Not just a network, but THE Network.

Last week, I went to the Big Apple for the annual Communications Network Conference. My participation, as they say, was de rigeur, given that I’ve been a Board member for several years and have had some involvement in planning the program—but last week, I was struck by how much I’d want to be at the conference even if I didn’t have an official role. It’s gotten that good. Here are some of my biggest observations and take-aways from last week:

The mise en scene matters. I think the physical space one’s in can really affect one’s mood. Put me in a windowless office, and I’m apt to get morose and bored; put me in the Ford Foundation’s historic space, and I’m properly awed and eager for ideas and interactions. The gorgeousness of the vintage décor and sweeping views both heightened the rich history of Ford’s work and also, it just made the whole conference that much cooler. Also, if you know anything about planning meetings, you know that for things to go that smoothly, there must have been an entire crew of people working to make it so. So a special thanks to Ford for being so generous with its space and good people.

Conference sessions will continue to be hit-or-miss, but we’ll continue to try for the best. With the heroic Sherpa-like help of Bruce Trachtenberg, the Network Board members do end up putting a lot of effort into putting together a good program for conference attendees. Why? Because we care. So, we offered the presenters a special training. We scheduled conference calls with them ahead of time to go through the themes and format of their presentations. But we can’t control everything. Some sessions rocked, some sessions didn’t seem to go anywhere; some speakers were less than scintillating. However: I’m still pretty pleased with the results, even if they’re less than perfect. Why? One, because the good sessions were really, really good. There were some sessions that really prompted me to re-think---and re-imagine—some of the communications work I’m doing at RWJF. Two, all of the sessions I attended—good and bad—helped me benchmark my own strategic communications efforts against what the rest of the field’s doing. That’s invaluable training, right there, because no matter how experienced you are, you can’t get complacent about what you know and don’t know. It goes against the nature of our craft.

The Network members are my true peeps. I like all sorts of people, but I really like hanging out with people who care about communications and social change. And now that the Network’s membership has grown exponentially over the past several years, I feel like the Network is truly delivering on its core premise: it connects me to the people I want to know and want to learn from, the people who are doing the best work in my field. It stands for excellence in strategic communications and philanthropy. And at the Network conference, I feel that in more ways than I can possibly count.

One downside to all of this success? It’s a minor quibble, really, but the conference has gotten a little more crowded, a little less intimate. I appreciate the host committee’s efforts to overcome the crush effect by encouraging us to play colored-dot games with each other (even if I didn’t exactly play along)., but I still had moments when I felt as if I was threading my way through a throng of noise and too many people. But then again, I always ended up finding a great place to roost.

--Minna Jung

Comments

[Kate Parmelee]

Thanks for this great post Minna! I think you captured the conference experience perfectly.

[Daniel]

Great article!