nfptweetup

Following last night’s event, NFPtweetup scores 10 out of 10 from Howard Lake. Here’s why:

It’s an odd state of affairs when cutting edge technology becomes so widely adopted and accepted that it is just part of the background. It is even odder when that process happens in a very short time.

Last night the 10th NFPtweetup event took place. In just over two short years, the event has moved from the upstairs room of a pub where about 20 of us squeezed in to share and learn about charities’ use of Twitter, to the roomy surroundings of Amnesty International UK’s (AIUK) London head office. Now the event is booked out within hours of tickets becoming available: it is a must-attend event for many people.

Incidentally, I regard the pub birthplace as a very good omen. Amnesty International was inspired by two students toasting freedom at a bar, and plenty of fine fundraising initiatives have been developed on licensed premises.

NFPtweetup has grown, but the original ethos is still there, I believe. And that is an impressive achievement these days, when you can fork out £300 or more to attend a social media conference for the charity sector.

Why is the event so valued?

• Its informal nature encourages many delegates to ask questions and share advice
• While there are many experienced social media people present, newcomers to the event and to social media are welcomed
• You get to hear from people who have experience and results to share, not just the theory. And they are usually current. Last night for example we heard detailed information from Fiona McLaren of how AIUK dealt with the protests in Egypt. This even covered events at the Trafalgar Square rally (#feb12global) just four days before.
• Although run and sponsored (ie. paid for!) by commercial organisations (JustGiving, beautiful world and Pixel Philosophy), and attended by some for-profit people (that would be me), there’s no hard selling going on. Although JustGiving’s Jonathan Waddingham gave the opening presentation, he pointed out that this was his first presentation in all 10 NFPtweetups.
• NFPtweetup walks the talk: the physical event is augmented by being shared on Twitter (via the #nfptweetup hashtag) and by live video (thanks noonanmedia.com). Those who can’t make it can still get a pretty good sense of the event, and engage with those there. People aggregate the content too and share it, sometimes live during the event, or the next day with links to Slideshare presentations, videos and photos.

And use of phones/laptops for sharing during the presentations is positively encouraged of course. Indeed, at the end of the event Rachel Beer gave the postcode of the post-event pub so that people could find it via their mobile devices.That made me smile too.

Indeed, NFPtweetup is still an enjoyable event. You learn, get to speak buzzwords like ‘gamification’ and ‘slactivism’, and laugh as tweets on the twitterfall screen behind the speakers take a turn for the bizarre, courtesy of the sector’s joker Sir @robinbogg.

My favourite lesson or thought of the evening was appropriately summed up in two related tweets:

Thank you NFPtweetup. You were ahead of your time, and now you’re bang on time. More please.