I've been reflecting lately on how some of things I really liked about the recent Penguin Day in Seattle had a lot in common with earlier versions of the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference.
Of course, I quite enjoyed this year's NTC in Seattle, and I don't want to imply that everything was better or even perfect in a golden age that has now passed. But I do want to underscore some qualities in the earlier nonprofit technology conferences (which were oriented to the riders movement) that I also experienced at Penguin Day Seattle:
- An orientation to progressive social change.
- Speed-geeking sessions that were predominantly about colleagues sharing what worked for them rather than sales-oriented exhibitions.
- Smallness of scale, which made it at least theoretically possible to meet and greet all of one's fellow attendees.
- Inspired goofiness on the part of the day's most visible ringleader, which was Gunner at Penguin Day Seattle. It was very much in the tradition that Holly Ross established at the Circuit Rider Roundups and the early Nonprofit Technology Conferences organized by N-TEN.
Disclaimer: I've been well-bribed to say nice things about Penguin Day; I received a giant inflatable penguin as a gift from the organizers a day before the event.
In the photo, Ryan Ozimek of PICnet can be seen experiencing the rapture of penguins.
