The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community…
I love this graph from Bobby Ghoshal illustrating the new employee “prior idiots phenomenon” aka “new person joins your team, believes everything is broken because everyone before them is an idiot.”
Billhighway describes eight valid reasons why people don’t want to volunteer and how you can attract chapter volunteers by making those excuses no longer matter.
Social sharing has dropped by 50% since 2015, which is making it more difficult to get eyeballs on your content. Lee Odden asked ten content pros for tips on solving the “invisible content syndrome.”
If a new learning management system (LMS) is in your future, find out from WBT Systems how an LMS business analyst contributes to the success of your project.
Could the increasing number of recurring monthly fees on your members’ credit card statements create subscription fatigue? I’ve wondered about this, and apparently Ernie Smith at Associations Now has too.
More quick hits before we get to this week’s list of free webinars:
- Seriously, there are no best times for social media. (Christopher S. Penn)
- Good advice: 12 signs an SEO expert/agency is not the expert they claim to be. (Stone Temple)
- A checklist for performing a basic SEO audit—in case you don’t trust anyone. (Search Engine Watch)
- Your editorial calendar is not your content marketing strategy. (Content Marketing Institute)
- How to improve your SEO with a topic-driven content marketing approach. (Search Engine Journal)
Off-topic: Check out my Grabbing the Gusto blog for posts about the recipes I’ve made recently or plan to make soon.
Here are the educational events scheduled for next week plus a few extras. If your organization has a free webinar or event coming up, please send me the link. I’ll be happy to feature it as long as it’s not product-centric.
Tue 8/14 at 10:30 a.m.* – Challenge the Excuses: Why Associations Must Do Better with Inclusion
Host: KiKi L’Italien, founder, Amplified Growth
Guest: Gina Glantz, founder, GenderAvenger
*All times are Eastern Daylight Time unless otherwise noted.
Tue 8/14 at 1 p.m. – To Be the Best, You Need to Learn from the Best
Learn how your event app adoption and engagement compares to other mobile app users. Find out what top users are doing to increase app adoption and engagement. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: Meetings Today
Presenter: Brooke Gracey, Marketing Manager, CrowdCompass by Cvent
Tue 8/14 at 2 p.m. – Associations ARE Communities (Association Chat)
Many associations have launched online communities with lukewarm results, mostly because the approach was all wrong. It’s important to understand that engaging and growing a community is a partnership, and you have one community that meets both online and off. Approaching your community in this way creates opportunities and value which are agile and evolutionary (both leading and serving your stakeholders), not just reactive. More info/register.
Host: KiKi L’Italien, founder, Amplified Growth
Guests:
- Marjorie Anderson, Manager of Digital Communities, Project Management Institute
- Susan Cato, Digital Strategist and Association Leader
Tue 8/14 at 2 p.m. – How Your Planner Personality Translates into Personal Attendee Experiences
Find out how understanding your planner personality can translate into memorable experiences for your attendees. Uncover why knowing who you are at your core, doubling down on your strengths, understanding your weaknesses, and going beyond your comfort zone will deliver personal and relevant results for your audience; and learn how event technology can make all of this possible. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: Meetings Net
Presenter: Myllisa Patterson, Director of Mid-Market Marketing Campaigns, Cvent
Tue 8/14 at 2 p.m. – Scheduling Site Visits That Are Worth the Trip
Learn how to defend the importance of live site visits when told online research is sufficient, how to effectively plan them and three things to do that you’re probably overlooking. Explore the value and importance of partnering with CVBs and be introduced to a variety of services they offer that you may not know. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: PCMA
Presenter: Christy Lamagna, Master Strategist, professional speaker, writer and CEO of Strategic Meetings & Events
Wed 8/15 at 4 p.m. – Nonprofit Development, Meet Accounting!
All nonprofits exert too much energy and time manually manipulating financial data inside or outside of their systems. While there are clearly technical challenges, often the heart of the problem is the need to reconcile the differences in requirements between departments – for example, Development and Accounting – where both have different but equally legitimate needs to view financial data in different ways. Learn how to establish leadership and operational practices, business processes, data models, and technology environments that work together in solving these challenges. More info/register.
Host: Community IT Innovators
Presenters: Debbie Cameron, Managing Consultant, Peter Mirus, Partner, and Peter Gross, Partner, Build Consulting
Thu 8/16 at 11:30 a.m. – MGI’s Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report (Alexandria VA Brown Bag)
Are you looking for actionable insights for running the most effective membership marketing program? The Marketing General Incorporated (MGI) Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report provides important data and analysis about the health of membership organizations and the satisfaction of their members. Get the tools you need to evaluate your own membership marketing strategies and tactics, and find out how your organization compares. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Organizer: Talisa Thomas-Hall, ACS ALB
Presenter: Marketing General Incorporated
Wed 8/22 at 1 p.m. – Create a Smarter Content Strategy for Your Training Initiatives
With so many new content options, innovative formats, methods, tools and sources that are rapidly changing the face of online learning, how do you make the biggest impact on customers? Learn about ten content advances no one can afford to ignore, how to determine which trends align with your business priorities, tips for buy-versus-build decisions, ideas for integrating new content into existing programs, and how to evaluate the impact of a refreshed content strategy. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: OpenSesame
Presenter: John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst, Talented Learning
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.
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