Commerce Secretary Ed Gaunch joined us at the Marriott on October 12 to share his view of West Virginia's opportunities to "Pivot to the Future." He shared information with over 20 attendees from across the state on all the agencies under his leadership and pointed out the positives of the state, as well as some of the negatives needing to be overcome. Secretary Gaunch told the story of his first "paying job" serving as a runner for the [...]

Establishing a collaborative, fair, and mutually beneficial relationship with influencers will help you build a lasting partnership. Finding an influencer who aligns with your values and brand voice can have a powerful impact on your organization. And when you find that partnership, you’ll want to stick with it. Problem is, influencers are in high demand—especially now. But there are ways to get influencers to keep coming back to your organization, even in a highly competitive environment, and much of it [...]

Whether the speakers at your events are first-timers or old pros, it’s a good idea to think about both how to select them and how to prepare them for your audience. Associations have lots of events each year, and events have lots of speakers to manage. Some are old hands at the speaker circuit; others are existing members who have decided to step on the stage for the first time. And both may find themselves having to deal [...]

Mental health days are an increasingly popular benefit amid the pandemic, and a great thing to discuss around World Mental Health Day. But before you offer this benefit, an expert notes, you need to build a culture that nourishes the mere possibility of mental health days. With the stress of the pandemic extending for months on end, mental health days have come to the fore as an option for supporting well-being, in the workplace and even in the classroom. And World [...]

Just like event staff had to learn how to pivot from in-person to virtual, marketers had to figure out how to promote these new events to audiences that hadn’t experienced them before. A new toolkit provides examples of strategies that worked in 2020. When the world shut down in March 2020, many associations were left to consider how to turn an in-person meeting into a virtual event that still educated its audience. Marketing staffs also had to shift [...]

Strategic planning is one of the most important but intimidating parts of association work. The extent to which your association achieves your goals, and how quickly, depends in large part upon the thoroughness of your strategic plan. There are many factors to consider when designing a calculated association strategy that can guide your association in the short, medium and long term. Here’s our best advice for thoughtfully assembling a better association strategic plan. 7 Practical Ways to Design [...]

Thanks to AI, automation isn’t just for factory floors and drudge work. Executives can use that as a nudge to improve their soft skills. This week marks the start of Major League Baseball’s playoff season. My favorite team didn’t make the cut, but I’ll still watch the games, and during the slow parts, I’ll wonder about a question the game is increasingly inspiring: Can we automate the CEO’s job out of existence? I’ve been thinking about CEOs in [...]

The extra layers of safety that come with hosting events during COVID-19 also come with additional costs. Experts say some of the costs are being passed on to attendees, while in some cases, sponsors can offset fees through branding. Events taking place during the pandemic have required an added layer of safety, which often comes with an added layer of expense. Those include costs for things like masks, extra signage, floor tiles indicating distancing, hand sanitizer, and even [...]

Reaching out a little farther to lapsed members with better, more relevant communications has yielded some excellent results for one association. Find out why. Extending back to members who have lapsed over one to two years is pretty standard, but what happens when you delve a little deeper and go back, say, five years? Finding the sweet spot of how far back to go is ongoing, says Maureen Geoghegan, communications and membership executive at the American Society of [...]

Associations are trying to be thoughtful about policies for in-person events as they start anew. Here are a few strategies organizations are using. In February 2020, few meeting planners were thinking about things like tracking proof of vaccination. But as associations tiptoe back into face-to-face gatherings, planners are having to address questions about policies that will make the return safe for all. Read on for a few approaches organizations are using to firm up their policies ahead of their [...]