This year’s Non Profit Technology Conference, by NTEN, took place in San Francisco from April 25-29. It was my third NTC, and the best by far. Many others have already done a great job of blogging the sessions themselves (I am impressed by anyone who can live-blog), so I’ll keep this short.
My biggest take away from this year, was that I was finally able to connect with people before and after the event by using technology that didn’t get in my way. That sounds bland, right? But here’s the point: I’m not a social person. I don’t always want the latest gadgets and I’m not always up on the latest trend – my excuse is that I get too caught up in my day-to-day. But no more…
Over past year I have joined Facebook (thinking it dumb at first, it’s now my home page) and Twitter (I am currently deciding between TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop and for now I’m OK with both), and other social networks and meetups. Just a few months later, I think it’s a little strange when I need to send people information through email, but I still do it. I still use the phone, still talk to people in person, and still write letters. Yes, on paper, and yes, with a fountain pen.
So this year, as simple as it sounds, I connected with people. I friended them through the NTConnect site, which lead me to find them on Twitter, some on Facebook, others on LinkedIn, or all of the above. I saw what sessions they were going to attend, and I saw what thinks they thought about, or blogged about.
During the conference I kept asking people what their @name was. Sometimes I knew them from their avatar, and (even weirder to me), vice versa. Instead of grabbing their business cards and updating my contacts at work, or at home, or both, I just updated my LinkedIn. I followed them on Twitter, and some I friended. I bookmarked their blogs and sites on Delicious (I refuse to enter the periods in there) so I could catch up on them later. I added some to my Google Reader.
In short, I now have the collective pre and post experience of a network of hundreds of people with whom I share something in common – an absolute dedication to making a difference in the world, through technology or otherwise.
Now that’s an amazing feeling. Something tells me it’s not going away any time soon.
