On Tuesday 27 November, Microsoft hosted a free Connecting Communities event, with support from TechSoup New Zealand and Infoxchange, which showcased how information and communication technology (ICT) can transform the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation to help deliver better social outcomes. 

While the event was designed for people within the community and non-profit sector who have a role in ICT decision making, the full day event shared practical and useful advice that could be used through-out an organisation of any size. 

The tone of the day was set with Peter Walton, CEO of Infoxchange Australia sharing what it means to be a digitally proficient non-profit organisation. 

Peter's presentation was quickly supported with a joint presentation from Rachel Turney of Microsoft and Craig Le Quesne from Plunket, who shared some insight into the thinking behind Plunket adopting and developing a Windows 8 application that will help to simplify, and improve the way information is shared both internally and between Plunket and their clients. 

Heather Mansfield of Nonprofitorgs then shared some valuable tips for using social media. Having grown her own network from a single MySpace friend 7 years ago, to more than 750,000 connections today, Heather was able to provide examples of best practice that were practical and relevant to the audience such as; keeping it simple, using images to capture attention, and always being honest. 

While Heather shared a number of tools, suggestions and examples, the biggest piece of advice she offered was that when using social media it's important to focus on your story, and not to get confused by ‘marketing or fundraising'. 

The afternoon was broken into a number of break-out sessions which covered Video Conferencing and Collaboration, IT Planning, Donor Management and Accessibility. 

Presentations and resources from the event are now available here. 

There are also a growing number of useful resources developed specifically with non-profit organisations in mind, to help you make use of information and communication technology.  

• Connecting UP Learning Centre
• Infoxchange iTaNGO Knowledgebase
• Nonprofit Tech 2.0 A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits
• Microsoft NGO Connection 

To connect with others from Microsoft's technology for non-profit events and to discuss non-profit technology issues that affect your organisation on an ongoing basis, join the Asia Pacific Tech4Good LinkedIn Group here.

image via @NonprofitOrgs on Flickr