BlogClump - Blogging About Associations From a Gen Xer

I took a small break from my Here Comes Everybody reading. Fatherhood, a trade show, and a growing stack of magazines will do that. But last weekend I had a chance to read a little bit more, and wanted to share my favorite nuggets. Shirky quotes investor Esther Dyson: "When we call something intuitive, we often mean familiar." Have you looked at your membership offerings/benefits/communications to see if they are intuitive or just familiar? Shirky borrows another quote from author and activist Cory Doctorow: "Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about." At ASAE Annual, many were talking about their social media strategy and what to do. Focus on facilitating conversation, not just content generation.

Lot's of folks have talked about San Diego and the ASAE Annual Meeting. NFI BMart (aka Captain Fogdirog ) JNott (aka McLovin) Kevin Holland New Association Blogger Caron Mason Lisa Junker compiled a list on Acronym , including some of these too. It got me thinking of a few posts Jeff did back in June ( here and here ) about cool conferences. I wanted to pose a separate question. If you could start a conference from scratch for association professionals, how would you do it? Location, sessions, timing, registration, special events, cost - the whole nine. Let's hear your ideas!

With ASAE Annual now over, reflection is necessary. I will say that this year's social aspects of the meeting were phenomenal. Great networking opportunities. Great receptions. Great parties. It was fun meeting some folks IRL (in real life)for the first time. I was also able to make many new friends that I am sure I will keep up with through the power of social media. That way when we get together next year, it will be like we never left. Here are my highlights: - YAP 80s/90s Dance Party. Truly the party of the year. Too many photos are online that will incriminate many of us. - Monday night reception hopping. Too many stops though. I need to pace myself. - Food and Wine Classic. Very cool on the USS Midway. Thanks Boxwood. - Closing Block Party. Great setup. Wish I could have stayed longer. - Opening Reception. Nice beer tasting on the Embarcadero. - Padres game. Petco Park is nice. It was also fun to see the Philly fans sulk. - Last but not least, Fogdirog . Nuff said. (Check o...

I was bad. I didn't blog one post from San Diego. I am going to recap San Diego in two posts, one on the serious stuff and one on the fun stuff. This will be the serious one. I think I can break it into three lists: the good, the bad and the ugly. The Good: - San Diego is a great city. Everything was easy to get to and fairly easy to find. - There was plenty to do. If you were bored, it was your own fault. - Most of the A Listers were in attendance. You know who you are. You're kind of a big deal. - Plenty of sessions on Social Media, including a social media lab. - Environmentally friendly badge holders. - Free Wifi in the convention hall. - The number of ideas I now have to sort through. The Bad: - Speakers were still tethered to mixers by long cables on their microphones. - Too many receptions on Sunday night. It's ok to let people have something the same night as the Food and Wine Classic. - Too much cheese with singing and dancing routines before general sessions. - It...

Miriam has a great post on Acronym that I wanted to talk about in a different vein. I want to caution people not to be too picky. I know I have posted several suggestions about what ASAE could/should do , but that is me thinking like a member. I am sure we all have members who are always offering suggestions. Some good, some you have just smile and nod. I am guessing I fall into both categories. Because this is what we all do on a daily basis, we are prone to be the worst critics. When you see something that isn't quite right or could be better, put yourself in ASAE's shoes before you comment. If it was your conference, when and how would you prefer your members to tell you about it? Then do that. ASAE is going to put on a good show. There will certainly be some things I look for and try to implement that I see them do. And I am sure I will have comments for the evaluations too. And dang-it, if the AV isn't right this year...

I know Elizabeth hates quote marks . I know Maddie wants some words/phrases to go away. So I am pushing for some new words/phrases to be added to the lexicon. Mostly because I am not that smart when it comes to the English language and want to make things easier on myself. Plus, I looked dumb in my last post. So I am lobbying to make myself (and W) look smarter! Proposed additions: #1 - Inclusionary - works better than inclusive in some instances, right Jamie! #2 - Commoditization - the turning of things into a commodity. Bonus - for all you SNL fans: Dignitude .

A while back , I tried to launch an open source association. Last week I said I would relaunch. I have. www.anpmp.org This one is using Wordpress and BBPress . I am sure I will weave in some other open source apps over time. What now? Join. Participate. Discuss. First up, logos and graphics. Tag 'em in Flickr.