The Irony of Attending Conferences

I attend events, like ASAE's Annual, in the hopes of getting new information so I can continue to innovate within our association and provide new and increased value to our membership. Yet, before I can impliment I must first catch up. I returned Tuesday to 2 weeks of back log - in my case over 500 emails and quickly closing deadlines. Hopefully my notes from Annual are good and the event had enough of a wow factor to last past the lag between catching up and implementing this new knowledge. (more on this once I'm past that lag)

It can be difficult to innovate when there are items that must be done - some of us must be incremental. But just because you move incrementally doesn't mean you can't make significant changes in your organizations. (remember this is coming from a YAP's perspective on innovation).

Thanks for reading,
bob

Social Media is my Dance Floor

Before social media I was the kid against the wall. Bet no one remembers me at Great Ideas two years ago (unless you were in my session). Why would you? I didn’t dance much at GI – I gave my speech, sat through some sessions and tried to network (which consisted of a smile and nod). I think it’s the curse of introversion.


After Social Media, though, I’m the YAP making strides. At this year’s Annual, I networked with top minds in the field, got great feedback at the unblogger con, made new contacts, participated in great conversations and overall had a better time and learning experience.


Why? This time I had the opportunity to dance in an arena I’m comfortable with. Personally, interacting with my peers online through blogging, social networks, etc, is much easier than your typical social interaction. Having established a network prior to the event, I was able to spend my time learning and building from that network as opposed to succumbing to the anxiety of typical social interactions.


I think ASAE’s own Megan Denhardt put it best when it comes down to social media – social media provides interactions that are valuable to those who need/want those types of interactions.


Social Media may be not be right for you, it may not be right for your active members, but there are great opportunities to level the social playing field with social outlets beyond your typical opening reception/networking events.


Social Media isn’t about the technology – it’s about leveling the playing field for all your members and meeting them where they dance best.


Thanks for reading,

bob



P.S. Special thanks to the blog uncon fogdirog for sharing your insights and adding what's quickly becoming one of the most versatile words in the English language to my vocab
P.S.S. – thanks to Lauren for trying to get me to dance on an actual dance floor – maybe next year…

Last minute preparations

I'm so glad my session is early on in the conference, it allows me to get it over with and enjoy and relax for the rest of the event.

As I always seem to, I'm skipping the morning events to calm my nerves and do my final preparations. Though a recent posting from Maddie on Speaking certainly calmed my nerves.

Here are some of things that I've found from my last couple of presentations:

• Get the audience involved - it not only gets you out from under the spotlight, but it also gets the audience involved.
• Don't memorize, just talk - I tried a script one time and the first 30 seconds was terrible. I totally threw out my script and just talked - the rest worked out fine.
• End short - I can only guess what individuals really want to hear about a given topic. If I cover what I think is important the whole time, then I probably will miss something they wanted covered.
• Get the audience answering - this worked great at my tech conference session - the idea is to harness the experience and knowledge in the room. I've found that I'm only a small piece of the pie
• Give them something they can walk away with - whether its a technique, new way of thinking or a homework assignment - don't end the session with complete closure. Because the session is really just the beginning of the participants journey.

Well I'm running out of time. I'd appreciate any feedback if I'm totally off base and in the next 4 hours would be awesome :).

Wish me luck and thanks for reading,
bob

5 things I'm looking forward to at Annual

To be honest, I'm usually incredibly nervous and generally get a feeling of awkwardness before attending an ASAE and the Center event. It's probably because I'm not much of a networker. Odds are you may have seen me at a recent event sitting against the wall reading or typing away like a fly on wall.

However, I have a good feeling Annual will be different. Why?

Five reasons this ASAE and Center conference will be different than others I've attended:

• I know people. Thanks to blogging (even the minimal amount I do) and participation in ASAE and the Center, I have a solid social network of folks to connect and reconnect with.
• Unblogger Con - I was a bit bummed that I'm going to miss the blogger con, but no worries now thanks to Ben and the Uncon
• YAP -There's a new group in town and its getting bigger. Spreading the good word should be fun. And how could I forget the crazy 80s party?
• YP Committee - I'm hoping to meet/catch up with fellow commitee members to help pad my network on Sat.
• The ASAE back channel via twitter. Not a big twitter user but I have about 2 days to get up to par, I'm interested to see it works.

That may be all for now. I'm not sure if I'll blog at the event or not - it depends if something catches my attention - which I'm sure it will.

thanks for reading,
bob

Redefining Young Association Professional

Now that I'm in marketing, I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed that I never clearly defined my niche within the blogoclump. I wrote on everything and anything - which some can pull it off - me I have trouble just keeping up with this blog. So I'm going to focus my attention on the following areas:

1. YAP Perspective - this isn't about age, it's about position. Somethings are significantly more difficult to do when you're not a CEO/exec - its also much easier to do others.
2. Marketing - Now that I'm in marketing - I feel its only right that I focus more on my craft (I was never passionate enough in training I guess) - and this is both new age (social media) and traditional - because to be honest, I have a larger knowledge gap when it comes to traditional marketing
3. Moving Beyond YAP, i.e. moving up the career latter. I'm hoping this stirs up some good discussion as I'm told I'm totally on par with my ideas or way off.
4. Nothing to do with associations (I'm more than just a young association professional, so I may let my outside life slip in when relevant).
5. Blogging - this is where I'll comment on blogging and other posts - I'm really behind but I'm ready to get back in it

That's it - 5 tags - and if it doesn't fit in one of these, then I'll edit this post to make sure I'm being accurate (after all - if I set this is stone - I'd be doomed to sink in the ocean of change)

Thanks for reading,
bob

P.S. - thanks Jeff for the challenge of 10 posts a month (wish me luck)
P.S.S. - and don't forget - if you want to blog but don't want to take the full leap, let me know. You can blog here for free (I need the content). I'm actually trying to work up a system where anyone can post a full blog post on here - now how's that for giving up control.