NTen | Social Signal

This episode features Holly Ross from NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network. She's a great speaker in her own right – and every year, NTEN hosts the Nonprofit Technology Conference. It's a huge gathering (but remarkably relaxed and collegial), and we talk about what it takes to connect that many people online at a conference - and how speakers can make the most of a connected audience.

This episode: Social Media Group founder and CEO Maggie Fox

Only a few years ago, business - especially non-tech Fortune 500 business - was pretty skeptical about social media. One of the first people to break through that barrier was Maggie Fox, CEO of Social Media group. And she did it by creating solid strategies rooted in tangible business goals, breaking ground with companies like Ford.

SXSW isn't the only fabulous event whose agenda is partly shaped by audience input. NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, will hold its annual conference next April in Atlanta, Georgia... and they'd like you to help them figure out what sessions to offer.

Head on over here for a list of candidates, and start a-clickin'. And if you'd like to leave comments – suggestions, questions, thinly-veiled requests to be included on the panel – just click on the session title.

At last week's 2006 Nonprofit Technology Conference in Seattle, I sat on a terrific panel led by Matt Blair, with Marnie Webb and Marshall Kirkpatrick, on the security implications of the new web. It was one of those amazing sessions where the audience was so engaged from the start that we had no need for the usual opening-presentations-plus-Q&A structure; we got right into a very cool 90-minute conversation.

I don't think anyone was recording the session, but I thought I'd share the notes I'd prepared for my presentation.