Innovation Summit Recap
orgCommunity’s Innovation Summit, held March 7th at American Society of Anesthesiologists was packed with information from tremendous speakers. I wanted to take the opportunity to provide a recap of highlights from the event.
Some of the primary themes include:
- Associations, across the board, are slow to adopt new ideas and drive innovation.
- Due to slow innovation adoption, membership decline is a critical issue to address NOW.
- Ways associations can innovate to better engage their current members and recruit new members.
Video Content
Dan Stevens from WorkerBee.TV spoke about the benefits of video and how not only associations, but all businesses can leverage video to get their message out. Cisco predicts that by 2019, 84% of web traffic will be video. Factors such as mobile consumption, complex topics and solutions, and even our need to be informed while also being entertained contribute to this statistic.
Dan also announced the launch of AssociationTV, WorkerBee’s platform that helps to enrich association’s content strategy and drive non-dues revenue by increasing time on site.
Learn about your Association Members
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” -Bill Gates
Multiple speaking sessions and a resounding topic during networking during the Innovation Summit was finding new ways to engage members. At Adage, we utilize Adage Align, or a Discovery process to engage with association members. During the discovery phase of every project, we strive to speak with as many types of members and employees from an association as possible. We find out what is working, what isn’t, and what the most important things are for members at their association. This allows our multi-disciplinary teams the most complete understanding of client goals for every web development, design and ecommerce project. We also often suggest an annual conference as a great place to gather members to engage and hear their stories.
Utilize Data
Thad Lurie from Experient provided some great tips about using data to gain insight. In addition to the data provided from your member database, Thad suggests using data from conferences, webinars and other events. For example, why not ask members why they are attending an event before they arrive? Then, repurpose the data. How?
- Tailor event content to meet the needs and goals of attendees.
- Use the data as beacons at the event to track which activities were more popular.
- Cross-reference the data with the member-provided answers?
This suggested granularity enables the association to assess if they are providing value at the conference to each attendee segment.
Moving Forward
The most prominent take away from the Innovation Summit is that Associations must not sit and wait for innovation to happen. There is no room for complacency. The associations that are working to engage and recruit members, provide constant value, and strive for continuous innovation have the best chance to thrive.
Reach out to discuss ways your organization can improve with innovation techniques.
