The Future Partners report also found that planners remain concerned about inflation and a challenging political climate.  Meeting planners are troubled by escalating costs but remain optimistic about growing attendance in the coming years, according to a new survey. The seventh annual State of the Meetings & Convention Industry report, published last week by research firm Future Partners in collaboration with marketing firms Miles Partnership and Digital Edge, found that meeting planners are concerned about escalating costs around line items like food and beverage (F&B), but also ..read more

Volunteer leaders often start board service poorly oriented on governance. One expert is streamlining the process, highlighting the importance of simply getting along. Becoming a board member is relatively straightforward at most associations. You demonstrate expertise in a profession, volunteer with the association that serves it, then make your way through the association’s particular governance pipeline to get a board seat. Becoming a good, strategy-minded board member is often another matter, though. Boards don’t always come in with a solid grounding of the work they’re being asked to do ..read more

Associations’ silos can get in the way of making progress around AI, one expert says. But they can leverage other assets. A report in February found that nonprofits have been much slower than their corporate counterparts when it comes to adoption of generative AI. Jamie Notter, founder and CEO of the consultancy Propel, which works with associations, isn’t surprised. “AI is going to be so iterative—we do not know what direction this is going to go in until we actually start playing around with it,” he said. “And that’s not in the wheelhouse of associations—trying it and learning and adjusting ..read more

Leaders are under more pressure to speak out on hot topics. The right response is a function of a good plan—and some organizational awareness. The current news cycle is stressful for a lot of associations—at least two major global conflicts, an election year, plus anxiety over immigration, the economy, and more. Even if you as a leader don’t see the need to weigh in on today’s hot topic, there’s a good chance a substantive group of members or other stakeholders do want to see you speak out.  But even if you decide it’s worth making a statement, there’s the question of what the content of ..read more

The iSeatz survey features input from members beyond associations, including season-ticket holders and participants in subscription and loyalty programs. Members of a wide variety of groups are looking for value, belonging, and personalized attention, according to a new report. The Benefits of Belonging, released last month by loyalty technology company iSeatz, is based on online surveys of more than 2,000 managers and customers of membership groups, which encompassed clubs, professional associations, trade groups, and subscription programs.  Though that covers a wide range of member grou ..read more

Women are still excluded from top leadership positions. Resolving that problem requires some flexibility—and debunking some myths. Despite a lot of hard work on the matter in recent years, gender parity in the C-suite is still a struggle. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of women CEOs at Fortune 500 companies has steadily increased, but still only represent about 10 percent of the total; on the governance side, women only make up about 30 percent of corporate board members. A recent report from Gallup points out that part of the reason for the gap is work-life balance—more wome ..read more

The Association for Computing Machinery, following a broader trend, has made its flagship publication available for free, part of an evolving business model for research-based organizations. Earlier this month, Communications of the ACM, published by the Association for Computing Machinery, made two substantial moves. First, it shifted from a print journal with a website to an exclusively online publication. The second and bigger change was its shift to open access, leaving the journal available for free to all visitors. In a press release about the move, ACM stressed that the shift will speed ..read more

A new report finds that associations feel things are looking up. And there’s good reason for that to continue—if they don’t get complacent.  Optimists in the C-suite can be hard to find these days. Multiple surveys have found that CEOs are anxious about election-year politics, lingering effects of inflation, and what technologies like generative AI mean for their business.  But the main takeaway from Marketing General International’s 2024 Association Economic Outlook Report [PDF], released last week, is that associations are generally feeling positive. According to the report, based ..read more

The National Confectioners Association’s online series “The Sweet Life” promotes the industry’s range and economic might.  The National Confectioners Association has rebooted a streaming video series designed to showcase the diversity and impact of its industry. Last week, NCA, a trade group representing candy manufacturers, released a second set of videos in its series “The Sweet Life,” which features factories and shops connected with American candy companies. Each of the videos goes behind the scenes of a particular manufacturer and features brief interviews from front-line workers to ..read more

Extroverts get a lot of the attention in organizations—and, often, an unfair share of the credit. Strong leadership means better recognizing how introverts also do their jobs. This is a difficult time for introverts at organizations. Business literature celebrates the importance of teamwork over individual achievement, and hybrid offices can make more reserved workers feel invisible. And sometimes those who are treated that way are losing out on opportunities for promotions and other advancements.  “In today’s competitive workplace, hard work isn’t enough,” executive coach Melody Wilding ..read more