Association Insight International & European Association Insights Spring 2015 | Page 5

Article | Association Insights

Lausanne Congress

leads the way
By Louise Clarke
More than 200 association chief executives directors and managers,
together with over 130 consultants, advisers and suppliers attended
the 15th Associations Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland in May.
Once again association CEOs, Directors, and Managers,
relished the opportunity to take time out from running their
organisations to share best practice meet their peers and
discuss organisational challenges.

Talent could be what we need to solve the first two T
problems – talent to tackle technology and save time.
Young people have this talent. We can inspire them with
our experience and learn from them at the same time.

The event was clearly an all-round success with over 51% of
delegates saying the Congress was ‘Better’ or ‘Much Better’
than expected.
Delegates recognised the importance of the Congress as
an opportunity to network with peers from around the
world, and enthused about the quality of speakers and the
impact they had, providing ideas and insights that could be
replicated by other associations.
As for the origin of delegates, 47% were from international
associations and 43% from European associations, so there
was very much a global atmosphere at the Congress. 43%
of associations were professional associations and learned
societies, 15% were NGOs and the rest were mainly made
up of federations, institutes and trade bodies.
Delegate’s areas of responsibility were Conference & Events
at 81%, Membership 58%, Marketing 43%, Governance 37%
and Education 37%.
Here’s a taste of what was on offer over the two days.

Inspiring members, industry and the
younger generation
Day One kicked off with a welcome introduction from
Panos Tzivanidis, Head of Events and Hospitality at the
International Olympic Committee. He talked about the
tremendous power of networking; how a conference can
bring people together to share their collective knowledge
and inspire members, industry and the younger generation.
Panos emphasised the importance of the three Ts: time,
technology and talent.
Everyone has the same problem with time – you ask people
to invest their time but there is never enough of it.
Technology is racing ahead and we are under pressure to
take it on. Technology is a big burden for associations both
at a financial and resource level and we have to ensure it’s
of value to members.

www.associationsnetwork.org

Panos Tzivanidis, Head of Events and Hospitality,
International Olympic Committee

Engaging members
Membership was one of the key streams of the Congress
and an opportunity for delegates to hear John Scarrott,
Membership Director at the Design Business Association
talk about his organisation’s ‘pull strategy’ to engage
members. The DBA focused on creating conversations

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