We love the work of grassroots and social justice organizations doing advocacy and community work in rural parts of California around issues as diverse as water safety and health to worker's rights and violence prevention.
We believe that these organizations are the leaders in their fields. We want to support and bolster the online efforts of California organizations and their people to continue to carry out their incredible work.
In May, over 40 community organizers and nonprofit staff joined together for the California Nonprofit Technology Festival in Coachella to address their needs and hopes for social change and build technology capacity. Folks traveled from Coachella, Mecca, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Long Beach, San Francisco, Berkeley, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Fresno, and more!
The 2-day gathering was held at the Boys and Girls Club in Mecca, California. Special appreciation to Trinidad from Coachella for making this event happen, and Ray from Mecca for donating the event space.
2013 California Nonprofit Technology Festival Coachella
An amazing group of leaders from across the state of California collaborated to bring this knowledge sharing event together. We want to take a moment to acknowledge these outstanding participants and event partners.
Co-Organizers
Brought people out for the tech fest, led sessions, and were awesome ;)!
- Regional Access Project Foundation
- The Center for Multicultural Cooperation
- The Eastern Coachella Valley Building Healthy Communities
- Boys and Girls Club pf Mecca
Agenda Partners
Contributed to the agenda by leading a breakout or speedgeeking session, and brought lots of love to the tech festival.
- Building Healthy Communities Sacramento
- Global Information Internship Program
- Coachella Unincorporated
- Healthy City
- Inland Congregations United for Change
Mind Mapping the Agenda
The event is designed to meet the needs of the participants. We develop the agenda in real-time by joining together in a mind map that pulls out the burning questions and insightful resources of the folks in the room.
And, of course, we use post-it notes to achieve the mind map!
Community-Driven Sessions
Sessions de-emphasize powerpoints and speakers, and instead focus on dialogue to learn from each other and share skills. Participants at the event can also lead facilitation sessions. We had such a diverse slate of sessions from editing videos and learning HTML to mapping your community and developing your communications strategy.
Here are a couple sessions that we liked! For the complete session list, go here.
Coordinate Your Online Communications
We really enjoyed seeing the cool Publishing Matrices that were built during Jessica's session. She talked about how to coordinate your online content at your organization and get your tech house in order.
Mapping Your Community
Do you want to learn cool tips and tricks for using maps at your organization for community impact? Just ask Ruth
Ruth from UC Berkeley traveled South for the convening to share her love of technology and California. She taught us all about mapping and building websites.
Making Videos to Share Your Story
Ernesto from CMC in Fresno brought all the skills for video production and editing. We even had the opportunity to learn some new Popcorn skills, too! What's Popcorn? Check out this blog post about the Mozilla Webmaker Tools at CA Tech Fest Coachella.
What's next, California?
Huge appreciation to the California Consumer Protection Foundation for generously supporting the CA Tech Fest and the growing statewide network of technology capacity builders in California.
We look forward to sustaining this network, and have plans to continue this tech party in Sacramento, California in September.
Thank you for welcoming us so warmly to your home, Coachella!