Best Practices to Maximize Conference Value

In this industry, we attend many conferences; our own, those for our association memberships, and those relevant to our area of work.  Here are 10 tips to maximize your attendance at a conference, and make it the best one yet:

1. Do your research before the conference: Even before you register, you should put in some time to maximize the value you should (and, need) to receive.  Why are you attending it?  What do you want to accomplish?  Attendees should set goals (in writing if you can, it is easier to be accountable this way); so that you can track your experience, and make sure the time away from the office is effectively used.
2. What can you do?  When planning on attending a conference, or selecting the sessions you want to learn from, determine what contribution you can add to it, not just what you want to get from it.  Determine what questions you might have based on the topic and description.  Ask your industry peers what they are attending, and what they want out of it.
3. Put down your phone!  We are not suggesting that you cannot use your mobile device during sessions to tweet, connect, and share, but we all know that the real value of a conference is the human interaction.  It is easier to connect with people when you are not on your phone during breaks and lunch.  Meet new people, have conversations, share experiences.
4. Manage Expectations:  Everyone has attended a session or two where the topic, or the speaker did not meet your expectations.  If you find you are in one of those sessions, you may start thinking negatively and not want to listen to the speaker anymore.  I recommend re-framing your intention – even if the session was not what you expected, you may still be able to draw key pieces of information that you did not expect to get.
5. Go All In…: Attend everything you can, and avoid staying in your room, answering emails or taking calls.  Engagement is key to maximizing your conference experience, and you cannot do that alone.
6. …But Stay Healthy:  If you are not a huge fan of large crowds, or are an introvert by nature, pace yourself, and set aside some downtime.  Take this time to plan the rest of your social and educational activities, and review your goals.  When out and about, dress comfortably, but appropriate – being yourself will be less exhausting all around.
7. Make a lasting impression:  Be the best you can at connecting people, meeting new people, and collecting cards/contact info.  ALWAYS use a person’s name, and be interesting and have engaging conversations.  
8. Leverage Your Attendance with Content:  How can you blog, write an article, or document what you have learned?  Who will you share it with?  Your members, your colleagues – both?  Depending on the conference you are attending, you may be the only one representing your organization.  Ensure that you take back everything you can, and outline it appropriately, so that all can benefit from your time out of the office.
9. Follow-Up…:  Whether you have re-connected with a long-time industry peer, or met someone new, follow-up should be mandatory.  It can be a quick note to thank them for their time, or show a supplier/sponsor/exhibitor some appreciation for the demonstration/conversation/social function.  Personal follow-ups go a long way.
10. …And Be Useful:  When sending your follow-up, especially if you have permission to by email, include a reference if you can to the conversation you may have had, and provide them with something useful (for example, a link to an article they may find interesting, or that information on your company that you promised).  Determine next steps in the relationship, and stay committed to following up.

What else could you be doing to maximize YOUR conference experience?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Membership in the age of Google: What are you serving up?

Do you have an information desk open at all hours?  Is your website an open book for your members and the general public?  Or do you keep reports, whitepapers, podcasts and other benefits of your membership hidden behind walls on your website – only available to your dues-paying customers?

Google is available 24/7 to answer questions from your potential new members or clients.  Before you even sit down at your desk with your first cup of coffee, there may have been several potential clients sizing up your business or association without you ever knowing about it.  So how are you capturing the attention of these potential members?  And how are you retaining members who know that they can probably access all you offer through some other on-line source in this age of Google?

This was the topic earlier this Spring for the Marketing & Communications Group in CSAE Ottawa-Gatineau.  While they didn’t come up with all the answers, they did have a fulsome discussion on the tactics you could use to encourage non-members to become members and those you could use to reinforce membership with existing members.

Information on websites can answer immediate questions.  Whitepapers can solve immediate research needs.  But are you giving all your value away without capturing something from these transactions?

When we focus on what matters to our members, perhaps it’s a bit like that old sitcom Cheers where at some point during the opening minutes of the show, Mr. Peterson walks into the bar and all the regulars should out “Norm!”  Are you ready to capture information that will give online visitors that “Norm” feeling about your organization?  Do your existing members that have that “Norm” feeling about your organization?

During the session, they looked at how you can begin to create engagement with current and future clients. Here are a few of the possibilities discussed:

• If you sell things through your website – books, promotional items, events or other – are you capturing any data through these transactions that could help you build a relationship with the buyers?
• With your existing members and clients, have you ever done any data mining to build more complete profiles of them?  What specific interests do they have? Do they belong to other organizations? When is their birthday?  Some of these questions might seem frivolous but it helps you develop a more complete profile.  They become human to you and you to them.
• Build sub-groups.  This type of niche knowledge could lead to news-sharing, events and meet-ups in communities which reinforce the value of your organization.
• If a non-member attends an event, is it purely financial or have you made a connection with them during attendance? (This could include a special welcome at the event; a buddy system; a personalized survey afterwards, etc).

Many of these ideas are certainly possible with technology.  But you, the organization, need to have a plan for data collection and usage.  How will capturing information help you transform your clients’ transaction into an experience that they will want to repeat?

Many member-based organizations used to be able to provide one-size-fits-all programs to their members. That game has been upped.  If you buy books online, you’ll know that you will receive future promotional emails based on your previous purchases.  Can you say that you know your members this well?

Sure Google is open for business 24/7 and commercial websites can create “personalized” experiences. Technology has provided the tools for data mining and resultant niche marketing.  Anything that you can do to add “warm and fuzzies” to your stakeholder transactions, will put you a step above Google, Wikipedia or any other online experience.  It’s important to remember that transactions do not equal engagement; human relationships do.  After all, Norm didn’t just want a beer at Cheers, he wanted the camaraderie; it could have been any bar.

This article was originally featured in the April-May issue of CSAE Ottawa-Gatineau Executive, and was written by Jennifer Hagen, CAE, Director, Chamber Development & Services with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Beyond Social Media 101: Meeting Member Needs & Facilitating Communications

In the Spring, members of the CSAE Marketing & Communications Group met and held a roundtable to discuss how to use social media tools in a more focused way to support organizational communications objectives and meet specific, defined member needs.  Here are the highlights of the discussion:

• Everyone noted that finding out what member’s needs and wants from their association is not an easy task.  It’s difficult to know if we are reaching the opinion leaders among our members, particularly for those with institutional membership rather than individual.
• It was suggested that, despite the prevalence of electronic communications, old-fashioned paper and phone surveys might still be necessary in addition to email and social media, in order to obtain an accurate representation of member wants and needs.
• Draws and contests remain a good way to evoke a response from otherwise un-engaged members.
• In the absence of good data about member needs, most association communicators are simply trying to build audiences on the “big three” social networking platforms: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, on the assumption that if we want members to talk to us, we need to provide multiple opportunities and meet people where they are.
• At minimum, associations should maintain a “placeholder” presence on these three platforms, lest their name and identity be used by someone else.  For example, one association has been unable to register a LinkedIn group under their name as it is already in use by a similarly-named group overseas.
• Once established, these networks can be used to seek input from members regarding what they want and need from their association.  This is particularly important for associations with non-mandatory membership.
• Although these sites are free to use, the cost of staff time must be taken into account, and communications staff do need to monitor traffic and remain regularly responsive to members who communicate with them via these platforms.

The goal for everyone, it seems, is to move from pushing information to asking members what they need and then seeking solutions to fulfill those needs.  Social networking could provide the answers in some cases, but perhaps other needs can be fulfilled by more traditional means.  We won’t know until we ask.

This post was originally featured in the April-May issue of the CSAE Ottawa-Gatineau Executive, and was written by Alison Larabie Chase, Communications and Membership Coordinator, with the Canadian Association of University Business Officers.

April-May #CSAE Ottawa-Gatineau Executive Now Available...

In this issue....

• Beyond Social Media 101: Meeting Member Needs & Facilitating Communications.  
• Membership in the age of Google:  What are YOU Serving Up?
• A Message from the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada
• Improving Your Advocacy Skills
• Leading Multi-Generational Teams

The Secret to Member Engagement Is… Being Nosy!

The only constant I’ve learned about associations is that there are no two that are identical. Every organization has a distinct profile of members, events, and objectives. This is true of associations of all size, even chapter-to-chapter of a larger national organization.

So when the question is posed, “What is the secret to member engagement?” My answer always tends to be, “Well that depends on the members.” So how do you learn about your members and engage them in a way that will be on target every time? Be nosy!

I’m not saying you should Facebook stalk them or find out where their kids go to school, but you should definitely start talking. Ask questions! Be genuinely curious about your members! Use the cocktail party rule: listen 70% of the time, share 30% of the time. This is tough because as an association leader you know you have a lot of valuable information to share and you know they need it. But to figure out the best way to get your members that information, you need to talk to them first.

So what do you need to find out in these cocktail party-esque conversations?

Who they are

Find out a little about your members’ lives and priorities. If your members tend to have young children that can drastically change your optimal times for meeting. If your members are mostly nearing retirement age, think about how your programming can adjust to meet those changing needs. If your members are younger professionals just starting out, they’ll require a different kind of networking. A simple bio of your members will go a long way!

Why they joined your association

You could probably guess this, and you’ll probably be pretty close, but ask anyway. You may be surprised, for example, how many people say, “to make friends because I Just moved here” or “to improve my networking skills.” If you find that there is a common thread that doesn’t necessarily have to do with professional development in the traditional sense, that’s a great opportunity to hit the nail on the head with engagement.

What they think about your association so far

Now that you know what they want out of your association, how are those needs being met? Ask specific questions about events, programs, or initiatives that you’ve recently run. Were they on target? Even close? Encourage your members to be candid, even if the feedback is negative. Assure them this isn’t about you as an association pro, but about the betterment of the association as a whole.

So when will you get the opportunity to collect all of this valuable feedback? Start with the members who are already engaged. Even if every answer is “peachy keen, jelly bean!” it’s still good feedback to have.
Once you have your already-engaged members’ feedback, start doing a little networking on your own. You probably already use post-event surveys, so start following up on those responses. If you have a great conversation with a member at a meeting or event, take a business card and reach out to him or her later. You may have a few people too busy to respond or who aren’t interested. However even the feedback you do get from the handful of people who want to participate is valuable!

And make sure your members know you are open and willing to talk. Whether you have an “actual” office door or not (association pros work from all kinds of places!) assure your members that it’s always open and you’re always there for feedback, new ideas, and constructive criticism.

Now that you have all of this fabulous information, adjust your efforts, programming, and meetings! You won’t be able to please everyone, but you can make a lot of people happy and engaged with your association. And isn’t that the goal, after all?

Happy engaging!

Sarah Hill is the primary blogger for MC Talks, the blog for MemberClicks, an Association Management Software provider. She loves listening to association pros tell her about their challenges, then figuring out how to help them work it out. To read more of her writings check out blog.memberclicks.com.

Lessons in Hybrid Meetings: 5 Steps to Getting Senior Management Buy-In

One of the main reasons why associations choose not to produce hybrid meetings is the lack of senior management buy-in. I believe that the key to convincing them of your decision is to know your facts. I recommend the following to gain executive level buy-in to ensure the success of your meeting or event.

Step 1: Help them recognize the need for change. 

Schedule a brief project meeting with your senior management team to review why you determined a hybrid meeting was right for the association.  Identify your strategy and walk them through how you plan to implement it. It is a good practice to submit a brief overview in advance so that executives have time to prepare.

Step 2: Present your event strategy.

Building on the decision to go hybrid or not, you will want to clearly define your vision through a 1-2 page event scenario. This should be a concise document that captures key elements of the event including content, timing, checkpoints, venue suggestions, basic logistics, budget, scope changes and associated costs, and questions that you require senior management input. This scenario will become a reference for senior management, not the agenda for your initial meeting.

Step 3: Present multiple options for implementation.

Avoid an all-or-nothing scenario by presenting at least three options.  Presenting two options is good, but opens the door for a “who likes which option the best” discussion.  Present three or more options to create a better chance for dialogue and collaboration about advantages, disadvantages and innovative ways of combing the options.

Step 4: Allow questions and discussion during the initial meeting, and be prepared for other ideas to surface.

Give your senior-level executives the time and opportunity to ask questions, discuss and get used to new ideas.  To assist in preparing for this meeting, you may want to discuss possible questions or scenarios with other meeting professionals. Then, listen well to the management team for their input and be prepared to implement their recommendations (or validate why the recommendations were not considered).

Step 5: Research other associations who have produced successful hybrid meeting.

Use one of the many examples of successful hybrid meetings to demonstrate your commitment and understanding of the opportunities and risks at hand.  Also, knowing what the competition is doing shows your dedication to ensuring your association is positioned to continuously meet the needs of its members.
Planning an event without senior management input is a little bit like playing a game of Russian roulette. Armed with enthusiasm and facts, you will be sure to gain the confidence of even the weariest senior executives.

Next lesson: Building your hybrid event budget.

Mahoganey Jones is a Certified Meeting Professional and Digital Event Strategist with a background in continuing professional development.  She has a proven success record in planning meetings and events that boost revenues and increase brand awareness. She specializes in ensuring all details are considered and that all targets are met and/or exceeded.

Image courtesy of 89studio / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Lessons in Hybrid Meetings: Hybrid or not?

With the rising interest in hybrid meetings - a meeting or event with at least one group of face-to-face participants connecting with other participants in one or more additional locations - planners have to ensure they are choosing options that not only fit their budgets, but also suit their members. Whether your goals are to increase revenues, improve performance or grow your membership, associations should start small and set realistic expectations. To ensure the success of your hybrid initiative, it is crucial to manage expectations of both the association executives and your members.

The hybrid model is so new that most association staff make incorrect assumptions about it. Hybrid meeting planners need to provide a clear rationale to both management and attendees that explains why the meeting is organized as a Hybrid and what they will be getting. If attendees are expecting the format of a talk show and they get a lecture from someone in a two-inch window, they’re going to have trouble staying engaged.

Questions to ask to help determine if you should produce a hybrid meeting or event:

• What problem might a hybrid meeting address, and how? 
• What opportunity might a hybrid meeting provide, and how?
• Which elements of your live event might be enhanced, and how? 
• What strategic objectives would a hybrid event achieve or support?
• What is the competition doing? Are they engaging your members more efficiently than you are?
• According to your membership surveys and attendance data, what are the main sources of value in your current physical events? 
• In what ways could this value be transferred and/or enhanced online? For whom?

Producing a hybrid meeting for the first time does take more time than planning a face-to-face meeting. After two or three hybrid meetings, this is no longer true. Initially, though, the planning process does become more elaborate as you coordinate for TWO audiences.

In my opinion, hybrid meetings are a way to enhance what your association is already doing well. Does your meeting bring in exceptional keynotes? Does your association produce innovative and engaging sessions?

Offering one or two keynote presentations as a webcast lets non-members “see what they are missing”, but the captured content now becomes a strategic tool for the association. The content can be re-purposed as a promotional tool for the meeting, a financial opportunity through the sale of the recording, or a member benefit by offering a copy of the recording for free in your resource library.

By embracing hybrid meetings, we as planners are able to show that we have the skills necessary to address the expectations of our members while demonstrating a clear commitment to innovation and new ways of adding value to our meetings.

Next lesson: Getting buy-in from senior management

Mahoganey Jones is a Certified Meeting Professional and Digital Event Strategist with a background in continuing professional development.  She has a proven success record in planning meetings and events that boost revenues and increase brand awareness. She specializes in ensuring all details are considered and that all targets are met and/or exceeded.

Image courtesy of ddpavumba / FreeDigitalPhotos.net