A “can’t-miss” list for #ASAE2017 sessions.

For thousands of association professionals traveling this weekend to Canada for ASAE’s 2017 Annual Meeting, Canada means much more than Mounties. As always, the ASAE team has put together an action-packed agenda filled with informative sessions on a wide variety of topics designed to appeal to organizations of all sizes.

And, while having too much to choose from can be a good problem, it’s important to have a strategy in place to help you make the most of your limited time. Here are three tips to help you do just that in Toronto:

• Set a goal for what you’d like to learn at the conference and use the schedule to create a plan specifically tailored to help you meet that goal.
• Once you’ve narrowed your options, look at all the sessions and events you’re interested in and make sure you’re getting to attend a good mix of topics, skill-building sessions and social events (and still allow for some downtime).
• Trying to choose between two sessions? Consider whether a session fulfills a content need for you, meaning if the talk will be educational and/or support you in introducing new tactics to your organization, or whether it helps you fulfill an interpersonal need, allowing you to meet or support the person speaking.

As for me? As Director of Member Strategy at Community Brands, there’s no shortage of things I’m interested in learning more about. But, I want to leave Toronto with a new understanding of the member experience efforts many of you are undertaking as part of your organization’s overall strategy.

Here’s what’s on my working list as “can’t-miss” sessions.

Sunday, August 13.

Build an Experience-Driven Organization
2PM – 3:30PM, Room 205AB
Kick off the conference with some hands-on learning! Community Brands’ President JP Guilbault will be leading an interactive workshop designed to help you discover membership-driven scenarios to steer your association’s innovation, uncover strategic planning initiatives which focus on membership empathy, and reveal your members’ pain points and value propositions through design-for-delight tools.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Paths to Membership Model Success
4PM – 5PM, Room 206AB
A shameless plug, I know, but it would look bad if I missed my own session, right? Join me as we reminisce about the exhilaration of the childhood Choose Your Own Adventure books, and how we (as adults!) can embrace the same excitement for (and curiosity about) the unknown in the way we approach new membership models and opportunities.

Monday, August 14.

8 Tactics to Redefine Your Member Value Propositions & Experience
9AM – 10AM, Room 713AB
Product Marketing Manager Peggy Smith may be a member of the Community Brands’ team, but she’s walked the walk. She has invaluable insights gleaned from her experience as a leader within an association, not to mention from conversations with hundreds of YourMembership customers. In this session, Peggy will help participants evaluate the authenticity of their value propositions in a world where companies like Amazon and Netflix are raising the bar. In addition, she’ll explore how the digital landscape is drastically changing traditional membership propositions.

The Content Strategy Journey
2:30PM – 3:30PM, Room 205CD
Our research shows when it comes to engaging members across all generations, content is king, and association content is a team effort. Hilary Marsh, President and Chief Strategist of the Content Company, will join the Endocrine Society’s Chief Innovation Officer Robert Bartel in this discussion of proven tactics to evaluate your organization’s content strategy and how to take it to the next level.

Customer Journey Analytics: All Roads Lead to the Customer
4PM – 5PM, Room 713AB
According to McKinsey, “Customer journeys include things that happen before, during and after the experience of a product or service.” In this exciting session, Association Analytics CEO Debbie King, Chief Technology Officer of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery William Bruce, and ASAE’s own Christin Berry take a close look at real customer journeys. Because when we understand the journey rather than looking at transactions in silos, we can improve customer experiences, as well as our association’s performance.

Update: ASAE Annual 2019

Take a walk in the park with YourMembership and Community Brands at this years ASAE Annual in Columbus, Ohio. You can book an onsite meeting here.