The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community…
Did I talk to these people? The authors of this Harvard Business Review article about the gig economy surveyed 65 freelancers (including consultants) about their lives. It’s so spot on. And, it made me realize I’m in good company: “Even the most successful, well-established people we interviewed still worry about money and reputation.” I guess that’s a comforting thought, or is it? Freelancers, you will love this one. The rest of you, if you want to know what life is like on the wild and wooly side, this one’s for you too.
Tim Ebner at Associations Now says, “GDPR is not just an IT problem.” Reporting back from a recent GDPR meeting hosted by ASAE, he identifies four data issues your association (or company) needs to act on now.
Lindsay Currie and Wesley Carr at the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society shared some wisdom with Billhighway about becoming a successful association change agent. They’ve done some pretty spectacular things with their chapters over the last few years.
If you plan to shop for a new learning management system (LMS) in the coming year, WBT Systems explains why you may want to work with an LMS consultant during the requirements, selection, and/or implementation process.
Some quick hits before we get to the list of free webinars:
- Blogging is still alive and well in 2018—and for good reason. Self-serving, I know, since the author and I both ghostwrite blog posts for a living, but she’s absolutely right. (Get It Write)
- What is CRISPR? (CB Insights)
- Can my nonprofit use that photo? No? Yes? Maybe? Good advice for all. (Venable LLP)
Off-topic: Check out my Grabbing the Gusto blog if you’d like to see my special St. Patrick’s weekend list of recommended ebooks on sale by Irish authors, the list of recipes I’ve made this week or plan to make in the coming weeks, and my regular lists of recommended fiction and non-fiction ebooks (including cookbooks) on sale.
Now for the main event: free professional development events for the association community. If your organization has a free webinar or other event coming up, please send me the link. I’ll be happy to feature it as long as it’s not product-centric.
Tue 3/20 at 8:30 a.m.* – Making Content Meaningful (Association Coffee Talk, Alexandria VA)
How does your content fit into your digital strategy and translate across your digital assets—website, mobile apps and social media? What is the perfect mix of web and mobile offerings? Join this Coffee Talk to workshop ideas for effective content production, management and distribution. Bring examples of your content for peer discussion and review. 1 CAE credit. Location: Alexandria VA. More info/register.
Host: Results Direct
*All times are Eastern Standard Time unless otherwise noted.
Tue 3/20 at 12 p.m. – Chapter Roundtable in Washington DC
Connect with fellow Component/Chapter Relations Professionals (CRPs) to network and discuss current chapter challenges, such as how to measure and increase the health of chapters; best practices for chapter operations (volunteer tools, processes, etc.); and how to get the right statistics to prevent national and chapter level members from leaving. Lunch provided. 1 CAE credit. Location: Washington DC. More info/register.
Host: Billhighway
Tue 3/20 at 2 p.m. – Own Post-Event Planning! How to Hit the Ground Running After Your Event
Learn how you can recover from the toll of your event, what you do on your first day back in the office, how to analyze your event and then use that to start the next planning process. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: Pathable
Presenter: Allie Magyar, CMP, longtime conference planner and founder, Hubb
Tue 3/20 at 2 p.m. – Digital Marketing Strategies for the Event Planner, Part 1
Event planners need to know how to effectively design content that promotes the brand’s message and offers audience insight into the event experience. Learn how to identify and match your high-value audience, influencers and social media platforms in experiential marketing, and how to plan well-defined strategies that leverage the best digital marketing tools, resulting in a measurable marketing campaign. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: PCMA
Presenter: Karen Baker, 23-year veteran of strategic, brand and experiential marketing
Tue 3/20 at 2 p.m. – Building Event Intelligence: Translating Metrics for You, Your Event, and Your Company
Find out how onsite event technology helps you gather invaluable data for measuring and tracking the attendee journey and proving the impact of your event. Learn how emerging reporting and tracking capabilities help your event marketing team better translate your event metrics and make future event decisions. More info/register.
Host: Smart Meetings
Presenter: Jason Askew, Product Marketing Manager, Onsite Solutions, Cvent
Wed 3/21 at 11 a.m. – Search, Navigation and Wayfinding on Your Website: Best Practices and Lessons Learned
Do you hear “I can’t find anything on your website.”? Learn about the many ways people “wayfind” (orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place) on a website or app, using navigation, search, Google, and related links. Find out how navigation and search should work together, the importance of content strategy to site search, the latest technologies available for wayfinding, and how analytics can and should guide your wayfinding strategy. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Matrix Group
Presenters: Joanna Pineda, CEO, Alex Pineda, Creative Director, and Dave Hoernig, Search Guru (aka Director of Software Engineering), Matrix Group
Wed 3/21 at 12 p.m. – Chapter Roundtable in Alexandria VA
Connect with fellow Component/Chapter Relations Professionals (CRPs) to network and discuss current chapter challenges, such as how to measure and increase the health of chapters; best practices for chapter operations (volunteer tools, processes, etc.); and how to get the right statistics to prevent national and chapter level members from leaving. Lunch provided. 1 CAE credit. Location: Alexandria VA. More info/register.
Host: Billhighway
Wed 3/21 at 1 p.m. – Beyond the Fear: Embracing Simplicity with the GDPR
Starting May 25, new European Union data privacy regulations mean that your organization can be fined nearly $25 million for mishandling even relatively benign personal information about attendees from the EU. Join a different discussion about GDPR, its underlying principles, and how we can improve and transform the business of events with it. Learn what consequences GDPR will have on the meetings industry, what types of data fall under the GDPR, how vulnerable your organization may be, and how organizations can protect themselves from violating GDPR. More info/register.
Host: Meetings Today
Presenter: KiKi L’Italien, founder, Amplified Growth
Wed 3/21 at 1 p.m. – 10 Experiential Marketing Trends Shaping Effective Events in 2018
Learn about strategies, approaches and technologies that can be deployed to help meet business, brand, sales and marketing objectives for your events, while building stronger relationships with your audiences. Understand the differences between events and experiences. Explore experience design methodologies, including experience platform development and journey mapping. Discover some of the latest applications of methodology and technology currently being used (and some peeks into the future as well). 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: Event Manager Blog
Presenter: Ian McGonnigal
Wed 3/21 at 2 p.m. – Steal These Ideas: 3 Growth Strategies from Top Fundraisers
Hear about strategies membership organizations can steal from fundraisers to create compelling campaigns that bring in money, build relationships, and attract diverse audiences. Find out why the most successful fundraisers raise more money by NOT treating everyone equally, and why you shouldn’t either; the keys to creating compelling, multi-channel campaigns to recruit new members and volunteers; and why millennials are loyal to some organizations and not others, and how you can create the right experience to attract them. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Wild Apricot
Presenters: authors of the recently released whitepaper Steal Like a Fundraiser
- Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE, CEO and Chief Strategist, Spark Consulting LLC
- Sohini Baliga, director of communications, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and executive director, Vienna Choral Society
Wed 3/21 at 3 p.m. – Vetting Member Needs and Market Opportunities (Executive Exchange: Associations Catalyzing Entrepreneurship – Washington DC or teleconference)
Explore how entrepreneurial thinking can point the way to association success in a time of growing competition. Discuss how to really listen to members and leverage data on engagement; how to gauge the needs and find market opportunities that members don’t know about yet; and how to test products and programs before market launch. More info/register.
Moderator: Meena Dayak, VP, Media & Communications, American Public Power Association
Presenters:
- Nicole Beidler, Marketing Manager, American Speech Language Hearing Association
- Anthony Shop, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Social Driver
Wed 3/21 at 4 p.m. – Nonprofit Business Intelligence with Power BI
Learn how your nonprofit can harness big data and business intelligence with Microsoft Power BI. Microsoft has made its Power BI suite available at an affordable price for nonprofit organizations. With minimal ramp-up, your organization can start to visualize and analyze your key data from all systems—including website and social media analytics, CRM, constituent communications platforms like Mailchimp and Constant Contact, and other data sources—in an easy-to-digest format. Hear about the capabilities (and limitations) of Microsoft Power BI and how it can be used by nonprofits to better understand all types of data. More info/register.
Host: Community IT
Presenter: Johan Hammerstrom, President and CEO, Community IT
Thu 3/22 at 8:30 a.m. – Making Content Meaningful (Association Coffee Talk, Reston VA)
How does your content fit into your digital strategy and translate across your digital assets—website, mobile apps and social media? What is the perfect mix of web and mobile offerings? Join this Coffee Talk to workshop ideas for effective content production, management and distribution. Bring examples of your content for peer discussion and review. 1 CAE credit. Location: Reston VA. More info/register.
Host: Results Direct
Thu 3/22 at 12 p.m. – Chapter Roundtable in Reston VA
Connect with fellow Component/Chapter Relations Professionals (CRPs) to network and discuss current chapter challenges, such as how to measure and increase the health of chapters; best practices for chapter operations (volunteer tools, processes, etc.); and how to get the right statistics to prevent national and chapter level members from leaving. Lunch provided. 1 CAE credit. Location: Reston VA. More info/register.
Host: Billhighway
Thu 3/22 at 2 p.m. – Solving the Mystery of Association Innovation: 7 Practical Steps to Increasing Members, Revenue and Value
Learn how to ease into innovation and apply it to membership, growth and organizational sustainability. Find out how to identify and break down the leading barriers to innovation; quickly and inexpensively assess which innovations members value the most; create a collaborative innovation strategy that starts today; and form a culture of continuous innovation. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Digitec Interactive
Presenters: Wendy Scott, CAE, and Bob Reed, founders, ReedScott
Thu 3/22 at 2 p.m. – Conference Food Rescue: How to Feed More and Waste Less
With careful food-waste prevention planning and thoughtful partnerships with meeting venues and food donation organizations, your conference meals don’t have to end up rotting in the landfill. Learn how to set up a food-recovery plan with your hotel or venue; critical issues to discuss with your food donation partner; how Good Samaritan laws limit your liability; and ways to get buy-in from hotels, attendees, and your organization. 0.5 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: MeetingsNet
Presenters:
- Courtney Lohmann, CMP, Director of Culture, Koncept Events
- Mariela McIlwraith, CMP, CMM, MBA, Director, Industry Advancement, Events Industry Council
Tue 3/27 at 1 p.m. – AMS Remorse: Protech Opens the Kimono
Learn about some common reasons AMS implementations fail and how you can do things differently. More info/register.
Host: ReviewMyAMS
Presenters:
- Jennifer Boykin, Protech Associates
- Teri Carden, ReviewMyAMS
Tue 3/27 at 2 p.m. – The Power of Your Publication: How a Small Revamp in Content and Design Could Mean Large Rewards for Your Association
Are you communicating the value of your association through your publication’s content and design? Learn how to complete a comprehensive assessment for your current publication, ask the right questions and take the necessary steps for a successful redesign launch, cross-promote and keep branding in mind post-launch, and evaluate and measure performance. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Naylor Association Solutions
Presenters:
- Josh Spradling, Communications Director, Texas Society of Association Executives
- Jeanie Clapp, Content Strategy & Development Manager, Naylor Association Solutions
- Sarah Sain, Content Strategy & Development Manager, Naylor Association Solutions
Wed 3/28 at 12 p.m. – The Neuroscience of Creativity: Finding Your “Aha” Moment
Learn how to unlock your creativity and find your “Aha” moment. Hear about the neuroscience of creativity and a case study of how one association experienced an “Aha” moment and brought that idea to fruition. Take away tips on how to create an environment ripe for creativity and inspiration. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: ASAE
Presenters:
- Lakisha Ann Woods, CAE, Sr. Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, National Association of Home Builders
- Sheri Singer, Founder, Singer Communications
Wed 3/28 at 1 p.m. – Doing Mobile Right
Learn about the components and benefits of making mobile the first step in any new program or service for your group. Topics include: building loyalty through year-round engagement, connecting with younger members, developing mobile-only content to build interactions, best practice ideas for a mobile presence, and case studies for associations with a strong mobile program. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: enSYNC
Presenter: Brad LaTour, Pinxter Digital
Thu 3/29 at 12 p.m. – Let’s Talk About GDPR
Every day, associations use data intelligence to understand and serve both members and potential members. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is dramatically altering the definition of privacy and personal data. How can associations prepare and adhere to these changes? Sit in on a panel discussion on the most important issues and questions that associations are facing with GDPR. More info/register.
Host: Community Brands
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 licensed photo of Fanad Head Lighthouse, Letterkenny, Ireland by Trevor Cole on Unsplash.
Association Brain Food 