To stay relevant, associations need a new events strategy
Association members are changing. As older generations begin to eye retirement, more millennials are poised to move into leadership roles, while Gen Z will begin claiming space in mid-level positions.
That means association events must change, too. For associations that rely on events to drive member engagement, excitement and loyalty, continuing to do business as usual will result in falling attendance and a loss of relevance that may ultimately threaten their survival.
Look at your own attendance numbers: Can you really keep going as you have been?
But change doesn’t have to be painful. Keep reading to learn more about shifting attendee preferences and how association event planning teams should adapt to stay relevant to the new era before them.
How are association members’ event preferences changing?
Associations have long relied heavily on a core membership made up of baby boomers and Gen X, who are most comfortable with traditional event structures. But younger generations will increasingly be the ones making decisions around whether to renew association memberships, which means that speaking to those generations will only become more important.
Here are some key factors to consider:
- Older generations often think of association events as a time to gather with colleagues, peers and professional friends.
- Many millennials first started going to events during the 2010s, when many event hosts tried to create excitement by bringing in musicians to play concerts or offering fancy amenities like oxygen bars.
- Gen Z, meanwhile, has shown a particular interest in corporate social values and wants to see signs that groups involved with an event are involved with good causes.
Don’t take any of these details as black and white, but more as useful background information on broad generational trends that won’t apply to every individual.
From that big picture perspective, it’s also essential to acknowledge that everyone, across generations, is learning and consuming information differently than in years past. People of all ages have shorter attention spans and less patience for long, slow speaker sessions that might have once been the norm.
So how do you meet these shifts in expectations and behavior?
How can associations create exciting, engaging events in 2025?
Association events aren’t over, but they are evolving. Today, key association event management strategies include restructuring speaker-driven sessions to become more conversation-focused, incorporating movement and wellness activities, using storytelling to draw people in and making sure that attendees always leave with actionable takeaways.
Let’s dive into five key association event strategies in greater detail:
1. Turn static sessions into conversations
Events have typically heavily featured speaker sessions. You know the format: A speaker gets on stage in front of the audience, fires up a slideshow and talks for 30-60 minutes.
The problem is that today’s audience will be tuned out in 15. Whatever you think about smartphones and social media, their ubiquity has changed people’s attention spans and created the need to actively engage an audience in order to convey information.
So rather than simply doing more speaker sessions, turn those sessions into conversations. Drive a dialogue with the audience via frequent question opportunities, micro-moments like polls to foster engagement and other requests to provide real-time feedback.
Similarly, leverage discussion groups to make the whole experience more democratic and collaborative. Think about ways you can get people talking with each other rather than passively absorbing a monologue (or more likely not).
2. Incorporate movement and wellness
Most people don’t want to just sit around all day. Take advantage of that instinct to make your event more engaging and exciting.
Rather than hosting the whole event in a hotel ballroom, incorporate walking tours and other wellness events. If your event is taking place in a beachfront city, for example, host small group discussion sessions while walking on the beach.
That movement can help spark creativity and dialogue — and exciting, beautiful experiences also help make it easier to remember what you’ve learned. Plus, an outdoorsy focus can also subtly communicate your association’s values, emphasizing that you care about the overall well-being of your members and the planet itself.
3. Tell a story
Perhaps the most powerful way to engage people is actually also the oldest: by telling a story. People love storytelling because it not only captures the imagination but also helps put disparate bits of information into a larger context that ties them together.
Consider how you can incorporate storytelling into your events. This could include telling stories about how the event will strengthen your members’ professional capabilities, creating sessions that focus on a change story and facilitating small group discussions where attendees can swap stories with each other.
4. Deliver key takeaways
As younger generations move into roles where they’re now deciding whether to continue registering themselves or team members for an event, they want to know if the event will deliver value. So, it’s essential that event attendees walk away from your event with clear key takeaways to share with their employers.
What this boils down to in practice is less theory and more action. When you’re conducting a session, don’t just explain a principle or strategy — give your attendees the opportunity to practice or try it out.
Ideally, you want everyone who goes to one of your events to be able to say: “I learned something useful I can bring back to my organization and implement.”
5. Create events your members actually want
Don’t assume you know what your members want. And don’t blindly follow the suggestions in this article, either.
Instead, start by doing market research on your specific audience. Leverage your existing data and collect more. Have conversations with your members to find out how you can actually help them do a better job at their work.
As millennials are poised to begin taking over leadership roles, this is a group you should be regularly speaking with. What does the next generation of organizational leaders want from their associations? You need to know.
Gather as much honest feedback as you can here. It can be scary to read member comments after an event, for example, but that data is worth its weight in gold because it will help you make future events more compelling.
When you do start developing your next event, make it exceptional. You’ll often be better off investing your events budget into one or two truly memorable, exciting events per year rather than a half dozen at an aging Holiday Inn off the interstate.
A willingness to change makes all the difference
People are often scared of change. But the future of your association may well depend on embracing a willingness to adapt.
- Assess your own event attendance numbers: Are you rising, holding steady or dropping? If the latter, it’s probably time to switch things up.
- Cultivate a little humility: You’ve probably been putting on successful events for years if not decades. That’s a good thing — but so is allowing how you do that to move along with the times.
- Upgrade your technology: Legacy association management software (AMS) systems can’t integrate data from multiple systems like financials, marketing and member relationships. A modern, platform-based solution can — and will give you a much more accurate picture of member behaviors, roles, relationships and preferences.
- Learn from your members: Make gathering data and learning from your members a cornerstone of your event strategy. How can you help them? Find out.
How Wipfli can help
We help associations strengthen their organizations to better serve and attract their members. Let’s talk about how you can boost member engagement and deliver more value to your audience. Start a conversation.
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