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The MemberClicks Blog

Even though the failed Fyre Festival took place (or rather, didn’t) in 2017, it’s still very much the talk of the town. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Netflix and Hulu recently released documentaries, exploring what really happened. (I mean, how does a heavily promoted event just NOT happen...with attendees being kept in the dark the whole time?)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Fyre Festival, here’s what basically happened. (Note: This is a very summed-up version.) The Fyre Festival was marketed as a luxury music festival. It was supposed to take place in the Bahamas (nice, right?) and attendees were promised a VIP experience. We’re talking luxury villas, gourmet food, yacht packages - the whole nine yards.

Only...when attendees actually showed up, there was none of that. The “luxury villas” were actually leftover hurricane tents, and the “gourmet food” turned out to be cheese and bread. Seriously, that was it! (See pic below.)

In terms of disseminating information onsite at your organization’s conference, how are you currently doing it? Do you give people printed handouts and booklets when they check in at registration? Do you have a conference app where those materials are housed, but also have printed versions onsite? Do you rely exclusively on a conference app, cutting out printed materials altogether?

All organizations are different, and there’s no one perfect approach (because all attendees are different too!). But ideally, you want to have electronic versions of your conference materials in place, whether that’s in addition to printed materials or not.  

Now you may have some objections in mind, but allow us to address just a few of those…

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: