What to Watch For at SXSW 2010 - The Nonprofit Edition
Depending on who you ask, it may or may not be a surprise that SXSW 2010 has become a
destination for nonprofit staffers. With fifteen percent-ish
attendees working with nonprofits, SXSW can be inspirational. It's the perfect place to meet
change agents like Beth Kanter, David
Neff, and Amy Sample Ward, as well as
network and learn from your peers at other nonprofits. But the attendees
are just the beginning...
Building on its success from last year,
Beaconfire Consulting will again
be sponsoring The Beacon: Lounge with a
Conscience. One of three lounges at SXSW, The Beacon is the
place to hang if you're representing the nonprofit sector. You can stop
by for SoapBox lunches each day, where you can turn your donation to a
worthy cause into a tasty lunch. Each afternoon, The
Beacon Stage will feature an acoustic performance to benefit the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
I'm really excited that Blackbaud is sponsoring the
stage this year, and can't wait to hear some of the great artists.
When
you find yourself leaving The Lounge, there are plenty of great
sessions to attend. Blackbaud's Frank Barry will be moderating Debunking the Myth of
Social Media Fundraising. Along with friends from Tweetsgiving (Epic
Change), The Lance Armstrong Foundation, and Charity Dynamics,
real examples of how nonprofits can use social marketing to raise money
will be discussed.
Here are the sessions that caught my eye and made it onto
my messy schedule (in order of appearance):
- Technology For Results
Not Profits - Saturday, March 13 at 11 a.m.
The
LifeChurch.tv team will discuss how passion impacts technology for
nonprofits.
- A Conversation About
Social Change Through Social Media - Saturday, March 13 at
12:30 p.m.
Mark Horvath from InvisiblePeople.tv discusses how good
storytelling is a three-way conversation.
- Debunking the Myth of
Social Media Fundraising - Saturday, March 13 at 12:30 p.m.
This
panel
looks at how nonprofit organizations are raising money via social media.
- Digital Marketing for
Non-Profits - Saturday, March 13 at 3:30 p.m.
Learn
how the L.A. Philharmonic Association built an online brand and increased giving in a failing economy.
- Uprising Tide -
Inciting Online Communities into Offline Movements - Saturday,
March 13 at 3:30 p.m.
A look at how organic net-roots movements
were started in New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
- Crowd Sourcing
Innovative Social Change - Sunday, March 14 at 3:30 p.m.
This panel will share the best innovative nonprofit ideas from the crowd-sourced
Social Change Challenge.
- It's
Time to Save the World with Design Thinking - Sunday, March
14 at 3:30 p.m.
With design thinking we can change the world
by seeing why problems happen - then solve them.
- Dinosaur to Digital: A
Museum Convergence Success Story - Sunday, March 14 at 5:00
p.m.
Learn how a traditional
museum in SF used online tools to
position itself as a valuable resource and social hub.
- Games For Good
- Monday, March 15 at 12:30 p.m.
Hear from nonprofits who
have made games to support their mission that people
actually use.
- Change the World,
Lives, with Bikes - Tuesday, March 16 at 11:00 a.m.
A
great look at how cycling and social media are changing the world
through online communities and events.
- Will Kiva Kill Your
Nonprofit? Donations 2.0 - Tuesday, March 16 at 11:00 a.m.
Learn
how your nonprofit can adapt to a world that includes distributed
donation groups like Kiva.
Besides attending the sessions above and hanging at The
Beacon, there are a few other activities you should pencil into your
schedule. The
Convio Nonprofit
Technology Bash is on Tuesday evening, and is a perfect place to
meetup and get ready for all the closing night parties. Also, be sure to
check out
CauseLab, which is
launching on March 15 in the Hilton. They are inviting disrupters and
innovators from all disciplines to solve
three main challenges to ending hunger in America, and will be holding
brainstorming sessions throughout this year's SXSW.
That's all
for now. Please let me know what I missed, and I'm looking forward to
seeing you all later this week!