Great post, Brad. We do a lot of work with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the leaders of which are constantly referring to their “convening power.”

There’s an important distinction between “feeders” and “conveners.” The former implies serving just one group within the community, say entrepreneurs. Conveners, on the other hand, simultaneously serve two or more types of folks in the community, e.g. mentors and entrepreneurs or investors and startup companies.
Government agencies and universities are just feeders unless and until they figure out how to serve more than one constituency in an e-ship community.
TechStars is an excellent example of what I think of as a powerful convener. They nurture and serve (1) startups, (2) mentors and (3) the investment community. They punch way above their weight as an organization. The alchemy is in their efficacy as a convener. (I speculate that less successful accelerators and incubators are less effective explicitly because they don’t convene in way that balances the needs of all three groups.)

I’ll take your headline a step further. Government agencies and universities ought to do more than just use the word. They ought to figure out how to serve more than their single traditional constituency. In doing so, they move beyond feeding and really begin to move the community forward.

Agree very much with what you said. When universities and organizations convene things, random events could happen. You never know. I do think that connectors are very important as long as they are free. The problem with many connectors is they charge for their service. It’s incumbent upon the connectors to figure out a way to make money from the “job” or role they perform without putting a tax on the system.

I believe all small business should have business phone service. If you are one or two employee company or in business where all your staff is on the road, then you don’t really need a business line. Just get a Toll Free number and it will work on top of your staff personal cell phones. When they receive a call, it will indicate that it is a business call on their call display so they can answer it professionally. All your staff can have their own professional voicemail system. You can monitor how many calls are answered and missed. I have been usingbusiness phone service from telcan. Check them out at: Check out Check out Business Phone Service

love that your made the important distinction between the convener and the connector. Also, your point about connector becoming gatekeepers is excellent as in some cities that stifles progress and could in some cases bring things to a halt. I think both types of people are needed and perhaps it is the most powerful when a convener brings connectors to their events. I also believe that conveners see the value of their activities in different light than connectors. Both are are helping but a connector is specific while a convener is more general.