Monday, January 23 is Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). If your association has a community manager, I know you already appreciate him or her because your online community would likely fail without their attention.
This year’s CMAD features:
- An eight-hour live webathon on Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST featuring outstanding speakers and community manager panels, headlined by Jeremiah Owyang, the founder of Community Manager Appreciation Day.
- A Community Manager of the Year award with a prize valued at over $1,000 including a complimentary registration to the CMX Summit, roundtrip airfare on Southwest Airlines and a $500 travel stipend. Take that, you measly professional development budget!
- A #CMAD cheers at 5 p.m. EST – community managers, have the adult beverage of your choice ready and join in.
RSVP for CMAD on Facebook so the organizers get an idea of the number of people participating. It’s all free – just the way we like it here.
Big news this week on the online community front: Higher Logic bought Socious. Find out what Ben Martin, CAE, founder of Online Community Results, learned from his talk with Higher Logic’s co-founder, Andy Steggles.
If your association still has a SysAdmin or IT director fiddling with patches and firewalls and all kinds of mysterious network stuff behind the closed doors of your server room, then listen up. I could get on my soapbox about this topic, but you’d probably rather listen to Chris Kasmark at DelCor – he lays out four reasons why your association should rethink how you handle IT.
Inquiring minds want to know: where’s association management software heading in 2017? Jen Barrell at Aptify has a few ideas herself (I’m guessing she’s got an inside line here) and asked a few experts to speculate as well.
I know the web is overrun with posts about productivity, most of which are crap, but I was inspired by this article on morning routines to change my own. For me, the big change was simple and obvious – no Internet before noon. Web abstinence hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be and now I’m wondering why I didn’t do this six years ago. I’ve made other changes to my morning routine but I’m going to wait a few weeks until I report back on them. Life is a work in progress.
Now, onto the list of this week’s free webinars and learning events. If your organization has a webinar scheduled in the next few weeks, please send me the link. I’ll be happy to feature it as long as it’s not too product-centric.
Tue 1/24 at 12 p.m.* – Empowering the Young Professional Voice (Columbia MD Idea Swap)
Learn what it means to create space for the young professional voice at your association, to build those voices as association advocates, and honor those voices when crafting the association’s strategic direction. After all, if young professionals will inherit the organizations of tomorrow, they should be an equal player in the strategy conversations today. 1 CAE credit. Location: Columbia MD. More info/register.
Organizer: Peggy Hoffman, CAE, president, Mariner Management & Marketing
Presenter: Lowell Aplebaum, CAE, CEO, Next Connextion
*All times are Eastern Standard Time unless otherwise noted.
Tue 1/24 at 12 p.m. – Taking the Tiger by the Tail: Seizing Control of Your Career Destiny
How we manage our career and go about finding work has radically shifted due to emerging technologies and constantly changing economic conditions. There’s no such thing as job security in today’s workplace– it’s now all about employability. Building this mindset will allow you to navigate quickly (and be in control of) future job transitions. More info/register.
Host: MPI
Presenter: Dawn Rasmussen
Tue 1/24 at 12:30 p.m. – xAPI for Instructional Designers
Learn more about xAPI and how it will change the way instructional designers change the way they use and analyze data from learners and courses. Review SCORM and xAPI side-by-side to see the expanded capabilities xAPI has over SCORM. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Web Courseworks
Presenter: Megan Torrance, Torrance Learning
Tue 1/24 at 2 p.m. – Association Chat
Check the Association Chat page on Crowdcast to find out about this week’s topic and guest(s).
Host: KiKi L’Italien, founder, Amplified Growth
Tue 1/24 at 2 p.m. – Fuel Exceptional New Member Experiences: 3 New Strategies for Onboarding, Engagement and Retention
After conducting in-depth interviews with more than 300 members, Amanda Kaiser learned that the membership process is not a year-long cycle. Instead, the decision to renew is highly influenced by a member’s experience when they first join. Learn how associations of all sizes have increased their overall member retention rates by creating exceptional onboarding experiences for their new members. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: YourMembership
Presenters:
- Amanda Kaiser, chief path finder, Kaiser Insights LLC
- Quinn Brady, vice president, customer success, YourMembership
Tue 1/24 at 2 p.m. – Turn Your Website into a Membership Growth Engine
Even someone without any tech experience can turn their website into a new member recruiter — in just an afternoon. Learn about three website changes that will start attracting new members right away; how to get volunteers to easily make updates by themselves (even if they don’t have any tech experience); and how other organizations use their website to drive membership growth. More info/register.
Host: Wild Apricot
Presenter: Terry Ibele, growth specialist, Wild Apricot
Tue 1/24 at 2 p.m. – Digital Marketing for the Event Planner: Organic Search
Research shows that 89% of conference attendees use search for purchase decisions. Learn how to build a keyword strategy and rank higher on search; avoid being penalized by search engines; and use search engine marketing to improve the search results for your event. More info/register.
Hosts: Eventbrite, Moz, and Pathable
Tue 1/24 at 2 p.m. – Engaging the Volunteer of the Future
Find out what volunteers are looking for and use this information to start designing volunteer opportunities and determining who is the “right” volunteer for your program. Learn how “word of mouth” plays such a large role in attracting volunteers to your organization and how social media makes this even more important. More info/register.
Host: VolunteerMatch
Presenter: Jennifer Bennett, senior manager of education & training, VolunteerMatch
Wed 1/25 at 1 p.m. – How Much Does Membership Software Really Cost?
Hear some straight talk about membership software pricing. Learn what goes into pricing, how to control the costs of new membership software, and what questions you should ask technology vendors to ensure you get the right AMS fit for your association. More info/register.
Host: Aptify
Presenters: Johanna Kasper, director of engagement, and Eric McDonald, engagement manger, Aptify
Wed 1/25 at 1 p.m. – How to Get Your Event Website Noticed
Is your event website trustworthy? Does it send the right messages? How can you audit and improve the conversion rate? Learn about a sales funnel that is proven to increase website conversions by adding trust signals. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Hosts: Event MB and Eventbrite
Presenter: Filip Matous, digital strategist and author of How to Get Your Website Noticed
Wed 1/25 at 1 p.m. – Get Empowered by the API Economy
Get a better understanding of what you need to know in order to select and implement different best-in-breed event technology solutions to create a unified solution for your needs. More info/register.
Host: Hubb
Presenter: Allie Magyar, founder and CEO, Hubb
Wed 1/25 at 1 p.m. – Meeting Budget and Cost-Savings Strategies
Hear about industry issues and trends that impact value-based negotiations. Learn how to review key cost-savings strategies, including room rates, concessions, F&B and audiovisual, and Internet/technology support services; how to develop methods to create value formulas and metrics to define, measure and report success; and how to communicate real meeting value to senior managers and stakeholders. Find out the five key steps to assure measurable cost savings and ROI. More info/register.
Host: Meetings Today
Presenter: Robyn Mietkiewicz, senior director of global meeting management, Meeting Sites Resource
Wed 1/25 at 1 p.m. – How ASHA Generates More than $1M a Year with Online Conferences
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) hosts as many as six online conferences each year, grossing over $1 million in revenue annually. Learn ASHA’s secrets for success in a behind-the-scenes “tell-all” with a panel of ASHA event experts. Hear their scalable strategies for conference and content planning, event marketing, repurposing content, and recruiting sponsors. More info/register.
Host: iCohere
Presenters:
- Aiden Callery, marketing manager, ASHA
- Jack Coursen, associate director, professional development, ASHA
- Justin Goldstein, sponsorship manager, ASHA
- Leslie Katz, director, brand marketing, ASHA
- Chris Urena, director, professional development, ASHA
Thu 1/26 at 12 p.m. – How the Right CMS Makes Content Future-Friendly
With so much information being published, so many devices to display it on, and design trends in constant flux, it can be hard to keep your website in good shape. A CMS that uses a structured-content approach is necessary to re-use, re-mix, and re-style content for omni-channel publishing. Learn how subject domain modeling combined with content modeling sets the stage for a cross-discipline, content-centric implementation process. More info/register.
Host: DNN
Presenter: Carrie Hane, principal strategist, Tanzen
Thu 1/26 at 2 p.m. – #TrendingNow: Association Trends to Watch in 2017
From the rise of 501(c)3 foundations, to the increased need for software integrations, to building strong relationships between national organizations and their chapter affiliates, each year brings new shifts and opportunities. Learn how these opportunities can help you better serve members and positively impact your industry. Hear how Abila’s six predictions will affect your association and membership base throughout the coming year. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Abila
Presenter: Amanda Myers, director of member strategy, Abila
Fri 1/27 at 8 a.m. – Machine Learning – An Essential New Tool in Knowledge Management (Arlington VA)
Get an overview of machine learning theory, technology and applications to knowledge management. Find out how machine learning can be used by organizations to improve their knowledge management capabilities including the search experience, taxonomy audit and discovery, recommender systems, automation and analytics, and collaboration and knowledge sharing within an organization. More info/register.
Host: Washington DC Chapter of the Knowledge Management Association
Presenter: Hedeer El-Showk
Fri 1/27 at 12 p.m. – Using Webinars for Lead Generation (Inbound Lunch Bunch)
Inbound marketing is so new to the association market that it might make you feel like you’re back in elementary school where everything is new. So, we’re taking some of the standards of elementary school—keeping it simple, making it fun and creating a super positive learning environment where the only dumb question about inbound marketing and lead generation is the one you don’t ask. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: HighRoad Solution
Fri 1/27 at 1 p.m. – The LMS Meets 2017: What Every Buyer Must Know
How can you make sense of the complex learning management system (LMS) marketplace, where more than 700 learning platforms already compete for your business? Find out in this annual LMS market review as well as a discussion of key trends and vendors to watch. More info/register.
Host: Talented Learning
Presenter: John Leh, CEO and lead analyst, Talented Learning
That’s it for this week. If you can’t attend a live webinar, go ahead and register if the topic interests you. Most webinar hosts send registrants a link to the recording.
Association Brain Food Weekly is published Friday mornings. If your organization offers professional development for the association community, please send me the link via email or Twitter.
<Creative Commons licensed image of a female cardinal by Jim Leistman.>
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