the conference on a special blog set up for the conference.
Using social media at professional conferences to connect with peers in the room and online is simply a natural way of being for many NGEN nonprofit professionals. It’s the same for them at work, if the tools aren’t blocked. A few weeks ago, I was talking with a young woman in her 20′s who works for a large nonprofit — she said something to me that has stuck in my mind …. “At work, I’m often reaching out to colleagues and other professionals through LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter to get my work done and if our organization blocked access to social network sites, it would be like cutting off my arm.”
However, for the older generation of nonprofit leaders, many are not used to working this way and it feels uncomfortable or unnatural. However, many of these leaders have shifted from “Do we have to” when comes to social media to understanding that it is important for the organizations. In the for-profit sector, we’re seeing more and more senior managers turn to social networks to keep up with their employees as this study indicates. A recent study of foundation leaders use of social media, indicates that more leaders are personally using the tools, but there is a long way to go.
The question I often hear from this group is: How to get started?
The answer? Small proof of pilots with insights and learning as the initial outcomes.
At last year’s IS conference, some participants (mostly NGEN participants) used social media tools to share their learnings with their networks through tools like Twitter, Blogs, and Facebook. This year, Independent Sector is doing a couple of small pilots in integrating social media – scaled to the staff capacity as well as to address the different levels of interest in social media.
Taking small steps – focused pilots – with a learning curve that isn’t too steep, identification of key metrics, and reflection and learning time at the end. Here’s what their focused goals and objectives:
Goals:
1. To create “buzz” about Independent Sector with “non-attending audiences” through attendees’ social media mentions
2. To capture summaries of the 2010 conference to show the richness of the content as a means to promote the event for 2011
3. To test pilot social media at the conference and to capture lessons learned and ideas for future social media efforts
Criteria for Success
1. Seven bloggers and seven Tweeters are identified and recruited to cover the event
2. Content from seven sessions is posted to the IS blog or other blogs
3. The number of retweets using the hashtag #ISconf increases from 2009
4. The team gains social media experience and identified key learnings
With focused goals and objectives that matched to the organization’s capacity and readiness for social media – and with an emphasis on learning, organizations can shape solid strategies, identify a measurement strategy, and a process for learning.
This morning Liz Karlin, who works at the Packard Foundation in Grant Operations, and I did a remote presentation for the Foundation Financial Officers Group on Organizational Change and Social Media Policy development. I talked about the change in workstyle that is needed before codifying a social culture through a social media policy. Liz gave a presentation on the process that Packard used to development its Social Media policy which is an important part of its an internal document called the “Communications Compass.”
There were some terrific questions and discussion. I’ve included some resources along with the slides here.
Since the meeting was taking place in Los Angeles, FFOG was graciously allowed me to present remotely with Liz Karlin. For someone with a hectic travel schedule, remote presentations are always welcomed. There is a huge benefit because you save time and travel money. The down side is the potential for technology glitches and, of course, not being in the room to catch the audience vibe. We got around those challenges quite well.
Avoiding Technology and Presentation Fail
If you are presenting remotely you need two things: a robust Internet connection and a moderator in the room who can serve as a bridge between you and the folks in the room. It is also helpful to have a back channel for communications with the moderator.
In the past, I have presented remotely using skype audio and video. Sometimes it has worked swimmingly like this one with Amy Sample Ward in 2008, other times not. Last year I audio-skyped into a conference in the UK to present with Steve Bridger. We had a very reliable Internet connection. Steve did a content delivery presentation right before and then brought me in via audio as a “cameo appearance.” We didn’t have enough bandwidth for video, so he projected my photo. I spoke for five minutes and then Steve served as the moderator and ask questions in the room and had me answer. (Here’s a video)
For the FFOG meeting, we used webinar software and landline because we didn’t know how robust the Internet woudl be in meeting space and because wanted to avoid poor audio quality which can happen with Skype. In the room, we had a laptop that was logged into a Webinar software projected on the screen so Liz and I could flip our slides remotely. For the audio, we use a phone line that was fed into the AV system and wireless mic. We had one person handling the technology and another person serving as moderator in the room. We had planned our presentation to include content delivery and facilitated discussion – and it worked.
The other challenge is the lack of feedback from the audience. When you’re live and in the room, you can observe body language and adjust accordingly. I thought we could use the chat back channel but since there was only laptop in the room we needed another system for backchannel communication. So, I asked our session moderator to use her cell phone and text me updates while Liz or I were presenting. The body language code was as follows:
! = audience is engaged (leaning forward in their chairs)
?= audience has questions or confused (puzzled looks on faces or raised hands)
x=audience is skeptical (legs or arms are crossed)
z=audience is falling asleep or bored (eyes are closed, they’re checking email or looking out the window)
It was great to get this feedback during the presentation and helped make it more effective.
My next remote apperance is at Blackbaud Conference on October 20-21st in Washington, DC as part of the keynote to be delivered live by Allison. To avoid technology fail, they had a video team create a video with me in Boston last week — it is a reality tv meets Networked Nonprofit presentation, where I’m wondering around Boston in the rain and conservationally giving talking points. During the presentation, I’ll be on the Twitter back channel following the #netnon hashtag from the Independent Sector Conference in Atlanta. Talk about multi-tasking.
The 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference will take place on March 17-19, 2011 in Washington, DC. Part of what makes the NTC unique is how they involve the community in every aspect of conference planning. Community voting on the 400+ session proposals has begun and will run through September 30th.
So, I spent some time reading through the proposals and bookmarked the ones I voted for. Here’s three panel proposals from me or include my colleague, Geoff Livingston, from Zoetica.
Technology in Times of Disaster which features Geoff Livingston, Wendy Harman from the Red Cross, and George Durham as well as representatives from Nethope and Ushahadi (disclosure – I’m a board member). Please vote for it.
For the one on being efficient, I’d love to team up with whoever proposed this panel “30 Minutes A Day for Social Media.” The Free Agent session is similar to what I’ve proposed for SXSW and will be doing a “networked conversational keynote version” for the Department of State Civil Society 2.0 event in November. Mark Horvath will be joining me as well as backchannel of people from around the world – that ought to be fun!
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