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The MemberClicks Blog

Nowadays, it seems like everything is going digital - including events. More and more companies and organizations are hosting virtual events and more and more people seem to be attending those events. But does that mean your organization should move from a traditional in-person conference to a virtual one?

If you’ve been pondering the idea of hosting a virtual conference at your organization for a while now, 2019 may be the year to give it shot. But before doing so, we encourage you to ask yourself the following four questions:

If you market your organization’s events to prospects, in addition to members, good for you! It’s a great way to showcase your organization’s value and give prospects a taste of what membership is like.

But how do you get those prospects to take the next step and join? After all, that’s the main goal here. Read on for a few tips:

Regardless of how long you’ve been doing it, event planning never seems to come without its own unique twists and turns. In fact, it’s the one industry where you can almost expect a curveball.

But good news! There are a LOT of event planners out there who’ve dodged those curveballs before, and who are willing to share their experience - and pro tips - with you. In fact, we tapped into our own little event planning hub here at MemberClicks and asked those folks, “In your experience event planning, what’s one major hack or pro tip you’d offer others?”

Here’s what they had to say:

Events are a great member benefit but can become a huge expense without proper planning. Here are 30 great ways to consider saving money:

MemberClicks is thrilled to be sponsoring SURGE Optimism, a free, interactive, virtual conference hosted by AssociationSuccess.org! The following blog post was written by one of the AssociationSuccess.org team members, Lucie Robathan! 

At AssociationSuccess.org, we feel very strongly that virtual conferences are a game changer. Technological solutions for interaction and communication mean that a virtual event can stimulate a unique kind of knowledge-sharing, across a huge range and variety of minds. We host a semi-annual virtual conference called SURGE, which began as an experiment in online collaboration - and has since taken shape as a platform in which knowledge is co-created in real time, through the active contribution of the participants.

The best way to understand the special kind of collaboration made possible by technology is to experience it - and in fact, by participating in an interactive virtual event you are strengthening the experience through your own contributions. We are therefore delighted to invite you to our upcoming conference, SURGE Optimism, running on November 7th-9th. Attendance is free, and your insights could actively shape the direction of the discussion. It’s win-win, really.

Since November is still some time away, below are some top tips for making your online event a truly collaborative one - and to whet your appetite!

A big factor in whether or not people register for an event (depending on the type of event) is the speaker lineup. Will there be new speakers they’ve never heard before? Will the topics be timely and of interest?

Finding speakers who meet those qualifications can definitely be a challenge, but to help you out, we’ve put together four tips:

This year for ASAE Annual, we decided to get a little creative and extra thoughtful about our messaging. Here at MemberClicks, “What’s Your Why” is frequently discussed and we realized with all of our passionate association professionals that we should bring the question outside of the MemberClicks walls. And we heard so much positive feedback at the show about this idea that we figured we’d share it with everyone!

Check out how you can use postcards at your next conference to stay on your attendee’s minds without breaking the bank!

Your own events are a great place to recruit new members! They’re high energy, you get to interact with your prospects face-to-face, and they get to experience first hand what it’s like to be a member!

Now I know what you’re thinking: Ugh. Planning this event is time consuming enough, how do I add in recruitment efforts and stay sane?

We’ve come up with a few steps from promotion through event follow-up where you can easily splice in some attention to your prospects! Check it out:

Born into the age of innovation and technology, Gen Z can be the perfect target market for anyone’s next event. Speaking as a Gen Z-er, myself, I know we can be a tough crowd to please. Keeping us interested and entertained is no small job. Between personal insight and some industry research, I’ve put together three tips to help you attract Gen Z-ers to your next conference.

As you may know, a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to attend the American Society of Association Executives’ (ASAE) 2018 Annual Meeting & Exposition. All of the breakout sessions were great, but one in particular really stood out: “Limited Resources, Big Opportunities: Small-Staff Success Story,” presented by Eloiza Altoro, Principal Consultant at Mind Redesign Consulting, and Stefanie Reeves, Executive Director of the Maryland Psychological Association (MPA).

It’s no secret that we love small staffs, so any tips, tricks, hacks, and secrets that we come across that would make the lives of small-staff association professionals easier, well, we feel like we HAVE to share.

Here’s one hack in particular we think you’ll love: