Meeting Promotion Ideas

MSAE's Meeting Management & Education Networking Group met to discuss meeting promotions (i.e. discounts, scholarships, BOGO, etc.).  Here are the top takeaways:

1. Host a 5K to raise money for scholarships. Sole Motion is a company that can help you coordinate the event for a fee. Make it a family event and have on a Saturday.
2. Add a line to contribute to the scholarship fund with dues renewals
3. Consider a different pricing model for a conference – one price for an organization versus individual – goal is to build relationships with others in the organization, not just the top contact – don’t offer food or either you will lose money.  Download samples here.

Association BarCamp

MSAE hosted our 3rd Annual Association BarCamp on 9/27, topics were selected that day so they were relevant to the attendee needs, here are the takeaways from each discussion:

Trade Shows

• Focus on education and the exhibitors will come (similar to Ladies Night at the bar)
• Invite exhibitor feedback - form an advisory board and/or gather exhibitors after the meeting to get their input, give them a comment card
• Add a "reverse trade show" component to facilitate further in-depth conversations between buyers and vendors

Finding Time for Follow Up

• Time management - know what time of day works best for you
• Manage your time each day to handle email traffic, come up with a plan for a time each day to respond that is scheduled (beware of others expectations)
• Schedule time each day for follow up

Future of Membership Associations

• What's the future? Adopting a retail mindset - "what do you need today?"
• Being where our members are; mobile devices, learn where they are by tracking their preferences via your website
• Associations will stay as long as they remain relevant; what is the "priceless" value you give to your members?

Collaborating with Other Associations

• Before entering into any collaborative effort, having all parties sign off on a "memo of understanding" that outlines expectations, responsibilities and a time life of milestones
• "Adapt or Die" in terms of staying relevant; collaboration may be necessary to stay relevant
• Communication transparency is key; politics may not be avoidable - know this

Webinars

• Hire a "good" company - reliable, trustworthy, reputable
• Be aware of sales tax issue - new MN legislation regarding "digital products"
• Be cautious of "webinar fatigue" - the word 'webinar' = boring; title your webinars "web conference" instead

Sponsorships

• Engage the sponsors - customize for them
• Unique locations - think outside the box (Extreme Sandbox, Drive a Tank, car dealership, WhirlyBall, Horse & Hunt Club, etc.)
• Sell every space - window clings, foot prints, escalator runners, etc.

Future of Meetings

• Face-to-face meetings vs. webinars - face-to-face meetings are back, format is even changing
• Meetings are more creative, interactive; focus on group participation over speaker, lecture format
• Content of the meeting is key as you need to grab members attention to get them there; getting feedback afterward is key

Apps for Meeting Planners

• Evernote
• Super Planner
• Giant Timer
• Corbin Ball & Jim Spellos' website - tech for meeting/trade show industry

Social Media

• Have a strategy and specific goals
• Find out what target audience is following and tailor content towards it
• Timing - before workday, before lunch, at end of work? Tuesday - Thursday?

Event Marketing

• Use catchy language in subject lines
• Provide incentives for those that respond
• Use creative videos or animated videos in marketing and emails

Online Communities

• Member generated content - discussing together, don't be afraid to ask members to post
• Utilizing as a research tool to prospect new members
• Boost brand value and integrity by strong presence

See photos from Association BarCamp online at Flickr.

Professional Development and Certifications

MSAE's Young Professionals Networking Group met to discuss the various certifications one can receive in the association and hospitality industry as well as where to get professional development courses, credits and classes.

• CAE (Certified Association Executive)
• Consists of 100 multiple choice questions based on 9 domains.  Each domain is content from different areas of association management and weighed based on importance. 
• Exam is given twice a year (May & December).
• Fees associated with application, study materials and re-certification.
• CMP (Certified Meeting Planner)
• Consists of 250 multiple choice questions based on a series of course content.  Content based on the meetings, convention and exhibitions industry. 
• This exam is given five times a year and has different windows to apply by.  
• Fees are association with application, study materials and re-certification.
• Professional Development
• MSAE offers a variety of education and courses to help earn credits towards either one of these certifications.
• You may get credits for online or in-person education.

Tips:

1. It helps to get buy-in from your company to help you along in this process. Whether it be in fees or flexible time to study.

2. The knowledge you learn from obtaining a certification can be directly transferred to your job and in turn help out your organization.

3. You have to make the commitment to taking an exam.  Once you make the commitment put 100% into in.

New Trends in Trade Shows/Exhibits/Expo and Sponsorships/UBIT

At our recent Meeting Management Education Council meeting, the group had a lively discussion on sponsorships & UBIT (Unrelated Business Income Tax) and new trends for trade shows. Here are some of the takeaways:

Sponsorship

• First and Foremost - always consult your legal and tax personnel for more details and advice. The information provided below was taken from our meeting and is not meant to be used as tax or legal advice.
  
• Some of the big changes with UBIT relate to ads - the words marketing, advertising, ads, advertisements make the sponsorship dollars taxable, need to acknowledge sponsors instead of advertise for them - use words like sponsorship recognition, alternated recognition (instead of rotating ad), etc. in your sponsorship programs
• Sponsorship Q&A Article from Moore, Costello & Hart
• Create more opportunities for sponsors - conference and association apps are popular right now, some of our members have paid $6,000 and up to have a professional app created, free app builders are available too, like ibuildapp.com and guidebook.com.
  

New Trade Show Trends

• Open format with exhibitors around the perimeter; food, big sponsors and sessions in the middle
  
• Provide a session for exhibitors to train them how to make most of experience (benefit if register early, at event or prior add-on)
• Beer & Wine Tour to check out all areas of the trade show floor (have drawings, tastings, etc.)
  

Marketing Strategy & Evaluation of Programs

Here are a few good questions to consider asking in your next education survey (these questions help measure the experience, not just the quality of the programming):

• How did you feel after the conference?
• What made you come?
• What did we miss?
• What keeps you up at night?
• Everyone in the industry is talking about...?
• Your top priority this year is...?
• This will be a great conference if...? (include on the registration form)

Other ideas to consider for your next survey:

• Offering an incentive or prize is a good way to encourage attendees to complete surveys; several of our members give away free tickets to the conference next year, others have a budget for survey prizes (iPads, etc.).
  
• PollEverywhere.com - survey text option and inexpensive, can also email and tweet responses.
• Send out a "Didn't Attend the Conference Survey" to find out why members aren't attending.

Marketing Ideas

• Turn features into benefits - take your marketing collateral and highlight all features in blue, benefits with yellow - how much is highlighted in yellow? Turn these features into benefits (sometimes asking the question, so what? helps).
  
• Customize when at all possible.
• When in doubt, less is more.
• Have a social media policy. MEA Forum Rules & Social Media Guidelines MEA Conference Policy
  

Program Design, Development & Implementation

Takeaways from the Meeting Management Education Council meeting on June 22:

• When planning education, the group gets input and ideas from: committees, call for proposals, evaluations, surveys, focus groups and listserv groups.
• RFP’s for speakers – suggest potential topics (and why they are important to your group), include background on the audience (challenges, etc), ask when the speaker last spoke and for how many people, have a preconference call, expect them to customize the presentation for your group. Sample Call for Presentations
  
• Consider hosting a BarCamp for your association
  • Definition of BarCamp: a) an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. b) an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event.
  • Quick notes about BarCamps – they are free, the attendees pick the topics so it’s “just in time education,” planners need to let go of the planning.
  • For more information on BarCamps, visit barcamp.org or attend the MSAE BarCamp in September!
  

Meeting Policies

Top Takeaways from the Feb. 24 Meeting Management Networking Group meeting:

• Charging Non-Members More for Events, Can't Exceed the Cost of Membership - “Non-members may be charged more than members are charged for services to take into account that nonmembers pay no dues. Nonmember charges should be reasonably related to the extent to which dues income or other resources support or subsidize the services being sought (it has never been made clear whether a nonprofit can include in its calculation the value of volunteer time and expertise in calculating fair supplemental charge for nonmember access to competitively valuable membership services.) Nonmember charges for services should not be set so high as to deliberately compel joining the organization. This, it could be argued, might violate the principle of availability of competitively valuable membership services to nonmembers.” - Jacobs, Jerald. Association Law Handbook: A Practical Guide for Associations, Societies, and Charities, 4th Edition. Washington, DC: ASAE, 2007.
• If you don't already, have a weather policy
• Check all locations for policies and make sure they are consistent

To see member cancellation/registration and weather policies, click here (you'll need to sign in on MSAE's website to view the policies).

Now is not the time

"Now is not the time to cancel meetings, cut training and development budgets, or nix conferences. Now is the time to run to them." I just found that quote in Associations Now. The article was written by Dr. Kevin and Dr. Jackie Freiberg. (www.freibergs.com) They say it is time to let go of the status quo and and to create a new reality. Think about what information you can bring to your members and the industry that will change what they do. It's time to blow the doors off meetings-as-usual.