I’m rushing to put a few words down before I catch the early bus to the day’s first events here at CSAE. Yesterday was amazing. The sessions were very informative—they made me wish I could be in two places at once.

First, I attended a session on Social Networking and Media for Associations, presented by Andy Steggies, Chief Information Officer for the Risk and Insurance Management Society. Even though he was obviously very able to fill his presentation with acronyms and technical jargon, he managed to present a complicated topic in language that the audience could understand. He discussed the social Web and Web 2.0, and the impact these are having on society, and laid out concrete examples of how associations could use the technology to their advantage, but he also highlighted some pitfalls.

I don’t have the time to go into details at the moment but I will write more once I’ve had a chance to digest what I learned. But I can tell you that throughout his entire presentation, I found myself thinking of our nested content websites for events, and ways that we can present more options to our clients. I really need to speak to our tech people about these ideas.

But now it is time to fess up. I snuck out of the session ten minutes early. I jumped in a cab and raced over to the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue to meet my sister. Shannon Turner is the director of Public Health for the Vancouver Island Health Authority. She was in town from Victoria to attend her own conference about health futures for B.C. families. We wanted to have lunch together, so she pulled “older sister rank” and made me leave my session early instead of her leaving her session. Luckily, my company believes you should take the time to visit with family when you have the chance. (Or at least I hope they do, since they are about to learn what I did….)

But another fast cab ride got me back to my hotel so I could attend a session on improving networking skills, presented by Leap Start. Gayle Hallgren-Rezac and Judy Thomson presented some great concrete tips on networking. Unlike a lot of people I know, I have always enjoyed networking events—I just like meeting all the new people.

Yesterday, Gayle and Judy confirmed something I have always suspected: good networkers don’t go looking for something for themselves. They go to events to meet people. They are always looking for a way to connect people to other people or just to help out in some way. And they are ALWAYS doing it. Even in a movie a line up, they will talk to the people around them. They avoid trying to sell anything; they are simply and genuinely interested in meeting people.

After Gayle and Judy’s workshop, it was time for the keynote speaker, Tim Sanders, a former Yahoo! executive, who described how North Americans are really starting to be concerned about corporate social responsibility (CSR). His message was that the future success of companies and associations depends upon them adopting the principles of CSR.

Last year, Mitchell and I organized a CSR conference for the Ottawa Chapter of Meeting Professionals International as part of National Meetings Industry Day. We brought in Thomas Homer-Dixon to speak about his book, The Upside of Down. So it felt good to sit there in the audience knowing that our company is honestly working in the manner Sanders was describing. We’re not perfect—no one is—but we are trying to bring the principles of CSR to all of our projects.

After Sanders’ presentation, everyone gathered at the first networking session hosted by the Sheraton Wall Centre. It was great to see so many familiar faces from across the country. Many people were surprised to learn I have changed positions but they were very interested in the new company. And that was only the first networking session of the night. I counted five different parties going on simultaneously. I didn’t make all of them, but I got to a few.

When you only see some people once or twice a year, there’s a lot of catching up to do. As Gayle and Judy said in the networking session, “you can sleep when you get home.”