Wow
Guest Post: Minna Jung
After years of throwing heart and soul into planning the program for the Network’s conference–one of the roles I play on the board–I reached a new level of zen this year; I suggested that we let others into the fun of conference planning this year. More specifically: you. And my motives for doing so may not have been exactly pure. On one hand, I’m genuinely interested and excited to see how the Network crowd will do in sourcing and picking sessions. On the other hand, after years of reading delightful and not-so-delightful comments from the conference feedback surveys, I admit, there’s an element of, “Let’s see how YOU do in saving us all from the suckitude of bad sessions.”
So this year, we solicited session proposals. THAT’S not the new part—we’ve done that before. But this year, we’ve put the session proposals up for a vote. Top vote-getters for a limited number of slots (12) get the green light.
What Our New Mission Means for You (VIDEO)
Guest Post: Rebecca Arno
In her recent post about the survey results from last October’s Fall Conference, Minna Jung, our vice chair, mentioned that I was planning to share some additional insights about the Communications Network’s revised mission and strategy that we previewed in Seattle and subsequently discussed on our blog.
Last week, I sat down with long-time Network contributor, Susan Herr, principal of Trigger Creative, to talk about our new mission. Because of comments and questions we heard during and since Seattle, we decided to record two separate conversations.
Seattle: Thanks for Coming. Thanks For Commenting.
Guest Post: Minna Jung
So, last year I started sharing, on behalf of the Network Board and staff, what it takes to organize our annual fall conference, and I also posted last year about the results from our conference survey. So here’s my recap of the survey results about this year’s conference in Seattle that many of you (about 2/3) filled out, plus some additional ruminations/background on the Network’s revised mission.
Each year, some things stay the same with the Network conference, and then we switch other things up. This year, we still tried for boffo speakers that would knock your socks off, but we engaged only two—Sherman Alexie and Jane McGonigal—because we wanted to try a day of workshops preceding the conference for those of you who were yearning for flat-out skill-building or training, and we wanted to leave Friday to share our new mission in plenary session.
So how did you feel about this year’s conference?
Your Mission: Let Us Know What You Think
At the Communications Network’s Fall Conference in Seattle last week, we unveiled our proposed new mission statement. And, we gave you a chance to react. Do you ever disappoint us when we ask you to react? Of course not.
The revised mission, which came out of a year-long strategic review led by the Network’s board, was part of an effort to determine how our organization can help foundations and the larger field of philanthropy have greater impact.
Let’s Face It-Real Conversations Require More than 140 Characters
Guest Post: Jenn Whinnem
While we can forge and foster some strong bonds over social networks, nothing can quite replace face-to-face interaction. Moving from Twitter to the tweet-up is a great solution. A tweet-up–a mash-up of the words “tweet” and “meet-up”–is simply a physical meet-up of people who know each other over Twitter. It serves as an antidote to the irony of social media: for all of the opportunities it provides for connection with others on an unprecedented scale, it is essentially a lonely activity. It’s you and your screen of choice. Whether you’re in front of your computer monitor, bending over your tablet or thumbing furiously on your phone, you have to block out the world around you to interact with others. A tweet-up affords the opportunity to meet the person behind the avatar and to deepen the connection.
