Photo by Beth Kanter


Ok, so I'm a little bitter about this.

This evening, I was reading Patricia Perkins' blog article about her experience at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington, and realized that we were actually in the same affinity group meeting for a little while there.  (It was a gathering of nonprofit technology consultants.) Although I would have been thrilled to meet her in person, I was too benighted to recognize her from various photos I've seen.  She arrived at and departed from the session, while I remained oblivious.

Trish is only one of several colleagues that I longed - in vain - to behold at the conference.  In some cases, such as Trish's, it would have been the first sighting; in others, the thousandth. 

Attendance has grown from about 200 to about 1,200 since I showed up at this conference's precursor in 2001.  We need to make the large turnout a strength rather than a weakness.  We need to do a much better job of making sure that attendees find each other and have opportunities for substantive conversations.  This has to be possible; after all, we're information geeks and social networkers! 




Here's a partial list of folks that were rumored to be at this year's NTC, whom I wish I had seen:

Steve Anderson, ONE/Northwest
Ben Baumann, Isovera
Michael Borum, Oxfam America
Charlie Brown, Ashoka Changemakers
Chris Chiacchierini, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine
Jonathon Colman, The Nature Conservancy
Carmon Cunningham, Jobs For the Future
Leda Dederich, ScoutSeven
Susan Finkelpearl, Free Range Studios
Susan Forste, Physicians for Human Rights
Heather Gardner-Madras
Louise Grindrod, Massachusetts Audubon
Sheeraz Haji, Convio
Eric Helmuth, Join Together
Christine Herron, Omidyar Network
Michael Hoffman, See3 Communications
Tim Johnston, NPower Greater DC Region
Lynn Labieniec, Beaconfire Consulting
Jorge Martinez, Knight Foundation
Bonnie McLain, Sage Software
Rachel Murray, Facing History and Ourselves
Karen Nyhus, Networks For Nonprofits
Simone Parrish, Innovation Network
April Pedersen, Democracy In Action
Elissa Perry, Leadership Learning Community
Scott Schaffer, NPower
Shirley Sexton, Easter Seals National Headquarters
Patrick Shaw, NPower
Reed Stockman, Association of Fundraising Professionals
Benjamin Stokes, MacArthur Foundation
Wil Vargas, United Way of America
Kurt Voelker, Forum One Communications
Katherine Ann Watier, Points of Light Foundation
Kevin Wenzel, Virginia Poverty Law Center
Jason Zanon, Democracy In Action

(They range from old buddies, to valued acquaintances, to fellow members of online communities, to role models that I'd like to meet.)