Connections : AFP

AFP 45th International Conference - Day 3

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:02:00 GMT

This is my last day in San Diego at the AFP International Conference before taking the red-eye back home tonight. I had been mulling over an April Fool's Day post but decided anything really humorous would also probably cause me some trouble. The Agitator took today's date as an opportunity to an older faux news story from The Onion about the Flehner-Lathrop Syndrome Foundation.

Bob Geldof is today's keynote speaker and he takes the main stage at 9:30am this morning. The speakers have all been very good this year and I'm looking forward to hearing Geldof's remarks.

From 11:30am to 12:30pm today I will be doing a book signing with Jim Greenfield and Ted Hart for People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities. The book is now in its second reprint and Ted informed me last week that this is the fastest selling book in the series published by Wiley.

On a related note, Blackbaud is sponsoring an event in London called "Social Networking for Charities: People to People Fundraising" on May 1st. The event is part of the UK launch for the People to People Fundraising book. Click here to get more information and to register online.

AFP 45th International Conference - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:33:00 GMT

Another sunny day in San Diego and some great sessions taking place at this year's AFP International Conference. Dr. Jane Goodall was this morning's keynote speaker.

I'm speaking in just a few minutes and jumped online long enough to post my presentation: The Power of TrueCRM: Unleashing Integrated Online and Offline Strategies to Get Results

The exciting news of the day is the announcement by Blackbaud that we've released Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal. The product formerly codenamed "Scorpio" provides all the functionality and capability of Blackbaud NetCommunity without requiring organizations to have The Raiser's Edge. BBNC Universal leverages the Infinity platform where we are building all of our next generation applications. I'll be giving a closer look at BBNC Universal in a future blog post.

I should have some more interesting things to post tomorrow from the conferences. Lots going on and as always too little time to blog about it.

AFP 45th International Conference - Day 1

Steve MacLaughlin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:57:00 GMT

It's a mostly sunny morning here in San Diego and I've already hit Ralphs for a day's supply of diet soda. (Some dude was in front of me buying a carton of half-and-half with a personal check.)

Things get into full gear a little bit later today at AFP's 45th International Conference on Fundraising. Yesterday there were some CFRE training and fundraising workshop sessions. The marketplace opens at noon and there are some goings-on before the opening plenary session at 4:30pm. The complete schedule is posted here online.

News, Notes, and New Stuff

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:58:00 GMT

Changing the Look
Blackbaud launched the latest version of our corporate website today. Some different approaches to presenting information, content, and a much bigger emphasis on different types of media including video testimonials and podcasts to mix things up. There is also a focus on presenting some of the stories from across our 19,000 clients. And finally, the new site presents some brand and identity changes that have been in the works. Hats off to the team that put in a lot of hours pulling off this redesign. It's never an easy task.

Changing the Meme
Every year I try and take in a bunch of different concerts. And with each passing year the number of lighters used during the rock ballads continues to decline. Instead the concert air is lit with the luminosity of mobile phones. There was a very telling moment at NTC last week when the air was full of iPhones. I caught a concert last night with a friend and we were simply gobsmacked by an entire venue lit up by phones. I'm waiting for Bono's magic trick from a few years ago to start becoming more common place.

Changing the Location
Tomorrow morning I'll be flying out to San Diego for AFP's 45th International Conference on Fundraising. There are some great sessions lined up for this year and I'm looking forward to the keynotes by Jane Goodall, Bob Geldof, and Kevin Carroll. I'm fortunate enough to be presenting at AFP for the second year-in-a-row and I will be posting my presentation online next Monday.

Changing the Transparency
Next week our product development team will be code complete on Blackbaud NetCommunity version 5.5. In the past, we have done feature review sessions with clients prior to the actual release and they have always been well received. That will continue but I'll also be posting sneak previews on this blog over the next few weeks. There are some really exciting new things on the horizon.