Survey 10 September 2018
Engagement and technology the greatest challenges
The Association of Association Executives ( AAE ) researched 71 UK members on their events ' approaches . AAE ’ s executive director , Damian Hutt , shares some of the findings released at the Association Events Strategy Conference in London in July .
From our recent AAE research with members , it was clear that events remain an important way of delivering member benefits such as education , professional development , personal profile for speakers and chairs , access to exclusive content and networking . Developing impactful and successful events are an important element of most associations ’ membership strategies .
The research focused on events challenges in the areas of : marketing , programme development , sponsorship , pricing and technology .
Making events more engaging , offering more in the conferences and inspiring delegates , were the greatest challenges associations raised . These were reflected in the 25 % of members that were finding it hard to attract delegates , 50 % static in attendance , with only 25 % reporting event attendance growth this year .
Interestingly , only 7 % of associations researched telephone their members to investigate the programme content for their events , which could reflect the reasons many associations are struggling .
As an association of association executives , we spend a lot of time communicating the importance of understanding members , including the primary engagement channel of talking to them .
Some of the most effective associations have great relationships with their members . Fifty-two per cent said they survey their members when putting
“ Making events more engaging , offering more in the conferences and inspiring delegates , were the greatest challenges associations raised .”
together the programme , 30 % research other associations ' events for ideas and 19 % research commercial competitors .
Event technology was another interesting area . Surprisingly , only 29 % said they found event technology to be very important and were using it on most of their events .
Twenty-three per cent said they are not using event technology regularly and 13 % said it was no use at all .
In today ’ s tech-savvy world it is surprising more associations aren ’ t embracing the technology available on the market to improve their events , especially in audience engagement .
In pricing events , 31 % of those surveyed said they had not reviewed their pricing this last year ; 30 % said they had reviewed with no change and 30 % said , following a review , they had changed their pricing .