The weekly list of free educational events and resources for the association community…
Leadership training. WBT Systems suggests associations revamp their leadership training programs to serve two purposes: teaching the skills members need for volunteer leadership and for leading or collaborating on a remote team at work. They also describe several ways to deliver this training.
Change management. We can all agree that change has always been part of life, yet humans like the security of their routines and traditions—just think about all the “back to normal” conversations you’ve witnessed. Rishad Tobaccowala identifies six essential steps to successfully introduce and manage change. They shouldn’t be surprising, but are a good reminder as you go about your day.
Member recruitment. GrowthZone put together a PDF for you to adapt or use in your member recruitment campaigns. It’s a good start, for sure, but you know your market segments best. Focus on the benefits and the impact those benefits will make on their personal and professional lives. Always emphasize the impact, not the features, of membership.
State of associations. McKinley Advisors released their Association Viewpoint study, an environmental scan of the association world and its most pertinent issues. The report covers trends like workforce and return-to-the office challenges for associations and their members, impact investing, agility, and digital transformation. The survey is optimistic overall, although many execs are troubled by the inability of their current business model to support their mission. No surprise about what stands in the way of innovation: human beings!
Metaverse. “Where (and what) the hell is the metaverse?” asks Ed Zitron. “The reason that everybody speaks in such vague terms about the Metaverse is that they’re trying to avoid the uncomfortable truth that the Metaverse is either decades away or, for the most part, completely sucks.” Oh boy. Once again, hype and bluster are attracting more attention to the latest thing than what it might be worth. But I remain open-minded. We should stay up on these web developments so we’re not caught off guard and miss an opportunity in the future.
Association podcasts. Surely, I’m not the only one to listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed, right? When I don’t, everyone sounds really stoned. I can fit more podcasts—and discovery and learning—into my life that way. Association Briefings makes a strong case for starting an association podcast. They describe the steps to take in the planning process, for example, identifying your goals and defining your audience, and suggest other issues to consider before you dive in.
Quick hits
Seven Zoom hacks you probably haven’t heard of, but will be glad you now know. (Tessa Davis)
The biggest mistakes organizations make with cybersecurity—and how to avoid them. (Keri Pearlson and Stuart Madnick, Wall Street Journal—a free link, hopefully)
Phishing alert: Beware Facebook messages about Yearly Views videos. (Pixm)
Good eats
Skip down to the list of free educational events if you prefer takeout.
Dinner duty fell on the day I got back from Massachusetts, so I pulled some chicken salsa verde from the freezer (wrote about it here), sliced avocado and heated tortillas—voilà, dinner.
In my continuing quest to use up a bottle of ouzo, I made Greek amberjack with honey and ouzo. I really like this recipe so I’ll make it again when I get another good sturdy fish. On the side, zucchini and yellow squash pesto with corn, broccoli stems, red/orange bell pepper, onion and tomatoes.
It’s been a while since we’ve enjoyed pork Milanese, so I made several chops on Sunday night—enough for another dinner and lunch. Tired of looking at the lentils in the cupboard, I made this simple lentils diavolo as a side. It’s a keeper.
I was going to make this cauliflower piccata recipe but our area lost power during a windy thunderstorm on Friday night. The local supermarket threw out all its produce and hadn’t restocked cauliflower, so I made it with broccoli instead, omitted the chickpeas and subbed chicken for the vegetable broth. I tossed the broccoli in a larger pan with the piccata sauce instead of serving the sauce on top. Since I have an enormous jar of capers from Costco, I will make this tasty dish again.
Here are the educational events scheduled for next week. 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’ll be happy to feature it as long as it’s not too product centric.
Fri 6/24 at 12 p.m.* – EventTech Chat
A weekly conversation about meeting and event technology, including software, hardware, and audiovisual for in-person and online events. More info/register.
Host: Brandt Krueger, founder Event Technology Consulting
*All events are online at Eastern Daylight Time unless otherwise noted.
Fri 6/24 at 4 p.m. – Return to In-Person Meetings and What to Consider
As most organizations navigate returning to in-person events, meetings, and conferences, what are leaders considering? Join us for a panel discussion on how three associations have transitioned back to in-person and/or continued virtual programs. Attendees will leave with knowledge of safety precautions to consider and ideas to support the development of protocols. More info/register.
Host: Fridays@4
Presenters:
- Darlene Somers, CMP DES, Director of Meetings, International Association of Venue Managers
- Feborah Dixon, CMP, Conference Producer, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- Andrea Massengile, CMP, Senior Meeting Planner, American Chemical Society
Mon 6/27 at 1 p.m. – International Chapter Success (Nonprofit Conversations with Cecilia Sepp, CAE)
This series of 15- to 20-minute videos covers hot topics and issues related to 501c organization management. New episodes are posted around 1 p.m. every Monday. Check out Cecilia’s Nonprofit Executive Spotlight series too.
Guest: Sanja Kekic
Host: Cecilia Sepp, CAE, CNAP, principal and founder, Rogue Tulips LLC
Mon 6/27 at 1 p.m. – #RealTalk Unplugged: Celebrating Pride with History of the MPI LGBTQ Reception
Come engage in deep-dive conversations around the DEI topics that matter most today. Hear how achieving recognition and appreciation of an affinity group’s presence impacts an organization. Understand Equity and Inclusion in practice by examining the evolution of the MPI LGBTQ+ Reception from concept to sponsored annual event. Explore and learn the strategic roles allies and advocates can provide to create inclusive events. 0.5 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: MPI
Presenters: John Ehlenfeldt and Marques Davison
Tue 6/28 at 12 p.m. – Creating Teams in a Virtual World
Learn about the team building challenges a virtual work environment presents for association executives. Hear tips for ensuring staff members feel connected and supported, are able to proactively resolve conflict, and reimagine organizational culture. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Association Xchange
Presenter: Thomas Reynolds, Director of Education Services, Maryland Municipal League
Tue 6/28 at 12 p.m. – What’s the Real Deal When Negotiating with Professional Speakers
Hear the insider secrets of successfully negotiating with professional speakers. Learn negotiation strategies and tips that work to get what you really want. Everything is a negotiation and nearly everything is negotiable. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: MPI
Presenters:
- Gina Davilla, principal owner of The Keynote Shop
- Linda Swindling, JD, CSP, professional keynote speaker and negotiation expert
Tue 6/28 at 1 p.m. – Reimagining Association Ecommerce: Exceeding High Member Expectations in Today’s Digital Age
Associations understand that members and non-members have extremely high e-commerce expectations in today’s digital age thanks to Amazon, Google, Target, etc. A common struggle is how to deliver that kind of experience, particularly when transactions happen in their AMS and other platforms that were not built to do so. Learn how to think of e-commerce and the use of traditional association platforms differently and how to decouple the store or marketplace from legacy systems to provide a great buying experience for the user. 1.5 CAE credits. More info/register.
Host: U.S. Transactions Corp.
Presenters: Jake Toohey, Senior Digital Consultant, and Joe Post, Vice President Strategy & Experience Design, Adage Technologies
Tue 6/28 at 1 p.m. – Dare to Interrupt: A Special Tell-All With Leading Women in Events
Overhear raw, unfiltered conversations between the industry’s most influential women on important topics facing women today, from imposter syndrome and sexual harassment to negotiating pay and beyond. Learn how this diverse panel of leaders overcame the unique challenges they faced in the meetings industry, strategies you can apply to advance and optimize your career growth, and how to better support and empower women in the meetings and hospitality community. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: Meetings Today
Facilitator: Courtney Stanley, keynote speaker and host of Meetings Today’s podcast Dare to Interrupt
Tue 6/28 at 1 p.m. – How to Design Ads for Nonprofits
Learn the basics of digital ad design and how to create or improve your own, including common specifications for digital ads, the best software and file types to use, design dos and don’ts, call to action tips and more. More info/register.
Host: Feathr
Presenter: Aidan Augustin, President & Co-founder, Feathr
Tue 6/28 at 2 p.m. – Member-Centric Strategic Planning: The Mistakes Associations Make with Their Members
Everyone in the association world thinks they are member-centric, but there are things associations do that get in the way of prioritizing their members. It’s time to examine the ways associations mistakenly take their members for granted and how to fix it. Learn how to align the goals of your board, executive director, membership manager and your members to create a robust membership program that serves members and brings revenue to your association. More info/register.
Host: Grype
Presenter: Carol Hamilton, principal, Grace Social Sector Consulting
Tue 6/28 at 3 p.m. – Rolling Out the Rainbow Carpet: Creating Inclusive Events and Welcoming Destinations
How do we make our destinations and events more inclusive and welcoming? Join destination representatives and organizers who share the struggles and triumphs they’ve experienced to ignite action as we work toward a more inclusive reality for all. This session will feature content from PCMA EduCon earlier this month as well as a live Q&A so bring your questions to leverage the shared lessons learned from these industry leaders and each other. 0.75 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: PCMA
Presenters:
- Josh Henry, Meetings Manager, SPIE
- Chase Brunson, CLE, Sections & Events Manager, Austin Bar Association
- Maria Grasso, Senior Vice President, Convention Division, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Jason Dunn, GVP Diversity Sales & Inclusion, Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Rory Archibald, Associations, Sectors & Marketing, VisitScotland
Wed 6/29 at 11 a.m. – Why Having an Event Video Strategy Matters
Instead of letting your event videos collect dust on your hard drive, leverage them and your organization’s other videos to increase engagement and create a well of content that can be reused all year long. Learn how to take advantage of your video content and what a great video strategy can do for all of your events—not just the virtual ones. More info/register.
Host: EventMobi
Presenters: Bob Vaez, founder & CEO, and Thorben Grosser, VP of Product Marketing, EventMobi
Wed 6/29 at 11 a.m. – Hold Them or Fold Them: What’s Your Member Hand Telling You?
Should membership renewal rates alone define how your organization measures return on engagement (ROE)? What data points should you use to measure member engagement? More importantly, would your association align and agree upon those indicators org-wide and alter programming accordingly? Measuring engagement means understanding the member journey and how it interacts with all of your programming. Learn about potential data sets that can help you kick-start your ROE definition and build your own personalized engagement algorithm. 1.5 CAE credits. More info/register.
Host: U.S. Transactions Corp.
Presenter: Maneesha Manges, CXO, HighRoad Solution
Wed 6/29 at 1 p.m. – F&B Trends
With supply chain challenges, staffing shortages, a plant-based movement and rising food costs, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what will happen next. Discover what food and beverage is trending six months into the year, ways to incorporate the trends into your own event menus, and how the trends will reshape the future of event catering. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: Meetings Today
Presenter: Tracy Stuckrath, CMM, CSEP, founder of thrive! meetings & events and host of the Eating at a Meeting podcast
Wed 6/29 at 2 p.m. – Exploring the Metaverse for Associations
We’ve heard about the metaverse in the news, but what is the metaverse and what impact could it have on associations? See a demonstration of the metaverse and hear from a panel of executives how their organizations are thinking about the metaverse and potential association use cases. Get a clear breakdown of the technology behind the metaverse, operational considerations, and the challenges of the metaverse, including critical legal and ethical risks. Get a chance to experience the metaverse first-hand during an informal happy hour in our own custom campus in the metaverse. More info/register.
Hosts: Association Women Technology Champions and ASAE
Presenters:
- Ryan Costello, Chief Strategy Officer, MemberSuite, and Co-Founder, Event Farm
- Dorothy Deng, Partner, Whiteford Taylor Preston LLP
- Barton Goldenberg, Founder and President, ISM. Inc.
- Reggie Henry, CAE, Chief Information & Engagement Officer, ASAE
- Amreetha Nagaraj, MS, CSM, Head Of Consulting – US East & Canada, Box
- Bill Murphy, CEO, RedZoneX Holdings
- Michael Potts, Metaverse Artist and Owner, M2 Studio, Inc.
- Jorge Luis Rivera, CAE, Director of Membership Development, National Roofing Contractors Association
- Prabhash Shrestha, MS, PMP, CAE, Group Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Strategy Officer, ICBA
- Bill Sweeney, Director of Business Development – North America, rooom AG
Wed 6/29 at 2 p.m. – Building a Future-Proof Strategy: How to Diversity Your Non-Dues Revenue Streams
Learn what future-proofing is and why associations need to build and maintain a future-proof NDR strategy, how to think outside the box and use non-traditional revenue drivers to diversify your association’s plan, and key considerations for identifying and implementing the right NDR initiatives for your association. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Association Advisor
Presenters: David Butler, Senior Director, Business Development, and David Freeman, Account Manager, Naylor Association Solutions
Wed 6/29 at 2 p.m. – PCMA EduCon Makers Series Webinar: Production & Experience Outcomes
The team behind EduCon will reveal how they got creative with producing a revised hybrid event model, share the design and outcomes of the partner activations and experiences in The Hub and how collaborating with the host city partners and event suppliers led to the delivery of an immersive experience whether you participated in-person or online. 0.75 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: PCMA
Wed 6/29 at 2 p.m. – Go Rogue: Transforming Sustainability from Optional to Imperative
Become a “GO ROGUE* change-maker” and take action for a sustainable events industry. Together, we will learn about circular design and how to apply it to carbon emissions, consumption, supply chain, and the sustainability success of your event and organization. 1 CMP credit. More info/register.
Host: MeetingsNet
Presenters:
- Aurora Dawn Benton, aka The Change-maker, Chief Change Agent, Astrapto
- Paul Salinger, aka The Provocateur, Event Sustainability Evangelist (former Oracle VP)
- David Fiss, aka The Cactopus, Director of Corporate Partnerships & Event Strategy, Sustainable Brands
- Chance Thompson, aka The Designer, Co-Founder @ VIRIDESCENT
Thu 6/30 at 11 a.m. – A Global Approach to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Conscious Inclusion for Associations
What do we mean when we say Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)? How does this manifest in a global context? How can we leverage a Conscious Inclusion strategy as a systemic, integrated approach to the business of advancing DEI in the global association community? Explore key questions related to how associations can embrace DEI as agents of change. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Hosts: ASAE and ESAE
Thu 6/30 at 12 p.m. – Events To Experiences Summit: Connect & Convert
Quality will matter over quantity. Unique experiences will stand out. Audience-focused content will move the needle. And high-value programming will get your attendee’s attention. If you can make your attendees feel something at your events, they’re going to remember you and your brand. Learn how you can deliver more immersive, engaging experiences that leave people wanting more, and then some. More info/register.
Host: Airmeet
Thu 6/30 at 12 p.m. – Smart Events: A Way to Boost Event ROI & Attendee Experiences
As in-person events make a major comeback this year, many might be tempted to return to business as usual—but this strategy risks falling behind the competition at a time when attendees are increasingly selective about the events they attend in-person. Learn what a smart event is and why they’re no longer just a ‘nice to have;’ how to use smart events to provide a better experience for both exhibitor and attendee; create a smart attendee journey with recommendations, personalization, and engagement; maximize sponsor and exhibitor ROI with smart matchmaking and real-time lead capture; and keep attendees engaged, all the way from pre-event to post-event. More info/register.
Hosts: Skift Meetings and Swapcard
Presenters:
- Matt Snodgrass, Marketing Lead, Swapcard
- Angela Tupper, Branded Content Editor, Skift Meetings
Thu 6/30 at 1 p.m. – Learning Subscriptions: A Win-Win for Members and Associations.
Explore how associations are repackaging education and certification programs into learning subscriptions to provide access to professional development training in a way that fits in with learners’ lifestyles and creates additional value and benefits for professionals in their industry, whether tied-into membership or sold separately. Learning subscriptions can create a recurring revenue channel for associations, helping to grow non-dues revenues more consistently. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Non Dues-A-Palooza
Presenter: Michelle Brien, Vice President of Marketing & Product Strategy, TopClass LMS by WBT Systems
Thu 6/30 at 1 p.m. – Nonprofit Leadership Roundtable
Leaders often struggle on their own to solve their challenges. But what if you could get coaching from your peers on your burning issue—not advice, but insightful questions that invite you to think about your challenge or opportunity from a different angle. Join us to be coached and to coach. Not only will you get help with the issues you are grappling with today, you will practice important leadership skills. More info/register.
Host: Carol Hamilton, principal, Grace Social Sector Consulting
Fri 7/1 at 12 p.m. – EventTech Chat
A weekly conversation about meeting and event technology, including software, hardware, and audiovisual for in-person and online events. More info/register.
Host: Brandt Krueger, founder Event Technology Consulting
Wed 7/6 at 12 p.m. – Building a Fit-for-Purpose Association Board in The Turbulent Twenties
This crucial moment in the historical trajectory of associations demands a clear-eyed assessment of the magnitude of the challenges before us. Among these myriad challenges, it is complacency that may well be the most acute short-term threat. To overcome this complacency, we must dare to imagine that every aspect of what boards are and what they do can be different from what we have been told over many decades. In short, starting today, association boards must become more. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: Association Insights in Old Town
Presenter: Jeff De Cagna FRSA FASAE, executive advisor for Foresight First LLC
Thu 7/7 at 2 p.m. – Managed Service Providers 101
MSPs are a great way to leverage more sophisticated technical help especially for smaller staff with limited tech resources. Learn how to engage an MSP and maximize the benefits for your association. We’ll cover why and how to use an MSP, how to use your current company better, and how to assess an MSP. 1 CAE credit. More info/register.
Host: 501Works
Presenters:
- Marco Maggio, VP Sales & Strategic Practices, All Covered
- Dave Sobel, Owner, MSP Radio and Business of Tech Podcasts
- James Marquis, CIO, 501 Works
Fri 7/8 at 12 p.m. – AWTC Mindful Networking
Held the second Friday of each month, these intimate, virtual conversations are a chance to form meaningful connections with other women and allies in the association technology community. Each Mindful Networking will feature one of our amazing AWTC award winners, followed by breakout rooms with changing topics (selected by our featured guest). More info/register.
Host: Association Women Technology Champions
Guest: Anne Ornelas, DES, Senior Manager, Business Systems and Strategic Initiatives at CASS
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.
Creative Commons licensed photo by Elizabeth George via Unsplash
Association Brain Food 