I have some very exciting news to share -- OrgOrg was acquired by Eden Technologies, Inc! Our members are familiar with Eden; they’re a long time OrgOrg sponsor and partner, and are incredibly dedicated to supporting this community. Eden’s mission is quite literally, “to create a better place to work, for everyone.” Those words ring exceptionally true to me, and to our community: the people making it all work at work. Though we’ve taken different approaches (Eden with technology and OrgOrg with discussions), we’ve both been committed to building tools and resources to support people working in Business and People Operations. I believe that together, we can create something really special.
Backing up a bit: I’ve always wanted to find the right partner to help me grow OrgOrg beyond a part-time-volunteer-led-side-project-Google Group. This group has grown into a beautiful thing over the last 7 years, and I don’t want to mess with what’s working so well -- but even with a baller volunteer team (and, trust me, they are ballers), it’s hard to scale and build new things when we only have part-time eyes on operating and growing. I’m incredibly proud of the organization our amazing team has built in our side-hustle time. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want more for our community.
Enter: Eden. Joe Du Bey (Eden’s CEO and co-founder) approached me in mid-2017 about the potential for a deeper partnership -- something to go beyond Learning & Development events, affiliate sponsorships, and contests to find the best in the biz. After many months of discussing, we realized that it made the most sense for us to officially join forces to build OrgOrg into the best damn community platform it could be.
So. What does this mean? And what does it not mean? First and foremost, I want to make sure to communicate something that’s essential to both Joe and I: that OrgOrg remains a separate, private, sacred space for members. Eden will not have access to our archives, our member lists, or anything else that would cause the vendor/community lines to blur. It’s quite important to Eden (and me) that OrgOrg remain a vendor-agnostic, safe community platform where members can continue to support each other as they have for years. That won’t be changing.
What this *does* mean is that we now have the support of a larger organization to help us grow. The biggest, most exciting change is that we’re committing to hosting our first ever OrgOrg Conference and Gala in 2018. HOLYSHIT I’ll say it again: OrgConf (name TBD) is coming. This year. Stay tuned for more information about content, scheduling, and the sweet sweet sweetness that this event will surely be.
We’re also working on ideas for how to amp up our Learning & Development programs/events, Resources Library, and Chapter growth. We’ve already started discussing some very exciting possibilities with Eden's tech team that will help scale OrgOrg's technology beyond the limitations of Google Groups, focusing on improving search and making it easier for members to connect with one another. Whoa baby.
I still have a full-time day job, and OrgOrg is still staffed entirely by people with full-time day jobs, but we’re growing in new and exciting ways - from chapters to content, we’re excited to keep supporting our community. If you want to get involved either as a member or a sponsor/partner, please let me know.
I want to say a massive THANK YOU to the members of OrgOrg for their trust, support, participation, and encouragement over the last 7 years. What started out as an email amongst friends has turned into a global organization full of advice, resources, and real-life support systems (and friendships, too. nothing’s better than friends).
This is one special community, and it’s an honor to be a part of it. Can’t wait to see what we do next.
<3
Kim