The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community…
Membership benchmarks. It’s time for MGI’s 15th annual Membership Marketing Benchmarking Survey. If you’ve participated before, check your email for a personal link from MGI. If not, use this survey link to join nearly 1,000 association leaders worldwide whose participation helps all of us gain insights about what’s working to recruit, engage, and retain members, along with other valuable information.
Recession prep. WBT Systems recommends recession-proofing your association’s learning business. Their advice includes: increasing the awareness of the need for lifelong learning among professionals in your industry and their employers, developing the capacity to pounce on opportunities, and spending resources wisely by only delivering what your market needs and sunsetting the rest.
AMS implementation workload. No one tells you about all the work your team must take on when implementing a new AMS—or all the red wine it will cause you to drink—which is why this guide from Ellipsis Partners is a such a godsend. They describe nine responsibilities you need to know about and prepare for. It’s much better to get this news before your project begins so you can figure out how to juggle these tasks with your regular workload.
2023 association trends. MemberSuite team shares the trends they see rising in the “collective association consciousness,” including AI for normal people, walking the DEI talk, and others related to events, non-dues revenue, remote/hybrid work, community, data, and technology.
Hybrid/remote work. When Achurch Consulting looked back at their top posts in 2022, they spotted a recurring theme: intentionality—or the lack of it. Many associations defaulted into their workforce model—whether office-based, hybrid or remote—rather than make an intentional decision. The top posts cover factors to consider when deciding on a workforce model, managing a multigenerational workforce, virtual work communication, imposter syndrome, and connecting with others when working remotely.
AMS (r)evolution. Empowered Margins sat down with AMS developers to get their thoughts on all things AMS, such as integration, APIs, security, ecommerce, data visualization, and more. They explain how these factors affect the member experience, how the AMS market is changing, and what you should look for in a new AMS.
Good eats
Skip down to the list of free educational events if you prefer takeout.
Want to indulge? Try this recipe for smoked Gruyère chicken thighs with bacon, mushroom, sherry, and other good stuff. I had a block of smoked Gruyère languishing in my deli drawer, so I hunted for a way to use it. Wow, swooningly delicious. On the side, a Brussels sprouts sauté with bacon, red onion, red bell pepper, and garlic.
Making soup on Sundays means I have enough leftovers for Tuesday dinner and several lunches. First up, lentil soup with spicy Italian sausage made on the stovetop instead of the pressure cooker. I also added carrot, celery, and zucchini, and used red instead of white wine and brown instead of black lentils. Lentil soup is never the easiest sell because it looks like something you don’t want to see on the carpet, but it’s tummy-warming and gets better after a day or two in the frig.
It’s time for a new breakfast rut, I mean, routine. I want more protein and fewer carbs in the morning, so enter breakfast black bean tortillas—thinking pinto beans might be even better. I mixed canned beans with sautéed onion, poblano, jalapeño, tomatoes, and cilantro and store it in the frig. In the morning, I fry an egg and add it to the beans, baby spinach, and hot sauce in a low-carb tortilla. When my avocado is ripe, it will go in too.
If you have a free webinar or event coming up, please send me the link by Wednesday afternoon the week before it’s scheduled. I’m happy to feature it as long as it’s not too product-centric.
Fri 1/13 at 12 p.m.* – Conversations with Champions
Each conversation features an AWTC leader or AWTC Award winner, followed by breakout rooms with changing topics (selected by our featured guest). These intimate, virtual conversations are a chance to form meaningful connections with other women and allies in the association technology community. More info/register.
Host: Association Women Technology Champions
Guest: Gretchen Steenstra, the 2023 Chairwoman of the AWTC Board, and Strategic Consultant, DelCor Technology Solutions
*All events are online at Eastern Standard Time unless otherwise noted.
Fri 1/13 at 4 p.m. – The Importance of Mentorship (Panel Discussion)
In honor of National Mentoring Month, Fridays@4 will host a moderated panel discussion. You’ve likely experienced a mentor/mentee relationship, whether formal or informal. Join us as panelists share their mentorship programs, successes and lessons learned. More info/register.
Host: Fridays@4
Speakers:
- Jennifer Alluisi, MA Ed, CAE, Account Executive at Custom Management Group
- Benita Stocks, Director of Membership & Programs for NAIOP Northern Virginia, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association
- Christopher Young, CAE, DECA’s chief program officer
- Chelseah Mesa (moderator), program manager with the Federal Communications Bar Association
Mon 1/16 at 8 a.m. – 3 Financial Secrets (Nonprofit Conversations with Cecilia Sepp, CAE)
Nonprofit Conversations features guests from around the world discussing topics of interest to the nonprofit community. Episodes publish at 8 a.m. on Mondays and can be found on all major podcast platforms.
Guest: Brian Haney, founder and CEO, The Haney Company
Host: Cecilia Sepp, CAE, CNAP, principal and founder, Rogue Tulips LLC
Tue 1/17 at 11 a.m. – Membership, Marketing & Engagement
Typical measures of member engagement—such as email open and click-through metrics, social media interactions and website visits—are indicators of general activity, and not necessarily true member engagement. Learn about the connection between member insights (what the association knows about its members) and member engagement (action, attention and long-term commitment), a more frequent use of the Voice of the Member as a key indicator of engagement for their association, and how to evaluate your current technology stack for member listening capabilities. 1.5 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speaker: Brianne Wheeler, Director of Marketing at PropFuel
Tue 1/17 at 12 p.m. – Been There, Done That, It Didn’t Work! Lessons Learned (CRVM January Crunch and Munch)
Have you or your association launched a program for your members, board or volunteers that fell flat? Have you made a professional decision for yourself that didn’t go as planned? Bring your stories along with why it didn’t work and what lessons you learned from it. More info/register.
Host: ASAE Component Relations and Volunteer Management Professionals Community
Tue 1/17 at 12 p.m. – 3 Quick & Easy Ways to Easily Improve Strategic Planning
Learn three practical ways to improve your strategic planning meetings. These techniques apply to long-term planning meetings, such as board-level strategic planning, or plotting the direction of your team or department. The three techniques will turbocharge how participants generate ideas, allow participants to choose the best ones, and reach consensus; sift through products and services to determine the best ones and the ones to sunset; and identify the best options despite an uncertain future. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Association Xchange
Speaker: Lee Gimpel, Founder & Principal, Better Meetings
Tue 1/17 at 1 p.m. – Building Member Value in a Post Pandemic World
Hear about membership trends and leadership traits that served organizations well during the pandemic. Learn how to spark innovation moving forward, think more creatively and more intentionally when developing everyday member outreach programs, and recenter members and membership staff on the “why” of the organization. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speaker: Pete Zimek, CEO, Novi AMS
Tue 1/17 at 2 p.m. – Your Association’s Advocacy Tech Stack: Apps and Strategy for 2023
How do you manage your policy issues, engage with key stakeholders, ramp up your advocacy strategy, and mobilize your member community? Join Association Chat Podcast host KiKi L’Italien as she interviews Shana Glickfield, a founding Partner of Beekeeper Group, a DC-based public affairs firm whose mission is to empower people to advocate for impact. More info/register.
Host: KiKi L’Italien, senior consultant, Tecker International
Tue 1/17 at 5:30 p.m. – Making Virtual Mentoring Work
Learn how to make the most of a virtual mentoring relationship, how the researched evidence supports the effectiveness of virtual mentoring, how to create an optimal virtual experience, and how to conduct a virtual mentoring conversation. More info/register.
Host: Sidecar
Speakers:
- Lisa Fain, CEO of Center for Mentoring Excellence, and founder of Vista Coaching
- Melissa Richardson, global assessment team for the European Mentoring and Coaching Council’s ISMCP Award
Wed 1/18 at 12 p.m. – 2023’s Must-Watch Trends for Associations and Nonprofits
We’ll network over lunch, then pool our knowledge on the trends poised to affect our members, supplier partners and associations in 2023. You’ll gain an expanded network of association and nonprofit leaders, a peer-vetted list of key trends to take back to your organization, and perspectives on how these trends may create threats or opportunities for your organization and the members you serve. More info/register.
Host: Alexandria Senior Executives Network
Wed 1/18 at 1 p.m. – Get CRM Right in 30 Days! Is Your Business Asking Questions Your CRM Can’t Answer?
Learn why customer relationship strategies and the technology that supports them often fail to meet expectations. Find out how to reduce digital friction and increase congruency with revenue goals. Learn about the importance of expectation management and identifying core business objectives for technology and innovation and the importance of human-centered design thinking in CRM engagements. Get practical advice for improving low adoption of CRM technology. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: UST Education
Speakers:
- Chuck Ingram, Founder and CEO, congruentX
- JC Quintana, Chief Strategist and Stakeholder Relationship Management, congruentX
Wed 1/18 at 2 p.m. – PAR GOAT Awards: Honoring Association Revenue Impact
Learn from an invited panel of 2022 PAR Subject Matter Experts, discover ideas for revenue performance now and next year, and ideate on how associations can create a think tank for revenue opportunities. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Professionals for Association Revenue
Speakers:
- Carrie Hartin, President, Sales Solutions & Services, MCI-USA
- Colleen McKenna, CEO and Founder, Intero Advisory
- Lori Zoss Kraska, MBA, CFRE, Founder and Chief Principal of Growth Owl, LLC
- Erin Pressley, CAE, Senior Vice President for Education, Training and Events at NRECA
- Bruce Rosenthal, Corporate Sponsorship Consultant and Co-Convener of the Partnership Professionals Network
Wed 1/18 at 2 p.m. – New Year, New Members – Building Relationships in the 118th Congress with Former Congressman Jason Altmire
A new Congress doesn’t just mean a reset of legislative proposals not passed in the prior session, but also the need to forge relationships with new lawmakers and leadership as a result of an election’s outcomes. Hear insights and ideas from former Pennsylvania Congressman Jason Altmire for guiding association advocates in conducting successful rapport building with new legislators in these distinct settings while also avoiding missteps that can harm or even prevent valuable relationships from being cultivated. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: ASAE Government Relations and Advocacy Professionals Advisory Council
Speakers:
- Jason Altmire, President and Chief Executive Officer of Career Education Colleges and Universities
- David Lusk (moderator), Founder of Key Advocacy
Wed 1/18 at 3 p.m. – How Smart Associations are Maintaining Relevance & Revenue in Today’s Economy
Often, a key factor in the success or struggle of an association is the ability to leverage data for decisions, analysis, and forecasting. Learn how to use your data to optimize resources and stay relevant and valuable to your members in difficult economic times. Hear how to prioritize programs and services that are most valuable so you can cut the dead weight, give members customized content they can’t get anywhere else, and focus on what matters most, reduce manual work, optimize processes and be more efficient overall. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Association Analytics
Speakers: Bill Conforti, SVP of Strategy & Solutions, and Greg Pollack, VP of Sales, Association Analytics
Thu 1/19 at 12 p.m. – ASAE Gold Circle Awards Program Office Hour
Please join the ASAE Gold Circle Awards staff and leadership for an one-hour open Zoom session to ask any questions about the program and application process. More info/register.
Thu 1/19 at 12 p.m. – Stopping Churn: Renewal Strategies to Retain Your Association’s Members
Membership organizations survive on retention and effective retention is certainly one of the greatest challenges associations face today. So how do you ensure renewal for the members you’ve worked so hard to recruit to your organization? Learn how to reduce your member churn as our thought leaders explore this important conversation of membership retention. More info/register.
Host: NXUnite by Nexus Marketing
Speakers:
- Brianne Wheeler, Director of Marketing of PropFuel
- Michael Hoffman, Co-founder and CEO of Gather Voices
- Erica Salm Rench, COO of Rasa.io
Thu 1/19 at 12 p.m. – DES Expert Panel Q&A
This is your opportunity to hear from DES Experts Rachel Stephan Joshua Butler as well as our moderator Sourabh Kothari and ask the questions you want answered, whether related directly to the course content, or a challenge you may be facing in your own work in the virtual/hybrid events world. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: PCMA
Thu 1/19 at 12 p.m. – The Community Check-In
A weekly community chat on Slack for black professionals working in the events industry. More info/register.
Host: Black In Events Network
Thu 1/19 at 1 p.m. – Planning Your 2023 Stakeholder Mapping Strategy
Mapping advocacy stakeholders is an important strategy to kick off the year. Learn how to set yourself up with clean data and have a mechanism to measure impact on your organization’s issues. Hear about five strategies for mapping stakeholders. More info/register.
Host: Quorum
Speaker: Quorum’s Director of Communications, Theresa Hebert
Thu 1/19 at 2 p.m. – Should My Association Start a Podcast?
Learn about the Whys, Whats, and Hows of podcasting to help you determine if it’s right for your organization. Find out why and when you should consider launching a podcast, top things to consider for podcast success, how to choose a topic and format, what it takes to produce an episode, how to launch the podcast and best practices for ongoing promotion, how to build a content schedule and source great guests, ways to monetize your podcast to bring in more non-dues revenue, and triumphs and pitfalls from the speakers’ own personal journeys in podcasting. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Matrix Group
Speakers:
- Matrix Group CEO Joanna Pineda
- Association Briefings Founder & CEO Colby Horton
- Association Briefings CBDO Frank Humada
Thu 1/19 at 3 p.m. – 2023 State of the Industry: Event Predictions, Trends, Challenges & Opportunities for the Coming Year
The event industry has experienced more seismic change in the past three years than at any time in its history. And while we may be eager to get off this roller coaster ride, our ability to adapt to these changes, learn and master new skills and platforms, and navigate a rapidly shifting landscape have put us in possibly the best position ever to prove our value—and the value of our events—to stakeholders. Hear an assessment of where we are now, what lies ahead for event professionals, and how to position yourself for success in 2023. More info/register.
Host: Event Leadership Institute
Speakers:
- Howard Givner, Founder and CEO, Event Leadership Institute
- Annette Gregg, CEO, Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE)
- Ken Holsinger, Senior Vice President – Data Solutions, Freeman
- Andrew Pearson, CMO, Webex Events (formerly Socio)
Thu 1/19 at 4 p.m. – Accomplish More Focusing on Less: How Small Changes Create Awesome Results
If you are having trouble changing your habits or those of your team, the problem may not be you, it may be your systems. Bad habits perpetuate because you are not utilizing the right systems for ongoing change and improvement. Learn about the four principles found in the awesome book, Atomic Habits by James Clear that are foundational for understanding how to build good habits as an individual or as a team and how to break bad ones. We will look at your current thinking and processes and then have each of you walk through a personal habit challenge utilizing some tools and systems for change. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: ASAE Reston-Loudoun Idea Swap
Speaker: Mary Power ACC, CAE, FASAE, founder, M-Powering Leaders, LLC
Thu 1/19 at 6:30 p.m. – Black Association Professionals Monthly Call
Join us for the next Black Association Professionals monthly call. See agenda details on ASAE Collaborate. More info/register.
Host: ASAE Black Association Executives
Thu 1/26 at 7:30 p.m. – The Pop-Up Book Club
The Crazy Busy Cure is full of intensely practical tips to save people from this addiction and instead become productive again. If you’re interested in reading this with us, grab your copy of the book and sign up to attend the discussion. More info/register.
Host: Planners on Purpose.
Fri 1/20 at 4 p.m. – Career Coach Series: Break your Overwhelm Cycle
As evolving leaders, we are continually put outside our comfort zone and presented with challenges. This often leads to being overwhelmed and creates roadblocks in our capacity to accomplish our work and move toward the goals of our association. Learn how to become more self-aware of your how you end up in a state of overwhelm and create practices to break the cycle. More info/register.
Host: Fridays@4
Speaker: Derek Mulhern, leadership and career coach and trained facilitator who works with nonprofit and association leaders
Tue 1/24 at 12 p.m. – Suit Yourself: Curating a Professional Wardrobe that Works for You
Does your work wardrobe tell your story and serve your professional goals? Learn about building a wardrobe that works for you as well as tips and tricks to curate a visual identity that honors your authentic self and is an asset to your career. Research suggests first impressions happen in just seven seconds and women are judged by their appearance disproportionately in professional settings. Hear how to navigate these realities while staying true to ourselves, our goals, and our budgets. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Association Women Technology Champions
Speaker: Ali Miller, Founder and CEO of The Ethical Aesthete
Tue 1/24 at 1 p.m. – ASAE Gold Circle Awards Program Office Hour
Please join the ASAE Gold Circle Awards staff and leadership for an one-hour open Zoom session to ask any questions about the program and application process. More info/register.
Thu 1/26 at 11 a.m. – Taking Charge of Your Digital Transformation Strategy
Learn how effective digital transformation is led from the top and what key strategies to consider when starting your journey. You’ll jump-start your association’s planning with interactive Q&A, explore crucial insights and more. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: iMIS by ASI
Thu 1/26 at 12 p.m. – Looking Forward 2023 (Impact): First Look at Trends and Analysis
Hear findings from the most current and comprehensive examination of 75 critical factors affecting association members. The research covers six domains: economic, information and technology, workforce, government, global, and stakeholder perceptions. Learn about the potential impacts on association strategy and what associations are doing to strategically adapt. 1.5 CAE credits. More info/register.
Host: Association Laboratory
Speakers:
- Dean A West, FASAE, President, Association Laboratory
- Nikki Golden, CAE, Strategist, Association Laboratory
- Nikki Haton Shanks, MBA, CAE, Strategist, Association Laboratory
Thu 1/26 at 12 p.m. – 10 Ways to Generate Non-Dues Revenue While Helping Members Grow Their Careers (Non Dues-a-Palooza Expert Series Session)
Learn key strategies that will help you drive more non dues revenue and build a true career center destination for your members in 2023, including how to stay ahead of the shifting economy and generate non-dues revenue, how to become member’s #1 career resource as they navigate economic changes, and how career resources can attract new members to your association. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Non Dues-a-Palooza
Speaker: Tristan Jordan, General Manager of YM Careers
Tue 1/31, Wed 2/1 and Thu 2/2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Live Review
This free multi-day, online event allows you to efficiently and effectively see targeted demos of learning management systems aligned to serving organizations that market and sell adult lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development. Each learning platform will be demonstrated in its own session, and each day will include educational sessions to help you better understand the current state of learntech and how to choose a platform to fit your needs. More info/register.
Host: Tagoras
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 by Wednesday afternoon the week before it’s scheduled.
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Association Brain Food 