building a community

Submitted by Graham on Wed Oct 28, 2009

On October 13th in London we hosted our very first AO Community Conference bringing together about 100 people that use our software products.  We also had a good turn out from organisations that just wanted to learn more about e-campaigning but didn't know much about Advocacy Online.  All 12 sessions offered content that was specific to Advocacy Online and general 'best practice' so there was something for everyone!

It was really exciting for me to see so many people discussing their online campaigning work, asking questions, making suggestions, and generally having a good day.  My most important 'take away' was recognising that creating software with a lot of features doesn't mean that everyone has the time to learn how to use them, or know the true potential for the software to improve fundraising and campaigning outcomes.  I've always known this, but seeing people at the event really brought it home:  we have to do more!

Keynote address by Dr. James Bellini in the Jarvis Theatre

The other really important learning for me was recognising that communities are extremely important to sharing knowledge.  While this is in many ways self-evident, we have generally tried to send out bulletins with information about new software features, and encourage clients through one-on-one sessions and training to get the most out of our toolset.  But nothing beats having 100 people in the room all talking to each other.  We have always seen our role as supporting clients, but I think we also need to be a bigger catalyst in brining people together.  Same conclusion as above:  we have to do more!

So... the planning and implementation has already started.  We will be offering monthly online webinars on specific topics, and encouraging clients to suggest the topics.  We will also be releasing a new portal called AO Community in the next 2 weeks to encouraging greater sharing and collaboration.  We have decided to offer a Toronto event on December 1st, and we are already planning for the 2010 AO Community Conference in London!

Lunchtime!

I would like to share a few of the general comments and feedback that we received from the event.  They are all unedited, and all very positive!  We did receive some constructive criticism  in a section of the evaluation for next year, but the overall comments posted didn't have any negative comments otherwise we would have posted them as well.

“Great day!  I had booked myself on all four Data and Reporting seminars, and was worried it might be a pretty heavy day.  But, it was actually very informative, well delivered, and not heavy at all.  I would definitely look to come along again next year - hopefully with a bit more hands on experience of e-activist!”

“I've only been working with e-activist for 3 weeks, so I was keen to get up to speed asap. I'm very glad the conference wasn't just a marketing campaign for AO, but covered online campaigning and social networking on a wider scale, and how to use the tools to tap into that.”

“I thought it was a really useful and interesting conference. I gained so many ideas that my charity can now put into practice.”

“Great event, well organised and very relevant.  I have got lots of ideas on how to use e-activist better.”

“The Conference was a fantastic opportunity to learn new ideas in the field and find out new releases for the software (in this case, the great looking Jamii). Very inspiring sessions and speakers which made me want to get stuck in immediately! Also a fab chance to network and share best practise.”

A big 'thank you' to everyone that made the day a huge success, starting with James, Marta, and Jonathan.  I also want to thank our external session speakers including:  Duane Raymond, Warren Puckett, and Matt Goldsmith.

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