Social Media and Communications session suggestions out number the tech and tool session suggestions in mass quantities.
We need your help to get the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference to have a better Technology focus.
Here is some of the feedback that is listed on the NTEN website about what people are looking for:
I suggested sessions on:
- 58% of respondents identified as nonprofit managers or directors, 17% coordinator/associate level, 17% as executives, and 8% as other.
- More than 63% describe their level of tech adoption in relation to other colleagues as journey level (knowledgeable and experienced in a few areas), 34% as apprentice (have some knowledge/experience in a specific area), and about 3% as novices (new to it all).
- What topics did they hope to learn about? 52% identified communications as being a core interest area and 42% named IT as their priority, followed by leadership (34%) and fundraising (30%).
- 59% mentioned a preference for sessions featuring technical how-tos, 52% wanted to focus on programmatic uses of technology, and 40% requested content about management strategy.
- Making Technology Decisions
- Help Desk or Service Desk, either way IT should be a partner
I would love to see some others that have experience suggest some of the following:
- Working with technology consultants - how do you pick?
- Using a managed network vs hiring your own network admin
- My favorite Network and technology management tools: what do you use to monitor your network, run help desk, measure bandwidth, review capacity, audit security, etc?
- Data mining and dashboards
- Office365 vs Google Apps
- Back to the basics on Project Management
- The value of a technology committee (project review, peer advisory, etc)
- Best practices in desktop support\management
- BYOD and other policies needed for todays tech
- Governance of all kinds, data, process, etc
- Choosing a CRM
- What differentiates today's Fundraising Software
- How to manage data when you use so many different cloud based or free tools
Anyway, that is just my initial list, I am sure you have ideas, so go suggest them now!
Then go to NTEN and suggest your session! Before June 22, yeah, only 11 days left.
5 comments:
I'd stress that sessions on VOIP and mobile are really critical, as these are things that nonprofits are broadly dealing with and need advice on. One key point: proposing a session and volunteering to lead a session are two different things; you can propose a tech session without committing yourself to run it. So there's no excuse not to.
Steve, thanks for the great post. I love seeing more IT sessions on the agenda. Even though IT doesn't fall directly in my role, I think it impacts so many people in the organization, be it leadership or the ad-hoc techie. Peter, you make a great distinction: you can submit an idea with no obligation to lead a session. And of course, join Steve and others today for the free webinar on how to submit a successful session (and if you can't make it, check out the recording afterwards)!
To expand on Peter's point, this year we're really encouraging folks to propose sessions that they would want to ATTEND instead of only those that they would want to present.
Furthermore there is no submission limit for these types of sessions proposals (the 2 submission limit only applies to sessions you'd like to speak at), so please keep those ideas coming!
Thanks Steve and Peter!
I would like to see a case study type session about how a certain technology has helped an organization (or organizations) do their work better. This could be a donor database, switching to a new CMS, or a web/mobile application. Anything that is more tech related.
Karl, Megan and Peter, thanks for the awesome comments with added advice and tips. What an awesome NPTech community! Peter, I do have to thank you for inspiring me in those early years and every year after to continue pushing for the tech sessions.
Emily, that does sound interesting. Most session do include an example of how the technology has helped a nonprofit. But if there is a specific one you would want to hear about, you should suggest it.
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