Different parts of our organization aren’t talking to each other. It’s a common lament in associations, especially since what used to be distinct parts of the organization are now closely braided together. Your event marketing can’t succeed without a robust tech platform that allows for personalization, chatbots, and registration pages that delivers a clean UX. Your members want a website that gives them meaningful information about everything from CEUs to volunteer activities, while a weak website can impact member retention.

So one of the strongest elements of ASAE’s MMC + Tech Conference, which takes place May 12-13 in Washington, D.C., is its holistic take on membership, marketing, communications, and technology. Its education lineup is focused on satisfying the needs of every department, but it’s a good idea for a marketing professional to poke their head into a tech session, and vice versa.

Below are a few highlights for attendees to consider, along with some links to relevant content to get you up to speed on some trends.

For the Marcom Pros:

Developing personas for your key member demographics is essential to serving them, but defining a persona involves more than identifying job roles and career levels. In her session, “Beyond Demographics,” digital strategist Chrissie Koeppen explores personas through a Jobs-to-Be-Done framework, exploring the specific member needs that allow associations to develop customized products and services. You can learn more about Jobs-to-Be-Done in consultant Urko Wood’s article, “Effective Ways to Reduce Innovation Risk.” 

For the Membership Department:

Associations are constantly encouraged to be more data-driven. But the go-to method for gathering data—conduct a member survey—can get overused, leading to disengagement and inaccurate data. In her session “Actions Speak Louder Than Surveys,” Association Analytics’ Rachel Mace shares a variety of strategies that membership pros can use to get insights about members without prompting them to fill out yet another form. In 2021, Associations Now noted that paying attention to social media activity is one way to glean thoughts about where members are leaning. And in a 2022 piece, Jennifer L. Blanck explained how a listening tour helped the American Association of Medical Colleges rethink its member survey.

For the Tech Side:

Chatbots are easy and abundant. Gleaning effective insights and member trust from them is harder. At the session “AI in Action,” representatives from the National Asphalt Pavement Association will share how it developed its AI assistant, Hey NAPA, to respond to members from various points of view. In 2023, we covered how NAPA developed internal speed to move products along faster, and we’ve covered how AI-driven tools have served members at the International Society of Automation and the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association.