Education Sessions

Designing Inclusive Workplaces

As initiatives surrounding diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) flourish, associations continue to focus on creating an internal culture of inclusion and allyship. The first step in intentionally designing an inclusive workplace is to proactively become aware of the internal culture of your organization and how your behaviors, words and actions impact those around you. Learn (5) key elements of an inclusive workplace and tactics to address non-inclusive behaviors or environments. Get equipped with strategies needed to cultivate a greater sense of allyship, in which the organization and its members actively participate in creating and sustaining an inclusive workplace.

Tiffany Martin, CEO and Owner, TKMartin Consulting LLC

Learning Innovation to Create Non-Dues Pathways, Products, and Programs

Adults demand more from their learning. Programs must be current, relevant, and support professional growth and personal networking. It’s time to design an association-wide learning strategy that engages your community within a dynamic ecosystem of programs and services that is personalized to your members’ evolving needs and career goals. Explore revenue-generating programs, such as virtual mentoring, competency-based modules, and stackable micro-credentials that can be adapted and scaled to several sizes and budgets with immediate ROI.

Tracy Petrillo, EdD, CAE, Chief Learning Officer, California Association of
   School Business Officials

The Case for Experiential Design

Do you see your organization through the eyes of your members and sponsors? Do you understand their motivations, incentives and the economics that drive their behavior? In order to serve your constituents, you must understand how to design for outcomes and increase experiential and monetary value to stakeholders. Join this session to gain a competent grasp of the art and science involved in experiential design. Through a balance of art and science, explore how your association can shape the customer experience to vastly improve member engagement, brand value and financial performance. Dissect how experiential design works, why it’s so effective, and what it looks like when properly executed.

Christopher Hamade, Principal, Alchemy Agency Ltd

Using Futures-Thinking to Advance Your Executive Career

Are you  prepared as an executive for environmental ambiguity, generational shifts in leadership, countries competing for world power, and other unexpected environmental developments? By adopting a futures-thinking mindset, you can begin to expand your executive skillset to evolve into an executive leader of the future. Hear four specific ways to use futures-thinking to advance your executive career from two experienced association executives who have benefited from embracing and integrating futures-thinking throughout their leadership. This wide-ranging, interactive conversation will cover how to adopt a futures-thinking mindset, the difference between relevant vs. innovative executive career planning, leadership practices of the future, and much more!

Patton McDowell, MBA, CFRE, CEO, PMA Nonprofit Leadership
Donté Shannon, FASAE, CAE, Nonprofit Strategy Advisor, Independent
   Consultant

A CAE/CEO’s Learnings and Path to IT Effectiveness

Association leaders often undertake IT initiatives based on urgent technology challenges without investing in a holistic IT strategy. Hear from an association CEO as she shares lessons learned to improve and sustain the value of information systems. Her journey began at ELEVATE 2021 and has resulted in tangible progress towards IT goals. Gain examples of how you too can plan your own IT effectiveness efforts by defining objectives, assessing risks and priorities, linking IT initiatives to the association’s business strategies, and how to measure progress – with input from a nationally-recognized IT strategy thought leader whose team she collaborated with on her journey.  You will receive a Digital Transformation Readiness self-assessment as a take-away.

Bob Green, CPA, CITP, CGMA, Partner, SL Business Informatics,
    SingerLewak, LLP
Sue Reimbold, MA, CAE, CEO-Executive Director, International Society
   of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine

Ask the Association Attorney: Everything You Need to Know

From one the country’s most experienced and notable association attorneys, come armed with your questions and curiosity as we explore the most pressing legal issues facing association organizations these days. Explore some of the hottest topics and legal risks creating buzz in the association legal world. In plain English and a very interactive format, learn the key red flags you need to be able to spot, what you should do when you spot them, and practical tips and suggestions for protecting your association and mitigating their risk. Come ready to ask your own questions on anything and everything such as employment-related risks, vendor contracts and negotiation strategies, mitigating liability risk for meetings and office re-openings, copyright and trademark protection, and much more!

Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum, Esq., Managing Partner, Tenenbaum Law Group
   PLLC

Attention Economics: The Bottleneck of Human Thought

When he defined the concept of "attention economics" in 1971, Herbert Simon wrote that "...a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." 50+ years later, the overwhelming wealth of information available to us has led to a scarcity of the commodity which information consumes, our attention. When defining the membership proposition, we rightly focus on delivering high-quality services which combine to ensure an exceptional membership experience; but the proposition is only profitable if members recognize and benefit from its value, i.e. if we capture and retain their attention. As content grows increasingly abundant and immediately available, members' attention has become the greatest limiting factor to their consumption of an association’s services, and therefore, members’ attention should be understood as the single most valuable commodity driving associations’ business development. We explore the key principles of attention economics and explain how they should directly inform an association's business development.

Andrew Chamberlain, Chief Development Officer, Elevated
Becca Stickney, CAE,  Chief Executive Officer, Elevated

Membership & Marketing Survival Guide

Offering VALUE is key when you are in membership or marketing. But how do you cut through the clutter and actually get your members (or future members) to engage with you? The marketing and membership landscape has shifted quite a bit, and to be honest, better is better (not more is better). In the Marketing and Membership Survival Guide, we will look at communications through a new lens. This very active and hands-on session is going to teach and encourage you to look at things a little differently so you are thriving in connecting and engaging with your audiences. We will be taking a pause to better understand the psychology of how people are engaging with content and trying something a little different based on YOUR strengths.

Natalie Amezcua, Curriculum and Content Developer, RISE Travel
   Institute
Amy Hager, CAE, IOM, Co-Founder, Association Rockstars

How I Slayed My Fear of Failure

Oprah was fired from her first job as a newscaster. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. R.H. Macy owned seven businesses before starting Macy’s. Every successful person has experienced failure along the path to their success. So, what is the difference between those who can push through failure and those who are paralyzed? Hear from an award-winning association communications professional on how she turned her biggest failures into her greatest accomplishments. Leave inspired and ready to plow ahead when fear threatens to paralyze you.

Sheri Singer, President, Singer Communications

Improvisational Leadership: Using Improv to Lead Change

Everything changes - but not everyone evolves. In this purposeful play session, learn how the rules of Improv comedy can guide how you adapt to adversity. Move through different exercises that will give you a lasting approach to addressing stress, uncomfortable situations and more. Learn how to adapt, shift, and respond positively in the moment, instead of reacting, hesitating, or worst of all, avoiding. Walk away with a framework for a true lifestyle approach as opposed to a temporary quick fix. What’s more, you might even laugh!

Jessica Brustad, Laughter Yoga Leader and Founder, The Funny Yogi

Love 'em or Lose 'em! Onboarding with Intention for Retention

You got a new member. Great! ...Now what? How do you onboard new members in a way that engages them early and at the right frequency? Learn the strategies that for-profit tech companies have used to perfect the art of onboarding and how this translates to your new members. Leave with sample onboarding projects, email cadences, and retention ideas to take back and use immediately to keep members engaged, no matter where they are in your association’s member journey.

Jenn Norman, CAE, VP, Customer Growth, Novi AMS

Productivity Hacks: Approaching Work Like a Game

What if you could manage your work with the same joy and strategy that you would if you were playing a game? What if you could overcome obstacles to managing your tasks, graphics creations, and social media campaigns? In this unique program, you will learn tips and tricks for email organization, productivity tracking, social media content development, and apps to use to improve social media graphics and video content – all through the metaphor of video games. Come play!

Rachel Selwan, QAS, Owner, New Level Mgmt. LLC

Elevating Mental Fitness for Inclusive Leadership

Be honest. How much of your week do you spend feeling frustrated, agitated, stressed, anxious, or some other depleting emotion? If it’s more than 10%, you need this session! Inspiring, inclusive leaders motivate themselves and others where everyone feels respect, safe to experiment, and enthusiastic about their work. Mental fitness is the capacity of leaders to respond to life's challenges with a positive mindset. The more you grow your mental fitness, the more stamina you will have to serve your members, and the tools needed to design an organizational culture where everyone can thrive.

Denice Hinden, PhD, MCC, Leadership Coach, Managance Coaching

Say What?! How to Communicate Anything to Anyone

Communication is key. But what happens when the people communicating are speaking different languages? Learn what type of communicator you are and how to reach across that divide to influence others who communicate differently. Through different communication, improvisation, and psychology tactics, you will acquire new skills to ensure your message is received as intended. Whether between coworkers, team members, bosses or in front of an audience, this workshop will up your game and allow you to accomplish more with less misunderstanding and confusion.

Kathy Gruver, PhD, ACC, Speaker, Author, Coach

The Future of Advocacy: How to Advocate for Members Effectively

How can your associations implement both a proactive and reactive approach to member advocacy? You must first understand the general legislative process at the local and state level. Next, you need to stay abreast on legislation that is relevant for members and their core interests. Hear how to leverage new technology to track legislation, monitor progress, and network with other like-minded organizations to build a coalition to effectively support or oppose key policy, while keeping members informed in a timely fashion on important legislative issues.

Patrick Utz, CEO, Co-Founder, abstract.us

Tools & Strategies for Small or Single-Person Marketing Departments

Is marketing for your organization one of the many hats that you wear? Come learn the tools that will streamline and improve your marketing tasks, while simultaneously helping members to easily access your resources and content. From graphic design templates to social media scheduling tools, hear different time-saving tools that will make your marketing and communications asks easier, whether you are well-established or going through a re-brand. Collaborate with your fellow participants to hear what others are doing to effectively market go members.

Touda Bentatou, Director, Member Engagement & Marketing, California IT
   in Education (CITE)