ASAE cancels 2010 Technology Conference

By Joan Drammeh

Snowmageddon may have closed the Virginia legislature for the first time in 40 years and caused The World Bank to declare a snow holiday but it couldn’t squelch the techie spirit of the ASAE 2010 Technology Conference & Expo.

When record snowfall hit the Washington, D.C., area last week, the American Society of Association Executives did cancel its meeting, which was to be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center Feb. 10-12, 2010. But the conference, which coincidentally was designed to teach associations the strategic use of technology to better serve their members and featured technology topics such as Web 2.0/Social Media and eLearning, continued with an unofficial meeting at the Renaissance Hotel and on UnTech10, a learning hub for virtual participants.

Within minutes of the ASAE canceling its third largest event, the association’s community rallied online to put together a plan B, “unconference” at UnTech10.ConferenceSpot.org. The Web event allowed speakers to make virtual presentations and attendees to practice conference 2.0. UnTech10 presenters added their sessions, Webcasts and Webinars to the Unconference Schedule Wiki. Attendees were able to practice the skills they were learning about in real time and interact via Twitter at #untech10.

For the attendees who were already in town, an unofficial meeting was held in a Renaissance Hotel meeting room that could accommodate 200 people. Leave it to the techies to turn snowmageddon into a learning opportunity.