Today marks the second day of Association Success.org's SURGE 2017. The virtual conference is in its inaugural year and aims to put thought leaders together to discuss the disruption that is occurring in the association industry. We are proud to support the conference as a founding sponsor because we see how the association industry is changing on a daily basis.

The top areas for disruption in associations (from our perspective) fall into the following areas:

1) Executive Leadership: the need to find digitally-savvy executives that have track records in revenue growth

2) The Right Personnel: ensuring that the organization has staff with digital skill sets and the right tools to do value-added work in an efficient and effective manner

Every year, thousands of executive’s flock to ASAE Annual in hopes of learning ways other associations have evolved their business models to meet the ever changing needs of the market. 

Your brand in not just your logo. A company's brand is the feeling, beliefs, and opinions that consumers have when they see your logo. Consequently, this graphic is a visual representation of your company's mission, core values, and principles. That said, one of the prime reasons that a company's inbound marketing strategy falls short of expectations is a failure to align content with the business' mission and core values. You may create informative, unique, and well-written content, but that is not enough to grow sales.

My friends always have a hard time understanding what it is exactly I do; so I always start by asking, “Do you have a required certification you need for your job?”

And I’d say 30% of the time the answer is yes but if the answer is no, then I have to go down another path of questions: “Are you a member of an honor society? Are you a member of a professional organization? Have you heard of the NRA?” 

9 times out of 10 this will get me a yes, so from there I ask if they have ever received an email from one of these places, etc.