What Happens When Event Teams Help Set the Strategy, Not Just Execute It

By every measure, your association’s annual conference was a success. Attendance was strong, sponsors were happy, and members left energized.  

But while the events team is still debriefing and getting a jumpstart on how to improve next year, leadership is mapping out the association’s organizational priorities—without giving a voice to the people who just made your year’s biggest engagement and revenue driver happen. 

For too many associations, this is the norm. Event professionals are often handed a strategic plan and told to execute it—their expertise consulted only after the big decisions have already been made. But a growing number of association leaders argue that model is leaving value on the table. When the people closest to your events are cut out of strategic planning conversations, associations miss the insights only they can provide and risk misaligning their most powerful member touchpoint with their broader mission. 

“Events are how members experience the association,” says Patti Steele, CMP, CEM, vice president of events at ASIS International  (opens in a new tab). “If they walk in and feel community and connection, we feel that as a staff.” 

More Than Event Logistics 

Ask most association executives about their annual conference, and they’ll talk about revenue, education, and networking. Ask their event teams, and you’ll hear something more expansive: a platform for messaging, a vehicle for new partnerships, a year-round content engine that shapes how members perceive the organization for months after the event ends.  

That broader view is exactly why event professionals need a seat at the strategy table, says Christine M. Peck, CAE, chief global learning officer at ASIS International.  

“It’s your platform for messaging—new initiatives, new partnerships,” Peck says. “Done well, it can be integrated fully into the culture and educational schedule of the organization for the entire year. The event is the jewel, and other things build around it.” 

When event teams are excluded from strategy conversations, organizations risk building plans that look good on paper but fall apart in execution—or worse, miss the member insights only event professionals are positioned to gather.