Can you confidently say this about your association? Do
your staff and Board of Directors convey what the members
want? Are your conferences driven by meeting the member's
objectives, the sponsors objectives AND the objectives of
your staff and Board?
Are you asking the right questions when you evaluate each
year's conference? Do you bring forward recommendations
made by all stakeholders? How many new programs does your
association implement each year? Does your association analyze
the evaluations and then do something with them? Or do they
sit on a shelf?
Associations today are in a constant state of change. This
is nothing new - you have beard all this before. And you
think there is nothing you can do about it. I beg to differ.
You can make changes and the changes can improve member
satisfaction at conferences.
Try this:
Create a questionnaire for your staff and board of directors
and ask them to complete it without 'thinking'. Ask such
questions as:
If you could hold the conference anywhere in the world,
where would you hold it?
If you could have whatever speaker you wanted at the conference,
alive or dead, who would it be?
What do you think are the 3 main objectives of the conference?
If you could successfully sign up only one sponsor, who
would it be?
What would be the ideal environment for true educational
learning to happen? Tell me about it - the room setup, technology,
the colours, etc.
The objective here is for the staff and Board members to
tell you what they think would be the ideal conference.
Don't be afraid to think in circles, to create potentially
impossible scenarios. Create an environment of 'anything
goes' for this exercise. There are no wrong or right answers.
Now try the exact same questionnaire with your members.
You do a universal poll, or a select group of membership-perhaps
some that never attend the annual conference, some that
always attend and some that attend sporadically. You need
to explain to them you are doing this for input that will
result in recommendations staff and the Board can later
implement.
Compare the two groups. If you are really lucky, there
will be no gaps. Members, staff and board will all want
to hold the conference on a cruise ship! If you aren't as
luck, you will find huge discrepancies on what is valuable
to the members and what is perceived value to the staff
and board.
Hold on! This is your chance to design a conference that
will meet everyone’s needs! A chance to meet objectives
of the staff, Board AND members. A chance to bridge the
dreaded GAP! What ideas are doable? Which are why out in
left field? What ideas are perhaps in centre-field and just
need some massaging to meet everyone's objectives?
Take a chance, take on or two of these kernels that comes
from this analyses and institute them at your next conference.
Evaluate them, perhaps a little more closely. See what feedback
you get. You might be surprised! Each year add a new kernel
that can grow to popcorn and begin to change the success
of your annual conference!
Sandy Biback, CMP CMM, Imagination+Meeting
Planners Inc.
Has 25 years experience in the profession. She plans conferences
and events from objective design to ROI. Sandy works with
associations
to help them achieve the objectives of all stakeholders.
She is an adjunct
professor at George Brown College and University Nevada
at Las Vegas.
She can be reached at 416-694-7121; biback@ImaginationMeetings.com
check out her website at www.ImaginationMeetings.com
