The TechSoup Global 2009 Partner Summit took place from April 29 through May 1 2009 in San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. The goal of the Summit was for Partners to discuss how to better serve the NGO community through increased network strength and partnerships.

Representatives of Partner NGOs (PNGOs) and Affiliates from 31 countries participated in the Summit: those from Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Macedonia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and USA.

Russia was represented by the Institute of the Information Society, who is a full-fledged PNGO since 19 March 2009 when the infoDonor Program, the Russian Chapter of the TechSoup Global Technology Donation Program was launched (see http://www.iis.ru/en/content/view/343/91/  for the Launch event detail).

The San Francisco Summit format included Plenary Panels, Breakout Sessions, Round Tables, and so-called Unconference.

The Opening Plenary Panel of 29 April comprised one topic: "Core Issues, Hurdles and Opportunities". The key speakers were: Daniel Ben-Horin, Co-CEO and founder of TechSoup Global (U.S.A.); Rufina Fernandes, founder CEO of NASSCOM Foundation (India); Doug Jacquier, Chief Executive Officer of Connecting Up Australia; David Barnard, Executive Director of the Southern African Non-Governmental Organisation Network (SANGONeT); John Fung, Director of Information Technology Resource Centre, The Hong Kong Council of Social Service; Akhtar Badshah, senior director of Microsoft Community Affairs; Clara Miller, President and CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund (U.S.A.); Rebecca Masisak, co-CEO of TechSoup Global.

Breakout Sessions of the first day included: NGO Repository Primer, Stimulus Funding, Influence of Public Access Computing, Cloud Computing, as well as Donor Sessions and NGO Sessions.

The Plenary Panel theme of 30 April was "TechSoup Global Network: Impact, Sustainability and the Power of the Network".

The Breakout Sessions of the second day were as follows: What’s Next: Growth and Sustainability in the Partner Network; Achieving Critical Mass through the Addition of Donor Programs; Creating Impact through Content and Community; Outreach Strategies for Increasing New Org Registrations; Leverage Your Local Microsoft Relationship to Strengthen NGOs through IT; Planning, Logistics, and Operational Issues for NGO Repository Partners; New Partner Q&A - Ready, Set, Go: Getting started with the TechSoup Global Partnership; Building the Affiliate Community; Partner Portal (Version 2).

The Round Tables discussed the Leadership issue, some practical issues under the umbrella "Everything You Wanted to Know about Operations* (*But Were Afraid to Ask in Case Tracker)" and the Affiliate Network issues.

Tatiana Ershova, IIS General Director, contributed to the discussions of the "New Partner Q&A" session. She highlighted the necessity of making the program workable before it gets launched, i.e. PNGOs have to carefully adjust the available models and templates to the local legislation, business climate and mentality to be sure that the program does not get stuck because of discrepancies that inevitably exist between the standard patterns offered by TechSoup and the local legislation, organizational models and NCOs approaches. Appreciated TS collaboration in adopting documents and platform to Russia’s specific situation.

At the Leadership round table Tatiana formulated her vision of a PNGO’s role as a leader by definition, who have to follow, pick up and disseminate cutting-edge technologies, social innovations and best practices in their country. She also put a "crazy" idea on the table to apply the European Union’s model of superseding chairmanship to the TS Global Network. The reason behind this was to give all willing PNGOs an opportunity to exercise their enthusiasm in leading the network during a certain period of time along with the global leader – TechSoup – while leading discussions, providing solutions, featuring their countries, etc. To her opinion, that would increase interest and ownership of the Partners, make them more visible on the international arena.

At lunch time Tatiana met Daniel Ben-Horin, TechSoup Global Co-CEO and founder. They exchanged ideas of further TechSoup Global Network development and perspectives of the TechSoup Technology Donation Program in Russia and internationally.

The Plenary Panels of 1 May discussed two topics: "Nonprofits in Second Life - Meeting in the Nonprofit Commons" and "Assessing the Social Return on Investment of Technology".

The Breakout Sessions of the third day included: Fundraising Strategies and Best Practices; Boldly Going! New Technology Frontiers: Partner Platform and Beyond. Session "Faces of TechSoup Global" allowed for the participants to meet the entire TS team in person - they all presented themselves and their work to the partners. The session provided a great team building opportunity for both TS staff and their contacts in different countries.

The Unconference part of the Summit was constructed by the participants themselves and included the following tracks: Sustainability; Eligibility; First Steps in Donation Programs; Collaborative Fundraising; Social Media; Products and Services Donations; Green Tech, Recycling and Refurbishing; 3D Product Catalog; Marketing Outreach; Where Go Next for TechSoup Global.

Tatiana Ershova and Alexandra Kapustina, infoDonor Program Manager, participated to the Eligibility and Green Tech tracks.

The Summit Closing/Wrap Up session appreciated great enthusiasm of the participants and TechSoup Global enormous effort to bring all PNGOs together to discuss issues of common interest in extremely creative, positive, open and effective manner.

Notes were taken at the majority of the sessions at the 2009 Global Partner Summit.  Presentations and notes can be found at http://pngo.techsoupglobal.org/partnermeetings/summit2009/notes. This page will be updated, so keep checking back!