Acronym

A few of this week's interesting blog posts and articles talk about methods for focusing the attention of your audience in certain ways, which makes me wonder if anyone out there has the title of "Chief Attention Getter." I think that'd be a fun title to have. Or better yet, "Attention Getter in Chief." Anyway, here are this week's links:

Attention. Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CAE, points out that the kid in the Darth Vader costume in Volkswagen's Super Bowl ad was a patient at one of her association's member hospitals, and that hospital capitalized on the buzz around the ad to draw some attention to its work. A good example of being ready for the spotlight, she says.

Focused campaigns. Jeffrey Cufaude touts the value of rallying attention, effort, or contributions during a short time period. Think pledge drives or awareness months. "The crowd is busy," he writes. "But if we want the attention and the participation of the masses, a short campaign can provide a focal point for their contributions and be a fulcrum for greater results."

Twitter buy-in. Craig Sorrell makes a guest appearance on KiKi L'Italien's blog to share his success story of encouraging Twitter use among members and staff at his association.

Conference value. Nancy Lublin at Fast Company offers a checklist to determine whether a conference is worth going to. It's somewhat tongue-in-cheek, until you realize that your association's potential conference attendees consider the same factors when they think about going to your conference.

CEO contracts. David Patt, CAE, encourages association CEOs to pay special attention to severance clauses when they negotiate employment contracts.

Data outcomes. Wes Trochlil explains why focusing on outcomes is more important than focusing on inputs when building an association management system.

Optimism. Earlier this week here on Acronym, I asked if you have to be an optimist to be a leader. Shortly after, I came upon an article from the Winter 2011 MIT Sloan Management Review highlighting a study that says "People with optimistic dispositions get jobs more easily and get promoted more."

In chief. You might already be aware that Associations Now's fearless leader Lisa Junker, CAE, is leaving us. (Big shoes to fill, but here's the job listing if you're interested.) Anyway, I got to wondering why the title "Editor in Chief" originated (like "Commander in Chief"). Why not just "Chief Editor" or "Chief Commander"? The answer is a bit fuzzy, but the "in chief" construction appears to date back to feudal times. And there's your useless trivia for the day.