The Agitator's take on the AFP conference

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone is offering on my most recent column for the NonProfit Times. I really didn't think it was a Jerry Maguire moment when I wrote it. I just get sick and tired of fundraisers who go to conferences unprepared - wasting time and money - without getting anything out of the experience. I think it can (and should) be better... so I said so.

Roger Craver had a great way of describing the AFP on his Agitator blog. Because I know that blog takes a long time to load, I wanted to clip a portion of his well written post below:

The annual migration in our trade is underway. The Association of Fundraising Professionals opened its annual conference yesterday in San Diego. Consultants wooing clients, printers, envelope salespeople, new media application service providers ... all there wooing everyone in sight, along with 1/3 of the attendees looking for new jobs and wearing their best smiles.

Unfortunately, I can't be there observing us all in our natural habitat. But I do want to send this note to loyal Agitator readers who are opening this morning's edition over coffee in their rooms, ploughing through The Conference Program wondering what sessions they should attend today or whether they should just go to Sea World. (By the way, Sea World has a terrific website and is a good place to visit!)

There's a wide offering in the AFP Conference Program. From the conventional to the important to the inane. What strikes me by its absence is there's very, very little about what will matter most in effective fundraising in the years to come: social networking advances thanks to technology.

Excellent. Roger goes on to name some of the names that DID speak - Mark Rovner, Nick Allen, and Nicci Noble - all three excellent speakers for nonprofit fundraisers to learn from.