TechSoup Canada RoadShow: Edmonton, Alberta

River Rally 2009

TechSoup Canada had the great opportunity to be a part of of River Rally 2009, sponsored by Alberta Ecotrust. The River Rally is a capacity building conference for watershed stewardship groups in Alberta. The conference offered a variety of workshops on how to communicate with impact, and ways to leverage volunteers and money. In addition, it was a great opportunity for organizations to network and learn from each other.

On day one of the conference, we were invited to go on a river rafting trip down the North Saskatchewan River and learn about water sciences. The trip was put together by Cows & Fish and RiverWatch. RiverWatch is an award winning Alberta nonprofit that provides science resource programs to grade 9 students. Our river rafting trip is just one of the programs they offer in Calgary and Edmonton area. Cows & Fish is a nonprofit that helps landowners and local communities to gain better understanding of lands adjacent to streams, rivers, lakes ands wetlands.

As we paddled down the river and learned about why rivers meander, or what kind of invertebrates in the water can be an indication of how health our water supplies are, it really hammered home to me how important the work the voluntary sector provide to the public.

So how does technology fit into all of this? Technology won't make the water safer to drink or improve the bio-diversity of the river bank. However, if these organizations are able to utilize technology to make their daily operations more efficient, or to improve their awareness campaigns, then technology would be a great tool to increase their organizational capacity.

The presentation I delivered was on resources for technology as well as how to plan for technology. You can find my presentation for River Rally 2009 here.

Twitter = Conversations and Partnerships

For those of you that still wonder how social media can help a nonprofit? I sent a tweet on Twitter while I was in Edmonton offering to meet up with local nonprofit groups. Shawna and Lynn from Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations responded and we were able to brainstorm ways our two organizations can collaborate over some yummy sandwiches at Colonel Mustards.

As I leave Edmonton and head back to Toronto, I find my self looking forward to coming back again in the future. It was great to be able to get out to the communities and get to know some of the organizations that we serve. Thank you Edmonton for making my trip memorable!

Next stop: Regina, Saskatchewan!