I’m back from the ASAE Annual Meeting. I’ve already done recap posts on the SocialFish blog and the Get Me Jamie Notter blog, so I wont do one here. But I do want to comment on a post by Marc Mestdagh on the Acronym blog. Marc is from Belgium and has been doing a few guest posts on Acronym. He and some other Belgian association executives came to the Annual meeting this year, and he had an interesting insight after his trip:
If I look back now at my trip, it surprises me to see that on the one hand there seems to be a greater awareness of the importance of associations (the Power of A) and all issues concerning thoughtful leadership, innovation, social media were omnipresent throughout the conference. But if you talk to attendees and look closer to what is really done in practice, I had the impression that what seems to be perceived as strategically important are foremost rather basic issues of association management (membership issues, dues, education programs, etc.).
This worries me a bit–that we talk the talk about cutting edge association leadership, but when we get back to the office we mail out the dues invoices and plan the next networking event. Not that there is anything wrong with dues invoices or networking events, but are we actively connecting what we learn at our conferences to the daily work of our jobs? We certainly pitch this to our members, right? Come to this year’s conference and learn practical skills you can use today! Are we doing that when we go to our own field’s learning events?
August 31, 2010 at 9:02 am |
I’d have to say for the majority of attendees, the answer is no. People are all jazzed up while they’re at the conference, then maybe for the day or possibly week they get back, but then it’s back to the way it’s always been done. Especially at associations where the status quo is working well enough–there’s no incentive to change.
August 31, 2010 at 9:38 am |
Great post!
Before my colleague and I got to Los Angeles, we were told by our Executive Team that we were going to make a presentation when we returned about our experiences there. I tried my darndest to attend sessions that would not only help me in my position, but might provide some insight for others as well. I will be excited to report back on “Leading Edge Learning,” and “Take Your Conferences Online.” I’ve already discussed ideas I got from the “Behind the Scenes Look at the General Session” with some of the staff.
The Pixar session…well: the scooter was nice…
…and I’m going to continue planning the education for our annual conference which happens in less than eight weeks…So is it going to be dive right in to new ideas? No. Is it going to be inspire others with those ideas and keep them on the burner so I can further develop professionally? Yes!
Change is WORK. And the challenge is to incorporate change into the work you already have, not get all OCD and try to apply every great new idea you picked up all at once.
Speaking of which–got some speaker conference calls to schedule!