[Cross-post from the Yahoo! Publisher Network Blog]
Always a fan of the un-conference conference, Noah Kagan's Community Next did not disappoint. Complete with: Hawaiian Lunch Luau, Bong Vodka giveaways (good luck checking that in at the airport), looking down on money-focused ventures (do it for the love or go home) and engaging speakers who left their sales pitches and boring powerpoint slides behind (with just a few exceptions.)
Stand-outs included: interesting demos of Say Now from Nikhyl Singhai and loopt from "gray-haired" Mark Jacobstein; and entertaining presentations from Threadless dynamic duo, Jeffrey Kaimikoff and Jake Nickell.
Indieclick's Heather Luttrell was afforded a "full fifteen minutes" of the one-day conference to discuss the four-letter word of all un-conferences... Monetization and she was very compelling. I'm sold on monetizing the web. ;-)
Dogster's team shared their "Impact Horizon" approach to corporate development (from business, to HR, to the product.) In year one of your operation, don't take on a project that won't see impact on your "xxxxx" in three to four weeks. In year two, that "horizon" extends to six to eight weeks. By year four... look for results in four-six months. I think this piece advice is well worth listening to given how some lofty projects get so huge, you can't even get your arms around it.
Community Next seemed to attract an equal mix of attendees who had the next niche community site brewing in their minds and hearts (Facebook but... for church-goers") or products that these community sites can use to keep their sites sticky (Say Now and loopt.)
Next year... let's do it for two days and give monetization even more love. ;-)
