Like most events of the last year, NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) is set to take place virtually March 23–25, 2021 with over 100 live, interactive sessions, thought-provoking and inspiring keynote speakers, and opportunities to connect with the community and sponsors. NTEN turns to the nonprofit community to help choose the ideas by voting. To vote for our sessions (linked below), simply like the sessions using the “favorite” button on the right of the description for each. So easy!

We’ve been honored to partner with our clients to speak at previous NTC conferences and are hoping to share some new ways to turn ideas into impact. Session voting is now open, with a deadline of December 13, 2020. Have a look below at the following sessions (scroll down further to read the full descriptions) that Forum One and our partners have submitted, and vote for your favorites. 

Thank you so much and see you in March!

• Optimizing Instead of Redesigning Your Website
• Post-Pandemic Production
• Resilient, Equitable, and Creative Teams through Psychological Safety (and Hard Work)
• Conversational Marketing: Using Chatbots to Support Your Nonprofit’s Mission
• What’s Your Story? Crafting a Brand Narrative for Your Association
• From the Ice Bucket Challenge to a Lasting Digital Strategy
• Unlearning White Dominant Culture: Creating Human-Centered Workplaces
• Are You Ready for Digital Transformation? Let’s Conduct an Audit!

Optimizing Instead of Redesigning Your Website

During these uncertain times, a full website redesign may not be in the cards. So, what can you do now with your current website that will allow you to create and expand your impact? The answer is: quite a lot. From ensuring that your website’s technical infrastructure is up-to-date, to optimizing content and design, there are small yet powerful tweaks and improvements that you can do now that will increase engagement with your website.

In this session, we’ll provide guidance and best practice examples around:

• Strategic planning: what needs to change?
• Website optimization: how can you increase visitors?
• Experience design and interaction: how can you delight your audience?
• Website maintenance: what is out of date and why does this matter?

Post-Pandemic Production

As we look into 2021 and beyond, the face of your conferences, meetings and formerly in-person events will be forever changed. Engaging people in this remote environment requires new thinking and an understanding of the new “post-pandemic” culture. How do you adapt to the video and experiential demands to stay relevant?  In this session, our creative and video storytelling experts will explore trends from 2020 to look forward in adapting smart strategies to create engaging, remote experiences. 

Specifically, we’ll tackle:

• What video quality is acceptable?
• What types of video and remote-meeting content will cut through “Zoom fatigue” in 2021? 
• What are practical tips so you can create the very best remote live and video experiences? 

Resilient, Equitable, and Creative Teams through Psychological Safety (and Hard Work)

2020 has shown how important adaptability to changing situations is to organizations. 2020 has also brought to light societal blind spots around race, privilege, and equity. I have learned that creating an environment of psychological safety, where team members can safely express their ideas and concerns openly, is one foundation upon which innovative, resilient, and more equitable teams are built.

We’ll cover:

• What is psychological safety? Why does it matter? How does it relate to stress, equity, creativity, resiliency?
• What can increase psychological safety and reduce stress at a project or organizational level
• Some of my mistakes, successes, lessons learned

Conversational Marketing: Using Chatbots to Support Your Nonprofit’s Mission

Research shows that the average conversion rate on a website is generally around ~1%, which means that a lot of the hard work that is put into creating good content isn’t resulting in the right amount of user engagement. As nonprofits continue to focus on a more digital approach to doing their work, they are also challenged to try new approaches to better engage their web visitors in real time. 

In this session, we’ll discuss how nonprofits can implement a chatbot strategy, also known as conversational marketing, to better connect with audiences through a two-way conversation. We’ll hear from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) about how their conversational chatbot “Casey” has allowed them to streamline their FAQ response, move users along the conversion path faster, and provide valuable support to members who have greater needs but less time to browse. 

Specifically, we’ll tackle:

• What is conversational marketing, and how does it work?
• How CASE is using “Casey” to better connect and provide value to their users
• How your nonprofit can create a more personal approach to deepen user engagement

What’s Your Story? Crafting a Brand Narrative for Your Association

Your association is like a community to your members. This is what makes your brand’s narrative so important. When crafted with care, a successful brand narrative can significantly increase your brand’s value to your members and strengthen your connection to them. 

In this session, Atla, a membership association of librarians and information professionals working in religion and theology, and Forum One will explore how to make your association’s brand narrative the starting point for all your content. We’ll also cover why your brand narrative is the cornerstone of your overall branding strategy. 

What you will learn:

• How to root your brand story in reality
• How to keep your brand story simple and relatable
• How to keep your brand promise

From the Ice Bucket Challenge to a Lasting Digital Strategy

The Ice Bucket Challenge was a groundbreaking shift for The ALS Association. Building on the success of that challenge, the Association was faced with asking themselves, “What’s next?” The Association looked towards its digital properties and strategy to embark on a major digital transformation, including a major CMS and CRM migration from Luminate and Blackbaud to Drupal 8 and Salesforce, and implementing Classy for donations. These changes were paramount in creating a unified digital ecosystem, providing a more engaging experience for their audiences, especially people with ALS, and increasing the Association’s overall impact. 

In this session, we’ll take you through how The ALS Association:

• Created a unified CMS platform for the national organization and 30+ chapters
• Implemented geolocation donation pathways
• Responded to challenges as a result of big changes

Unlearning White Dominant Culture: Creating Human-Centered Workplaces

Many organizations issued Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statements in 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd. What does it look like for organizations, leaders, and staff to continue to do the work of addressing systemic inequities in 2021? This workshop will help participants identify the ways that white dominant culture shows up in the workplace, specifically in the tech industry. 

In this session we’ll: 

• Describe ways in which white dominant culture shows up in the workplace.
• Explore the impacts of white dominant culture on our wellbeing, productivity, and creativity. 
• Identify an area of your work where you could be more equitable instead of going back to the default of white dominant culture.

Are You Ready for Digital Transformation? Let’s Conduct an Audit!

Digital transformation for nonprofits is typically a marathon, not a 100-yard dash. It requires looking at every aspect of how your organization delivers services, communicates with stakeholders, manages work and information internally, monitors audience needs and behaviors, and operates your current ecosystem of digital products. 

In this workshop, we’ll look at tactics and approaches to prepare for digital transformation projects, and tactics that — when applied across your organization — can help you move quickly and nimbly to adopt digital change, especially in uncertain times.

Specifically, we’ll cover:

• What questions you should be asking yourself and your organization
• How to prioritize challenges: asking and listening to uncover opportunities
• How to ideate potential solutions: mapping, creating, and testing
• How to measure and iterate: planning for change based on resulting data