AFP Seminar

Attended the AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) Luncheon and Meeting Seminar today.  It was at the Frog Rock in Hammonton.  Normally I wouldn’t be found at such an occasion, but the seminar was “Online Communications: Pipeline to More Revenue”, so I figured I’d check it out.  Sean and I drove over, he seemed to know who lived in every home on the way there.  I just knew that we were in Southern New Jersey.

I’m so terrible at small talk and avoid people I don’t know, so the whole networking thing was a big awkward to me.  But, everyone one there was really nice and extremely friendly.  Of course I had to be one of the first people to introduce myself to the room, but I just kept it simple and think I did an ok job of not getting myself into too much trouble while addressing the room.

The presentation was pretty good.  I thought the speaker did a really good job.  You could tell that he was comfortable with what he was presenting and not just reading a PowerPoint presentation.  Although the information that was presented was nothing new to me, it’s good to see what others are up to and any latest trends going on.  I personally don’t agree on the room’s whole capture someone’s email address approach, I think that a user should be told upfront exactly what their email address may be used for up front.  No surprise emails down the road, that doesn’t build trust with users at all.  

While I can’t say I learned anything new today, it did get me thinking to developing some projects online that I have lost track of due to a lack of time.  So that’s a good thing, and hopefully I’ll get working on those soon.