ASAE, bless ‘em, has been pestering me like crazy with emails lately — well, not me specifically, I imagine many of you are getting the same ones. They want me to vote on who will keynote their Great Ideas Conference. I’m not going to vote because I’m not going to go to the Great Ideas Conference. That’s no swipe against the GIC, I’ve attended a few in the past and found them to be very worthwhile, it’s just not at a very convenient time for me.
This attempt to “crowdsource” the keynote selection is an admirable experiment, though I would much rather vote on workshop topics at a conference, since the workshops are of paramount importance to me as a participant, and they are also where I’m most likely dissatisfied. Besides, I looked at their list of candidate speakers and have no idea who 99.99% of them are. I’d rather vote on topics and let the experts on staff find the appropriate speaker.
But ASAE’s question has gotten me to think about who I would like to hear from at a meeting . One thing I can say has become clear to me — as I embrace my mantle of ”grumpiness” — is that the longer I work in associations, the less I want to hear from association executives or association consultants.
No,whether it’s a workshop or keynote, I’d much rather hear from people who don’t work for associations, but who have something to say that associations can learn from. Although to be honest, the people I do want to hear from probably won’t be as forthcoming (and therefore as useful) as I would like.
Who would I like to hear from?
Well, I’d like to hear from Jeff Bezos, or somebody from Amazon, with an honest assessment of where book retailing is going. I want to know more than the hype about the Kindle (which I dearly love, by the way). I want to know why, as a publisher (and textbook publisher to boot), I should embrace a monopolistic business model that provides dramatically lower margins and locks in books with DRM. I’m not saying this as a challenge or an attempt to avoid any inevitabilities with the coming e-book revolution or whatever. I will adapt with the market’s realities, because hey, that’s what you gotta do. But I want to hear Amazon specifically address the market they are working to create, and how — as a retailer that depends on product created by publishers — they believe publishers can be successful in that market.
I’d like to hear from a successful niche market exploiter, like Chris Kimball of Cook’s Illustrated, who I’ve written about several times. They turned a very specific kind of knowledge into a miniature membership empire by foregoing the obvious (advertising? nah). How? What mistakes have they made? How are they succeeding with a closed loop of expertise in a world of free-for-all opinion sharing? (Or are they?)
I’d like to hear from the organizers of TED and/or SXSW on how they built their meetings into can’t-miss festivals of eggheady-goodness (TED) or irresistible weirdness (SXSW). Not that I think much of what they do is all that applicable to association meetings. (They’re TED, you’re not. Get over it.) But some of it’s gotta be, right?
I’d like to hear from Bob Dole and Tom Daschle how they managed to reach an agreement on a contentious issue like healthcare when they began from such different places. Not that their agreement has amounted to much in terms of influencing the current debate, but still, the process of how it happened has to offer some lessons.
I’d like to hear from this little company in New Zealand that is using laser cutters to make “on demand manufacturing” a reality for people all over the world. On. Demand. Manufacturing. I have no idea if this particular company is going to flop or not, but the potential of this technology is even more fundamentally disruptive – across global borders — than the Internet was, in my opinion. Yeah, maybe right now they’re being used to create $200 wooden toy castles, but it wasn’t that long ago that the Internet was being used primarily as a way to share pornographic images via CompuServe while skirting local obscenity laws. This could affect all industries, and everyone who works for those industries. So yeah, I’d like to hear from them.
I guess that I’d most like to hear from people who aren’t necessarily professional speakers, who don’t necessarily have bestselling books, who definitely don’t work for associations, but who have something important to tell those of us who do — whether they realize it or not.
But just think — if you go to the Great Ideas Conference and the keynote’s a hit, you can take credit for it. And if it’s a dud, you can blame everyone else. Now, is that association management, or what?
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Of course, Kevin, you are assuming that the audience has the mindset of applying new ideas to familiar situations…I am reminded of a class I had once in playing Appalachian fiddle. The value of the class came from the instructor, who brought in all the old timey fiddlers and asked them to play, and then interpreted what they were doing for us students: the point being that the musicians didn’t know what they were doing, they just did it!
Hey Kevin, catching up on my reading. Love this post. I would attend a conference featuring the people you mentioned.
One of my best business ideas came from attending a UM School of Art & Design Penny Stamps Lecture. Clotaire Rapaille talked about the logic of emotion and wisdom from madness. He planted the seed for my Lazy Leader Road Shows – and yet didn’t speak a word about chapter leaders, associations or volunteering.
I wonder if it takes a certain mind set to be able to listen to the “unrelated” and make the cross over to apply in every day life?
Working with volunteer leaders, I have to regularly teach others how to get their members to use their professional skills in the chapter work. They don’t make connections between the two.
Fun food for thought. Cynthia
Cynthia, you and Judith make the point that this sort of cross-disciplinary (for lack of a better phrase) learning is not something that comes easy to people. Call me crazy, but I’m not sure I agree.
In fact, I wonder if a lot of the revolting (for lack of a better word) against traditional broad-based “conferences” isn’t really stemming from a (perhaps unconscious) desire to hear from people from “beyond the sphere” of a particular industry/profession/segment.
We keep hearing that people want “unconferences” or interactive workshops or “hallway track” meetings because they’re running up against the limitations of traditional subject matter expert presentations. These folks have attended conferences in the past — in some cases a lot of conferences — and realize that the most value they have gotten has been from random conversations that sparked ideas. So conference organizers are struggling to find ways to either package that “hallway track” into the actual program, or else somehow market the value of those random and un-package-able conversations — which is not an easy thing to do.
Maybe we’re just not thinking broad enough. Instead of “juicing up” conferences for industries or professions (which all tend toward insular) with social media or interactivity or “un-ness”, maybe what we need to offer instead is the opportunity to learn from people who are from completely different industries or professions.
It occurs to me that the mistake we’re making in recognizing the value of the “hallway track” is not seizing the opportunity we have to influence the conversations that are happening there. Are we just a place where people gather and talk, or do we have a role — and responsibility — in shaping what it is they talk about?
Perhaps my thinking is based on my experience of 30 years as the manager of a trade association–certainly a possible limitation on my sphere of reference…. In my world, trade association members are increasingly focusing on the ‘trade’, and screaming "Irrelevant!" at every departure. As an example, I once had an assignment of taking the University of Chicago Non Profit Management courses and reworking them to be directly relevant to the trade association execs in the Realtor organization. I enjoyed getting my UC certification in the company of a variety of Non Profit execs, but my association peers demanded a more targeted approach. I think the same is true of the members: there’s a disconnect between what may be helpful in a general, innovative, and inspiring kind of way and subjects which are pragmatic and immediately useful.
I’m not saying I like or value this position: I do neither. But I am saying that these are the members who chose not to go to conferences because they haven’t got TIME for the hallway track. "That stuff gets in the way of efficient use of time," they say as they log into the 29-minute webinar on using social media in their businesses.
Kevin and Judith,
I do think people can handle the cross-pollination programs – especially when someone helps make it relevant to them. Without the “midwife” it would be hard for some attendees if a general audience – because that’s not how they learn.
ASAE used to have a program called Strategic Leadership Forum. I attended the last one in Vegas. We did that kind of programs. I remember doing a back-stage tour of Bally’s show girl production as part of it. I loved the conference.
I don’t believe they had the attendance needed to sustain it at that time. I was pretty new to ASAE so didn’t get the full explanation.
Of course I wonder what drives attendance down. Was it the innovative programming? Or was it location? Timing? etc. The resort was lovely – and a $50 cab ride to the Las Vegas strip.
Lots of food for thought. Kevin, what would your ideal conference look like? Would you do 100% alternative speakers? Or would you do a mix with some industry programs in there too?
Cynthia
Judith — LOL @ “as they log into the 29-minute webinar on using social media in their businesses.” I have no doubt that you’re right that some people, maybe even the majority, can’t make that leap. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a viable and potentially lucrative market of those who can.
Cynthia — I’m really just thinking out loud here. I’ve always been tempted to put together a meeting for our industry whose program is comprised solely of businesspeople from completely different industries talking about specific things that may (or may not) be applicable to ours. Call me crazy, or maybe cocky, but I think I could fill that room. The hard part has always been — identifying who those presenters are and getting them to do it.
I’m sure most industries (and professions) are like ours — the most successful and innovative practitioners do things that may be NEW to the segment in question, but are not necessarily NEW to the universe. They adapt things from external organizations and in doing so differentiate themselves in their own segment by breaking out of the insular practices that build up in all industries. (It isn’t only associations that say “we’ve always done it that way” — they say it because their members say it).
But I’m not saying that I think we should look only at one way or the other, just trying to find different ways to help people learn and different ways to approach influencing the conversations that our participants are having. We’re getting ready to announce a brand new event that is very specific to our industry on purpose — a program where we’ve convinced seven of the most successful, best-known businesses in our industry to come together for an intense two-day forum and “spill their guts” on their sales practices. Instead of a usual “here’s what our workshops will cover, and these are our keynotes” we’re taking the approach of “these are seven companies with extraordinary growth patterns and innovative practices, and they’ve agreed to tell you everything — this never happens, except just this once.” This appears to be the opposite of what I suggested earlier — although I can tell you for a fac that a number of the participating companies are so successful because they’ve adapted practices from other industries. Sothis may be kind of the “filter” concept Judith mentions.
I just think we have to look at a number of approaches and ask ourselves what our goals are. Do we want to put people in a room and have them leave with three bullet point checklists, or do we want to kick them in the pants? I am not a fan of the unconference idea because personally I don’t find them very appealing, and I may be unusual but not that unusual. But I’m also not a fan of conferences that take the easy way out. You know, put out a call for presentations by X date, then a committee/staff goes through and picks out the topics (or people) they happen to like, and voila — you have a program. A boring program, but at least it’s done, right? There have to be better approaches, and I think associations should try all of them.
Kevin, your brand new event sounds wonderful. I attended a similar type of event at the end of 2008. I learned so much it made my head spin – and am still working on implementing ideas I picked up from it.
We’ve also been attending seminars put on by Zingerman’s Deli – they open up and share everything on how they turned a small deli into a $36 million enterprise all based in Ann Arbor. It’s fascinating to hear their philosophy and secret formulas, read their strategic plan – and see it in action. James and I have both grown leaps and bounds thanks to Zingerman’s – in spite of definitely not being a deli business.
(I wonder how many people who attend the typical conference you described above rave as much about them?)
So I do get what you are saying – and personally embrace the learning experience for myself and staff. I look forward to hearing about the success of your new project!
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