The Association Innovation Blog by Jeff De Cagna

Visit The Daily Innovator!

I'm pleased to announce that I've launched another blog called The Daily Innovator.  It is not an association specific blog, but a resource for anyone working in any type of organization who is looking for advice, ideas and inspiration on how to make innovation a priority everyday.  My hope is that you will come to view it as an invaluable resource.

The blog is live now and I hope you will visit regularly.  In fact, please consider subscribing either by e-mail or using the RSS feed.  If you'd like to submit a comment, you can do so here.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts! 

asae & the center annual meeting: part one

Well, I'm back from Nashville, and I have to say that I had a REALLY GREAT time at the ASAE & The Center Annual Meeting.  The staff did a fantastic job.  It was obvious that a great deal of creativity went into the planning for the meeting, and all of their efforts paid off by elevating the energy and enthusiasm level throughout.  The buzz among the attendees was awesome...everyone I talked to had fun and learned a great deal.  Most importantly, no one walked away from the meeting with the impression that this was your typical cookie-cutter ASAE meeting.  The spirit of the merged organization was unleashed in Nashville. Now it must be sustained everyday, day after day.  I'll offer a few thoughts on that subject on another day.  Today, I want to focus on some reflections on Nashville.

One final BlogJam post

I made my final post to the FC NOW BlogJam just a few minutes ago.  In it, I reiterate my hope that FC will launch a podcast, which I have suggested they call FC NEXT.  Whether they call it that or not, I just hope they'll run with the idea.  If you agree, please go to my post, and share your thoughts of support!

FC NOW Blogjam Posts #3 and #4

Here are my two posts from today.  I think I may have one more before the BlogJam is over!  You should check it out...

Inclusive innovation

Global competitiveness vs. Summer vacation

FC NOW BlogJam Post #2

I've just made my second post to the FC NOW BlogJam, this time about innovation.  My first post was encouraging FC to launch a podcast.  The post are coming fast and furious!

FC NOW BlogJam 2005 Post #1

I've made my first post to the FC NOW BlogJam 2005, which began this morning.  I actually put it up a few minutes before midnight (because I'm a geek and I wanted to be the first one to post), and I thought I had blown it because my attempt to change the date and time initially failed, but I went back and corrected it and all is well.  Phew!  ;>) 

In this first post, I made a small proposal:  that Fast Company launch a podcast called FC NEXT.  Now that FC's ownership situation is more settled, I think this would be a great step for the publication to take.  (In addition, I think they should bring back their RealTime conferences, but that is a story for another day.)  I would love an FC podcast, and I am confident that I would not be alone.  The readership of this magazine is deeply devoted to it, so the podcast would have an interested audience from day one.  At any rate, we'll see what kind of reaction I get to the idea.

BTW, association executive and fellow blogger Shawn Lea of The Big Picture is also participating in the BlogJam and will be posting for the next two days.  I look forward to sharing in her brilliance and that of all BlogJam participants.  I suggest you join us! 

The XtremeASAE Blog fun has begun...

It is with great pleasure that I announce the XtremeASAE Blog is now live and ready for you to visit!  This blog will be a resource for both Annual Meeting attendees and for members of the association community who are unable to join us in Nashville.  My advice to you:  subscribe today!  You can do that by visiting the site and entering your e-mail address in the Subscribe box on the right side of the blog.  When you subscribe, you will receive ONE E-MAIL per day with all of the updates to the blog for the previous day, so you won't have a bunch of new messages cluttering up your inbox!

I'm personally excited about this new blog, because we have such a great group of bloggers and we are actively seeking your participation in this blogging experience.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please email us at xtremeasaeblog@gmail.com.  We look forward to engaging you!

ASAE Annual Meeting blog launches Monday!

Great news!  ASAE & The Center are moving forward with a blog for the Annual Meeting in Nashville!  The blog will launch on Monday and I'm pleased to say that a group of association bloggers will be managing it, with the advice, guidance and support of the ASAE & The Center staff. It is an honor to be a part of that group, and I know that you're going to be pleased with what we're doing.

We're writing this blog for everyone who is attending the meeting, of course, but we're also doing it for the overwhelming majority of association professionals who won't be able to join us at Opryland.  We want the blog to be a useful resource for everyone, something you'll check daily over the next month and even after the meeting.  We will also make it a little bit provocative--dare I say "xtreme"--to capture your attention and spark your imagination!  And we very much want to get you involved!  More on that to come...

So get ready...and check out the various association community blogs over the next few days for updates.  It's very exciting!

A new home for The Association Blog

Fellow blogger Kevin Holland has moved The Association Blog from its previous location on Blogger to a new address on WordPress.  Hey nice banner Kevin!  Very moo-ving...good luck in your new home!  Here's a little Fourth of July housewarming gift for you.  Very patriotic!

Fine tuning this blog

This weekend, the TypePad service I use to host this blog has been upgrading its system to offer customers some new features.  I have decided to enable some of the features in the comments management area, and I wanted to make you aware of them:

• You now have the option of creating a TypeKey account when you post comments.  TypeKey is a free, open system providing you a central identity for posting comments on weblogs and logging into other websites.  Registration is free and, as I've said, it is optional on TAIB right now.  You are not required to set up a TypeKey account to post comments at this time.
• Since I have made TypeKey optional, I have enabled comment moderation for TAIB, which means that no new comments will be posted without my approval. 

I have decided to implement each of these features because of my continuing battles with comment and trackback spam over the last year, a challenge facing all bloggers across the Web.  You will note that I have completely disabled the trackback feature for future postings, manually deleted all past trackbacks and disabled the option for trackbacks on past postings as well.  Like many blog owners, I have been inundated with robospam in trackbacks and when I turned them off, the spammers began to post unwanted comments.  Going forward, these new features should help me fight off the kind of unwanted garbage that has been posted to TAIB in the past.

Let me assure you that I will only use the comment moderation feature to prevent the posting of spam.  No actual comments will ever be censored on TAIB, even if I disagree with them.  I strongly encourage you to continue postings your comments to TAIB.  The conversation is incredibly valuable and I will never do anything to limit its scope, substance or authenticity.  Thank you for being a part of our community!