#bbcon In Community: That's A Wrap!

Thank you for joining us in our bbcon journey here in the Blackbaud Community. This year we tried a lot of new ideas, trying to bring the onsite bbcon experience online. We were excited to be able to offer our community members access to bbcon like never before and I'd like to do a quick review of everything that we did and then ask you to sound off with your feedback, comments, and ideas for the future in the comments below.

Let's start with LiveStreams.
The Blackbaud Community was the exclusive location for accessing livestreams of the bbcon Keynote sessions and the Big Ideas Sessions. Did you take advantage of this opportunity? What could we do better next year? Sound off in the comments below.

Next up, let's talk about the bbcon blog.

For the first time ever, we opened up a blog on the community so community members could post. This led to some awesome blog posts from Amy Dana, Joshua Bekerman, and Christine McMinn.

We also brought you "Ami on the Run" - a live blog series from the halls, stages, and classrooms of bbcon. Check out our Ami on the Run posts here, here, here, here, here and here.

Did you read the bbcon blog? What did you like? What could we do better next year? Sound off in the comments below.

Did you hear about our Meet-Ups?
Maybe my favorite feature in the bbcon community experience, was the bbcon Meet-Ups option. Every year, people who attend bbcon organize meet-ups and networking opportunities above and beyond what is on the official bbcon agenda. This year, we opened up the events feature in the bbcon community so people could schedule meet-ups and RSVP for meet-ups throughout the week. We saw everything from lunches to discuss Raiser's Edge NXT to plans to ride the National Harbor Ferris Wheel happen in that space.

We also used the meet-ups area to schedule and promote our Big Green Couch Chats. You can learn more about those here.


Did you schedule or attend a meet-up? What about a Big Green Couch Chat? What did you like? What could we do better next year? Sound off in the comments below.

Did you add a badge (or two) to your profile?
This year we also introduced bbcon Attendee and Speaker badges in the community and created pages where you could connect with members of either group. It's not too late to claim your bbcon badge(s) if you haven't already. You can claim your attendee badge here and your speaker badge here.


Did you claim your badge(s) or use the speaker and attendee pages to network? What did you like? What could we do better next year? Sound off in the comments below.

We're all about sharing resources here in the Blackbaud Community.
This year we also opened up a shared resources library for people to upload anything from helpful hints for navigating Washington DC to their presentation decks from a session. Did you add a resource or look at a resource? What did you like? What could we do better next year? Sound off in the comments below.

Let's keep it social!
Events like bbcon generate a ton of amazing content on social media. This year we introduced a social wall to help track the #bbcon hashtag across platforms. Did you check out the social wall? What did you like? What could we do better next year? Sound off in the comments below.

Crowdsourcing sessions and events - a win for everyone!
Some parts of bbcon are hard to bring to the online world. bbcon sessions and receptions, in particular, don't always translate well. However, this year, we looked to the community to help drive content and ideas for two bbcon sessions - "Can You Stump the Raiser's Edge Community" and "Revenge of the Nerds - Raiser's Edge Style" Both of these sessions were full-room sessions, with over 100 people attending each in person.

Finally, we also introduced a new joint award between Blackbaud Champions and Blackbaud Community and we asked community members to help us name it. From this simple request emerged the most awesome award name in the history of award names - the Robert C. Hernandez Award of Excellence - and at bbcon we awarded five amazing individuals with this inaugural award (more on this coming in a later blog post).

Did you participate in any of these crowd-sourcing opportunities? What did you like? What could we do better next year? Sound off in the comments below.

Overall the Blackbaud Community Team is very excited about all the ways we were able to help connect the onsite bbcon experience with an online experience. This year was all about trying new things and learning from the experience. Thank you again to all of you for being active members of the bbcon Community! I look forward to seeing your feedback in the comments below!