Um…on second thought, don’t shake it
The day got off to a raucous start, thanks to a San Francisco Burlesque Marching Band.  Even on EST, it felt a little bit much for 9am.  It was lively…that was followed by a corny, but cute, video about NTEN fundraising.
Managing Risk
The first event I attended was an event on managing Risk (#12NTCrisk).  After some interesting preliminaries about the origins of risk management as a discipline in Renaissance Italy (and it really was interesting), it turned into more of a group discussion regarding the types of IT solutions small-to-med sized Non-Profits are using…and I’ve included a list below.
The key take-home message: Risk is something you choose to take on as an organization.  And it is something that can and must be managed.  It comes from the Latin word riscare – to dare.
Of note, there were some folks who were adamant that Microsoft is selling Office 365 to non-profits for $4/User/mo.  You hear all kinds of things in these sessions, but it sounded like a universal done deal.
 
Vendor Hall
The vendor hall (they still call it a Science Fair?!?) was not bad.  I commisserated with a few other attendees that it is really pretty much the same group of vendors we’ve been seeing for the past 5 years and there isn’t much new to see.  Who did I talk to?
Microsoft: Windows 8 tablet on demo…interesting, Windows Phone 7 party line spiel.  I asked about positioning for the Enterprise.  “I can’t talk about that yet.”  Okay…fair enough.
npCloud: A new initiative from NPower PA…sort of a resold combo of Office 365, a backup solution and a locally provided Remote Desktop.
Neon CRM: the *other* CRM…pretty impressive.  Will pass that along and see if it really can be the low cost alternative to BB/Convio.
BeyondNines: met the President, Glen Kendell, a cool guy who seems to really know his stuff…shout out to Raymond and the Sisters of Mercy.
That’s it folks.  The serious business starts tomorrow!
 
 
IT Systems mentioned during Risk Session
In house Ticket Mgmt Systems

CRM

Anti Virus

Anti spam

Backup

Other