"The old forms are in ruins. The benumbed world is shaken up, the old human spirit is invalidated and in flux towards a new form."

Over the weekend, I went to the Corcoran Museum in DC and found this quote by the founder of the Bauhaus Movement in architecture, Walter Gropius. I think it beautifully captures the spirit of this year's NTC. The nonprofit technology community is in flux towards a new form: becoming more accessible and inviting; having constructive and higher level conversations; celebrating our work; expanding the networks; flushing out the buzz from the bullet-proof; pushing and challenging technology assumptions and our business processes; and having a lot of fun while were at it. I was told by a Silicon Valley old skooler who attended for the first time that the NTC wasn't just a good nonprofit conference, but a great technology conference...period.

The amazing Beth Kanter has won the inaugural NTEN Prize for being a fantastic and amazing member of the nonprofit technology community. We are awarding this prize to the community member who has made extraordinary contributions to nonprofit technology - with generosity, with spirit, with wisdom and with passion.

Nedra puts it this way: "Congrats to Beth Kanter who received the Fantasticness Award at the Nonprofit Technology Conference. She's the hardest working gal in blog and roll, and I think she's fantastic not just for the sheer volume of content-packed blog posts she puts out, but also for her willingness to help us learn along with her as she explores the cutting edge of social media. You deserve it, Beth!"

We could not agree more and award the NTEN Prize for NPTech Fantasticness to Beth Kanter. Since she was not in the room when the prize was announced (as the Oscars, it is a secret until the last minute), her lifetime flickr and Typead accounts as a token of appreciation, and the NTEN Prize, an ebony wand for the 'magic touch' and amazingness in the NTEN community, will be given to her in a separate ceremony.

The NTEN Prize: An Ebony Wand