Suggestion When Planning Future Dates of BBCon - Please consider

Amy Shaiman

Suggestion to those at Blackbaud selecting dates for BBCon. Please consider checking the holday calendar for major world religions to avoid scheduling the conference on holy days. One of the challenges can be that many world religions do not use the Christian Gregorian Calendar, so there can be scheduling that causes issues for holy days like Dharmic days, Eids, Rosh Hashanah, or Yom Kippur, and etc. The good news is that there are online resources with perpetual calendars so you can check even 20 years in advance. This avoids issues like this year (bbcon24) where entire groups of people are unable to come due to scheduling on a religiously/culturally signifcant day. (Would you schedule bbcon on Christmas? If not, please consider this request, not everyone is Christian.)

Resources:
Hindu Holidays - Dharmic Days and Hindu Holidays
Jewish Holidays - Hebcal
Muslim Holidays - Islamic Networks Group
(you can find many others just by an internet search)

I would be happy to discuss this with the conference planners for Blackbaud, should there be interest in this element of inclusion. (reach out here, call, or email)

Rachel Cavalier

@Amy Shaiman

Absolutely this.

While with BBCon's live element now being pretty much back to exclusively in-person (I believe), 2022's BBCon was held over Jewish High Holidays and that meant live sessions on those days were out of the question for anyone from my workplace.

Allison King

@Amy Shaiman I noticed that bbcon was in late Sept this year. I'm wondering if it was purposefully set earlier than normal as the High Holy Days fall in October this year.

Amy Shaiman

@Allison King - This may be the case, as attending prior conferences have been a challenge for me due to scheduling on holy days.

Rachel Cavalier

@Amy Shaiman

Bringing this post back from last year - but I've just sent feedback to BB that this year's bbcon is held pretty much entirely over the days in Sukkot where work is not permitted.

Amy Shaiman

@Rachel Cavalier
I appreciate you bringing it back up and I'm sorry that again they are scheduling against holy days. It would be nice if Blackbaud could acknolwedge the consequences of these frequent choices. Perhaps their silence and continued scheduling on holidays is like the products they have which they no longer acknowledge, name, develop, or include in community, updates, conferences and the like. It seems to me that Blackbaud staff and leadership are chosing silence to communicate the intent and value they place on those products and these suggestions.