Make it yours.

  • As organizations face ever-increasing disruption, engaging in an ongoing process of organizational structure and strategy strengthening helps association thrive through adaptation and change. This session will review seven key areas where associations can turn their attention today, reinforcing where they excel in preparation for tomorrow.

  • Now more than ever, associations need to be flexible and build strategic plans that can easily evolve with your organization. As leaders look at goals and priorities 3-5 years ahead, they need to do so with the understanding and flexibility that the environment changes rapidly and they need a process to check-in regularly and adapt/reprioritize as necessary.

  • This exercise will take participants through a multi-stage inquiry journey as they explore emerging opportunities and challenges on the industry’s horizon

    • Prior to the session, participants members will be asked to submit a key subject on the horizon for the industry that is a significant challenge or opportunity they see the profession facing in the coming years

    • In partnership with leadership, a handful of submitted topics will be presented as focus for the session. For each topic, a subject matter expert will be sought to give a quick “TED-style” talk to ensure all are on the same page.

    • At the session, after the intro Ted-talks are presented, the group will have a chance to select the topic of choice. They will then have time to explore all possible questions they could ask about the topic for deeper insight.

    • Through a mixed facilitation methodology, each participant will have the opportunity to add their inquiry insights into the other topic areas. For each area, a top question or two of priority will be chosen.

    • Each group will have the change to lead a brief discussion on these questions

    • The participants will reflect how focusing on questions may have led to deeper inquiry than they would have otherwise attained

  • This is a moment of opportunity where brave organizations are crafting visions, priorities, and structures of leadership that honor their historical foundation while building pathways to a future of strength & mission impact.

    Organizations that have thrived and grown over the past two years have taken the opportunity to depart from traditional models to take a fresh look and approach to directions and governance. Bringing together leaders with wisdom, passion, commitment, and future-focused perspective. They are setting strategies focused on inspirational visions and alignment of organizational priorities without miring that strategy in operations and tactics. The organizations represented in our panel see staff as partners in this direction-setting and subsequent strategy journey. As societal disruption becomes the new operating norm, these associations pivot their tactics without losing focus on what they need to accomplish on behalf of their members and their industry. Key to this direction is an accompanying fresh look at the governance structures aligning leadership to competencies, diversity, and the meaningful experiences that will ultimately advance mission and build a stronger leadership pipeline.

  • To survive and thrive in an age of disruption, associations are focusing on gaining aptitude for innovation. This session will specifically focus on three key areas critical to adopting innovation.

    • Based on the HBR article, “The Hard Truth about Innovative Cultures” the participants will explore the qualities of organizational innovation that are typically lauded (e.g. safe to speak up, highly collaborative) as well as those that are not as often discussed (intolerance for incompetence, brutal candor) and what lessons could be applied at the organization.

    • To embrace a philosophy of innovation, all stakeholders need to be on the same page with what innovation actually means. Participants will explore varied definitions of innovation that exist in the market today and then craft possible definition(s) as they apply to the organization.

    • To close the session, a tactical innovation process will be presented and then pieces of it will be workshopped with some of the ideas submitted, giving learners a hands-on experience.

  • Organizations will invest heavily in volunteer and staff time and resources to compose a strategic plan that creates a meaningful organization vision, and then sits on a shelf. This session will start with a review of the comprehensive components associations are considering when composing their strategic plan. We will then explore some of the supplemental strategic and tools used to ensure that the plan becomes part of the everyday operations of the organization – tools such as core audience prioritization, a programmatic impact matrix, and a fresh look at the volunteer architecture.

  • In a world where the biggest constant is change and disruption, organizations today need an approach to strategy that will:

    • Create space for leaders to co-create organizational vision before they start crafting a strategic plan

    • Build systems to identify environmental opportunities, challenges, and trends throughout the year rather than in an annual survey

    • Have a laser focus in serving core audiences, knowing their needs and creating best-fit aligned solutions

    • Identify which organizational investments are driving the organization and which are dragging in the pursuit of progress

    • Encourage innovation in value, programming, and experience by allocating resources to piloting new concepts each year

    This session presents a new approach to each of these five elements, creating learning experiences with practical applications that will incorporate strategy as part of an organization’s daily routine.

Strategy & Innovation

  • As Board members are elected to and rotate off their term of service, we rarely take the opportunity to step back and reflect on the Board as a whole. This session will provide an assessment framework to help you evaluate the current health of the Board, better recognize strengths, and identify opportunities for refinement and greater impact. Additionally, we will take time to explore the Board’s roles and responsibilities (versus staff) such as:

    • Visionaries, decision makers, and master listeners

    • Legal, fiscal, and strategic focused

    • Voice & face of the organization’s goals, direction, and efforts

    • Organizational champions & evangelists

    • Prioritize goals that stay true to the mission

  • A significant factor in the impact our organizations can make is the dynamic between the chair volunteer and chief staff officers. Together we will review dynamics and trends shifting the association landscape, and give space to have the important ‘hallway conversation’ of how these teams are addressing these issues and opportunities within their own organizations.

  • From one disruption to the next, our organizations & leadership have been challenged by one crisis response & sudden opportunity after another. Intuitive foresight – that key ability to track trends – past, present, & future – and translate them into likely possibilities of tomorrow – isn’t learned by accident. This session will step through a process of trend identification that can be used for any association or industry, helping volunteer leaders & staff alike to look up to the horizon and focus on what will most enable mission advancement.

  • Each of us have the ability to take our inherent senses and raise them to an advanced level – this session will explore how to elevate your ability to listen and connect with others. By reviewing (and experimenting with) how we inherently listen in an ever-increasingly noisy world, you will walk away with places to focus and approaches to apply. Learning where your own listening strengths shine, and where you can build new skills will improve the conversations and relationships you have at work everyday.

  • As Board members are elected to and rotate off their term of service, we rarely take the opportunity to step back and reflect on the Board as a whole. This session will provide an assessment framework to help you evaluate the current health of your Board, better recognize where your strengths are serving you well, and identify opportunities for refinement and greater impact. Together we will explore such topics as communication approaches, focusing strategic input and dialogue, board development, and creating a connected Board culture.

  • The efficacy with which our boards work together directly impact an organization's ability to advance its mission. Particularly in this year, as we emerge from a time of virtual and distance, we have new volunteer leaders who may have never had time with their board members, making it harder for the board to feel like a team. In this session we will spend time exploring the differences between a board orientation for new board members, a board refresh for returning, and a board onboarding for the team as a whole. Session attendees will walk away with new ideas and practical approaches on how to structure their board for greater success as individual leaders and together as a unit.

Leadership & Governance

  • You walk into a session at a conference and there are a sea of chairs, set in theater-style seating with a podium and screen up front. After the usual outlet scan, you wonder how close to the front you can sit to still see, while being far enough back to duck out if it isn’t good. You know sitting on the end of the row is rude, but you don’t want to be trapped in the middle. During the session, the font on the slides is way too small to see from your seat and the speaker is asking you to write things down when all you have to write on is your lap.

    The content may have been great – but was the learning experience?

    Organizations can do a better job designing adult learning experiences – molding the room setup, the format of the session, and how subject matter experts are aided in the facilitation of their content. These adjustments can make learning for participants memorable and impactful. This session will interactively take the participants through varied session set-ups with sample facilitated topics, allowing them to explore how varied seating, interactive tools, and session structures can leverage what we know from adult learning theory to ensure our members walk away with new content and approaches they will remember, use, and share.

  • With an opening exercise to define what inclusivity means, the group will then be led through a series of reflective exercises where they explore the key role they can play in creating a welcoming and inclusive community across stakeholder groups.

  • When is the last time you bought something because of the product brochure? Yet, the majority of association’s marketing budgets still go to traditional sales medium. This session will focus on how we capture, enhance, and expand the member story – highlighting the association experience through their authentic voice. Walk away with new ideas on how to create the association evangelists that will tell your story for you.

  • Let's put it on the table - we know we need to provide virtual learning as a piece of value to members. We know that presentation/slide webinars where questions are submitted over a chat box and held to the end is the easiest way to do this.

    We also know that many sign up, sign in, and then minimize the screen. Or sign up, attend, but because the passive reception of information does not fully engage the learning, find themselves struggling through an hour of content.

    In many places around the web and the world, adults are finding meaningful learning experiences in different formats. Based on an article that has explored over 2 dozen websites that will make you smarter, come for a fast moving journey where we see how many virtual learning formats we can sample so you can go home and have a host of approaches that are better than....another webinar.

  • The decision to remain a member comes down to more than the quality of the product or program purchased – it is about the experience that surrounds the interaction. The value opportunities you create for your member should be expressed not as a list on a brochure, but as targeted solutions that can help them wherever they may be in their career. This session will challenge you to think about new approaches to create an experience that will deepen the connection with (and increase the retention rate of) your members.

  • Our associations may produce the highest quality programs, products and services, but what makes us different from any retail store is the community of colleagues any member can find. What we call networking is the cement that holds together the bricks of our non-dues revenue lines of value. Yet, for all associations tout as being the ‘professional home’ for their industry, this most often means putting volunteers and members alike in a room with wine and cheese with the instruction to ‘meet each other.’

    Associations can do better.

    Together we will explore how to deepen Board Member connections. How to create micro-brain trusts for volunteers, members, and industry stakeholders. How to create personal conversation starters for 5 or 5,000. We will learn about these approaches, we will try them, and we will analyze/evaluate them.

    We all want to see a deeper loyalty to our organizations from our volunteers and our members - that starts with setting in place a dynamic of belonging and connection. This session will give you those first steps, providing you with new perspectives on how to create a networking evolution.

  • Our association's tradeshows have great potential - to be a nexus of solution discovery and trend spotting, to be community hub for forming new professional relationships with those that will be a future partner for your organization, to be a steady source of value and revenue for the hosting association. We know that the same-old, same-old of aisles and 10x10 booths is no longer cutting it. We will lead you through an experience design methodology that taps into new models for what our tradeshows could be.

  • Volunteers are the lifeblood of any association – the strategic visionaries with industry insight, the subject matter experts training the future, the unpaid work force giving back. Traditional models are no longer keeping pace with the evolving needs of our volunteers – associations need to consider new approaches to targeted volunteer segments, and the types of commitments they seek. This session will share five trends in the world of association volunteering that can help elevate the volunteer experience.

Engagement & Inclusion