Quick Hits

In one of the more interactive sessions of the conference, Suckow discussed tribes and how it’s a tendency of human nature to gather with people you know or people like you. The question when it comes to events though is how do you both encourage tribes (allow your attendees to gather with like-minded people) and disrupt tribes (take attendees out of their comfort zones)?

Suckow explained that there are three groups of people who are the most likely to struggle at your conference – and who are therefore more likely to disengage with your association: industry newcomers, first-time attendees and introverts.

Suckow's advice for how to facilitate more interaction at your event: plan strategic networking events. Don’t leave networking to chance. She said you can do that by planning different formats that include everyone and allow different types of people to thrive. Especially for newcomers, give them opportunities to easily join tribes that already exist or allow them to create their own.

In the end, Suckow said when a member or attendee makes eight or more connections, they’re more likely to be engaged, retain information and will return to your event. Make sure your new members and attendees make those important connections.

 

 

While most in your industry appreciate their association’s advocacy efforts on their behalf, Hildebrand said you have to be creative to get some "freeloaders" to pay dues to join your association and get more deeply involved.

 

For most industries and professions, Hildebrand said the main reasons that people join associations are for insurance and other affinity benefits, professional training, networking, discounts and information. Advocacy is most often on the secondary list. As an example, one of Hildebrand’s longtime clients did an exhaustive member survey and found 60 percent of members were "happy and uninvolved."  

 

To change that, Hildebrand suggested tapping into your younger members since he said millennials are activists by nature and often looking for work and volunteer experiences "that matter." You also have other non-millennial members who genuinely want to get involved to support your industry or profession. Both groups are likely to have like-minded friends and professional colleagues so you have an instant multiplier effect.

 

When it comes to grassroots advocacy, just make sure you training all of your new advocates in the proper ways to contact legislators and understand their role in your overall outreach strategy. You can also get your vendors/associate members to sponsor your advocacy efforts since it’s a natural way to give them access to people they want to do business (i.e. your full members) and it’s a great revenue generator for your organization.

 

Hildebrand also noted that at many associations, the government affairs folks often operate in silos and other staff rarely see them or understand what they do besides "going out to lunch a lot." By making staff, not just members, more aware of your advocacy efforts you’re more likely to get additional support. Hildebrand suggested five keys to showing/quantifying the results of your advocacy efforts—

 

1. Shift in norms: Change in public perception before vs. after your campaign.

2. Strength in organization: Improved membership numbers and community organization.

3. Strength in alliances: More/better partnerships and alliances with like-minded groups.

4. Strengthened base of support: Increased public involvement, increased public action.

5. Improved policies/new legislation: Did you get a new rule, regulation or bill approved by legislators?

 

At the end of the day, it comes down to the "gumball theory" of government relations, quipped Hildebrand. You have to put a nickel in the gumball machine every single day. Sometimes you get nothing back in return. Sometimes one gumball comes out. Sometimes a whole load, and sometimes gumballs spill out when you least expect, just by walking by the machine. The key is to keep the "drip" on at all times. 

 

 

This was a well-attended session with a diverse mix of attendees from all-size organizations with many different types of job functions, not just finance, membership and IT.

 

Quoting author Stephen Few, Bluhm and Gartner said, "Numbers have an important story to tell – but not as numbers."

 

The three biggest challenges most associations have in common are:

 

1. Integrity of the data.

2. Multiple sources of data.

3. Not enough time to sort it out. 

 

Further compounding the problem is that the association’s data is too often controlled by a very small number of people. Both Bluhm and Gartner said higher performing associations have built a culture in which a) everyone has access to the data and b) people share generously the answers and insights that they’ve found.

 

According to Gartner, we really haven’t evolved much from Excel spreadsheets circa 1985. He said we have to ask the right questions and make sure the answers are meaningful and correct. A recent PwC study found that 85 perfect of spreadsheets contain errors and if that spreadsheet is more than 150 rows—the error rate goes up to 92 perfect!

 

Associations are great at collecting data, but they are lacking in sharing that data in meaningful ways. This requires the right analytics and visuals so there is no mistaking your progress in membership, product sales, event attendance, and most of all know the key performance indicators (KPI) that matter to you, your board and your staff.

 

For associations on a budget, the recommended such data visualization tools as Tableau, Qliktech and Microsoft. For those with deeper pockets, consider Microstrategy, SAP and SAS. Even the economic ones have a learning curve, but Gartner said it’s well worth the effort.