BBCON Value for Altru Users

Nikki Statler

Hello friends, with all that BB has to offer, has anyone attended BBCON and felt that there was enough Altru-specific sessions to make it a good investment? Any input including typical session topics would be helpful as we consider sending someone. Thanks in advance!!

Amy Barker

@Nikki Statler last year there were no Altru specific sessions. You can view last year's sessions here:
Sessions: Print Version: bbcon 2023 (bbconference.com)

I can't find the information for BBCons prior to that, and I don't use Altru myself, so can't speak to prior ones. Hope someone else can chime in!

KAS Shannon Knight

@Nikki Statler, prior to last year there was an Altru-specific talk available in each session as well as Altru-specific meet-ups. Last year (2023), they moved to a business-role model, so there were only two Altru sessions the entire conference and no meet-ups.

For this fall, I submitted five Altru talks but haven't heard yet if they've gotten the green light. And, if there aren't any in the schedule, I'm going to plan informal Altru get-togethers because I want to spend time with other Arts & Cultural folks so we can talk about things that are directly relevant to our industry and our software.

Arts and Cultural, assemble! ?

Joe Killian

@Nikki Statler

2023 was the first BBcon I've attended. It was a waste of my resources. Of the very few sessions tagged “Altru”, two were a sales pitch for a third party, and the other was focused on the new Online Giving form and it's tie-in with Altru.

I saw maybe six people with Altru tags on their lanyards.

There were zero Altru meet-ups.

The most useful things for me as our org's Altru admin were:

• Meeting with our Customer Success Manager's manager and a product specialist
• Learning first hand that there are no major improvements for Altru planned in the next year; confirmed in the PUB last week
• Attending BBDevDays

If Blackbaud follows the same format as last year, I doubt I'll attend. It was very expensive for very little value-add.

Nick Vlattas

Hi Altru Community!

We are still in the process of finalizing our bbcon tracks and sessions, but I can confidently tell you we WILL have a session dedicated to Altru users and/or Arts and Cultural organizations in each of the breakout timeslots. We will also have an Altru presence in the exhibit / demo hall where you can meet with our experts to learn more about how to leverage everything Altru has to offer, in addition to networking with your peers in the A&C world.

We’re also excited to facilitate birds of a feather / meetup sessions for A&C as @KAS Shannon Knight mentioned above (PS - thanks for the submissions; we'll be in touch soon!!!), and we’ll be listening ahead of time to make sure they’re geared towards what YOU want to talk about!

As you know, last year was our first time going back in-person for bbcon, so we had to re-learn some things. We did offer Altru sessions, but I apologize if the A&C content was under-presented. Trust me when I say we’re working to change that this year!

We will have specifics to share VERY soon, so stay tuned for more! Thank you all and I hope to meet you in Seattle!!

Tamara Christensen

@Nikki Statler

I attended bbcon in 2019 and there were some altru specific sessions, arts & culture specific sessions plus meet-ups. The most useful part was the Blackbaud University Day, which was the day before the conference. There were actual classes that taught a lot of Altru how-tos. I'm not sure if they are having that again, but I would recommend it if they do.

• Tamara