Acronym

Dave Sabol here filling in for Maddie Grant who is en route back home.

Just a few points from two afternoon sessions that I think everyone can benefit from. In Andy Steggles session on the Social Web he went into detail on how RIMS and a number of other associations are pushing the envelope with their deployment of social media technology. I found his approach to technology and innovation, more than any specific message that he shared, particularly salient.

Instead of constantly going in search of the "next big thing" Andy has a really pragmatic approach that we can all learn from. Take a look at what bothers you and your members most about the technology you are using and try to improve on it from that perspective. Additionally, instead of trying to create new solutions in a vacuum take a look at what other industry leaders are doing and adapt their approach to fit your needs. For example, if you industry is looking into social networking instead of trying to "whitesheet" your solution take a look at what companies like MySpace and FaceBook are doing right (and wrong) and learn from their experiences. Instead of building from the ground-up consider what you can do to adapt/modify/change existing systems to work in a more effective way.

Most importantly, in today's attention economy consider your Return on Engagement (ROE) and what you can do to maximize your return on your users attention once you have obtained it. Make it easy for them to take action.

Later in the afternoon, Jamie Notter presented on "Who's In Charge" an offshoot of an article he wrote that was published in November's Assocations Now. My key take away (I'll leave the details to his article) was that we spend too much time communicating at either the high level - useless generalizations - and at the low level - the important discussion points get buried in the detail - and have a very difficult time communicating in between. Jamie had the attendees positing the question: "Where is the middle". The primary reason we avoid these conversations and subsequently being unable to answer the question: who is in charge is because the conversations are difficult and we avoid them. The bottom line: constantly challenge your assumptions and judgments, strive to have the difficult conversations and most importantly remember that real communication, and ultimately change, results over time not as the result of one conversation.