I recently attended (nearly back-to-back) both the SXSW Interactive and NTEN Nonprofit Technology conferences. Both conferences self-select different, but equally interesting groups of attendees. Strangely, the NTC trade show (they call it a “Science Fair,” which is a cheesy label, demonstrating some degree of denial by conference organizers, IMO) seemed more much more schmoozy and corporate than the SXSW trade show, which was as laid back and engaging as the rest of the conference. While many of the NTC vendors were worth talking to, there were too many tables staffed by Sales drones offering little actual useful dialog or information.

The best moment of the NTC was immediately following the final reception. I stumbled into a conversation amongst many of the most interesting folks I’d met that week, and immediately sat in. On couches in the hotel hallway, a handful of young-ish (I’d say most, if not all, of us were under thirty) nonprofit techies were having a very engaging and deep conversation touching on many facets of technology and nonprofit organizations. At one point, I turned around to see the crowd (of mostly of older folks) that had gathered just to listen. Gregory Heller recorded much of the conversation, so I hope he gets a chance to edit it and podcast it on his blog.

I definitely hope to make it both conferences next year. It’s hard to say which one was a more valuable experience.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 2nd, 2005 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Geekery, Travel, Nonprofits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.