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Report from Nonprofit Technology Conference & Penguin Day

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Spent most of last week joining over 1,000 nonprofit techies from across the US as well as other countries at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington DC.  I also spent the following day at Penguin Day, a celebration of open source software.

As usual, the educational sessions at NTC were great.  Despite the large crowd, the many sessions planned concurrently helped keep the crowd size small – but made it harder to select which session to attend.  Some takeaways:

  • much to my surprise, many sessions focused on the challenges of data integration and using APIs.  I have joined NTen’s affinity group to help further these efforts
  • an interesting summary of how web 2.0 tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, SecondLife etc.) have been ‘smuggled’ in to organizations that originally resisted them
  • a ‘nonprofit soapbox’ that allows nonprofits to take full advantage of open source content management with some technical assistance
  • importance of the IA (information architecture) in web project management
  • open source software has become more mature – and is even more of an attraction for nonprofits, although having a relationship with a consultant or other support network is essential.

I also moderated a session on online registration tools.  Thanks to Mark Becker (Event 360), Cary McQueen Morrow (Center for Arts Management & Technology) & Eric Leland (Leland Design) for joining the panel.

Nonprofit Technology Conference – April 2007

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I’ve attended this conference for several years, but this is the first time I’ll be presenting a session.  You can view details here.  My session will cover online registration forms and how they can be used for both pledge-based (e.g. walk-a-thons) and non pledge-based (e.g. education) events.  I’m still deciding on speakers, so if you have a lot of experience to share on this subject, please contact me.

Last year’s event was held in the state of Washington while this year it will be held in Washington D.C (not quite as interesting a locale).  It’s a rare opportunity to exchange ideas with 1000+ people from across the country who help nonprofits implement technology.   I also enjoy the chance to meet people that I otherwise only know through email or group lists.