Category: conferences

What Do You Mean You Don’t Want Me?

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Last week, the ASAE annual meeting proposal notices came out. Some of us got in, some of us didn’t, and some got a little of both.

Now there are half joking – but that also means half serious – conspiracy theories floating around about certain people or groups being intentionally excluded.

I think we have a mote and beam problem here.

How many of our organizations are open about our selection criteria for our conferences?

  • Does being a frequent presenter count for you – or against you?
  • Do we consider old scores?
  • What does having a “name” in your field get you?
  • Are there unwritten rules?

It doesn’t have to be this way.

sxsw takes an interesting approach: people vote on the sessions they want to see (ASAE has incorporated elements of this in the past, too). Sure, that can turn things into a popularity contest, but popular vote isn’t the whole story, and it helps attendees feel connected to the event.

What can you do at your organization to be more transparent about why people are accepted or rejected for volunteer service, conference presentations, magazine articles, etc.?

 

PR Issues for Associations

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

I had the opportunity to attend a workshop of that same title yesterday morning put on by the local chapter of PRSA downtown.

Our speakers included:

  • Peter Panepento of the Chronicle of Philanthropy on creating a social media footprint
  • Tracy Cooley of BIO on the future of association meetings
  • Mark Neidig of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation on winning the Pepsi challenge
  • Shashi Bellamkonda of Network Solutions (and general awesomeness) on Google+

The session consisted of round robin roundtables.

I have to admit, I skipped the session on the Pepsi challenge (not relevant to my organization, although it is relevant to our members) in order to spend more time with Shashi. Big geekin’!

Top takeaways included:

  • LinkedIn is likely the future of business social networking (seriously – check out the Chronicle’s LI group, although you will have to wait to be approved for membership).
  • Google+ is still a niche network (40 million users, mostly social media early adopters, as opposed to FB’s 800+ million), but there are good reasons to be on it as a brand: so you don’t get brand-jacked (like happened to Bank of America), because it will positively influence your SEO in Google (try Googling Dell), and because it’s a great platform to launch campaigns because it’s easy to aggregate multimedia.
  • The association meetings market is changing quickly and radically. We have to be willing to experiment equally radically and be prepared to dump what’s not working equally quickly, regardless of internal political support.
  • Association meetings professionals MUST work with marketing to generate buzz and get bodies in the door.
  • When it comes to the broadening definitions of what constitutes “news media,” trust but verify. Err on the side of being generous with your free press registrations for first timers, but request clips.
  • Engage media who can’t attend your conference through social media. Are you following your organization, profession, or industry’s media influencers on Twitter yet?
  • For smaller events that aren’t inherently newsworthy, look for the buzz and try to get it to play in the local media wherever your event takes place.

What have you learned this week?

Dare to Think BIG

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 2 Comments on Dare to Think BIG

During Jeffrey Cufaude‘s ASAE11 Ignite presentation on living a sustainable life, he quoted Mary Catherine Bateson: “we’re living longer but thinking shorter.” And I got thinking about the concept of thinking small.

Associations are under tremendous pressure right now. The economy is not getting any better. Social media, to quote Jamie Notter and paraphrase Clay Shirky, is kicking our asses. Generational shifts are battering our traditional membership and leadership models. Peak oil and global climate change are beginning to affect our society in countless ways, one of which may very likely be to cripple our traditional educational and networking models. What volunteers are looking for, and the hoops they’re willing to jump through in order to get it, has changed in ways that render traditional board and committee service models obsolete. Information is no longer scarce, and even the most backwards and self-delusional associations can’t pretend to hold a monopoly on it any more.

Everything in our environment is whispering: “Protect your ass. Guard your turf. Trust no one. Rock no boats. Prepare for the worst.”

In other words: “Think small.”

Sure – think small, and watch your organization die.

Now, as Jamie has pointed out, your association – my association – has no inherent right to exist. And if the best thing for your profession/industry/community/audiences is for your organization to die, then get on with it and decrease the surplus population.

But if you do believe that your organization brings something useful and good to some group of people, now is exactly the time to think big, take chances, rock the boat, make change, and see where it can take you.

It’s easy to be afraid now – a lot of shit is going down. But if we can get past the fear and be courageous and willing to take risks, we have HUGE opportunities to do better by our members, our professions/industries, our audiences, and maybe even the world. As my good friend Catherine says: “What are they going to do – take away your birthday?”

At the end of his Ignite session, Joe Gerstandt asked us: “Do you approach life from fear or from love?”

It’s time to choose.

#ASAE11 – Tips for First Timers

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 11 Comments on #ASAE11 – Tips for First Timers

#ASAE11kicks off in just over a month (damn! already? where is the summer going…?), and I saw a recent tweet asking for tips for first-timers, so I thought I’d share some of mine:

  • Follow the back channel (#ASAE11) – it really will help you keep up on what’s going on, both the published stuff and the unpublished/spontaneous stuff.
  • Don’t overschedule yourself – there’s a lot going on. You are going to miss some stuff. Make peace with that in advance.
  • Do your prep work – check out the preliminary program before you arrive (on the plane is OK) and set a draft game plan for week
  • Have a second option – you might find yourself in a session that’s not that great. Make sure you’ve already thought about what else you might want to do so you don’t feel stuck.
  • Don’t be afraid to approach people – it’s really hard to come to one of these things for the first time alone. You literally feel like the only person with no friends. But (a) I guarantee there are others in the same situation who would appreciate some outreach and (b) we’re association people. We are professional networkers who generally speaking like other people. It’s totally cool to walk up to a group you don’t know and join their conversation. Nervous? Look for me – that’s why my photo’s attached to this post.
  • Have a good time, but not TOO good a time – nothing sucks harder than a hangover at a conference. I know from experience, and it’s a mistake we all make, but hopefully we only make it once.
  • Feel free to tag along – there are a lot of events you might not have been invited to, just because people don’t know you yet. I’m specifically thinking of the vendor events on Sunday night. It is totally OK to tag along with a group you just met that’s going to XX or YY vendor’s party. They WANT to meet you and they WANT you to have a good time.

Ninja Tips for Engaging Your Audiences

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Layla, Lynn, and Elizabeth’s ninja tips for engaging your audiences:

General

  • Don’t auto-post everything to everywhere, but do learn how to selectively auto-post in your chosen platforms.
  • Check out the administrative interface of every platform you use – you’d be surprised at how much information is available on things like which links got clicked, who likes you, what they’re doing, etc.
  • Use URL shorteners and your regular web analytics tool to track how effective your posts are. (Are people clicking on what you want them to click on?)
  • When people contact you (@ replies, direct messages, posts to your FB page’s wall), respond.
  • Don’t forget about direct mail, which is still the most effective way to reach people, and email, which is still the most effective online way to reach people.
  • Figure out ways to reward your most ardent supporters, and make sure they’re ways that are meaningful to them.
  • Don’t ask LESS of social media in regards to ROI than your other communications channels…but don’t ask MORE, either.
  • Make sure more than one person in your organization knows something about your chosen tools – you don’t want everything to come to a screeching halt if s/he chooses to leave.
  • Dial back your efforts on the platforms that aren’t helping you meet you goals, so you can dial up your efforts on those that are.
  • Regularly revisit your goals to ensure your tools and efforts are still meeting your needs.
  • Follow thought leaders to keep up on the newest tools and new features your existing tools may have added.
  • Promote your top social media outlets in your e-mail signatures and business cards to drive visits and use.
  • Tag your items using searchable keywords and include those in descriptions whenever possible. That’s how people will find your stuff online.

Twitter

  • Understand Twitter’s #hashtag power – they spread your words far beyond your followers – and use a tool to track how far your tweets spread.
  • Use general hashtags (#nonprofit, #marketing) to help your tweets get more exposure.
  • BUT don’t use more than 2-3 hashtags per tweet.
  • Use a real picture of yourself for a personal account and a logo for a branded account.
  • If it’s taken you a while to respond, RT the original tweet in your response. It will help give the person you are responding to context.
  • Check the trending topics every time you log into to Twitter to see if there are any ties you can make to the association’s content.
  • Thank those from your target market (i.e. potential or current members) for following you.
  • Create a general hashtag for the profession or trade and use it religiously when you have any content that relates to the profession. Avoid weird spellings or shortenings if possible to make it easier for them to appear in Twitter searches.
  • Identify in the Twitter bio which employee(s) monitor the Twitter account to give others a sense of who they are talking with.
  • Don’t forget to brand your Twitter background. Use it as an opportunity to inform other Twitter users about your other channels or as a place to promote upcoming events.

 

Twitter Story: Conferences

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 2 Comments on Twitter Story: Conferences

I am definitely not the first person – and I’m sure I won’t be the last – to have my Twitter epiphany at a conference. Mine came at Great Ideas 2009.

I seem to have developed a tradition of being a relatively late adopter of social media technologies, and then caving to peer pressure at the Tech Conference. My 2008 cave? Facebook and LinkedIn. My 2009 cave? Twitter. After being pestered to get with it for at least 6 months, I finally did. But I wasn’t quite Getting It until Great Ideas.

“I Get It!” #1 – I gave up on the Twitter interface and installed TweetDeck. If you’re still using the basic Twitter interface to try to manage things, don’t. Get TweetDeck or Hootsuite ASAP. Actually, there are lots of great apps that can help you manage (and have fun with) Twitter. But, if you do NOTHING else, at least upgrade your own user experience.

“I Get It!” #2 – Tweet the main points any speaker is making in any session you attend. Your own tweet history = instant session notes!

“I Get It!” #3 – I was tweeting away during a session given by Lindy Dreyer and Scott Briscoe using my shiny new TweetDeck install and I noticed that I had a new follower – @jeffhurt. And he was @ replying me a question for the presenters. And not only wasn’t he in the room, he wasn’t even at the conference. And I asked it and got an answer for him and @ replied back.

Now I know what you’re thinking: if everyone can get the content through Twitter, no one will come to my conference. Nope. Because they still miss the networking and hallway conversations. As a matter of fact, if *some* of the goodness of your conference gets out on Twitter, it could potentially increase attendance, as more people see what they’re missing.

I know what else you’re thinking: what if people don’t like the speakers and say mean things? And I’ll be honest – that could happen. But we’re back to the standard answer that’s always given to the “what if they say bad things about us?” question: they’re saying it anyway. Wouldn’t you rather know? The real problem with the feedback mechanism is that most presenters (I include myself) lack the ability to pay attention to the crowd in the room, keep the flow of the presentation going, and pay attention to the Twitter stream, which might tell us that we’re missing the mark before it’s too late and the presentation is over and we get back our evaluations weeks later and it turns out, people weren’t getting what they came for and if only we’d known we might have been able to make some adjustments. (Also, most of us save the really catty comments for direct messages 🙂

So how are you using Twitter to make your organization’s meetings better and/or enhance your own experience as an attendee or virtual attendee?

Forget the “How” – Worry about the “Why”

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 7 Comments on Forget the “How” – Worry about the “Why”

Leslie White and I did a two hour (well, actually 1:15 after you took out the breaks and the fact that the predecessor session went long) session on Twitter at ASAE’s social media workshop last week. We had planned to talk a little about the mechanics and a lot about what associations are actually doing with Twitter. But we got bogged down in the how – how do I set up an account, how to I protect/unprotect my tweets, how do I use re-tweet, @ messages, via messages, direct messages, URL shorteners, etc. I was not thrilled at the time, and upon reflection, I’m even more dismayed that we got so sidetracked, not least of which because I’m sure a certain percentage of participants were totally bored.

The biggest problem is that, if you lack a solid answer to “why,” no matter how easy the “how” is, it’s too hard. And if you have a good answer to “why,” you’ll figure out the “how.”

When I asked how many participants had Twitter accounts, probably 75% of the room raised their hands. When I asked how many had tweeted within the last month, maybe 25% still had their hands up. When I got to how many had tweeted within the last day or hour, it was pretty much down to just the presenters.

Now why is that? Is it that it’s SOOOOOO hard to go to www.twitter.com, compose a 140 character message, and hit “return”? No.

But if you haven’t a good answer to “why am I doing this?” ANY “how do I do it?” is too hard. Because you know what’s easier 100% of the time? Doing nothing. You need a reason to move. And without that, any “how” is too much trouble.

And the thing is, the “how” of Twitter is really, really simple. (And yes, I know I’m techno-friendly, but I’m definitely not a bleeding edge early adopter type. And I’m not a rocket scientist, by any stretch of the imagination. Which means that if I can figure it out, so can you.)

Step 1: Sign up for account.

Step 2: (recommended but not required) Set yourself up one of the management platforms.

Step 3: It’s a cocktail party.

You wouldn’t charge into a party where you don’t know anyone and start making loud declarative statements, would you? (I hope not.) You’d start by listening to what’s happening, getting a feel for the room, and then joining a conversation that sounds interesting. Twitter’s the same way, only online and in 140 character bursts.

Oh – and all those “cool kids” comments? While there are some genuine social media rockstars (and no, I don’t mean Ashton Kucher or Oprah), I’ll tell you the secret to becoming one of the “cool kids” (and I won’t even make you pinkie swear that you won’t tell anyone): get on the social media platforms (blogs, wikis, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), talk to people, and say interesting things. That’s it. It’s a total meritocracy.

See? Easy how.

So what’s the why? You have to answer that for yourself, but I’m going to try to help you, by relating some stories of ways I’ve used – or seen others using – Twitter to engage people and benefit their associations over the next few weeks.

Visual Thinking

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Still pondering the whole idea of visual thinking from Dan Roam’s keynote at the recent Great Ideas Conference.

I am not a visual thinker. There are white boards all over the offices at Beaconfire, and 90% of them have all sorts of diagrams and sketches all over them. Mine falls into the other 10% – largely blank (at least when it’s not pro football season). I’m a “Red Pen” person 100%. Actually, the point of the red pen person is that you can eventually get them up to draw on the white board if you can make them mad enough that you’re oversimplifying the problem. I guess I have an exceptionally long fuse, because I’m never going to get up and take the pen of my own accord. So I may be the elusive “No Pen” person. I’m all about words, baby.

And yet, the concept of visual thinking is really appealing to me.

Roam pointed out that ALL 5 year olds report being able to draw, if you ask them. But at some point, most of us decide that we can’t, and that’s that. No more drawing. Or as he put it, we’re “not taught to make use of our inherent visual sense.”

And I really love the idea of simplicity on the other side of complexity, which is what I think this is fundamentally all about. My spouse, who also foolishly studied philosophy, calls it the “essay paradox.” Most philosophers start out expressing their ideas in essays, generally 100 pages or less. Then a handful get famous and decide they need to write books. BIG IMPORTANT books. The next thing you know, you’re saddled with all 600+ pages of A Theory of Justice when “Justice as Fairness” says pretty much the same thing in WAY fewer words.

As Roam articulates them, the rules of visual thinking are:

  • Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.
  • Whoever draws the best picture gets the funding.
  • The more human the picture, the more human the response.

So how do you do it?

  • Draw a circle & give it a name (Roam says it should generally be “me” because people are usually at the center of their own problems.)
  • Divide problem into 6 slices: who/what, how much, where, when, how, and why
  • Determine which of the 6 are involved

So what about those of us who, left to our own devices, will literally NEVER do this? Are we SOL?

I don’t think so, and here’s why: those questions are the key.

  • Who/what?
  • How much?
  • Where?
  • When?
  • How?
  • Why?

Sure, you *can* answer them with pictures. And if that’s the way you work, go for it. But it seems to me that there’s no reason you can’t answer them with words, if that’s the way your brain works. And (Red Pen Person alert) with words, you can explain the thinking behind your answers. Additionally, Roam identified one potential flaw in answering “why?” with a picture – confusing correlation with causation. It seems to me that if you’re forced to document your reasoning (by using words), you’ll be less likely to fall victim to that confusion.

Or am I completely wrong and doomed to be mired in complexity if I can’t overcome my disinclination to draw stick figures?

Meeting Formats: Everything Old Is New Again?

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE

Last week, I was invited to participate in an upcoming session at ASAE on “creating provocative and edgy learning topics and formats” for the 2009 AM. Aside from some momentary uncertainty about whether I’m really sufficiently creative, provocative, and edgy to be able to contribute in a meaningful way, I figured, what the hell, right?

I almost immediately stumbled onto this debate on Acronym about whether we’re really ready for creative, provocative, and edgy meeting formats. Apparently, for many people, the answer is an emphatic, “NO!”

On the other hand, we just got back the evaluations from the September CAE Immersion Course. They were generally good (Go CAE Action Team! Y’all rock!), and, as I reminded all the domain presenters, when reading the comments, don’t take any of them too much to heart – there’s always someone who LURVES you and someone who HAAAATES you. Focus on the overarching themes. (Does everyone say you talk too fast? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I do – I’m Northeastern city girl. Y’all are just going to have to keep up! But I digress….) I’m sure you can guess where I’m going:

One of our most prominent overarching themes was the need for MORE INTERACTION.

Adult learning 101, dontcha know?

Interaction is good – interaction is bad. Expert talking heads are good – expert talking heads are bad. PowerPoint is…no, I can’t even write that. PowerPoint is pretty much universally evil in my book.

So what’s really going on here?

I quote from adult learning pioneer Malcolm Knowles:

Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education. They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base. To help them do so, draw out participants’ experience and knowledge which is relevant to the topic.

Which I think is the key. Interaction is good if expectations are properly set (i.e., make sure the session description includes “highly interactive” if that’s what the session is going to be) and if interaction is relevant to the topic.

Look, if I’m going to a presentation by Larry Lessig on copyright and fair use, I don’t really want to chat about my experiences on this topic – I want to listen to him (not least of which because he’s a really good presenter). On the other hand, if I’m trying to help a room full of 100 freaked out association professionals learn how to think like ASAE wants them to think in order to pass the CAE certification exam (like the Chief Staff Executive of a large national association that always follows best practices, in case you were wondering), I better give them some time to practice what that feels like, by working through situations and scenarios that are representative of what might show up on the exam.

So if we threw out everything about conferences as we currently know them, what would your ideal conference look like?

ASAE AM Conversation: The Lunchtable Twilight Zone

Posted on | by Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE | 1 Comment on ASAE AM Conversation: The Lunchtable Twilight Zone

As you’ll note if you read Confessions of a Justified Meeting Attendee, I mostly avoided the ASAE Exhibit Hall. However, one day, I made the mistake of having lunch. No it wasn’t the food – I mean, it was typical conference food, but it was edible. And I wasn’t assaulted by exhibitors pushing troll bobble heads or anything.

But I had two of the strangest conversations of the entire meeting in the space of 10 minutes.

And I hang out with the YAPstars, so my standards for what constitutes a strange conversation are pretty forgiving.

After collecting my pasta and Diet Coke, I sat down at a table occupied by a couple health care association execs. Now, for those of you who didn’t see me, I was rockin’ the badge flare: CAE pin, Future Leaders pin, Decision To pin, ASAE Volunteer pin, and about a mile of badge ribbons, including “I Wiki” and “I Blog.” So these execs proceeded to tell me that their organizations had decided that they weren’t going to do online education because they “believe in face-to-face networking.” First of all, I hadn’t said anything more than, “May I join you?” and “I’m Elizabeth. And you are?” But whatever. What I don’t understand is why it has to be one or the other. Why can’t you have some face to face events for people who like that, can afford it, and can get time away from their other responsibilities, supplemented by some online events for people who prefer that method of learning and interacting? I think it’s pretty unlikely that these execs had done a survey of their entire universe of constituents (because non-members take advantage of our educational programs, too), gotten a 100% response rate, and not had a single person indicate any interest in virtual events. But I could be wrong. I also don’t understand what it was about my very existence that caused them to attack the idea of online ed so energetically, but maybe I put out a subtle pro-virtual education vibe.

But the really weird conversation happened about 5 minutes later.

A prominent speaker and ASAE meeting perennial joined us next. Without even introducing himself (because of course I would know who he was) or asking my name (probably because he didn’t consider it important), he asked, “Are you attending my session tomorrow?”

“That depends – when is it?”

“8:30 am.”

“Sorry, no, I’ll be presenting on wikis in the Social Media Lab then.”

“Oh, you mean that Facebook stuff.”

“Well, the Social Media Lab has had sessions on a variety of technologies – blogs, Twitter, virtual worlds, social networking tools. My session is on wikis.”

“I was on a conference call, and I asked if anyone had generated any business from Linkedin. Silence. Not a word. Heh-heh-heh.”

“Um, that’s not really the point. I’m a consultant, and I wouldn’t expect someone to want to hire me just because she saw my profile on Linkedin. It’s about keeping track of people you know professionally, and, increasingly, about getting work-related questions answered.”

“Oh, so you can use it to launch your Amway business by annoying people you worked with 10 years ago? That’s my profound thought for the day.”

And then he split.

WTF?

(And keep in mind, this guy has spoken at every ASAE conference I’ve attended for at least the last 8 years.)

But that’s not the point. The point is this: what do they have in common? Narrow vision. Thinking inside the box. Refusing to look at things differently, even if someone else does the heavy lifting for you. Lack of innovation. Lack of willingness to explore potential. Fear. Of change, of the unknown, of not being in control.