You can never get enough of what you really don’t need says Eric Hoffer. To paraphrase Hoffer, you can never get enough of conference fads, gimmicks and trends. We want more, more, more! (Unless your a conference participant and we often have had enough!) Fads and trends are often about gaining attention. They also want access to your conference budget. Evergreen conference practices that have promising results are often obscured by our obsession with fads and trends. Seven Emerging … [Read more...]
Tactical Or Strategic: Which Best Describes Your Governing Nonprofit Board
Tactical board members are focused on the predictability of the past for today, the here and now, and getting through the year. Strategic board members think, prepare and act on challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Why? Because they care about the organization’s future. They know they can play an important role in creating their stakeholder’s future. Is your organization fostering a strategic thinking or nonstrategic thinking board? And which is more important to your … [Read more...]
Conferences Need a Strategic Purpose
Does your annual conference have a documented purpose or strategy? My experience is that most organizers either don’t have one or haven’t updated, or used it, in quite a while. With competition for attendee time and share of wallet reaching new degrees of complexity, revisiting this strategic step should be a high priority. Defining the Conference Purpose Here’s a guide to help you down the strategic path of articulating your conference purpose: Owners – Identify task-force or committee … [Read more...]
Four Stupendous Strategic Steps You Should Practice Regularly
One of the biggest challenges we face—especially nonprofit association and conference professionals--is spending adequate time thinking. For some reason, we believe that doing is better than thinking. When we do something, we seem to make progress. Well, at least that’s what we tell ourselves. When we think, there doesn’t seem to be any forward movement. We’ve not checked anything off of our task list. So we believe that spending time thinking is unproductive. Poor Strategy Well Executed … [Read more...]
Bill MacDonald Joins the Velvet Chainsaw Team
We’re excited to welcome Bill MacDonald, Vice President, Analysis & Insights to the Velvet Chainsaw Consulting team starting November 2, 2015. VCC will now a team member in Michigan. Having our roots in Ohio, Michigan is public enemy #1. I had to set aside my emotions on this choice and make the rational decision of hiring for talent and VCC’s future. For the last 18 months, Bill headed his own practice analyzing and providing recommendations for optimizing strategic meeting management … [Read more...]
Attitudes That Separate Growing, Healthy Conferences From Declining Ones
So what’s the difference between a growing, healthy conference and a declining one? Well, there are a lot of differences. Leadership—boards, committees, volunteers, staff—of growing, healthy conferences share some common attitudes. And leaders of declining conferences share similar outlooks as well. These mindsets have a huge influence on a meeting’s outcomes. Here are five leadership attitudes that impact conferences. Which ones do your leaders have? Hat tips to authors Carey Nieuwhof … [Read more...]
Your Conference Renewal Begins With Wondering
Where does true conference improvement begin? The conference revitalization process is probably very different than many of your past experiences. It’s so different that we have to view it through new lenses. By taking charge of your own understanding of conference improvement and transformation, you begin a new journey. You are exploring uncharted territory. You are on a discovery adventure. Where Does Your Journey Start So how do you start this journey of conference transformation? … [Read more...]
Rebalancing Conference Vertigo By Starting With Design-Less Strategies
Leaping to action without a solid comprehension of your conference target market and their needs causes all sorts of mayhem. Some conference organizers and their planning team members don’t even realize they are in the eye of a storm. That mayhem is their blind spot. Planning a conference without a deep understanding of what makes your target market tick is like building a house without a blueprint or foundation. It’s a shaky conference foundation. It’s like the parable of building your … [Read more...]
