SURGE Growth registration now open
It’s no secret the association industry faces new challenges and market disruption as the world around it is made all the more complex by technological change and globalization. But did you know all of those challenges are actually opportunities? How the association industry reacts today will determine our future, and there’s only one way to tackle […]
Ready to grow? 4 books to get you started
If you’ve ever picked up a copy of one of Verne Harnish’s books, you know the Entrepreneur’s Organization founder puts serious stock in habit development. As the author of “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” and the later update “Scaling Up: Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0,” Harnish knows the value of making a plan and sticking to […]
Ready for SURGE Growth? Meet the 3 keynote speakers for our digital conference
When we first started to think about what the next SURGE should focus on, we considered associations’ biggest challenges today, how there’s a need to face transitional forces coming from both inside and outside the industry and how these organizations are looking to tap into new generations coming of age and into the market. We […]
Workplace fulfillment by the numbers
More and more, employees are prioritizing a meaningful, fulfilling workplace. While workers know fulfillment is a personal experience, they also acknowledge senior leadership’s role in setting a culture that nurtures or stifles a sense of purpose. Last week, in the kick-off article to this series, I suggested senior leadership aim for more than just token […]
How-To: Simplify Your Approach To Brand
Early on, the first brands were used by ranchers to identify their cattle. Later, as packaged consumer goods entered the market in the 19th century, brands evolved into markers that companies like Kleenex and Coca-Cola used to differentiate themselves from competitors. It was simple. But branding isn’t so simple anymore. Brand is about more than […]
Using Personalization to Stop Choice Overload
The question of how to get the best out of a database has been plaguing associations for years. We see some organizations treating their data like precious storage, while others see it more as a playground. I think your database is like your garage. You wouldn’t want everything just thrown in there haphazardly that it […]
Don’t Make Paying You an Inconvenience
After all the work you put in to deliver value to your members, it should never be inconvenient to make membership payment. You need to have options, think about what might make the process easier, and sometimes have something automatic available. I used to be with the Bed and Breakfast Association of Virginia and we […]
The Case for Human Connection in a Techie World
In today’s digital era, the world is changing to favor convenience. Technology and automation give us bots to answer our questions 24/7, personalized messaging, and curated recommendations for what products to buy or shows to watch based on our past interactions. This personalization makes life easier, but keeping the human connection is also important. One […]
PERSONALIZATION DRIVES LEARNING EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS
The personalization of learning for individual professionals will be one of our best weapons in the war against the growing knowledge gaps that plague today’s workforce. As the pace of change in the workforce accelerates, workforce readiness requires ongoing lifelong learning. Today’s employers are battling a skills gap as the pace of learning has lagged the pace of […]
WHY ASSOCIATIONS NEED TO ACTIVELY MANAGE GROWTH
A typical association will run conferences, develop publications and educational courses, provide online resources such as communities, and often be involved in government relations and standards work. These organizations face an extreme version of the challenge their for-profit counterparts face: in a commercial business, such diverse activity would often require many times the people associations have […]