Many small staff associations may be starting to plan their annual meetings or conventions right around now. If that’s the case for you, be sure to think about how to assess your meeting after it’s over. Otherwise, how else will you improve??

So, how do you assess your meeting?

• Staff interviews: Conduct interviews with staff members and the sales team. Through confidential, one-on-one interviews, solicit buy-in for recommendations and identify the most culturally friendly approach to achieving ABC’s goals and objectives. Interview questions will be approved in advance.
• Stakeholder interviews: Conduct interviews with stakeholders to gather information for the components of the evaluation. Interview questions will be approved in advance.
• Member interviews: Conduct interviews with ABC’s largest customers to gather information for the components of the evaluation. Interview questions will be approved in advance.
• E-surveys: Conduct e-surveys of staff members (entire association) for full organizational buy-in, stakeholders and members (those not interviewed) to further validate interview findings and gather enough data to be statistically valid to support
  recommendations for improvement.
• Benchmarking assessment of other associations with like-size and larger event
  departments.
• Sales team effectiveness assessment

Based on interviews, analysis and research, you’ll know how successful your event was and what factors to change while planning the next one.

Good morning and happy Friday! I can hardly believe it’s September; summer flew by. September is my favorite month for a few reasons (football and my birthday being two of them), but I’m not 100 percent ready to leave summer behind. Anyone else ready for cooler weather and changing leaves?

Of course, before I head out of the office to enjoy my long weekend and first college football game of the season, I’m sharing a few of my favorite blog posts from around the association community. Which ones were your favorites?

1. Eric Lanke asks association professionals if any of their members would “take a bullet for the association.” It takes a lot of work to inspire such deep passion and loyalty, and members aren’t necessarily loyal to your products and services. But they are loyal to the “way the association can help them realize a better vision of themselves and their industry.”

2. Are you running the association business model into the ground? Tom Morrison keeps it real for associations in his latest post and reiterates that the association model is not dead but that its business model needs to change. Tom writes, “The greatest opportunity lies when a shrinking marketplace is replaced by a larger, growing and more intelligent marketplace.”

3. Joseph Sapp shares his thoughts time management from an association management company perspective. It can be difficult to juggle multiple clients and successfully meet all their needs, but Joseph shares a few tips, including setting up “canned” responses and scheduling time for email. How do you balance your time?

4. How can you transform your conference and offer more than “superficial knowledge” for your attendees? Jeff Hurt shares his thoughts, and encourages meeting planners to create real understanding by asking participants to work in pairs. Participants can take turns explaining the information to one another; teaching others is one of the best ways to learn the information yourself.

5. Joe Rominiecki’s post on “loveable losers” caught me right from the title (my dad is a diehard Cubs fan). He defines “loveable loser” as a “program, product, or service that has been evaluated and deemed worth supporting despite losing money.” Joe makes the important distinction that a program or service only becomes a “loveable loser” if you make a conscious decision to keep it around. Does your association have any “loveable losers”?

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great (long!) weekend! Stay tuned for photos from our Annual Tailgate Party!

Happy Friday! If you’re on the East Coast, I hope you’re not freaking out too much about Hurricane Irene. Seems like it’s been quite the week of natural disasters. We hope everyone stays safe!

To top off this week’s posts, here are five of my favorite from around the association blogosphere this week:

1. The Associations Live blog shares 10 learning shifts for conferences and events. These are great things to keep in mind, especially as events become more and more digital. One key non-digital learning? Talk to strangers! Conference facilitators should make an effort to group people up who may not know each other.

2. Jeff Hurt shares some great visual language all meeting planners should employ. Research has increasingly shown that most of us are visual learners and including interactive media and idea mapping at meetings is a step in the right direction.

3. Elizabeth Engel praises Joe Gerstandt’s session at ASAE’s Annual Meeting, and asks fellow association professionals if they are “ready to fly.” Other questions to ask: Who am I? why am I here?

4. David M. Patt reminds ASAE attendees that they should not necessarily try to replicate every element of this year’s excellent annual meeting. ASAE is a huge operation with a large budget – and small staffs especially should try to take inspiration from their events, but to attempt to copy them.

5. Wes Trochlil shares a frustrating story about a car salesmen and reminds association execs that truth is everything. Whether you’re working with your board, volunteers, members or staff, make sure they know they can trust you.

Whether you’re in Hurricane Irene’s path or not, we hope you have a wonderful, safe weekend!

Good morning and happy Friday! The first full week after ASAE’s Annual Meeting is always a bit of a crazy one, isn’t it? I hope everyone is ready for the weekend – I know I am.

In addition to being slightly exhausting, ASAE also provides lots of great blogging material! Here are five of my faves from this week – ASAE-related and not.

1. Jeff Hurt provided some good and bad news for meeting planners with his 6 New Meeting Trends to Watch post. What’s not surprising? Digital events are growing in popularity. On the downside, lead times are now shorter than short.

2. Frank Fortin shared his reflections from ASAE, and he gets back to basics with “unsexy innovation.” What does this mean? Association professionals need to remember to get back to basics and keep clean data on members, optimize their landing pages and email maintenance. Good stuff.

3. This week, Wes Trochlil asks, “should your customers be able to cancel online?“. He says he has always advised his clients not to allow their members to cancel reservations online, but a few people commented differently. Join the discussion!

4. I loved Elizabeth Engel’s post about innovation: dare to think BIG! “Think small – and watch your organization die,” she writes. Big ideas can have big implications, and Elizabeth advocates choosing to approach life from love rather than fear.

5. Lisa Junker shared her experience at ASAE’s Annual Meeting as an attendee rather than an ASAE staffer. She reflected on the “us vs them” language and mentality that permeated the conference. If you attended ASAE, do you think there is an inherent line between vendors, attendees and consultants?

From everyone at MemberClicks, have a great weekend!

Do you assess your events after they’re over?

Yes, planning and executing a successful event can take a lot out of a small staff association professional. But! After it’s all said and done, how do you know your event was really successful?

So, why should you assess your events?

Here are some thoughts from John S. Parke, facilitator of the “Business of Meetings: Meeting, Event and Tradeshow Assessments” session at ASAE’s Annual Meeting:

• Meetings are business assets – like any asset the relative health should be checked every few years.
• Outside objective opinions offer insights and innovations.
• Market turbulence has lasting negative affects – you can’t cut your way to health.
• Competitive advantage – for profit and non-profit competitors are fighting for a smaller pie of members and revenues.

So, how do you assess your meeting?

• Staff interviews: Conduct interviews with staff members and the sales team. Through confidential, one-on-one interviews, solicit buy-in for recommendations and identify the most culturally friendly approach to achieving ABC’s goals and objectives. Interview questions will be approved in advance.
• Stakeholder interviews: Conduct interviews with stakeholders to gather information for the components of the evaluation. Interview questions will be approved in advance.
• Member interviews: Conduct interviews with ABC’s largest customers to gather information for the components of the evaluation. Interview questions will be approved in advance.
• E-surveys: Conduct e-surveys of staff members (entire association) for full organizational buy-in, stakeholders and members (those not interviewed) to further validate interview findings and gather enough data to be statistically valid to support
  recommendations for improvement.
• Benchmarking assessment of other associations with like-size and larger event
  departments.
• Sales team effectiveness assessment

Based on interviews, analysis and research, you’ll know how successful your event was and what factors to change while planning the next one.