The Meetings Report:
Five Game-changing Tactics Redefining
Education Strategy & Success
Georgia Society of Association Executives
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013

AaronWolowiec.com
@AaronWolowiec

• Elevate the quality and sophistication of
your programs
• Build the reputation of your meetings
department
• Improve your organization’s bottom line

Learning Road Map
• Background
• Recommendations
• Aha moments
• Final thoughts
• Resources
• Wrap-up
• Contact information

1. Association best practices
2. Benchmarking data/metrics
3. Annual education strategy

Aaron Cheryl
Wolowiec Ronk
Alex Kristen
Kontras Parker

1. Senior education/professional development staff
2. Association meetings
3. Professional speaker hiring practices
4. Industry speaker preparation and compensation
5. Meeting evaluation practices

1. Instructive, actionable and universal tactics
2. Redefines how success is measured
3. Valuable to both associations/industry partners

1. Office of the Governor
2. Michigan Economic Development Corporation
3. ASAE Legislative Fly-in

Diversify Revenue
• Percentage of annual revenue attributable to
conventions, exhibits and meetings
• Type and number of meetings
• Exhibitions and sponsorships
• Credentialing programs
• Major meeting/annual income ratio

Reward Difference
• Unique identity, culture and experience
• Greater variation, creativity and innovation
• Diversity of thought
• Function leaders/staff
• Speaker bureau and CVB services
• Methods used to identify prospective speakers
• Decisions about professional speakers/venues

Value Context
• Your members, organization and industry
• Position titles/salaries
• Total number of concurrent sessions
• Percentage of members attending major
meeting
• Industry speaker compensation packages
• Form and content of formal evaluations

Maximize Opportunities
• Relevant, competitive • Blended learning
and sustainable • Digital meetings
• Change and • Outsourcing meeting
experimentation planning activities
• Industry • Optimizing speakers
standards, practices • Collecting evaluations
and networks
• Live video streaming
• Internship programs

Prioritize Learning
• Logistics vs. learning/networking
• Utilize professional/ industry speakers
• Schedule intentional speaker follow-up
• Call for presentations
• Speaker preparation
• Measure learning
• Verify expanded speaker submissions

1. Diversify revenue
2. Reward difference
3. Value context
4. Maximize opportunities
5. Prioritize learning

Final Thoughts
• Business as usual is not an option
• Evaluate current education strategies
• Operationalize each of the five key
recommendations
• Develop actionable next steps
• Implement new strategies within this
calendar year

• Purchase
The Meetings
Report at
msae.org
• Attend the
follow-on
workshop
• Consider
one-on-one
consultation

Leave a business card…
I’ll email the slide deck.

Monday, Aug. 5, 2013
3:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Building Financial Momentum Through
Meetings & Membership Collaboration

Aaron D. Wolowiec
MSA, CAE, CMP, CTA
(616) 710-1891
aaron@eventgarde.com
www.eventgarde.com