Maybe #tech10 isn't really about technology
During Charlene Li's opening general session at the 2010 Association Technology Conference & Expo Tuesday, you might have forgotten for a few minutes that you were at a conference about technology.
Li used words like "relationships," "dialog," "support," "culture," and "discipline" in her keynote. These aren't new, high-tech words. They're words we've always known in association management. But she urged association leaders to understand and embrace the ways social technologies are changing have already changed how we interact with our respective communities and industries.
While on the other side of the curtain in the expo hall lay dozens of technology tools for associations to invest in, Li offered advice on how to use them, regardless of which you might choose. She listed a four-step cycle for building relationships with members and customers online (or off): Learn, Dialog, Support, Innovate.
Then she said an organization must build a culture of sharing, defining exactly what it is comfortable openly communicating about and what it isn't. Organizations need discipline, a set of rules and guidelines to empower staff so they know how to interact openly with members and customers, she said.
Li posed a question about relationships: when are you really ever in control? An honest answer would be that, most often, you're not. Leading in a world operating on social technologies means getting comfortable not being in control.
If you've heard Li speak before or read any of her books or articles (in Associations Now in 2009 and 2010, for example), you've heard her message, but it was worth repeating at the start of the Technology Conference, and it set the right foundation for the following two days of learning. "It isn't the technologies themselves. It's the relationships that they change," she said.
Maybe the technology conference isn't about technology at all.
Photo by Scott Briscoe, CAE.
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Comments
Another way to wrap your head around the idea that Charlene lays out is to run her concepts through the P.O.S.T. approach to marketing, engagement, and member relationship management. This methodology helps incorporate the “Learn, Dialog, Support, Innovate” steps into a plan for impacting your organization’s key performance metrics.
P: People – Spend time identifying the different personas that you are trying to reach. What are their needs, problems, expectations, and communication preferences?
O: Objectives – What are your goals for each persona? Building a framework of objectives helps keep less concrete ideas and initiatives focused on meeting the needs of your target audience while staying true to the culture of your association.
S: Strategy – How would you like your relationship with your target groups of people to change? This is an area that Charlene espouses often when discussing open leadership. Given the people you are focused on and your goals, what would you like your relationship with the people you are trying to reach to look like after a week, a month, 3 months, 6 months or a year?
T: Tactics – What are the tools and technology you are going to use to accomplish this strategy? Only now can we start to thinking about selecting the right technical (or non-technical solution) for our organizations.
Posted by: Joshua Paul | December 14, 2010 12:08 PM
Hi Joe,
You bring up a really good point. What/who is the Technology Conference actually for? Despite its success (meaning a high number of registrants) I don't think that the Technology Conference has a strong identity. Some may consider what I am about to say blasphemy and if you do I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
To me, ASAE has a duty to help all of the different sectors of its membership (membership, marketing, meetings, IT, component relations, finance, human resources, etc, etc). In my opinion the Technology Conference should be about helping the IT people do their jobs better and I am not sure it does that to the extent it could. Over time the Technology Conference has started to be more and more focused on how marketing and membership and other parts of an association can use technology to get their jobs done. I do think that is very important but to me that kind of education should be done at the Membership, Marketing and Communications Conference or the Finance and Business Operations Conference or any of the other targeted education opportunities that ASAE offers.
I have not been to the Technology Conference in a couple of years because I find the mixture of IT content and other more marketing related content does not really serve my needs. I may be unique but I would prefer that more of the technology related marketing and membership education be done at MMCC or Annual so that I can get all the education I need in one place instead of having to pay to go to 2 or 3 different events.
What Charlene brings up is fantastic and is very important. That said, who is the content developed for? Until the Tech Conference identifies a core audience and develops content around that core audience it is going to be hard to say.
Scott
Posted by: Scott Oser | December 16, 2010 11:25 AM
Thanks Joshua and Scott.
@Joshua: Indeed, POST is another good way to look at the specific steps involved in developing a plan of action. I think the most important lesson in both is that the action part comes last (Innovate/Tactics). It takes a lot of sharp observation to fully understand an environment before jumping in.
@Scott: Thanks for the feedback on the conference. I'll certainly make sure my colleagues in education see it. I think your point hits on a challenge that ASAE faces every day: how best to serve an audience that spans a very wide variety of interests. It's not easy, but we're always looking for ways to do it better. Thanks again.
Posted by: Joe Rominiecki | December 17, 2010 8:59 AM