A Milestone for FWE&E
I’m thrilled to announce that today marks the launch of a new Online Community for our members. We are announcing it at our conference Business Applications of Social Networking which is being streamed live on UStream.tv. Click on this link at about 8:45am PST to watch the event and send us your comments!
www.ustream.tv/channel/business-applications-of-social-networking
So, why are we launching this Community and what will it mean for our members? When I first joined the organization six months ago, one of the first things I wanted to do was to get to know who our members were. What I encountered was the typical directory of members that gives the name, rank and serial number but did not let me know the breadth of experience that the individual had or what her perspectives were on topics like politics, philanthropy or global issues.
Also, I received phone calls from members, like one I received yesterday from a CEO searching for a new CFO, asking how to find members with certain skill sets, who could speak on a particular topic at a major event, who could be nominated for an award, or who might be qualified for a Board seat.
I found I could turn to a select few people to network and look for referrals, spam all my members with endless emails or find a better application to enable the members to tap into each other’s networks and best practices.
I was lucky to be introduced to Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning by one of our members and found the Ning application to be the answer we were looking for. Members can log into our new Online Community at http://community.fweande.org and will be directed to fill out their profile and start collaborating! If you are a member, you will receive an email invitation to join the Community shortly.
It also lead to the idea of the Business Applications Conference. One of the first steps in launching a community is to find the application that fits the needs of the members, then educate them how to take advantage of it. It’s not about the technology, it’s about how to fit the application into your normal activities so that you can take full advantage of what it has to offer without feeling overwhelmed by having one more place to go to for connecting.
The program is a who’s who of experts in the field including Ross Mayfield, Founder and CEO of Socialtext; Jeremy Owyang, Senior Analyst, Social Media at Forrester Research; Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning; Robin Wolaner, CEO of TeeBeeDee, along with a great panel of both strategists and tactical gurus.
Google is the key sponsor and we greatly thank them for their support.
