Associations put an incredible amount of time, resources, and effort into making their annual meetings the big event of the year in their space. But what if attendees aren’t looking for a major event and instead want a more targeted, smaller experience with the same brand excellence?

A new Association Success post says regional conferences could be a perfect solution. “Adding regional events is relatively easy, and offering added educational opportunities serves members, boosts participation, expands reach, pleases exhibitors, opens untapped opportunities, and generates new revenue, all without cannibalizing your national event and revenue,” writes Len Murphy.

Your first reaction may be to worry about a decline in national meeting attendance, but Murphy says his group didn’t find that to be the case when it implemented regional conferences. “The association expanded its reach and increased the total number of members and industry professionals it served with live meetings,” he says.

Optimize Courses

"These are the types of #continuingeducation courses that will be more likely to appeal to Millennials." https://t.co/w7oMoRX6ZN

— Omnipress (@Omnipress) March 9, 2018

Don’t let your continuing education courses go stale. The Omnipress blog shares a few educational formatting changes you can try to appeal to the millennial generation.

Have you experimented with a “flipped classroom”? It’s an alternative take on the traditional classroom setting, and it encourages more collaboration and individualized attention. “Students use study materials such as textbooks or online course content to learn new concepts ahead of time,” writes Matt Larson. “Classroom time can then be used to discuss the material and allow students to participate in activities that reinforce those concepts.”

Other Links of Note

Data staff shouldn’t be the only people at your association who understand metrics. Here’s how to improve data literacy within your organization, from CMSWire.

Texting is a great way to communicate with members. But before you do, here are a few things to consider from the Frank J. Kenny blog.

Looking for trust and respect from your team? Inc. shares four rare traits of the best leaders.

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