Bridging The Education to Employment Gap Will Take An Industry-Wide Movement
My interest in this topic was piqued in 2012 when the McKinsey Center for Government released a report entitled Education to Employment: Designing a System That Works. Shelly Alcorn, who was producing a vodcast at the time, invited me to talk about how the findings of the report might affect associations. It was a great conversation and […]
Is Your Sales Commission Plan Working Against You?
I was recently speaking with an association publisher who told me that she was considering replacing the advertising representative firm she had been using with another. As we got into more detail, she revealed that the firm had been successful in building and maintaining her organization’s print advertising business, but had not been successful in building […]
Natural Symbiosis: Review Culture and Our Associations
“I know what I need, and it isn’t a salesperson.”* According to recent research from Wake Forest University, B2B decision making is increasingly being informed by customer reviews. In this customer-driven purchasing environment, in which 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to commit to a sale if they have read a reliable review, it […]
Why Video? A Micro-Learning Case Study
The Education and Career Services department at The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) has always been strategically focused on monitoring current and future trends to ensure that we are meeting the needs and learning preferences of our members. In early 2015, we conducted research and determined that micro-learning was not only becoming a popular trend, but […]
Leading by Example: How Passion Can Drive Technological Change
Changing people’s minds has both an intellectual and an emotional aspect. Intellectually speaking, it is of course important to present people with facts, figures and data to encourage them to commit to a transformative project. On an emotional level however, when it comes to implementing cultural change, your own passion can play an enormous role. If […]
To Improve Customer Service: Solve a Problem Twice
When a member contacts your organization with a problem, you have to come up with a solution fast. After assessing the situation, you identify the issue and come up with a quick fix, and they leave the interaction satisfied. But what made them call in the first place? And what can you do to avoid those […]
Association 2.0 – Digital Transformation and Relevance in the Digital Age
In 2012 my association was confronting member disengagement and depletion. We knew that less than 50% of our members attended our events (for multiple reasons). 15% of the membership consisted of international members and the relevance of associations had waned somewhat through the 00’s. Membership was on a slow downward slide and finances were tracking […]
How to Make Effective Use of Technology for Online Conferences
Developed and hosted by Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele of Tagoras, the annual Learning ● Technology ● Design (LTD) event is an online conference designed for professionals in the business of continuing education and professional development. The goal of the event is to help attendees find new and better ways to engage learners and create lasting impact through […]
SURGE Spring: Know Before You Go
SURGE is our free virtual conference for association professionals – and it’s happening May 2-4th! Here are some things to know before you go: THE BASICS What to expect: The event consists of 12 thought-provoking sessions, shown over three days, from 12-4PM EST. As the sessions play, an attendee chat will run alongside. Speakers will also be in […]
Co-Creation: The Value is in the Process
In another life, as a middle school English teacher, my classes would kick off the year by proposing, discussion, and voting on a class constitution, a list of expectations, norms, and promises we would agree to uphold for the rest of the year. Year to year, and class to class, the lists didn’t look that different. […]