This November, I was in Philadelphia for the Annual Retreat of the WAA Board and the Philadelphia Symposium. Early one evening I went for a jog through the city. It was one of those perfect East Coast autumn evenings; cool and crisp with seasonal foliage at its peak. I wasn’t paying much attention to my route when all of a sudden, I found myself in the middle of a campground.

Huh? Why are people camping in the middle of the city?

Then I heard a raspy bull horn and it dawned on me I had just run into the middle of the "Occupy Philadelphia" camp. Fortunately, I wasn’t wearing my "Go Bulls!" Merrill Lynch t-shirt and the occupiers were, in fact, quite friendly. So I politely grabbed some of their literature, wished them well, and off I went.

It wasn’t until the next day at the WAA Symposium that it struck me how the "Occupy" movement and the WAA "Symposium" movement tap into the same basic human need. That is, the need to gather with like-minded individuals rallying around a cause.

In this age where more and more socializing happens digitally, that basic need to meet face-to-face has never been stronger. In fact, in a recent survey of associations worldwide, "quality of networking opportunities" was the #1 reason why people attend conferences.

You can read more about it later in the newsletter, but suffice it say the Philadelphia Symposium was a huge success! David McBride and Joe Sanders from Comcast, Heather Aeder from TrueAction, Annie Heckenberger from Red Tettemer, and the rest of the Steering Committee did an outstanding job.

For those of you living in a major metropolitan area, I’d encourage you to get together and start envisioning what your Symposium could be and then get in touch with the WAA. In addition to Philadelphia, WAA Symposiums are happening in Seattle, Austin, Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta in the coming year.

So bring this movement to your local town. Let’s Occupy Analytics!

To learn more about the Symposium program, please email .

 

Peter Sanborn,
WAA President

Comments

[Scott H]

How about a digital occupy movement? Why not have everyone gather on twitter via #occupyanalytics 9am PST/5pm GMT?