With a heavy heart and fond memories, fundraising reporter Hugh Radojev bids farewell to the 2015 IoF National Fundraising Convention with his impressions of the third and final day.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedershen, goodbye!

The Institute of Fundraising’s National Convention 2015 ended with more of a whimper than a bang, as an impending tube strike sent many of the delegates (and one or two reporters) scurrying for the train rather early.

Despite the final day being somewhat truncated, there was still plenty going on in the earlier sessions and in the final plenary to satiate even the most ravenous of fundraiser and fundraising reporter alike.

Here are a few things we learnt from the final day of #IoFNFC:

Too much corporate partnership money is never enough

In a corporate fundraising session, a packed room fell silent with a question from the crowd. A fundraiser asked the three corporate fundraising experts on the panel when “they thought it was best to pull their charity out of a corporate partnership?”

There was silence. Furtive glances between the panel and then, just as the pause turned pregnant, Amit Agarrwal, director of corporate partnerships at Great Ormond Street Hospital said: “are you asking when a charity will stop taking money from a corporate?”

Everybody laughed.

With an individual corporate fundraiser worth an average of £300,000 a year to a charity, based on a survey by Good Causes, can your charity afford not to get a little corporate?

FUNDRAISING ROBOTS!

What will the world of fundraising look like in 2040? For some people, it looks more or less the same as it does now which, without wanting to be rude, is boring. Then, thankfully, there are people like Friends of the Earth’s interim chief executive Joe Jenkins, who thinks a little more outside the box.

“Fundraising Robots!” he cried out to the gathered fundraisers, before adding: “ok, stay with me on this.”

Don’t worry Joe, we’re 100 per cent with you when it comes to fundraising robots. In fact, we’re already planning our inaugural: “Top 50 Most Influential Fundraising Robots 2040” feature.

Flex yo’ brand

No, this has nothing to do with getting your marketing team down in the gym every other night. It means letting your supporters drive their own social media content, even if the message isn’t strictly on brand.

Catherine Miles and Sam Butler from Anthony Nolan had fundraisers reaching for the handkerchiefs and tissues by showing videos made by the charity’s supporters. While “the camera work was a bit shaky and the branding wasn’t very strong,” Butler said “anything we do as professional fundraisers cannot match this kind of powerful, story driven content for authenticity”.

The slowest evacuation in history

Alarms rung, volunteers with loud speakers scrambled, the delegates meandered. It was a fire alarm. But it wasn’t exactly the most punctual evacuation of a convention anyone had ever seen. After a few minutes of milling around, the word went out that everything was fine and we could all go back inside.

Just as we all trooped back in through the revolving hotel doors, four fire engines came screaming around the corner. “Don’t worry,” someone yelled out. “It’s all perfectly safe”.

Not exactly reassuring but, hey, nobody died.