5 top ways to use events to build, retain association membership

by Editorial Team
8 minutes read

Professional associations and membership-based organisations play a very important role in business. They bring together professionals and industrial sector players together to pursue causes and concerns of their professions and industries. They bring people together to share ideas, compare notes and find solutions to common problems.

These associations and organisations are, however, facing competition from the internet in the form of freely-available content which members can download, read, apply and solve their challenges. They can even link up in conference calls and discuss issues concerning them, sidelining associations and industrial or sectoral organisations. They can also chat in Whatsapp groups and come up with solutions without bothering their association.

In the past members would benefit from research findings, workshops and industry-specific courses provided by their associations but they can now do without them – thanks to search engines such as Google and Bing which readily provide information.

Associations are also losing membership because of their bureaucratic structures which were meant to involve members and provide checks and balances in the way they are run. These have become like some form of a millstone around the associations’ necks in that they make it difficult for associations to respond to changes on the market quickly, which frustrates some members. It may require an association’s board or committee to sit down to consider a proposal from some members to adopt certain changes in response to the shifting ground under the association’s feet. This may require the publicisation of the planned meeting, holding the meeting and publishing the results of the meeting in the local print media before its resolution can be implemented.

Events

One of the solutions to dwindling association membership and reduced engagement between an association and members is the use of events. Nothing beats live events. Nothing comes close to face to face because it meets a human physical need to belong and commune. In the past associations mostly held annual conferences and other meetings which, apart from membership subscription fees, also generated revenue through attendance fees. Regular association live events enable associations to collect more revenue from their members and collect updated data about members, which should help them to serve their members better. Such events enable members to present pressing issues to the association on time instead of waiting for the annual conference or congress and to follow up on them. If associations leverage this opportunity by timely resolution of members’ concerns, they increase their value to their members which retains them and even attract new ones.

Association events which engage, grow members and attract more members create a positive perception about associations thereby building the latter’s brand. They create spaces which foster members’ personal and professional growth. Associations which use live events to frequently engage with members also have the opportunity to use information collected from their members during the event to plan and create tailor-made content and events that meet the needs and aspirations of their members.

Leveraging events to increase membership engagement and growth

If associations are to benefit from events as a strategy for increased membership engagement and grow their membership numbers, they need to come up with and deploy tactics to achieve this. There are countless numbers of them but the following stand out as being among the most effective in this regard.

  1. Prioritising engagement

Engagement is very important in business events. This is because it is the medium of and the very soul of events. The one-way communication model of yore which was characterised by a presenter who was an expert in one field or the other addressing a largely passive audience of association member attendees no longer has any place in modern business eventing.

Effective association events should have engagement built into them through the use of sitting format such as the U-shape which encourages interaction between presenters and attendees as opposed to the classroom format which encourages presenters to preach at the front of the room with little or interaction with the attendances.

The type of sessions can also be used to make the most of events to meet association objectives. Breakaway, team building and networking sessions encourage attendees to engage in face to face interaction and get to know each other better. This benefits the attendees both at the event and beyond through follow up.

  1. Networking

Whenever human beings converge, interaction and networking occur naturally. This is especially so in a situation where people meet in a business-related setup. Such networking normally occurs naturally without anyone structuring or guiding something which most attendees are used to but this has one major disadvantage. People tend to drift for conversation to people who they already know or have observed to be more knowledgeable or confident during sessions. This situation sees some people being mobbed while others are avoided despite the fact that they may be very valuable leads and contacts if engaged.

To prevent this kind of scenario, some associations structure networking sessions in such a way that each attendee gets a fair chance of engaging and interacting with almost everyone. Attendees from the association’s various constituent sectors may be asked to network with others from different sectors until everyone has had a fair chance of interacting with many people from various sectors to enrich the session.

  1. Hybrid events

Event organisers including those who put together association events are increasingly realising that their events are experiential brands which must be continuously improved in line with attendee tastes and expectations. For this reason they are tailoring their events to the expectations of their attendees. They are moving away from the traditional conferences which were characterised by dark rooms and PowerPoint presentations and adopting modern hybrid type of events.  This involves bundling together various event aspects such as normal speaker sessions, culture nights with live band performances, concurrent exhibition and visits to nearby attractions such as beaches, hot springs or nature reserve to lend variety and novelty to the events.

This mix of events increases the value of the events in the attendees’ view. They break the monotony of the traditional business event speaker’s address and breakaway sessions. The hybrid conference also makes it easy for attendees to absorb information as the breaks between sessions create a craving and expectation for the next session. The novelty brought about by the various activities which hitherto were not part of the very serious conference of the bygone era creates excitement and positive experiences among attendee association members who may encourage other people to join the association and benefit from such experiences.

  1. Choice of venue

With the increasing popularity of hybrid business events comes pressure for organisers to choose venues which lend themselves to such events. This means that city centre hotels and conference centres will have to give way to venues in resort areas whose locations, facilities and environs are supportive of hybrid business events. While using resort venues is a general trend, associations could build their brands by being consultative in terms of venue choice. They could find out from among their membership the kind of venue that they prefer and can afford.

Associations could also respond to their members’ wishes by being sensitive to their industry and sector’s sensibilities. For example, an association representing environmental defenders would naturally favour a venue surrounded by nature instead of the concrete jungle of urban buildings. They would prefer venues which are promotive of environmental preservation than ones which do not. For example, they prefer venues which uses more natural and solar lighting than electricity generated using fossil fuels.

Put differently, associations can endear themselves to their members through using venues which facilitate the rolling out of hybrid kind of events and ones which enable them to live up to the causes of their associations. Inspirational venues can positively influence members’ experiences of the event and they, in turn, can refer other people to the association.

  1. Cause-related events

Another way that associations can engage with their members is by including activities that feed into causes which are at the majority of attendees’ hearts. Keeping with the example of environmental defenders referred to earlier in the article, an association may include tree planting at the venue or some other place close to the venue such as a school or hospital. New members are likely to join associations which uphold shared values.

One of the issues which are becoming topical in business events circles is event legacy. This refers to the long term effect of an event to the community surrounding its venue post the event. If an association has taken a decision to invest in communities near the venues of its events and keeps to it, it can attract new members who are supportive of such initiatives that uplift the lives of other people.

This list of tactics to use business events to engage members and attract new ones is not exhaustive. There are many more which associations can try until they establish the ones which are best suited for their objectives

2 comments

سيو تمام February 29, 2020 - 13:12

Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article!
It is the little changes which will make the largest changes.

Thanks a lot for sharing!

Reply
باك لينك March 1, 2020 - 05:39

Pretty! This has been an incredibly wonderful post. Thank
you for supplying this info.

Reply

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