The sixth ICCA Association Expert Seminar (AES) took place the weekend before IMEX (22-24 May) at the MARITIM Hotel Frankfurt, Germany and attendees discussed interactive strategies and social media and sustainability of associations. Mathijs Vleeming, marketing project manager for ICCA, said the consensus of the forum was that associations are being challenged to use electronic marketing and communication and develop social media strategies.
Increased competition forces associations to find value for members: Networking is king, and the content of association meetings and webinars has to be new, authentic and exclusive. The meetings budgets of international associations are being cut and time pressure on volunteers is increasing. Global associations are moving toward smaller, regional meetings which will compete with national meetings.
Keynote speaker Michael Priem, chief executive of interactive agency and media company USDM.net set the scene by kicking off a session on Interactive Strategies.
"Recent statistics show the importance of including online strategies in marketing and communication to target audiences," said Priem. "80 per cent of all travel is booked online, global search engines are becoming vital (84 per cent of people find a website through search engines) and advertising and media spend is moving online (e.g. internet advertising revenue share has surpassed television spend in the United Kingdom)." Priem said these new ways of communicating have moved society from a 'broadcasting age' into a 'conversation age'.
"Today, 62 per cent of all internet users worldwide have created a social network profile. The rise of social media provides new opportunities for the way we communicate; social networks such as Twitter allow for real-time online interaction to take place. Associations are being challenged to use electronic marketing and communication and develop social media strategies. Many associations as well as suppliers are currently discussing how to use social media in their marketing and communication."
A lot of education needs to be done on social media.
Associations expressed their needs for a better understanding on how to monitor content of social media and expressed their lack of resources to implement and administer social media strategies in the context of their main value propositions, which are seen to be: Content, community and commitment.
Content:
Corporations that offer online webinars and information which is freely available on the web are potential competitors for associations, which makes it more important for associations to differentiate themselves by delivering quality in content. In other words: Associations should be developing organic, live content which is accessible for members only and seen to be highly credible.
Community:
Virtual communities will not replace face-to-face meetings. Social networks provide extended networking opportunities for face-to-face networking, like pre- and post congress networking; they do not threaten it. Or as meetings technology Guru Corbin Ball puts it: “There is no such thing as a virtual beer”!
Commitment:
Association branding plays a key role in this process: associations have to earn their brand reputation by showing commitment in delivering on their brand promise and by showing consistency in their communication, products and services.
Association membership focus will switch from delivering bundled services to members to delivering specific services to customers. Therefore, associations are moving from being service providers to being marketing professionals. Recruitment and servicing of membership will no longer be the only objective; marketing the association’s services through different channels will play a key role. Associations will be less worried about the number of members and will be more interested in the number of “followers” of their association.
Associations also have to become more efficient and will be run by professionals – either dedicated in-house staff or management companies – and will be less based on volunteers. Many associations already have a clear distinction between the non-profit and for-profit parts in their governance structure.
The location of a meeting has a huge impact on the number of participants attending it. As association meetings are pressured by the economic climate and the increased competition, new regions or countries may not be chosen because of attendance pressure. Moreover, a global rotation area could undermine the attendance base of association meetings, as large groups of members may choose not to cross borders to attend international meetings because it will come back to their region in a couple of years.
Therefore it is foreseen global associations will organise smaller, regional meetings, which will compete with national meetings.
Another trend, though, which seems contradictory, is that regional associations are merging and globalising for commercial and/or knowledge reasons.
Especially for participants over 45 years, networking at an international meeting is more important than education. At very large meetings (e.g. 14,000 participants) networking is very difficult, but they will not disappear as people want to be there because “everybody is going”. Middle size meetings could have a problem though.
Safety and security and therefore risk management and flexibility will play a bigger role and more meetings, as well as headquarters of associations, will move to emerging destinations in Asia, Middle East and Africa.
The generation change and the use of technology will change the architecture of future meetings. The new generations have other educational needs based on more interaction.
Convention and Visitors Bureaus have to understand the core objectives of an association: instead of asking them “What are you looking for in a destination?” they should ask: “What are the strategic goals of your congress?”
Moderator Gary Grimmer said: We had some very interesting discussions that were at very a high strategic level. I think it gave the association executives a lot to think about, and the ICCA members went away with a much better understanding of the challenges their customers are facing.”
The sixth ICCA Association Expert Seminar (AES) took place the weekend before IMEX (22-24 May) at the MARITIM Hotel Frankfurt, Germany and attendees discussed interactive strategies and social media and sustainability of associations. Mathijs Vleeming, marketing project manager for ICCA, said the consensus of the forum was that associations are being challenged to use electronic marketing and communication and develop social media strategies.
Increased competition forces associations to find value for members: Networking is king, and the content of association meetings and webinars has to be new, authentic and exclusive. The meetings budgets of international associations are being cut and time pressure on volunteers is increasing. Global associations are moving toward smaller, regional meetings which will compete with national meetings.
Keynote speaker Michael Priem, chief executive of interactive agency and media company USDM.net set the scene by kicking off a session on Interactive Strategies.
"Recent statistics show the importance of including online strategies in marketing and communication to target audiences," said Priem. "80 per cent of all travel is booked online, global search engines are becoming vital (84 per cent of people find a website through search engines) and advertising and media spend is moving online (e.g. internet advertising revenue share has surpassed television spend in the United Kingdom)." Priem said these new ways of communicating have moved society from a 'broadcasting age' into a 'conversation age'.
"Today, 62 per cent of all internet users worldwide have created a social network profile. The rise of social media provides new opportunities for the way we communicate; social networks such as Twitter allow for real-time online interaction to take place. Associations are being challenged to use electronic marketing and communication and develop social media strategies. Many associations as well as suppliers are currently discussing how to use social media in their marketing and communication."
A lot of education needs to be done on social media.
Associations expressed their needs for a better understanding on how to monitor content of social media and expressed their lack of resources to implement and administer social media strategies in the context of their main value propositions, which are seen to be: Content, community and commitment.
Content:
Corporations that offer online webinars and information which is freely available on the web are potential competitors for associations, which makes it more important for associations to differentiate themselves by delivering quality in content. In other words: Associations should be developing organic, live content which is accessible for members only and seen to be highly credible.
Community:
Virtual communities will not replace face-to-face meetings. Social networks provide extended networking opportunities for face-to-face networking, like pre- and post congress networking; they do not threaten it. Or as meetings technology Guru Corbin Ball puts it: “There is no such thing as a virtual beer”!
Commitment:
Association branding plays a key role in this process: associations have to earn their brand reputation by showing commitment in delivering on their brand promise and by showing consistency in their communication, products and services.
Association membership focus will switch from delivering bundled services to members to delivering specific services to customers. Therefore, associations are moving from being service providers to being marketing professionals. Recruitment and servicing of membership will no longer be the only objective; marketing the association’s services through different channels will play a key role. Associations will be less worried about the number of members and will be more interested in the number of “followers” of their association.
Associations also have to become more efficient and will be run by professionals – either dedicated in-house staff or management companies – and will be less based on volunteers. Many associations already have a clear distinction between the non-profit and for-profit parts in their governance structure.
The location of a meeting has a huge impact on the number of participants attending it. As association meetings are pressured by the economic climate and the increased competition, new regions or countries may not be chosen because of attendance pressure. Moreover, a global rotation area could undermine the attendance base of association meetings, as large groups of members may choose not to cross borders to attend international meetings because it will come back to their region in a couple of years.
Therefore it is foreseen global associations will organise smaller, regional meetings, which will compete with national meetings.
Another trend, though, which seems contradictory, is that regional associations are merging and globalising for commercial and/or knowledge reasons.
Especially for participants over 45 years, networking at an international meeting is more important than education. At very large meetings (e.g. 14,000 participants) networking is very difficult, but they will not disappear as people want to be there because “everybody is going”. Middle size meetings could have a problem though.
Safety and security and therefore risk management and flexibility will play a bigger role and more meetings, as well as headquarters of associations, will move to emerging destinations in Asia, Middle East and Africa.
The generation change and the use of technology will change the architecture of future meetings. The new generations have other educational needs based on more interaction.
Convention and Visitors Bureaus have to understand the core objectives of an association: instead of asking them “What are you looking for in a destination?” they should ask: “What are the strategic goals of your congress?”
Moderator Gary Grimmer said: We had some very interesting discussions that were at very a high strategic level. I think it gave the association executives a lot to think about, and the ICCA members went away with a much better understanding of the challenges their customers are facing.”
