Conferences are terrible at creating communities.
They almost do everything right. They bring people with a shared interest together. They create insiders, and outsiders. People leave with a shared experience and new friendships.
But that's the end of it
Next time you come back from a conference, don’t rush to add the people you met to LinkedIn, add to start a LinkedIn Group, or an informal e-mail newsground, or anywhere online where people can continue their discussions. It’s a glorious community opportunity going to waste.
If you’re speaking or hosting at a conference, then you can make life easier by doing this for your audience.
This is great advice. I will practice this going forward. Just a few nights ago I was going through my email list and looking for business cards in search of the names of attendees at a seminar I held at the NC Center for Nonprofits conference last summer. I can't believe I wasn't better about organizing the information in a single location! I think you've created a best practice with this one, Rich.
Posted by: Angela Connor | Sunday, 29 March 2009 at 14:36