We're kicking off our  2015 Innovation Roadshow! We have put the seminar series together to cover the hottest topics in association marketing and cover each topic from the viewpoint of digital. Based on the findings of our 2014 State of Digital Marketing in Associations Study and reviewing what's been the most popular topics in our HighRoad U webinar series, we put together our agenda to cover: 

TGIF, association marketers!

That's right, I'm looking at you, association marketers. Stop sending all those emails right now, before someone gets hurt.

This idea might sound hypocritical coming from someone who works for an email marketing and automation company. It's not. We want you to be able to reach your members, but we don't want you to spam them. We want you to use email only after you've come up with a good reason to do so, and only if that email has a specific purpose.

Here are some things we read this week that U may have missed:

• Twitter will fund MIT Research Lab to study public communication & social organziation.  The Laboratory for Social Machines is backed by a $10 million, five-year funding commitment. >More

• Over your head? More than you wanted to know about the latest big-box store hacks. >More

• HighRoad partner Aptify taking the HighRoad fighting the scourge of worker burnout. >More

• 12 Amazing Tech jobs and the women who rock them. >More

• Delayed Adulthood: The Hidden Root of your Young-Member Struggles >More

HighRoad 2014 Training & Innovation Day

We're delighted to announce that registration has begun for our 2014 Training & Innovation Day, November 19th & 20th, 2014 at ASAE’s Conference Center in Washington, DC.

This special HighRoad event has been expanded as a  two-day event in order to accommodate U! Day one features a full day of hands-on training on the hottest topics in digital marketing. U will walk away with new skills & practical programs to take your organization’s digital profile up a notch.  Two training tracks (newbie and beast mode) will be available to be sure you get the level of training that is right for U!  Space is limited, and HighRoad clients get first dibs, but we are happy to include you if you can join us live in DC on the 19^th!

I just read David Nour's article on the FD&H curse which he wrote in response to his work within the insurance industry. I can summarize the entire article and extrapolate all principles to apply to the association industry by stating that FD&H stands for Fat, Dumb and Happy and is Nour's way of explaining this board/C-level phenomenon of rejecting growth. His article cites insurance execs who push back on anything new and embrace everything that's been by using some favorites found within the association world including:

• We tried that 5/10/15 (pick a year) years ago and it didn't work
• No one's asked for that
• We didn't invent it, so it can't be worth it/accurate/true
• I don't personally do/need/want that so no one else does