Yesterday I attended a technology and communications conference sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and MAP for Nonprofits. Throughout the day, “Digital Immigrants” (a term used by keynote presenter Beth Kanter for folks who didn’t grow up with technology) were exposed to examples of how Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr and Tweeter, You Tube and Facebook and blogs and wikis could support our work.

Mary Turck of Twin Cities Daily Planet fame and Jeremy Iggers, executive director of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, presented an information-rich session titled “Media Relations in the Age of New Media”. Theirs was a message of change and opportunity – change brought about by the dramatic decline in print media readership (resulting in sharp cuts in news rooms across the country and their ability to cover the news) and opportunity enabled by technologies that put powerful tools in the hands of ordinary citizens. This repositions a growing segment of the population formerly known as “the audience” to partners in a multi-directional communication network.

The take-home message behind all of this is that the stories we tell must remain the constant and the driving force behind the mediums we choose to deliver them. I was jotting this note while Mary was bringing up an example of a blog that, in her opinion, does just that. When I looked back up, I was both surprised and delighted to see the Blandin on Broadband blog projected – bigger than life – on the screen. I shared with the group that the success of the BoB blog (as we affectionately call it) rests squarely on the shoulders of Ann Treacy, our blogger rock star. Thank you Ann, for jumping in with both feet to the age of new media!