Your weekly list of free webinars and events for the association community…
“I’ll do that but not right now.”
How many times do you say that? What usually happens? Right, you never do it. You don’t schedule it. You don’t make time. You forget. Months go by…
I finally got around to doing it, in my case, donating to The Meetings Industry Fund. I’ve seen Chuck Fazio write about it on Facebook, but I was always too comfortable in my cushy chair to get up and get my credit card. Meanwhile, people really need our help. The Fund provides “financial assistance during a time of crisis to individuals who are directly involved in the planning, execution, delivery and support of meetings.” Those are our peeps, people!
I finally got off my butt, pulled up the site, and entered my digits after hearing Chuck talk about it on a recent Association Chat. His whole conversation with KiKi is entertaining and inspiring—well worth your time.
So, get off your butt, grab your wallet and card, and give to The Meetings Industry Fund (or the charity of your choice). No more slacking.
I’m slacking on conferences this spring because I’m too busy taking vacations. I never miss the digitalNow conference, but I made the tough decision to stay home this year. I’ll be envious when I see the tweets but I rather hike (and see Tom Petty) in Colorado. digitalNow starts Tuesday—follow along on the hashtag, #diginow.
I still get an uneasy anxious feeling when I think about leading an AMS implementation project at my last association job. Post-Implementation Stress Syndrome, yup, PISS, you heard it here first. On the bright side, I sure learned a lot, but I could have benefited from all the good information out there now, like this post from Aptify about preparing for data migration challenges. Ugh, there’s that queasy feeling again, pass me the wine.
If you follow me anywhere, you know I go on and on about cybersecurity. Just yesterday, I received a phishing email supposedly containing a Google doc from a familiar name. It’s only a matter of time, folks. If you’re an association CEO, I hope you’re on top of the cybersecurity situation (and culture) in your office. Dave Coriale at DelCor explains what you need to know to protect your data, and maybe your job.
“The web looks like shit,” says Hanson O’Haver. He’s right. How tired are you of all the user-unfriendly tactics we have to tolerate just to read something. I used to read lots of food blogs but I got sick of the invasive advertising. Don’t monetize at the expense of your readers.
Hiking vacations might cause me to miss conferences, but the positives outweigh that one negative, for example, I’ve become braver. Nothing like hiking up steep exposed slickrock to shift your mindset. I read this Outside article about the science and art of taking risks after I got back and realized I do a lot of the things it suggests, like being fully present (meditation helps), not thinking (seriously), and practicing being uncomfortable.
Enough about me, here’s the list of next week’s learning events you really came for. If your organization has a webinar scheduled in the near future, please send me the link. I’ll be happy to feature it as long as it’s not too product-centric.
Tue 5/9 at 12 p.m.* – Spark Your Innovation Engine
Is your association starting to focus more on innovation? Do you wonder how to get started? What processes should be in place? How can you foster a culture of innovation? Hear unique perspectives from a researcher, technology partner and an association on the role of innovation in associations today. More info/register.
Presenters:
- Amanda Kaiser, chief path finder, Kaiser Insights LLC
- Jo Damato, director, educational development & strategy, National Business Aviation Association
- Sig VanDamme, chief customer officer and founder, NimbleUser
*All times are Eastern Daylight Time unless otherwise noted.
Tue 5/9 at 1 p.m. – Microlearning: Your New Sales Strategy
Microlearning is targeted learning in bite-sized chunks that focus on a specific product, feature or service in easy-to-consume learning modules. Unpack what Microlearning really means. Discover the challenges facing today’s modern learners and how Microlearning can overcome them. Know when to use, and not use, Microlearning for maximum results, and what to look for in a Microlearning platform. See real-life Microlearning examples and understand how organizations have achieved results. More info/register.
Host: gomo Learning
Presenters: Thom Tate, business development manager, and Mike Alcock, managing director, gomo Learning
Tue 5/9 at 2 p.m. – Leveling up the Senior Leadership Team (Association Chat)
The ability for a CEO and their senior leadership team to work together, to set each other up for success, and to collectively create results can make or break any organization. Yet most are far below their potential. Learn about the key strategies and tactics for shifting gears into greater team performance in the C-suite of associations today. Watch/participate live or view the recording.
Host: KiKi L’Italien, founder, Amplified Growth
Guest: Seth Kahan, founder, Visionary Leadership
Tue 5/9 at 2 p.m. – How Top Nonprofits Get Volunteers to Sustain Their Service
Many well-intentioned volunteer appreciation tactics actually end up demotivating people. Learn six keys to increasing volunteer engagement, two big mistakes most volunteer leaders make that cause volunteers to disengage, and how to build lasting relationships with your volunteers. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Wild Apricot
Presenter: Barry Altland, author, Engaging the Head, Heart and Hands of a Volunteer
Wed 5/10 at 8:30 a.m. – DC-PPN Idea Exchange in Old Town Alexandria VA
Bring a problem or challenge for brainstorming with the group. Discuss the implications and opportunities for corporate partnerships. More info/register.
Organizer: ASAE Partnership Professionals Network
Wed 5/10 at 9 a.m. – AENC Technology Roundtable (Raleigh NC)
Share your best apps and how you use them in your work…whether it is your association management data base, project or meeting management, scheduler, email, mobile app or other neat tools that saves you work and time. 1 CAE credit. Location: Raleigh NC. More info/register.
Wed 5/10 at 12 p.m. – Win Back Lapsed Members
Every association has lapsed members, and knows that some of them would return if you only ran the right campaign. Learn about win-back strategies and how you can employ marketing automation to reactivate lapsed members. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: ASAE
Presenter: Jenny Lassi, director of operations, HighRoad Solution
Wed 5/10 at 3 p.m. – Swap Ideas with a Gold Circle Award Winner (Bethesda MD)
Hear about the Auto Care Association’s (ACA) 2016 ASAE Gold Circle Award-winning campaign for their Auto Care Careers Program and the challenges it addressed, including effective website design, marketing to millennials, and social media outreach. Find out how ACA set aspirational goals, got buy-in from leadership, executed an integrated campaign, and achieved results. Location: Bethesda MD. More info/register.
Host: Association Networking Group (ANEX)
Presenter: Courtney Hammer, CAE, director, job and career development, Auto Care Association
Thu 5/11 at 12 p.m. – The Chapter Playbook: The Guide for Setting Your Chapters Up for Success – Part 2: Emphasis on Membership, Events and Volunteers
A great deal of time, effort, and resources are typically poured into any efforts for making life easy for chapters—so get a head start as well as a template to build your own guide for chapters to follow. Learn what membership, event and volunteer information you should consider when creating your Chapter Playbook, the key questions to ask yourself as you build out this toolkit, and best practices to help chapters optimize their membership and event efforts. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Billhighway
Presenter: Kyle Bazzy, director of growth, Billhighway
Thu 5/11 at 1 p.m. – Virtual Events: From Emerging Trend to Strategic Reality
Most organizations reach only a small slice of their members with their traditional place-based conferences. The rest of the membership gets nothing—or, worse, finds other sources for learning and networking. Virtual events can help you solve this critical problem in a very real way. We’ll look at a range of virtual events—including Tagoras’s own Learning • Technology • Design 2017—to help you evaluate which option, if any, might be the right fit for your association’s challenges and opportunities. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: CommPartners
Presenters: Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, founders, Tagoras
Thu 5/11 at 1 p.m. – Strategies to Increase Your Event App Adoption Rate
Have you spent hours creating an event app, only to have nobody download it? Wondering how other event apps can be successful? Discover strategies you can immediately incorporate into your upcoming events to boost your adoption rate. Learn why some apps fail, how to create an informative and engaging app experience, and how to effectively market your app. More info/register.
Host: Eventpedia
Presenters:
- Eric Kingstad, CEO, The Event Guys and Publisher of the EventTechGuide
- Reid Warthen, business development manager, Eventpedia
Thu 5/11 at 2 p.m. – Designing Event Learning That Sticks
Learn how to design learning that sticks starting with a look at session titles and descriptions that emotionally draw event guests in, and the session experience and content delivery models and room sets that are more conducive for learning. Discover ideas to combat the “Forgetting Curve” and help attendees reap more rewards from their learning investment. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: PCMA
Presenter: Donna Kastner, founder, Enlighten 123
Thu 5/11 at 3:30 p.m. – AENC FUEL Young Professionals Round Table (Charlotte NC)
Come experience a portion of a highly successful leadership program, developed specifically for those in leadership positions today or seeking to become leaders in the future. The program includes personality/leadership assessments, who you are becoming as a leader and insights into how you function, leadership styles and applications; career branding, risk-taking, and relevance; and self-care. 1.5 CAE credits. Location: Charlotte NC. More info/register.
Facilitator: Cynthia Mills, FASAE, CAE, CMC, CPC, CCRC, founder, The Leaders’ Haven
Thu 5/11 at 5 p.m. – AENC FUEL Young Professionals Meetup (Charlotte NC)
Location: Blackfinn Ameripub, 210 E Trade St, Charlotte, NC. More info/register.
Save the date: Thu 5/18 at 1 p.m. – Life without AMS? We’ll Die Trying…
Over the past few years, a lot has been said about the love/hate (or hate/hate) relationship that associations have with their Association Management Systems (AMS). AIIM, the information management association, has been vocal on this subject for years. Recently, they decided to test how far they could ‘unbundle’ their most critical business processes from their AMS. Find out what finally prompted them to disprove the notion that the AMS had to be the ‘master’ data system, and what processes were driven to a best-of-breed application that is well used and well loved. More info/register.
Host: ReviewMyAMS.com
Presenters:
- Teri Carden, founder, ReviewMyAMS.com
- Eric Nelson, managing principal, Synaptitude
- Peggy Winton, president/CEO, AIIM International
Save the date: Thu 5/18 at 2 p.m. – Marketing Automation for Associations
Recruiting new members is important, but existing members are the lifeblood of your association. In this age of overflowing inboxes, it’s even more challenging to stay in front of them. Break through the clutter by making your email and social messages more targeted, relevant, and focused on individual interests. Learn how to use marketing automation to improve member retention and renewals, increase attendance for webinars and live events, and track engagement for members and prospects. More info/register.
Host: Real Magnet
Presenter: Mitch Eisen, co-founder, Real Magnet
Save the dates: Wed/Thu June 7-8 – AMS Fest in Chicago
I’m looking forward to two loaded days of discussions about nothing but AMS/CRM. If you’re thinking about a new AMS, implementing an AMS, or work closely with an AMS, you should join me. Speakers include high-profile association experimenters, rule breakers, and action takers. Location: Chicago IL. More info/register.
Host: ReviewMyAMS.com
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 photo of Angel’s Landing (Zion NP) by Dale Beckett.
Association Brain Food 