The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community…
“5G, when fully implemented, is poised to be a very big deal, a far bigger transformation in mobile technology than any previous generational shift. Its speed, capacity, and dramatically reduced power consumption and communications response times, or “latency,” will make possible an astonishing range of innovative new products and services. The economic and social benefits could be enormous.” Intriguing, isn’t it? Read more at the Harvard Business Review.
If you have a system selection in your future, or you’re in the midst of one, stop right now and read this post from Dan Hickey at DelCor Technology. He writes about a functional requirement that associations often overlook during association management system (AMS) selection: user experience.
Some associations are experimenting with a membership model that includes free online education. WBT Systems shares ideas for replacing the non-dues revenue you lose if you go that route—and if you don’t go that route, these ideas will help any association’s bottom line.
MemberSuite explains how a new member onboarding campaign can help you increase member retention. They also provide guidance for getting started with an onboarding email campaign.
Some quick hits before we get to next week’s free webinars:
- How to gain blog traffic by refreshing old content. (Jimmy Daly, Animalz)
- How to use FAQ pages to improve SEO. (Mike Murray, Content Marketing Institute)
- Should you listen to music while doing intellectual work? It depends on the music, the task and your personality. (Christian Jarrett, Research Digest)
Here are the educational events scheduled for next week. If you have any free webinars or events coming up, please send me the link. I’ll be happy to feature it as long as it’s not product-centric.
Tue 5/14 at 1 p.m.* – Digital Badging: Recognizing Stakeholders’ Accomplishments
Learn how to apply best practices for digital badging, and ways to customize digital badging for your organization. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: CommPartners
Presenter: Ginger Malin, Founder & EVP Business Development, BadgeCert
*All times are Eastern Daylight Time unless otherwise noted.
Wed 5/15 at 10:30 a.m. – Value Proposition 5-Day Challenge – Live Wrap-Up
Gain a better understanding of your value proposition and communicating that value to your current and prospective members. Each day during the challenge, you’ll reflect on your products, programs, benefits, and services and how those pieces create a comprehensive picture of the value you offer. When you’ve crossed the finish line of this challenge, you’ll be able to develop marketing and communications that provide a clear and simplified value message to your audience. More info/register.
Host: The Next Steps LLC
Wed 5/15 at 1 p.m. – What Makes Nonprofit Tech Projects Succeed?
Learn what it means for a project to be a “success,” the key elements your organization needs to have in place, the secrets of success that fail to get enough attention, and how you can help your nonprofit be in the 50% of tech projects that succeed. More info/register.
Host: Community IT
Presenter: Peter Mirus, a Build Consulting expert on technology project implementations at nonprofits
Wed 5/15 at 1 p.m. – Start Attracting Event Investors: How to Develop a Successful Sponsorship Strategy
Learn about best practices for prospectus development, sponsor acquisition, package development, sponsorship propensity, and expenses vs. price vs. profit margin. Hear about industry trends and fresh ideas to inform your sponsorship strategy. Find out how to demonstrate impact and prove ROI. More info/register.
Host: Meetings Today
Presenters:
- Meg Fasy, founder, FazeFWD, a sponsorship management company
- Noel McWilliams, Sponsorship Manager for Cvent
Wed 5/15 at 2 p.m. – Cybersecurity: Present Landscape and Future Threats
Join a discussion about the current prevailing threat landscape, common cybersecurity threats, and common preventions. Hear what other associations are doing (and not doing) around cybersecurity defense. Share what your organization is doing around cybersecurity and what steps you are taking to minimize your risk of a breach. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: ASAE Technology Section Council
Facilitator: Justin Brady, SyCom Technologies
Thu 5/16 at 11:30 a.m. – The Top 10 Mistakes Associations Make When Selecting New Technology: A Guide for Association Executives (Alexandria VA)
Technology has moved from the back office to front and center of your association’s future. Executive directors can no longer afford to delegate decision-making to trusted advisers. This session will provide guidance, in non-tech speak, that will help you avoid the pitfalls of those who have gone before. Learn how to provide leadership on the most important decisions you’re likely to make concerning the future of your association. Location: Alexandria VA. More info/register.
Organizer: Talisa Thomas-Hall, ACS ALB, VC4, The Association Whisperer
Presenter: David Schulman, Digital Transformation Strategist for Associations Rewired
Thu 5/16 at 12 p.m. – Virtual Chapters: Should We or Shouldn’t We?
Do virtual chapters provide value? Are they successful? How can we make existing ones stronger? If you’re facing questions like these with your chapters, this webinar will cover volunteer roles, technology, membership models, financial banking and ultimately, answer the question: how do your chapters go virtual? 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Billhighway
Presenter: Peggy Hoffman, FASAE, CAE, president and executive director, Mariner Management & Marketing
Thu 5/16 at 12 p.m. – Data Segmentation and Its Huge Impact on the Member Experience
Member expectations are higher than ever, and in order to keep up, it is critical to focus on the member experience to build and maintain loyalty. Learn how to leverage data segmentation to provide a more relevant and satisfying experience throughout the member journey. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Hosts: MemberSuite and ReviewMyAMS
Presenter: Shaun O’Reilly, VP of Marketing at MemberSuite
Thu 5/16 at 12 p.m. – AI and Automation Tools, Tips, and Tricks
Are you ready to save the time it takes to manually manage lists and perform tedious tasks? Do you want to learn more about practical applications of AI that are available today? Are you curious about how you can infuse AI into your organizational processes to make them smarter and less time-consuming? See some of the AI tools that can help you solve these problems and make your workflows more intelligent. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: ASAE
Presenters: Reggie Henry of ASAE and Jared Loftus of rasa.io
Thu 5/16 at 2 p.m. – How to Personalize the Member Experience
When it comes to goals like recruiting more members, increasing renewals, getting event registrations, and generating non-dues revenue, meaningful engagement with members is more important than ever. The key to this engagement is personalization and throwing away the old one-size-fits-all approach. Learn how to identify meaningful interactions like website visits, email activity, community interactions and marry with data from an AMS or CRM to trigger a personalized member experience. More info/register.
Host: enSYNC Corporation
Presenter: Shayna McGroggan, Marketing Automation Manager at Higher Logic
Thu 5/16 at 2 p.m. – The Gaming Advantage: A Deep Dive into the Resources Casino Properties Offer Events
Gaming properties offer a myriad of resources that can make the planner’s job easier—from entertainment to dining choices, security and guest rooms at a range of prices. Hear about the challenges and benefits of bringing a group to a casino property. Learn what questions to ask when sending RFPs and doing site visits, tips for saving money when planning a conference at a gaming property, and how to work with the security team on-site. More info/register.
Host: Smart Meetings
Presenter: Jennifer Herring, vice president of business development at NHS Global Events
Thu 5/16 at 2 p.m. – Measuring What Matters with Google Analytics
Learn what Google Analytics is and how it works, key terms, and how you can use this information to move the needle of your organization forward. More info/register.
Host: TechSoup
Presenter: Jack Downs, Digital Analyst Whaler, Whole Whale
Tue 5/21 at 3 p.m. – Solving with ACE: A Design Thinking Experience (Washington DC and virtual)
Imagine the possibilities if you could harness the power of associations to identify pressing challenges for their profession/industry, and create impactful solutions through community. Hear about a pilot where we develop an “active, community-led apprenticeship for problem identification and problem solving.” Learn the principles and practice of design thinking—the process that will be used in the pilot. And then we’ll together define and refine a pressing association challenge we can solve as a community, through the pilot, over the next three months. Location: Washington DC and virtual. More info/register.
Host: Associations Catalyzing Entrepreneurship (ACE)
Presenters:
- Garth Jordan, senior vice president, corporate strategy at the Healthcare Financial Management Association, and CEO of RevvCrew
- Tim Parsons, head of story, brand strategy, and partnerships at 5:00 Films and Media
Wed 5/22 at 12 p.m. – Be an AI Superhero: Predict and Optimize the Member Experience
Using your artificial intelligence (AI) superpower, your association can now move faster than a speeding bullet to delight your members. With your x-ray vision, you can easily see through those business intelligence walls. You won’t need mind control to be able to predict what the next step in your member’s journey will be. Learn about the five superpowers your association can leverage with AI to optimize your member’s experience while also increasing the association’s revenue. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Hosts: ReviewMyAMS
Presenters:
- Sigmund VanDamme, Membership Evangelist, Community Brands
- Jeff Golembiewski, Director of Product Enablement, Community Brands
Thu 5/23 at 1 p.m. – How to Validate Your Market for Educational Products
Learn how to assess your market effectively and launch new educational products with confidence. Hear about the value of traditional assessment approaches like surveys and interviews as well as newer techniques that help you take the pulse of your market on an ongoing basis. Walk away with a clear, templated process for testing the demand for new products before investing significant time and money in full-scale production. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Hosts: Tagoras and CommPartners
Presenters: Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, founders, Tagoras
That’s it for now. 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 free professional development for the association community, please send me the link via email or Twitter.
Creative Commons image by Ana-Maria Berbec via Unsplash
Association Brain Food 
Great stuff as always Deidre. Thanks so much!
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