An Experience Exchange
Why do your members attend your association's events? Is it to hear some expert with all the newest trends and fads?
Or is it to meet up with fellow members with parallel experiences?
Statistics compiled by association industry experts say that the number one reason why people get on an airplane and fly across the country for their association's annual meeting is to exchange experiences with their peers.
My collaegues and I have attended hundreds and hundreds of trade association events over the last three decades. Time and time again we've seen the attandees gather in the exhibit hall, on the golf course, and in the coffee shop to discuss what's really troubling them - to see how their contemporaries are handling these same issues.
Most often their conversations center around the three general issues that stand in the way of their long term success.
- Internal Conflict
- Leadership Development
- Management for the 21st Century.
While most companies tell us that they would prefer to access their own talent for management into the next phase of their business - it's often not possible.
The people on the scene do not have the depth of knowledge or experience required. Typically a last resort is to hire an outsider - so, what other options remain?
How about spending time regularly in conference with industry leaders they trust and respect? That's a key reason for attending association events - so can't they leverage the thought leaders in the group - beyond the meeting itself?
Wouldn't it be great if the top 10% of your members could connect with the rest of your membership systematically and individually - sharing their experiences?
What if the senior generation of these successful companies acted as mentors for successors among the other 90% of your members? And what if this is done on a universally voluntary basis?
Your members,no matter how remote their location, can plug in to the experiences of their industry peers. Important information from the source, their fellow association members - in real time - transfers the experiences of people who have "been there done that" as it is needed.
Actionable strategies they can use immediately, from people they trust.
Your members are looking to you for simple actionable strategies that will allow them to receive ever more benefits from their association dues.
Processes they can institute themselves, manage themselves, and that help them achieve greater levels of success and development are what they want.
Now you can put the tools at their fingertips and generate non-dues income at the same time.
We would like to help you connect your members to one another year round - leveraging last year's association events to this year and next. Connect local to regional to national meetings, bringing together those members who are industry leaders with those wanting their help to grow more profitable.
We have created a free video based series that delivers in a straightforward manner the specific steps your members can take to organize and manage a Strategic Conversations ® peer group that will provide the platform for growing their business with the input of peers they select to help them.
You may want to receive these same videos with special insights developed from the experiences of YOUR peers, just click here to learn more about the Association Executive Edition of Strategic Conversations.
This is one of the very few ways to dramatically leverage your association's education budget - by empowering everyone who's interested in growth to put the contents of your programs into action with their peers.
All the best!
Charles Wallace, Managing Director & Executive Editor
New York, NY
212-501-4912
An Experience Exchange