Bummer – our June 30 deadline to reach 100 pledged attendees for Your Symposium has just passed. We tried. This crowd sourcing experiment was both a failure and a success. The failure – we did not reach our goal. We did not promote nearly enough. Our day jobs at FORUM Solutions got in the way – as they should. These are challenging times for credit unions and FORUM is no exception. A lot going on and FORUM Solutions is doing a lot of routine and innovative stuff to make a difference at FORUM Credit Union. I feel like I let down the people and companies that pledged their attendance and support. You all are so passionate about our little symposium and we love you for that. I apologize I did not promote more. Now, the success. We learned a lot about crowd sourcing and had fun while we learned. Hey, life is way too short not to learn and have fun. We feel like we can apply what we learned not only to future symposiums but also other projects. By experimenting with crowd sourcing we saved the money we would have lost by subsidizing the symposium with the attendance totals we would have drawn. Trust me, it is not cheap to host this event in the manner we do.
We will miss not seeing you in Indy this year. If you have any ideas on how to preserve the momentum this event had please reach out to us and let us know what is on your mind. We would love to host again some day and bring the brightest and most passionate credit union people together again.
Tim McAlpine on July 1st, 2009 at 01:15 AM
Bummer indeed. I guess if it was meant to happen it would have. Don’t feel bad, you did plenty to promote it. I think 2009 is all about getting to 2010. In the midst of this year of upheaval, the concept of a totally crowd-sourced event might have been too hard to wrap minds and budgets around.
“Hey boss, I’d like to go to this conference and I need my travel and admission paid. It’s going to be so cool.”
“Hmm, things are pretty tight right now. Who’s speaking?”
“I don’t know. But it’s going to be so cool and I’ll learn so much.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen!”
“Bummer.”
shari storm on July 1st, 2009 at 09:49 AM
@doug: travel and conference budgets were the first, fastest and hardest hit line item for everyone. I was scheduled to speak at several conferences this year – both in our industry and outside of our industry – that were canceled due to low attendance. It’s the times, not the desire. Your symposium has a great reputation; particularly among thought leaders in credit unions.
As soon as things stabilize, I’m sure you’ll draw the crowd you need.
Chad Gramling on July 1st, 2009 at 09:49 AM
We’re as much at fault as anyone Doug. Had we all done our parts to help promote the event, I am sure we could have gotten the twenty and more. I guess this is where being a last minute person really hurt. Give us one more week Doug! I’m betting we can do it!
GeorgeH on July 1st, 2009 at 10:09 AM
It was probably your choice of conference hosts. Darn it.
Credit Union Warrior on July 1st, 2009 at 11:18 PM
Shari’s right…it was like pulling teeth for me to get the OK to go. And I got the OK by offering to pay my own expenses (in exchange for the days off to go). Unfortunately, I was number 79 of 80…way too late. The Symposium is hands down the best gathering of credit union folks I have experienced in my career…