Fun Ignite video from 09NTC

Sorry about the quality because of the light from the screen, we used a little flip camera, but anyway, enjoy!

Live blogging the #09NTC so tag along

On Sunday, April 26th I am off to San Francisco to attend my 6th Nonprofit Technology Conference (09NTC). This conference is amazing not because of the sessions, but because of the people that attend! If you cant be there, you can still get a lot out of it. There will be several sessions offered video and a small army of people like me who will be live-blogging (and twittering the event).

To learn more about the remote access to the conference visit:

  http://nten.org/ntc-live

To follow my live blogging on April 26, 27 and 28, visit:

  http://nten.org/ntc-steveheye

I will be attending the following sessions (all Times Pacific):
Mon, April 27

• 10:30 am = presenting session Mission First: Achieving IT Alignment, so will be tough to blog
  
• 1:30 pm = Optimizing your Web landing pages to convert more donors, activists, and subscribers
• 3:30 pm = Your website as an experience of your brand

In addition, I am doing an Ignite session Monday at 5:30 pm all about the Multiple Personalities required to be a nonprofit techie with Judith Sol-Dyess! That will be so much fun!

Tues, April 28

• 10:30 am = Unleashing the Ultimate Cool Factor: Case Studies of Conferences Energized Through Social Media
• 1:30 pm = Effective Online Communications
• 3:30 pm = Facebook for Nonprofits: the Inside Scoop on What Works

LOOKS AWESOME to me! I cant wait to get there and see everyone. Sad that a very few YMCAs will be present, it just wont be the same without you.

Security - Change the Conversation video

One of the things that I like to talk about when it comes to IT alignment is to have people change the way they talk about technology.  As an example, instead of talking about single technology purchases to improve your security, you talk about getting an overall strategy approved.

Well enough talking, here is the video.

ROI of Flexibility - I believe in it, do you?

ROI of flexibility. OK, I have to say I love that phrase. My friend over at Earth Justice posted a blog entry on www.idealware.org called ROI of Flexibility.  Great thoughts in there.  This was in response to a great post from Beth Kanter about how IT can support your social media strategy.

Read their blog entries, they are great and much smarter than myself.  Enough said.  Well maybe I will go ahead and add my thoughts.

This is a great example of this whole IT Alignment stuff I have been blabbing about for a few weeks now.  

Since when does IT want to be the enforcer and police of the organization?  

I know it takes more time and maybe more money to have unique and personal relationships between IT and different staff across the organization, but isnt it more important to meet their individual needs (like meeting the mission) than it is to be completely standard? Isnt that what exceptions are for?

Simple explanations of why policies are in place and then allowing for easy requests to be made to get exceptions can go a long way to making IT more approachable.

Like they always say, "try to make it easier to ask for permission, rather than asking for forgiveness."

OK, no idea if those thoughts made any sense, but I have a lot of work to do now.  Gonna go try to break the WebSense filter at my org.

Using Social Networking to build your YMCA career

For the last month or so I have focused my blog on IT Alignment to celebrate the book launch (all 5 of my readers wish I would stop by now).  Well I am doing a quick off topic post to share this slidedeck that I used at a Chicago YMCA staff conference to talk about how to use social networking to build your career.  I am missing things and would love some feedback.  

The sessions went very well, thanks for asking.  I had just over an hour to present.  The majority of the staff were new to most of the topics that I covered so I tried to keep it fairly simple.  Over the next year I plan to continually run trainings on teaching individuals how to use social networking within my YMCA.  Our staff is by far one of our biggest assets, so who better to represent the YMCA online?  Of course the next step is to get our members to represent us, but one step at a time.

Using Social Networking to build your YMCA career

View more presentations from steveheye.

IT Alignment does come into play here though, I cant resist sorry.  By taking the time to focus on the helping the individual staff help themselves, not just help the YMCA, we were able to change the relationship between staff and the IT Department.  This session and conversation focused on helping them, not me.  By taking the time to share that, answer questions and have a real human conversation with them on their turf, changed the way they saw our department.  That is a key element of IT Alignment.

As John Merritt from San Diego YMCA always says, "ART= Alignment, Relationship, Transparency." Well we took time to add to our relationship with our staff.

Top 10 ways that Richard Simmons is like Technology

So yesterday Richard Simmons was at Union Station in Chicago promoting Cranberry Juice and I was trying to plan in my head what I was going to say on the NTEN book release party (More on book here).  Desperate to be clever, I combined the two and thought, you know what, technology is just like Richard Simmons.  So in rememberance of that, I thought I would share the Top 10 ways is like Technology.

11. You cant stop talking about it, even if you want to.

10. It can seem so cool when it first comes out, but watch out when it gets old.

9. Fans can go a little overboard in their devotion to it.

8. Brands will sometimes take on their own life, so dont be afraid to make fun of yourself.

7. Sometimes the best functionality is hidden under the most interesting interface.

6. People cant stop watching it, but probably wont be running to join you on stage.

5. Adding flashy options like short shorts and tank tops doesnt change the core functionality.

4. You wait to say how much you like it until someone else does.

3. Experts come in all varities.

2. Hard to change an image or reputation once you have sold it.

1. You cant judge a book by its cover.

And yes, I know there were 11, it's the way I roll.  Hope you enjoyed this.  Back to work now. (photo from Flickr Interrobang)