Stephen Gould is the Associate Director of NETWORKS! Out & Equal™ Workplace Advocates. He’s been traveling like a madman, but graciously took time to share with me this quick story about Out & Equal’s success with CollectiveX:
"Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is a national non-profit organization that works with employees, organizations, employee resource groups and HR/diversity officials to help create workplaces that are inclusive for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Our flagship event, the Out & Equal Workplace Summit, occurs once a year, and draws nearly 3,000 participants. We also have 12 volunteer-based regional affiliates, all of which are hosting educational and networking events.
Out & Equal had been searching for an online solution that would not only help us streamline communications for all of our affiliates and the national organization, but also be a way to take the incredible excitement that occurs at our annual event, and keep that momentum going throughout the year – or, as I call it, the “in-between times.” However, our community of constituents also have issues of both personal and corporate privacy. They also require that any online group they join be professional, goal-oriented and easy-to-use.
After searching for over a year for an online network that would connect our diverse constituents from all over the globe, I had reached the point where I didn’t think that all of our needs would be met. (I had looked at Ning, Hivelive, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google groups, Yahoo! groups and a host of others—all which were either too open, too cluttered, too restrictive, or didn’t give me the flexibility as the owner to really own the information that was in the group.) I was prepared to make some serious compromises in the months before we were due to launch, until I found CollectiveX.
CollectiveX has allowed us to easily create groups that are secure and private, and not only are easy and fun to use, but are designed to eliminate clutter for our busy professionals (in many industries and job areas), and be functional and fun. We have just hit a milestone with 1,000 users across over 15 Groupsites, and they are growing. Our affiliates are using lots of different features, including RSS feeds from blogs and other news. Yet our constituents are able to choose what they like, get work accomplished and make connections not only in their regions, but across the globe.
We are excited to see how CollectiveX moves forward and are excited to move forward with it.”
- Stephen C. Gould, Associate Director of NETWORKS!
Out & Equal Workplace Advocates
San Francisco, CA