Happy Friday! What an exciting week it has been! I think I’ve already used my monthly allotment of free nytimes.com articles this week alone! It’s been go go go all week and I’m looking forward to a (somewhat) relaxing weekend, enjoying the nice weather. As always, though, I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite association blog posts from this week. Make sure you read them before heading out of the office to enjoy your own weekend!

April showers bring May flowers?

1. Jeff Hurt wrote a great (as always) post with tips for presenters regarding questions. Although it may be easy to say, “we’ll hold all questions until the end of the presentation,” audiences are often eager to learn more and may get stuck on a certain point during the presentation. Jeff shares some tips for presenters to set up expectations for questions.

2. In the fifth part of her continuing series, Words Make Worlds, Shelly Alcorn discusses professional development versus lifecycle learning. She writes that associations have to consider the needs of the whole person when planning professional learning – and to not just focus on technical skills, but also things like communication and leadership.

3. Jamie Notter wrote this week about online communities and conflict. He points out that people will say things via email or blog comments that they would never say in person – I’m sure you’ve experienced something similar. Conflict resolution is tricky, and it can be even trickier when the conflict originates online. How does your association handle such problems?

4. In this week’s Leadership Limerick, Jeffrey Cufaude tackles metrics and how to manage them. To be sure you’re on the path to meeting your goals, it’s crucial to implement some “stop, look and listen” metrics. This way, you can assess if you’re on track and perhaps even alter your goals a bit if necessary.

5. At the Acronym blog, Brian Birch shares seven ways to align your social blog with engagement champions for search engine success. Sound complicated? It’s not. Sure, SEO is kind of boring, but it’s absolutely necessary to develop a good SEO strategy for your association. Your small staff association can also use the social Web to champion innovation among your communities.

P.S. Don’t forget to wish your mom a Happy Mother’s Day this Sunday!

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I was fortunate enough to attend a social media conference on Wednesday, but I have to say – I was a little disappointed. It seemed like the majority of the speakers were only present to promote their own websites or companies. There were a few good speakers, but, for the part, I was disappointed and don’t really feel like I learned much.

How could this conference be improved, and what lessons can small staff associations learn from this?

For one thing, all speakers (except panel discussions) were limited to just 10 minutes. Ten minutes may be sufficient time for one speaker, but not for another. I think the schedule and line-up could have been more carefully thought out to reflect each individual’s strengths.

Please, provide good coffee. This may sound like a minor thing, but I heard more than one complaint about the quality of the java at Wednesday’s event. For better or for worse, a lot of people (myself included) rely on a daily dose of caffeine.

Encourage speakers to focus not on the background of their business, but on their future plans. It was interesting to hear some of the stories, but I would have preferred a more forward-thinking approach from these speakers. I wanted to know their future plans and how they thought social media would affect their businesses in the coming months and years.

Plan to have a strong wifi signal and make sure your venue has adequate 3G service. My iPhone had sketchy service at best throughout the day, and even my MacBook had trouble connecting to the Internet. I was almost unable to do the little work I needed to get done at the conference, and tweeting and taking notes on my phone was extremely difficult. Even if you don’t think your audience will be tech-savvy, be sure they can connect to the Internet. And try to have your event in a venue with outlets!

What practical advice for conference planning can you share?

Happy Monday! How was your (holiday) weekend?

I’ve got a few great slideshows to share (one from the awesome Deidre Reid). Definitely check out slideshare.net for all kinds of awesome presentations.

I’ve found a few great slideshows today (especially in the wake of the Great Ideas Conference!) to share with our readers. (Sometimes I think a format other than just huge blocks of words can be very helpful when conveying a message, which is why I try to include slideshows, videos and infographics as much as possible.)

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend; I can hardly believe October starts this Friday! I recently saw a few awesome presentations on SlideShare and wanted to share them with you all. I love SlideShare because so many fantastic, intelligent people post their presentations and they’re great for learning. Even if you can’t make the conference or meeting, you may be able to check out the presentations!

I hope your weeks get off to great beginnings! I always like to set weekly mini-goals every Monday morning so I can see tangible results each Friday. What are your goals for this week?