It’s the gift-giving season for most, so I thought about what organizations and people I’ve gotten the most insight from over the past year, and wanted to share them with you.

But first, how to follow all of these without going bananas?

I find twitter is great for following people and seeing what they write (because they post links to what they themselves write), and what else they’ll point you to. It’s fine to be on twitter and really just read if you choose.

But if you don’t want to get into twitter, consider using a newsreader, ie a site which aggregates all the new items from other sites you tell it you’re interested in. I use Feedly – once I subscribe to a blog there, I can just go to the Feedly site I’ve created to see what’s new on all these other sites. It’s very simple. There are other newsreader services that also work well, so experiment to see what suits you.

And many of these sources (myself included) have a regular newsletter you can subscribe to, if that’s your preference.

My go-to sources below are organized into a rough set of categories, which many of them spill over and between with fairly wild abandon.

Leadership, Management, & Innovation:

No matter what sector you’re in, you’re probably thinking about how to stay ahead of the curve, how to improve your own skills, and how to gain wisdom about making decisions.

• Inc – Consistently interesting articles, from snippets to surprisingly deep dives. I had no idea there would be such great content here, as I never really got into the print magazine. Leadership, innovation, sales, change, technology, culture…
• Canadian Business – For wonderful Canadian-focused coverage as well as general management content.
• Harvard Business Review – You have to sign up but you can read all the blogs, and a few articles, for free. Lots of general-interest blog posts, by global leaders in their fields – and not necessarily academic at all.
• Fast Company – Silicon Valley features prominently but I’ve always liked Fast Company for a holistic approach to business. Always thought-provoking (sometimes a little provoking) and worth reading, both long and short pieces. I also follow contributors Faisal Hoque and Drake Baer (and others) on twitter.
• ExploreB2B – A platform for a wide variety of bloggers who write about all sorts of things, focused on business-to-business companies. Not always fantastic, but often fascinating.
• Wired – most of us don’t call ourselves technology experts; but all of us are going to be affected by at least 50% of what’s in Wired in a given week. The trick is knowing which 50%. Great writing, and even if you just skim the headlines you’ll get a glimpse of this world.

Associations, Events and Non-Profits:

Since I do a lot of work in this area, there are some subject matter experts I follow specifically for these topics.

• Associations Now – Crackerjack content from the American Society of Association Executives. Updated daily.
• Canadian Charity Law – sponsored by Blumbergs, they publish an email newsletter and blog regularly.
• Greenfield Services Membership Engagement Blog – great content on association management (disclosure: we’ve blogged for each other). You can also follow Meagan Rockett, Doreen Ashton-Wagner, and Greenfield Services itself on twitter.
• Association executives should know what Jeff de Cagna has to say – whether you agree, disagree, or somewhere in the middle, he’ll give you something to think about.
• If you do anything with events, you should be familiar with Velvet Chainsaw. Likewise Adrian Segar at Conferences That Work, and I always like reading what Thom Singer has to say.
• SmarterShift posts about content marketing, social media, and green events. You can also follow Mitchell Beer and Jenisse Fryatt on twitter.
• The blog of the Ottawa-Gatineau CSAE chapter has gotten off to a great start.
• PCMA’s Convene Magazine is nicely readable and has a nice breadth of articles.
• Steve Drake has pointed me towards some great association resources.

People I really like following on Twitter:

Some other people whose icons make me pay attention when they show up:

• Maria Popova – Eclectic curation from sources from Marie Curie to punk musicians. Really, just follow her.
• Dorie Clark – Personal branding, and especially if that just made you cringe, read her stuff.
• Geoffrey James – As above, with regard for sales.
• Jesse Lyn Stoner – Practical leadership.
• Debra Mills-Scofield – Innovation & strategy.
• Dionne Lew – Social business, leadership, and other topics.
• Jenn Hanford – Social media & content marketing.
• Deirdre Reid – Association management and other topics.
• Ricky Gervais – Hey, are you still reading? He’s exactly what you’d expect him to be on twitter… either you’ll love it, or, not so much.

Happy reading! And please let me know who I’ve been overlooking.

And, with that, it’s the end of my blogging year; next post will be in 2014. Thank you so much for reading, and commenting, and sharing this year.

Photo by asenat29 on Flickr; used under Creative Commons.