Inspiration Hub

Meetings. We all have them, but most people hate them. Why? Well the biggest complaint is that they’re a waste of time. What could be said in 20 - 30 minutes often takes a full 60. And as busy association professionals, you SURE don’t have time for that. So what’s the secret to shorter, more efficient meetings? Well it all starts with the agenda.

We talk a lot about the importance of surveying your association’s membership, particularly following events. But let’s say you do survey your event attendees and, unfortunately, don’t get the best feedback. What should your next course of action be? How do you respond to your members (and prospects) and appease them in a way that’ll make them want to come back next year? 

Member lapses are normal, and to an extent, inevitable. But many of them CAN be prevented - with the right strategy in place. Need help minimizing lapsed members at your organization? Try out these tactics

I often hear my association’s meeting professional members say that they would like a “seat at the table,” especially when it relates to organizational strategy. In many cases, meeting professionals are not valued or respected enough within their companies, or at least not to the point of getting that proverbial seat. Our industry can do better.

Raise your hand if you want to be an innovative association. Now raise your hand if you ARE an innovative association. Do those two realities line up? If not, why do you think that is? Often, it’s because we’re scared of innovation. It’s new, it’s different. Change is scary. But what if we could reframe our perception of innovation? Or maybe not even that, but scale down our ideas for innovation (and by extension, the risks associated with innovation)?

You’ve heard it before: “We’re all in sales now.” And to an extent, that’s true - especially for associations. There are a lot of things competing for your members’ and prospects’ time (and not to mention, money), so every touchpoint they have with your association(and every person they come in contact with) is an opportunity to sell - or not. That said, are all of your staff members equipped to “sell” your association’s member benefits? Are you all on the same page with what those are and how they should be positioned?

Pat Wadors, Senior VP of Global Talent for LinkedIn, believes that three factors – Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIBS) – are the key drivers of employee engagement. A sense of belonging, in particular – the feeling that you can bring your authentic self to work, that you are valued and are an essential part of your team – is the critical piece to the equation.

Organisations are fervently looking for new ways to drive more growth while investing significant amounts of time and resources to analyse data, measuring conference impact and determining areas for improvement. This happens as many associations acknowledge that their conference is the go-to place for networking and promoting educational opportunities, so one of their most sought-after goals is to create the much needed word-of-mouth excitement for it through a dedicated army of ‘conference ambassadors’.

If recruitment is an issue at your association, it might be time to reconsider (or revamp) your membership model. You probably have a variety of member types at your association (student, professional, associate, etc.), but within those member types, do you have varying tiers?

You probably read a lot about email best practices - when to email your members; what day, time, etc.

And while all of that is important (and definitely good to follow!), there’s something a little bigger we should all keep in mind, and that’s the context of our emails in relation to other emails.

People join associations for a number of reasons - professional development, networking opportunities, certifications and ongoing education, etc. But regardless of why they join, there are a few underlying expectations people have of your association - things they expect you to adhere to, regardless of size or industry.

There are probably a number of reasons people join your association - for professional development, to network with other industry-professionals, to have easier access to job opportunities, etc. But regardless of all those reasons, there’s one thing all of your members would love to have from your association - and that’s for you to make them look good.

You probably spend a lot of time crafting and sending out messages to your organization’s membership. But are those messages even being heard? And if they are, are they resonating with people?

You have a lot to communicate to your members, so to do so effectively, take a look at these four messages your members genuinely want to hear.

The devil is in the details. We’ve all heard it, and most of us have lived it. But what details, in regards to event planning, tend to trip association professionals up the most? We’ve got seven.

Every day associations are looking for ways to take advantage of being part of a global community for growing their membership, programs and services.

How do you eliminate silos within your organization and get everyone to work as a team? Here are a few tips:

With the rise of such companies as Google and Facebook, organizational culture has emerged as a bigger concern for most companies.

Events are a great way to engage your association’s membership. But did you know they’re also a great way to grow your association’s membership?

A study on how hybrid organizations manage the tension between mission and business offers some guidance for associations and the membership model.

To host a great conference used to involve a peppy personality, an untiring spirit, and a zest for customer service. While these things are still important analytics are taking over a previously soft skills-centered field.