Publishing during a pandemic has brought more than its share of changes and challenges. Reset, Reinvent, Revenue 2021 is primed to help you blaze a brighter, more successful path into the future. The conference features two days of inspiration, motivation and practical know-how to help you emerge from the challenges of 2020 and face 2021 with a reinvigorated mindset. We recently spoke with two of the conference’s keynote speakers.
Denise Burrell-Stinson, head of WP Creative Team in the Creative Group at The Washington Post, and Scott Stuart, CEO, Turnaround Management Association, both emanate excitement for the opportunity to impart their wisdom to the association publication professional audience.
“One of the things we learned at the Post in 2020 is that there’s still an appetite for marketing content,” Burrell-Stinson said. “But it had to be done a specific way. One of the ways that we were able to get through that time and 2020 was by being in constant conversation with our audience. ‘What’s the best way to reach you? What’s the type of messaging that you want to know about? What do you believe has value?’
“They were like, ‘You know what, we still want to know about brands, but only if they’re helping people. We want to know that the brands that you’re working with have a POV on social justice.’ They want gender equity and racial parity all the way across the organization.”
Listen here as Burrell-Stinson discusses the challenges and opportunities brought by the current publishing climate.
For Stuart, a light went on about the way they were reaching out to members. “I learned more about human behavior in the last year than I ever put thought to,” he said. “Most people in the world are introverted extraverts… We learned in the virtual environment that we need to be more focused on that personality attribute.”
Basically, he said that few of us are comfortable walking into a room of 500 just knowing a few people. The virtual environment has given those people a kind of pass and comfort level to pursue more of what associations offer. We need to continue to give them that pathway.
“We have had a value proposition—with our 54 chapters and more than 10,000 global members—that as a member you can avail yourself of any program that a chapter has at the member rate,” Stuart said. “I’ve been hammering at that for a while. In the virtual atmosphere, people saw it, and it became a reality… They now see the value of the greater organization that they’re a part of. And that pride cascades to everyone in the organization.”
Listen here to more of our conversation with Scott Stuart on how he’s led his organization through this pivot.
Save the date for Reset, Reinvent, Revenue 2021, June 16-17. Sign up for regular updates here.
