Few days ago I participated in one of the premier AMA events of the year “American Marketing Association Leadership Summit ’10” which was held in Chicago, IL. As the incoming President-Elect of SoCal AMA I was invited to this gathering by the AMA International Headquarters (IH), and had the wonderful opportunity to network with hundreds of marketing professionals and marketing thought-leaders from across the country. It was a unique experience for me.
Since I am pretty much new to non-profit management, it was critical for me to gain more info and insights about board management, volunteer engagement, Special Interest Groups (SIGs), member acquisition and retention. I indeed did. For the ones who don’t know or little know about AMA, American Marketing Association is the biggest professional marketing organization in the US with a member base of more than 45k. Its main mission is to achieve thought leadership, contribute to the marketing theory and practice, and provide a platform for marketers from different industries to connect and learn from each other.
This was a 3-full day conference offering an intense learning and networking experience through breakout sessions on various topics concerning non-profits, key-note speakers, discussion panels and social mixers. Key takeaways from this conference for non-profit managers like myself were:
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. Look at what other professional chapters are doing and adopt best practices
- Use social media to engage members and non-members and always use tools that you can realistically track and measure
- Well define and articulate your value proposition and refine your strategies accordingly
- Due to limited resources prioritize your goals for the upcoming fiscal year
- Manage it like a business and always keep your eye on the bottom line
- Create valuable current content people like to follow
- Differentiate member experience from non-member experience as much as possible
Here are some pictures from the AMA Leadership Summit 2010 http://www.flickr.com/photos/kameryuksel/.
Feel free to leave your comments and/or questions.
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