Being Part of My First Blackbaud Nonprofit Conference

Jay Love — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:47:00 GMT

I had read and heard about the Blackbaud conferences/user group gatherings for several years. Everyone had raved about the quality of the education sessions and the networking which takes place in Charleston and the other locations around the world. Since I had spent much of my working life as a competitor, it was like being a 12-year-old who had heard much about Walt Disney World but had never been there (Perhaps all I needed to do was talk to the resident Walt Disney World expert at eTap, Doug Stevens, to see if such aspirations can come true...).

Well folks, it was nearly as good as visiting Walt Disney World for the first time, especially if you love networking with people as much as yours truly! The education sessions were superb because most of the presenters could assume folks had a powerful database and knew how to use it. I know that made quite a difference in the education session I presented, "The New World of Email Communications". In fact, it certainly makes you stay on your toes to be a few steps ahead of the session attendees.

For you experienced old-timers out there, it made me fondly recall the numerous Fund-Master User Conferences that Steve Rusche and I used to help stage in the early '90's. Just like the Blackbaud Conference they were truly gatherings of most of our best and most loyal customers. The relationships and bonds of trust just kept getting stronger at those events.

One of my favorite sessions we did back in the 90’s to kick off the Fund-Master User Conference, and the newest and greatest release of our product, was to show famous film clips to lead up to the announcement of each new feature or service. We even used the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the Great Oz is revealed to let the audience know Cloud Computing or Software as a Service was coming. Steve Rusche and I still laugh about the huge moan we heard when we announced it was the last film clip. I guess everyone really does love great old and current movies...

I encourage all of you reading this Blog to consider attending a future Blackbaud conference if you can. It did live up to the hype, which we all know is next to impossible to do (even for Blackbaud and Disney). My sincere congratulations to the marketing team and all of the wonderful volunteers at Blackbaud for a job well done. They did not leave a stone unturned with regard to every detail.

The Jay Love Blog : user group gatherings

Being Part of My First Blackbaud Nonprofit Conference