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Data, Sustainability and a Global Audience Will Keep Virtual Events in the Mix

Things change so quickly today. So trying to forecast the future of events is not easy. But when 74% of their audience tells Condé Nast that companies behaving more sustainably took on more importance in the last 18 months, we need to listen. Young people especially have indicated in surveys that it affects their decision-making. What does it mean? That we still have to look for the virtues in virtual events.

In a recent action brief, ASAE outlined what they believe the future of meetings to look like. They include three action items in a section called What to Do Now. Let’s take a look.

To read more, please log in or check with us on membership.

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What Price… Everything? Will Complexity Be the Answer to Serving All Customers?

It used to be give customers three choices, make one the decoy and most would pick the one you want. Then Netflix perfected the one size fits all. Now, writes Shira Ovide in The New York Times this month on pricing complexity, “We might get more of exactly what we want, and we may come to miss the gluttony made simple.” Where is B2B going in this?

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Getting to Know the New Associations, Media & Publishing Network

Aug. 27 marks the last issue of Sidebar, the long-running association publishing newsletter. Earlier this year, Association Media & Publishing underwent an organizational change as SIIA announced the brand new Associations, Media & Publishing (AM&P) Network, uniting specialized publishing, information, content and media companies, associations, and related interests. That consolidation spawned a new daily, member newsletter called AMPLIFY which we’re very proud of.

Over the last couple years, our Sidebar readership became an amalgam of members and non-members. If you are not a member any longer—or are unsure about your status—we would love to have a conversation with you (Ronn Levine – rlevine@siia.net); Jen Smithjsmith@siia.net). We think the new AM&P Network is a huge step forward for our association members, giving you all the benefits you’ve had in the past plus connections with editors, marketers, creatives and revenue professionals across a wide media landscape.

Under the umbrella of the AM&P Network, the newly named Associations Council is specifically designed to provide community and collaboration for those working in the association media space. Associations Council members find value in the detailed conversations, learnings and connections they have, not only with other association publishing professionals, but now as part of the full AM&P Network.

The strong legacy of Association, Media & Publishing offerings is available to members of AM&P Network, including:

Signature magazine
Published bi-monthly, Signature is the leading resource on association media and publishing trends, case studies, interviews and more. Newly redesigned in 2021 and raking in awards for its bold approach, Signature is a not-to-be-missed benefit of AM&P Network membership. AM&P Network members can access the full digital library of Signature.

Lunch & Learn series
The virtual (for now) Associations Council Lunch & Learn series addresses the intricacies of publishing within the association space. Recent topics include pandemic publishing, staffing trends, and non-dues revenue generation. Check our events calendar for upcoming topics.

EXCEL Awards
The EXCEL Awards are the largest and most prestigious program recognizing excellence and leadership in association media, publishing, marketing and communication. The 2022 EXCEL season begins in November!

Additionally, AM&P Network offers these events and programs to association media pros:

AMPlify newsletter
AM&P Network’s AMPlify newsletter includes original content blog posts Monday, Tuesday and “Ideas Wednesday” plus an industry and member roundup Thursday and a Week in Review on Friday. You’ll read ideas on editorial topics, marketing and revenue strategies, member spotlights, event blueprints, DEI initiatives and so much more. (Members can subscribe to AMPlify by updating communications preferences online.)

AM&P Network Slack Community
Our members-only community is the place to virtually meet and greet with other members. Be part of the great conversations happening by joining today.

Neal Awards
The Jesse H. Neal Awards are the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized and B2B journalism. The Neal Awards have never been as relevant or consequential as they are today. There is a demand for quality business content rising higher every year.

Monthly Virtual Events
Monthly learnings, networking, webinars, discussion forums, and moderated talks are available through AM&P Network. As we look forward to the return of in-person events, these will not be going away. Learn more about the upcoming opportunities to help you grow professionally and to connect with new and old industry friends.

Editorial Council (Discussion Group)
AM&P Network’s Editorial Council is a peer-to-peer network for sharing best practices in editorial and content creation.

Revenue Council (Discussion Group)
AM&P Network’s Revenue Council is a peer-to-peer network for sharing best practices around revenue generation.

CEO Council
The CEO Council is an exclusive peer-to-peer group providing time-starved, purpose-driven CEOs in the business information, events and technology industries with a high-value platform; strategic guidance and a powerful network.

Special Events
AM&P Network is gearing up for a special events 2022 season with several in-person and virtual events planned for media professionals at every level of their career. Stay tuned in to AM&P Network for updates!

If you haven’t yet experienced all that the new AM&P Network has to offer, we hope you will join us for an upcoming event or networking opportunity. As we seek to build a bigger, better community for publishing professionals across the media landscape, we hope you’ll join your peers and find your community in AM&P Network. Again, for more information about membership, please email Jen Smith, director, Associations Council, at jsmith@siia.net, or Ronn Levine, editorial director, AM&P Network, at rlevine@siia.net.

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‘Topic Chapters’ Can Build a Better Value Proposition and Bolster Engagement and In-Person Events

“People understood for the first time the value proposition that they could avail themselves to—the programming all throughout our system; any chapter was now available to them,” Scott Stuart, CEO of the Turnaround Management Association, told us recently. “The virtual environment elevated that.”

It was March 2020, Stuart recalled, and they quickly assessed the situation. “We knew we needed to take risks, to be bold and be early—if we were going to create a new model. Why? We determined this wasn’t going to be a two-week event. It [was going to make] an entire year of programming not relevant.”

In the past, chapters have been formulated by region, of course. Makes sense. But in our new virtual world—which, even with the much-anticipated return to in-person events, will not be going away—topic chapters make equal sense, where people congregate around issues that matter to them, no matter what region they live in.

“We had to reimagine what member value was,” Stuart said. “So we created new programs. The Chicago Chapter was doing Power Hours with Toronto. The UK Chapter was meeting with San Francisco. There were bourbon and wine tastings, Bingo and poker tournaments. We didn’t just survive; we elevated our profile and became leaders in our space.”

In addition, there are now virtual TMA Town Halls that are sponsored. The last one took place Wednesday and was titled, “From ‘Poor Farm’ to Skilled Nursing Facility—Champaign County Nursing Home Case Study, sponsored by SAK Management Services, LLC.” A previous one focused on The Trailblazing Women of TMA.

“We were unafraid to take risks, so there was creativity and leading by example,” Stuart said. “It was paramount to everything we tried to do. And then members started to be unafraid to take risks. And we had the highest retention rates we ever had.”

For associations, “topic chapters” could be a way to get more engagement from their audience. Pointing to another example—the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS)—Associations Now recently offered more potential benefits in this approach:

Increase attendance. Pre-pandemic, RAPS chapter events had been drawing around 50 attendees to in-person events. “Now all of a sudden, we were having 800 people come to these, because the regional limitations had been yanked off,” said Wesley Carr, director of stakeholder engagement. (Great title!) “RAPS is trying to figure out how to leverage these events, at which volunteers speak, in a hybrid context after a return to the ‘new normal.’” One question he brought up: Should chapters move from regions to topics?

Provide more community. Maybe you couldn’t have a Topeka or Helena or Mobile chapter because the audience is too small. But topic-based groups meeting virtually present a new type of community. “Now, [people from smaller areas] could do programs that are accessible by everybody, or they could participate in the programs that are being offered by headquarters as well as other chapters,” Carr said. This approach is similar to how PayPal casino sites have broadened access for players worldwide, allowing them to engage regardless of location. For instance, on Aug. 25, the San Francisco Bay Area RAPS Chapter is holding this virtual event: LinkedIn Is the New Resume and Job Search Strategies for Regulatory Affairs Professionals. Open to all.

Start new conversations. “RAPS is testing a member engagement strategy called Conversations That Matter. It’s a series of 30- to 40-minute Zoom conversations about a hot-button topic led by volunteer facilitators. It’s less formal than a virtual event where presentations are the norm—and it’s more engaging, a direct response to requests from RAPS chapters. The goal is to encourage members to continue the conversation in other ways. ‘But we want to start off with that human interaction,’ Carr said.”

Take more confidence back to in-person events. “We made a number of changes to our conferences,” TMA’s Stuart said. “We were very hit or miss about a bunch of them in the first opportunity back in the fall. We took the learnings from that and in that second conference opportunity we equaled our sponsorship dollars we would have had in an in-person environment. Now we go back in-person [knowing] we were so powerful in what we deployed.” Stuart said groups started approaching TMA in April asking to buy sponsorships for events in 2022. “We made value urgent in the virtual environment. We showed that in our pivot that with our global membership there was probably more value in virtual.”