Anthony Williams co-author of Wikinomics was the opening session speaker. Overall, I was really impressed with his presentation style and the content. He alluded to the fact that we are currently in the midst of a perfect storm where Web 2.0, the net generation, the social revolution, economic revolution have all converged. He went on to elaborate on two of the more salient points that are impacting associations.

Web 2.0 has democratized the creation of value and no longer do you have to be a programmer to program the internet. Similarly, the net generation is a result of a demographic shift. Gen-Y is now growing up in a very unique time in history, they are as Don Tapscott stated, growing up digital. This is a generation of content creators. Growing up online has had a significant impact on how their brains are wired. Studies have shown that there are marked changes in their perception and cognitive abilities, how they learn and acquire skills, how they demonstrate empathy, altruism and other fundamental human traits.

Perhaps most valuable of all was the pragmatic way he applied key concepts from his own work and the book to Associations. Below are a few examples and key questions / statements to get the conversation started:

Wikinomics for Associations.

• Peering - How can you unleash the power of your association by using the collective knowledge of your members?
• Ideagoras - How can you tap into your members and help them become solution-providers?
• Prosumers - Create Ideastorms for customers and partners
• Wiki Organizations - Collaboration starts at home…set an example of effective collaboration by using the technology yourself.

The opening session definitely set the tone for the remainder of the day: collaboration, content, and change.

There was a break between the opening session and the afternoon educational sessions so I took the opportunity to catch up with the Blogoclump - Jeff, Jamie, Maddie, Zach, Matt, and Lindsey. That is one of the best parts of conferences, catching up with your colleagues.

The afternoon held three afternoon slots each with a number of interesting sessions so I had to pick the ones that I would attend carefully. Never an easy decision to make but important to get the most out of the conference. Ultimately I decided to stick with topics that would benefit me in the short-term as opposed to topics that I am simply interested in but may not have a practical use for.

I’ll post a overview / synthesis of each of the sessions that I attended as well as what I did Friday in a follow-up post. Stay tuned.