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Along with several hundred others, I braved the flooding in the DC area to attend ASAE & The Center's Marketing & Membership Conference in North Bethesda, Maryland. In the picture below you see a session in progress titled Speed Learning, in which four membership marketing professionals and consultants were given just ten minutes to talk about a program or other topic relevant to membership or marketing.

One of the speakers, Lori Gusdorf, CAE of the Association of Fundraising Professionals told us about AFP's new collegiate chapters that they're leveraging to increase student interest in a fundraising career, and ultimately, their membership. After the brief presentations, a few minutes were allotted for questions about it, and then it was on to the next topic. During this 90 minute session, we covered a diversity of topics that would have taken several hours to cover in a conventional conference format.

There is definitely some unconventional wisdom being imparted at this conference. I was particularly impressed with and challenged by a session titled "How Successful is Your Association's Membership Eco-System?" presented by Rhea Blanken of Results Technology, Inc. and Susan Gorin, CAE of the National Association of School Psychologists. They communicated the importance of orchestrating a membership experience by weaving disparate programs like annual conferences, publications, and even voicemail messages into something unified, memorable and compelling.

Check out these additional photos from the conference.