Archive for the 'Big Thoughts' Category

Join BigTent for a free webinar: Fun with Fundraising

Published March 3, 2010 Big Thoughts Leave a Comment
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You know may know her from our recent twins’ club webinar, Twins Club: Extreme Makeover. Natalie Diaz is a force to be reckoned with — tireless mother of twins, founder of Twiniversity, and expert group leader. She is currently Director of Manhattan Twins Club, which means she’s responsible for a support system that helps out over 900 expectant and new moms.

In that role, Natalie has learned the ropes to fundraising. If you’re part of a parents group and you’re looking for ideas to raise revenue for your club, be sure to join Natalie in our latest BigTent webinar, Fun with Fundraising. Here are the details:

Fun with Fundraising

Thursday, March 11 @ 9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern

Registration is FREE, so sign up today!

During the session, Natalie will share 10 tips she’s used to bolster her twins club’s budget. Though her experience is tied to twins clubs, we encourage all parenting group leaders to join. Tips she’ll share include:

-How to sell group products

-How to find event sponsors

-How to monetize your newsletter

…and more!

Hope to see you on the upcoming webinar. Let us know if you have any questions.

-The BigTent Team

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BigTentGroups

Follow Natalie & Twiniversity on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Twiniversity

Flying with BigTent: slides and audio available

Published February 23, 2010 Big Thoughts Leave a Comment
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Missed today’s BigTent webinar? Not to worry. The slides and audio for today’s session are now available:

It’s always rewarding to help BigTent users get more out of our site. We hope this session helps you all interact more meaningfully with FlyLady and other FlyBabies. And if you have any questions about using BigTent for other groups you’re involved with, pleased let us know!

Best,

Mia & the BigTent team

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bigtentgroups

BigTent expert Monica Baucke hosts school webinar

Published January 15, 2010 Big Thoughts 2 Comments
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Hello school community leaders,

Happy New Year! The free webinar BigTent and I hosted last year, “How to Organize Your School Online,” was a huge success, so we’re bringing it back in 2010 to continue spreading the word about Web 2.0 technology and how it can benefit school communities.  This session is geared towards PTAs, PTOs, preschool groups, and all other school communities.

Get your questions ready and sign up today! Here are the details:

How to Organize Your School Online
Thursday, January 28 @ 9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern
Register for FREE at bigtent.webex.com

During this webinar, I’ll share 10 tips and tricks on how to combine online and in-person activities to strengthen your school community. Tips include:

-How to improve communications

-How to delegate responsibilities

-How to get more parents involved

I have used these tips in my own school community. I am an active volunteer for Leo R. Croce Elementary PTA (www.crocepta.com), and I’m proud to say that we have enrolled over 200 members in our BigTent group.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information. I hope you can attend.

Best,

Monica

PTA Volunteer & BigTent Expert

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/myptofview

Follow BigTent on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bigtentgroups

Join BigTent for a FREE Webinar: How to Organize Your School Online

Published November 23, 2009 Big Thoughts 2 Comments
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Hello school community leaders!

2009 is drawing to a close, but it’s never too late to start thinking of ways to use Web 2.0 technology to improve communications for your school.

On December 3, please join me and BigTent for a special webinar, “How to Organize Your School Online.”  This free session is geared towards PTAs, PTOs, preschool groups, and all other school communities.

Here are the details:

How to Organize Your School Online
Thursday, December 3 @ 9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern
Register for FREE at bigtent.webex.com

During this webinar, I’ll share 10 tips and tricks on how to combine online and in-person activities to strengthen your school community. Tips include:

-How to improve communications

-How to delegate responsibilities

-How to get more parents involved

I have used these tips in my own school community. I am an active volunteer for Leo R. Croce Elementary PTA (www.crocepta.com), and I’m proud to say that we have enrolled over 200 members in our BigTent group.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information. I hope you can attend!

Best,

Monica

PTA Volunteer & BigTent Expert

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bigtentgroups

Join BigTent for Twins Club: Extreme Makeover

Published November 3, 2009 Big Thoughts 2 Comments
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Twins Club: Extreme Makeover artwork

Are you a twins club leader looking for ways to save time and boost participation in your group? Join us next week for a fun, free webinar, hosted by BigTent and led by fellow expert twin mom, Natalie Diaz.

Twins Club: Extreme Makeover
Thursday, November 12 @ 9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern
Click here to register for free

In this session, Natalie will share 10 tips to help you cut down on management burdens and spruce up your twins club. Tips include:

-How to manage member information online
-How to delegate volunteer responsibilities
-How to plan awesome events

Natalie is Director of Manhattan Twins Club, a group on BigTent that boasts over 900 members. Natalie is also founder of Twiniversity.com and a contributing writer for New York Family Magazine — she is guaranteed to commiserate with you and make you laugh!

Hope to see you next week at the webinar. Let us know if you have any questions.

Best,

The BigTent Team

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bigtentgroups

Slides and audio available for How to Grow Your Group webinar

Published October 28, 2009 Big Thoughts Leave a Comment
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Grow Your Group with BigTent

In case you couldn’t attend this morning’s webinar, How to Grow Your Group, we have a copy of the slides and a recorded version of the webinar to help you out.

Jaine Murphy, BigTent Community Coach and expert in starting and growing groups, led the session and shared 10 tips for increasing publicity and member interest in groups. Audience members represented all kinds of great groups, including neighborhood, parenting, PTA, and non-profit organizations.

BigTent will continue to organize webinars in ongoing efforts to share best practices for leading groups and for getting the most out of our free site. We hope to see you at a future webinar!

Best,

Mia and the BigTent team

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bigtentgroups

Join our FREE Webinar: How to Grow Your Group

Published August 6, 2009 Big Thoughts Leave a Comment
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Grow Your Group with BigTent

Hello admins and awesome community leaders!

My name is Jaine and I’m one of BigTent’s Community Coaches. I wanted to let you know about a fun, free, and educational webinar I’m hosting next Thursday, 8/13, on how to grow your group. I have grown my own group, Moms and Tots San Diego (www.bigtent.com/groups/mtsd), from zero to 700+ members in just three years. I have also partnered and shared best practices with over 3,000 groups on BigTent.

During this webinar, I’ll share 10 tips and tricks on how to grow your group. We’ll also have a portion devoted to sharing our best practices so we can learn from each other. Here are the details:

How to Grow Your Group

Thursday, August 13 @ 9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern

Register for FREE: bigtent.webex.com – click on “How to Grow Your Group”

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information. I hope you can attend!

Best,

Jaine, BigTent Community Coach since 2007

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bigtentgroups

BigTent had a blast at BlogHer

Published July 31, 2009 Big Group Additions , Big Thoughts Leave a Comment
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Over 1,500 bloggers ventured to Chicago last week for BlogHer ‘09. Donna Novitsky, BigTent CEO, and I were thrilled to be part of this record attendance crowd! We learned about the latest trends of business and blogging, and met with mom bloggers and the throngs of advertisers interested in reaching their community. For an extra dose of BlogHer buzz, we also joined the three-day unfolding of events on Twitter.

BlogHer

A great opening keynote conversation with Lisa Stone (one of BlogHer’s founders), Tina Brown (Founder and EIC, The Daily Beast), Donna Byrd (Publisher, TheRoot.com), and Ilene Chaiken (executive producer of The L Word), set an energizing tone for the event. It was uplifting to hear how each woman has brought her successful, offline media career into the social media world.

BlogHer then gave participants a chance to explore every niche of blogging imaginable. Sessions ranged from WordPress geek labs, a personal favorite of mine, to discussions on changing FTC guidelines for bloggers.

In the thick of Tweeting, crowds, and flashy swag filling every corner of the Sheraton Chicago, Donna and I enjoyed catching up with some of our friends and leaders of groups on BigTent, including Silicon Valley Moms Group and Manic Mommies.

The parties, which included unicorn cake*, weren’t bad either.

BigTent is excited about the role we can play in helping bloggers evolve their conversations with readers and build strong communities. See you in New York in 2010!

Best,

Caroline & the BigTent team

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bigtentgroups

*unicorn cake:

unicorn cake at BlogHer 09

BigTent brings neighbors together

Published November 7, 2008 Big Thoughts Leave a Comment
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When I started working at BigTent last summer, I immediately saw its value as a platform for parenting groups and PTAs. But soon another opportunity came into focus: Why not use BigTent as a way to bring neighborhoods together in a more organized way?

Some background: My ‘hood is urban and transitional. Neighbors fight traffic just to wave at each other across the street. Every few months, a few folks will energize and set up an event: a formal community meeting, a celebration at the local bakery. They’ll post flyers beforehand, and collect names and email addresses on a piece of paper at the event. In the best cases, these turn into brief email threads, full of excitement that’s soon lost in the daily bustle. From sporadic conversations, I knew many of us craved a better way to communicate and organize — a way to spark discussions on cleanup projects along the streets, play dates at the local park, and crime prevention at dusk.

We needed a virtual community on BigTent.

With the help and enthusiasm of some neighbors, I created our Neighborhood Association group on BigTent late last month.

Lynn's neighborhood on BT

A funny thing has happened since its launch. From their profile pictures online, I now recognize my neighbors from two blocks away. From our customized “children” category on the member list I know the family down the street has a son my daughter’s age. Our group calendar reminds folks of a monthly, family-friendly happy hour at the new local cafe, and a bi-monthly formal meeting at the community center. We can store meeting minutes in the “files” area and share photos from block parties. And although our street is busy and our lives hectic, we all say “Hi” to each other a little bit more.

We’ll still need to drop flyers door-to-door to make sure those without computer access have a chance to get involved. But our virtual BigTent community will only help spark interaction on our real streets.

–Lynn at BigTent

Tuning up the Tent

Published October 30, 2008 Big Features , Big Thoughts Leave a Comment
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Over the last few months, the BigTent team has been busy conceiving, designing, and building the latest incarnation of BigTent.

To inform the new design, we met with group members and administrators to learn how BigTent could better meet their needs for a group networking app. We also dug through site analytics to see how members were using existing features and content, and combed through support logs to understand the site triumphs and pain points of our current users.

With your requests, feedback, and usage stats in mind, we unveiled our updated product last week. Here are some highlights of the new release:

Increased focus on you and your groups. The“my BigTent” page gives members a quick, personalized view of the newest activity in their groups. We also made it easier for members to access their personal calendars by pulling “my calendar” into the top-level navigation.

Improved navigation. We did a little Tent-cleaning by reorganizing and rewording the primary sections of BigTent. Our goal was to make touring the Tent more intuitive and easier to master.

Notably, we moved the classifieds feature into the group context. Now when members want to post a listing for something they have for sale or trade, there’s an easy-to-find tab to get them started.

New look and feel. Our updated visual design gives more prominence to your group’s branding and content. Your group name now sits atop a color-coded header, a change that lays the groundwork for enhanced group customization tools (coming soon!).

Improved group management tools and navigation. The new BigTent admin area sports an action-oriented navigation, making it easier for group leaders to quickly complete their administrative tasks and return to the group. We also revamped the group settings page to make building out your group and adding content even easier.

We hope you enjoy the new BigTent! Let us know if you have feedback, and stay tuned for more upgrades and additions.

–Jay and the BigTent team

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