By Steven Pollock
There is certainly no shortage of professional associations in the special event and meetings industries. Nationally, there are more than 100 such associations, and any given region considered to be a significant market can easily be home to a dozen active local chapters.
With that said, how do professionals decide which ones are worthy of their time? Once the choice is made, how do the professionals get the most out of their participation? How do the professionals who become the volunteer leaders of a local chapter manage limited resources to provide the most productive experience for members?
A question of equal importance is: How do local association chapters interact? Do they see each other as competitors or allies?
Leaders of local chapters know that most attendees at their meetings are also attending events held by other associations. It's easy to see how this can seem to be a drain on membership, growth, and attendance. But with a cooperative relationship, associations can actually help each other increase attendance at meetings and enhance the benefits of membership. This can be done at little or no expense, while reducing the time spent by the usually overburdened volunteer leaders.
Associations do not compete with each other on the basis of their educational programs. This is because each organization has a unique focus, such as meeting planning, catering, special event planning, professional speaking, hotel sales, or incentive event planning.
If associations seem to be competing, it probably comes from a lack of cooperation, especially in scheduling. Every member of any association will have some interest in the educational and networking opportunities offered by at least one of the other associations. If two or more of these groups are meeting at the same time, attendance is bound to suffer.
The most basic opportunity for cooperation is to coordinate scheduling so that attendees do not have to miss one meeting to be at another.
But that is just the start. The expert professionals in one association can be the educators for another association. For instance, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) can have a program in which a panel of caterers from National Association of Catering Executives (NACE) describes new trends in cuisine and ways for planners to get the most for their catering budgets. Or NACE can have a program in which a panel of planners from MPI describes which criteria are important to them in choosing, and continuing to refer business to, a particular caterer.
This cooperation can be taken a step further by having joint meetings. Here's a scenario:
Association A has planned a meeting. The volunteers on the program, site selection, and publicity committees have all worked hard to produce a worthwhile educational and networking experience. It is important that it be well attended.Association B would like to give the hard-working volunteers on its program, site selection, and publicity committees a break by letting them skip a month. But the pressure is on to provide benefits to members. The education and networking at chapter meetings is very important.
In this scenario, everybody benefits with a joint meeting. Association A promotes this as a joint meeting with B on fliers and other promotional communications, and offers to let B's members attend at the same price as A's members, rather than the higher price that a nonmember would be charged. B sends an email to all of its members, inviting them to the joint meeting.
The result: Association A gains increased attendance and revenue, with no additional work or expense. B appears to have created a beneficial experience for its members since the credit has been shared with A by publicizing this as a joint meeting. In reality, no chapter funds have been spent and its volunteers have done no work. Its members get an opportunity to attend A's meeting at a lower price than they would have otherwise paid as a nonmember of A. And, if they had not gotten the invitation from B, they might not have even known about the meeting. Also, the members of both associations benefit by having the opportunity to make some new networking contacts in addition to those they make at their usual meetings.
Education typically comes in the form of a half-hour talk between dinner and dessert at the chapter's monthly meeting. On some occasions, however, an especially significant guest speaker will be brought in and given enough program time to make an in-depth presentation. The sponsoring association has gone to extra effort and, probably, expense to set this up. Attendance needs to be higher than usual to make the effort worthwhile, and to make a good impression on the distinguished guest speaker. At the same time, there are nonmember professionals who would benefit from this special program—if they knew it was about to happen. This is another situation in which everyone will benefit if there is a spirit of cooperation in the community of professional associations.
Here's a case in point: In South Florida, 10 cooperative associations have come together in the Meetings & Hospitality Alliance of South Florida. One of the members is the local chapter of Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). It arranged to fly in a speaker who was a past international president and current board member. He presented a two-hour seminar on strategic marketing, which was followed by a two-hour networking reception.
All of the Alliance associations agreed to help promote the event and were, in return, mentioned in the promotional literature. Tables were made available at the event to display literature from the associations. In addition, all of their members were offered admission at the HSMAI member price, instead of the higher guest price.
The efforts of association leaders to plant the seeds of cooperation, and the commitment to nurture the resulting relationships by supporting each other's programs, will provide a long-term flow of benefits for themselves and all of their members.
Steven Pollock has been the chairman of the Meetings & Hospitality Alliance of South Florida since its inception in 1998. Links to the member associations and a calendar of their meetings can be found at www.ProNews.net. Steven can be reached at the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum at 954.924.4312, where he is the director of facility rentals.
There is certainly no shortage of professional associations in the special event and meetings industries. Nationally, there are more than 100 such associations, and any given region considered to be a significant market can easily be home to a dozen active local chapters.
With that said, how do professionals decide which ones are worthy of their time? Once the choice is made, how do the professionals get the most out of their participation? How do the professionals who become the volunteer leaders of a local chapter manage limited resources to provide the most productive experience for members?
A question of equal importance is: How do local association chapters interact? Do they see each other as competitors or allies?
Leaders of local chapters know that most attendees at their meetings are also attending events held by other associations. It's easy to see how this can seem to be a drain on membership, growth, and attendance. But with a cooperative relationship, associations can actually help each other increase attendance at meetings and enhance the benefits of membership. This can be done at little or no expense, while reducing the time spent by the usually overburdened volunteer leaders.
Associations do not compete with each other on the basis of their educational programs. This is because each organization has a unique focus, such as meeting planning, catering, special event planning, professional speaking, hotel sales, or incentive event planning.
If associations seem to be competing, it probably comes from a lack of cooperation, especially in scheduling. Every member of any association will have some interest in the educational and networking opportunities offered by at least one of the other associations. If two or more of these groups are meeting at the same time, attendance is bound to suffer.
The most basic opportunity for cooperation is to coordinate scheduling so that attendees do not have to miss one meeting to be at another.
But that is just the start. The expert professionals in one association can be the educators for another association. For instance, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) can have a program in which a panel of caterers from National Association of Catering Executives (NACE) describes new trends in cuisine and ways for planners to get the most for their catering budgets. Or NACE can have a program in which a panel of planners from MPI describes which criteria are important to them in choosing, and continuing to refer business to, a particular caterer.
This cooperation can be taken a step further by having joint meetings. Here's a scenario:
Association A has planned a meeting. The volunteers on the program, site selection, and publicity committees have all worked hard to produce a worthwhile educational and networking experience. It is important that it be well attended.Association B would like to give the hard-working volunteers on its program, site selection, and publicity committees a break by letting them skip a month. But the pressure is on to provide benefits to members. The education and networking at chapter meetings is very important.
In this scenario, everybody benefits with a joint meeting. Association A promotes this as a joint meeting with B on fliers and other promotional communications, and offers to let B's members attend at the same price as A's members, rather than the higher price that a nonmember would be charged. B sends an email to all of its members, inviting them to the joint meeting.
The result: Association A gains increased attendance and revenue, with no additional work or expense. B appears to have created a beneficial experience for its members since the credit has been shared with A by publicizing this as a joint meeting. In reality, no chapter funds have been spent and its volunteers have done no work. Its members get an opportunity to attend A's meeting at a lower price than they would have otherwise paid as a nonmember of A. And, if they had not gotten the invitation from B, they might not have even known about the meeting. Also, the members of both associations benefit by having the opportunity to make some new networking contacts in addition to those they make at their usual meetings.
Education typically comes in the form of a half-hour talk between dinner and dessert at the chapter's monthly meeting. On some occasions, however, an especially significant guest speaker will be brought in and given enough program time to make an in-depth presentation. The sponsoring association has gone to extra effort and, probably, expense to set this up. Attendance needs to be higher than usual to make the effort worthwhile, and to make a good impression on the distinguished guest speaker. At the same time, there are nonmember professionals who would benefit from this special program—if they knew it was about to happen. This is another situation in which everyone will benefit if there is a spirit of cooperation in the community of professional associations.
Here's a case in point: In South Florida, 10 cooperative associations have come together in the Meetings & Hospitality Alliance of South Florida. One of the members is the local chapter of Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). It arranged to fly in a speaker who was a past international president and current board member. He presented a two-hour seminar on strategic marketing, which was followed by a two-hour networking reception.
All of the Alliance associations agreed to help promote the event and were, in return, mentioned in the promotional literature. Tables were made available at the event to display literature from the associations. In addition, all of their members were offered admission at the HSMAI member price, instead of the higher guest price.
The efforts of association leaders to plant the seeds of cooperation, and the commitment to nurture the resulting relationships by supporting each other's programs, will provide a long-term flow of benefits for themselves and all of their members.
Steven Pollock has been the chairman of the Meetings & Hospitality Alliance of South Florida since its inception in 1998. Links to the member associations and a calendar of their meetings can be found at www.ProNews.net. Steven can be reached at the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum at 954.924.4312, where he is the director of facility rentals.
