Normally I’m not one to call people/companies/organizations out for things that they do to me. I generally handle things behind the scenes if I think I’ve been wronged and move on with my life but in this specific instance I decided that it was worth posting about because it could potentially happen to any of us.

Here is the situation. For the past few years I have been an outspoken fan of Fusion Productions DigitalNow conference. In my humble opinion it’s one of the best organized and programmed conferences that I have had the opportunity and privilege to attend in my career and I always walked away energized, inspired and full of new ideas and flush with new contacts. I started off as a simple participant in 2007, but was among the very few who was tweeting the event live – long before Twitter was the in thing. Last year, I had the opportunity to sit on a panel led by Ben Martin and had a lot of fun doing so. To me going to a conference pales in comparison to being a real part of the conference.

2009 marked the first time in three years that I wasn’t able to attend/participate due to financial constraints but I still kept track of what was going on through the vibrant Twitterstream. It wasn’t as good as being there but thanks to my association friends I was able to glean some pretty useful and interesting nuggets of wisdom and I even got to see Ben do a live demo of Mogulus. I wasn’t there physically but I was definitely there in spirit.

At some point as I observed the festivities I was alerted to the DigitalNow LinkedIn group and decided that it was a good group to join on with because (a) it’s an a group that I share an affinity with and (b) I like keeping as many contact points as possible between my association colleagues and myself. The DN group was a bit different than many I have joined (and am actively participating in) on LinkedIn in that it was by approval only. A hurdle no doubt, but one that I felt was worth dealing with in order to gain access to what I perceived to be a great community of folks. In the rare instances where I have joined “by approval” groups on LinkedIn, I have normally been approved within a few hours.

Aside: I only join groups where I either have a specific tie or think I can add value – groups to me are to be treated seriously and I don’t join them just to have a pretty badge associated with my name. That is pretty much my entire approach to social networking.

Well in this unique experience I didn’t get an immediate response. In fact my request to join went unanswered for quite a while. Finally this morning I did receive a response and here is what it said:

Julie McKown has sent you a message.
Date: 4/22/2009
Subject: [DigitalNow Community] Your DigitalNow Community request
Group: DigitalNow Community

Dear David:

Thank you for your interest in joining the DigitalNow Community group on LinkedIn.

DigitalNow is the name of an annual conference produced by Fusion Productions and Disney Institute. It was started as a way to provide Association Executives and Senior leaders with a forum for private conversations about issues of import. The expectation of our audience – and of our LinkedIn group members – is that we provide a place for them to have those conversations in a non-sales environment.

Therefore, we are only able to extend invitations to participate to members of our audience, past and present speakers and presenters, and a small group of Resource Center partners who participate in our conference. (For information on how you can become a DigitalNow Resource Center partner, please contact us at digitalnow@fusionproductions.com

We can offer you other ways to take part in our community. We invite you to follow us on Twitter.com (our user name is DigitalNow), and you may also submit articles of interest to our blog at DigitalNowblog.com.

Again, we thank you for your interest in the DigitalNow Community group.

Sincerely,
The DigitalNow Team

Imagine my surprise in reading this response this morning. What I had expected was a warm welcome from Julie. And while she may not remember we interacted pretty regularly in advance of last years conference and I even went out of my way to track her down in person to say thank you for her help. However, what I received instead was pretty disappointing. Here is how I interpreted it. I really don’t know who you are and instead of checking my past records to see if you have a legitimate reason for trying to join our group I am going to say no. However, because I am opportunistic I am going to see if I can increase our Twitter follower count by one and see if you are naive enough to give us some of your valuable content as great search engine fodder for our blog.

Had Julie done even a basic Google search (dave sabol digital now – check for yourself) she would have seen the first 6 or so entries related to me and my past participation in the conference. I literally went from a raving fan to a skeptical observer in the matter of the time that it took me to read the email.

Now this isn’t an attack on Julie per se. In my past interactions with her she was warm, kind and wonderful, but this experience left me doubting whether DigitalNow is an event I want to continue to support as an outspoken advocate. I personally know that I convinced a number of friends and colleagues to attend this years event and years past as well. Maybe they don’t want my support and involvement. That’s ok though because I am sure that there are many others who are willing to pay the $600 or $700 registration plus what ever it costs for transportation and accommodations for the privilege of attending such an event.

But that really isn’t the point. I think it’s the underlying message that I was provided with – that I wasn’t worthy and they had to monitor their membership closely to keep out the undesirable elements – is what really bothered me. I have a little more than a little knowledge on building effective and sustainable online communities, in fact that was my primary area of responsibility prior to leaving PMI. So I understand establishing criteria for membership in a specific group, but as a past participant, contributor and advocate who wasn’t allowed in I have to wonder how high that bar is set.

When creating an online community ask yourself a few questions prior to doing so: are you trying to create a community or a country club? More importantly how willing are you to alienate specific member groups to preserve the sanctity of others? If an online community can be found, chances are people, especially those who are enthusiastic about the topic, subject, company, etc., will want to join it. How do you act in a similar situation?

Definitely an interesting situation, one full of learning opportunities for everyone, and something that I will likely never forget…unfortunately.