Archive for March, 2006

March 13, 2006

Crunch Time!

Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article

Our annual conference is less than two weeks ago away (must have been wishful thinking in that first draft). Blogging here will continue to be slow. Three things I want to point to:

– Kathy Sierra rocks. I wish I wrote posts half as interesting and useful as hers. I could just keep pointing to her posts every time she writes one, but I won’t. However, you must read her latest on “Reducing Guilt Is the Killer App.” And then ask yourself how many times associations try to get things done by making their members feel *guilty.*

– Read B2Day on the downside of choice. At a conference (those unfashionable things) Erick Schonfeld listens to Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, say things like:

People are so overwhelmed with choice that it has two effects. Instead of liberating people it tends to paralyze them. Second, with all of this choice people may do better objectively—they may get a better salad dressing, CD player or spouse—but they will feel worse. When there are lots of options out there and you choose one and it is less than perfect, it is easy to imagine that there is a better one out there.

And you were thinking about breaking your association’s dues up into an a la carte menu. Silly goose.

– After listening to all these people whine about whose “unconference” or “camp” or “what-the-%&^$-ever” is better than the other, I’m starting to feel quite pleased with my old-fashioned conferences, thank you very much. Enough already. If your meeting does what it’s supposed to do for whoever your audience is, then whaddaya know … it’s a success.

March 3, 2006

What Really Matters

Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article

Member service is less glamorous but more important than marketing.