Last week we kicked off our second season of YM’s monthly CAE Thought Leadership Webinar Series, with Shelly Alcorn, CAE presenting Fads, Trends and Signals: Three Keys to Successful Innovation for Associations.
Shelly shared her ideas on tips and strategies to help associations take advantage of new technology and management techniques while avoiding the pitfalls of wasting time and resources stuck on the bleeding edge of costly and unproven products and services.
As we learned from Shelly’s presentation, associations must carefully decide which objectives to pursue in an era of limited time, talent and treasure in order to ensure they remain relevant in the lives of members. She also took a look at the interplay between culture and society, technology, and associations, and how that can impact the direction associations should be pursuing today and in the future. While associations can never afford to get too risky when it comes to bleeding edge technology, they can no longer adopt a what and see approach and have any hope of keeping up with the undeniable change the business world in going through.
Some of these points we reinforced at the recent World Economic Forum where according to John Chambers, CEO for Cisco, “the speed of disruption (brought about by digital technology) is starting to become brutal. You can never move too fast except if you move without process.”
For many the ability to harness data and put it to work is paramount. According to a survey conducted by Accenture, 79% of businesses surveyed believe they must embrace big data or face extinction. And 40% believe they are lacking the necessary talent to meet this challenge. For associations, having the right tools (like an effective member management system) to collect, analyze and act on member data will only become increasingly important.
That’s the real challenge for associations – to research, identify, and implement the technology that helps associations meet and exceed their strategic initiatives, budgetary considerations, and changing member expectations. We feel strongly that solutions to these challenges are affordable and have never been more important to the ongoing success of any association.
Coinciding with our second year of webinars comes our second season of Ask the Thought Leader. I met with Shelly Alcorn review the questions that were asked during the webinar, as well as take a deeper look at some of the key points she presented. Be sure to check out Episode 11.
I also want to invite you to register for our next webinar Boost Your Association’s Brand Through Storytelling: 6 Hacks to Improve Your Marketing with Willis Turner, CAE, CME, CSE. We hope you can attend.
