Austin AITP Annual CIO Roundtable
Every Chapter should host a similar Event!
|
|
Delivering on the Promise - Creating an Event
Delivering on the Promise - Creating an Event
Hello Everyone,
This is the continuation of a series of emails I am sending as a prelude to our national meeting.
If you have stayed with me through this series, hopefully you are understanding that the following concepts can give your chapter a serious boost:
- View your chapter as the IT community for your city, and not as another IT club.
- Take advantage of the effectiveness of DIRECT publicity through the use of email announcements.
- Apply the ONE to TEN rule - as your announcement database increases in size, so will your meetings.
- Create an on-line community home for your chapter on the web. Keep it up-to-date.
Now comes the time to DELIVER. You have followed through on our suggestions, and guests are pouring in the door. Now you have to meet their expectations.
Once again, I believe that putting some fundamentals in place will make this effort a bit easier.
My first success rule is simple, yet powerful:
Create a twelve month topic calendar for your chapter.
Professional organizations have their calendars predetermined for the year, IT clubs go at it "month by month". Visitors can determine which type of organization they are dealing with very quickly.
Pre-planning gives you the following advantages:
- You can preselect your topics, then spend the rest of the year finding appropriate speakers. Higher quality speakers and executives usually require advance notice (sometimes months in advance). It is also very easy to make topic changes if better opportunities present themselves.
- It gives your chapter very important CREDIBILITY. I will be so bold to say that a pre-planned calendar is the most important credibility tool that you possess. Show it at every meeting! This is your opportunity to advertise your programs far into the future. Your guests may not come back next month, but they may mark a date to attend a future meeting based on your planned topics.
DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THIS TOOL.
- It also gives your membership a sense of organization and purpose. I have found that great speaker suggestions usually come from your meeting members and guests when the calendar triggers an idea. It also gives everyone a sense of anticipation. I believe this directly impacts RENEWALS.
- Pre-planning makes your publicity efforts much more effective. It gives you time to build up significant awareness of a big meeting or a high profile speaker.
Getting Great Speakers:
You owe it to your chapter, and to your city's IT community, to showcase the very best speakers in your city. Our local AITP chapters clearly provide an incredible opportunity for national level speakers to visit our cities and to address these local IT communities.
AITP has the most qualified podium in town for these talented individuals to address our audiences. Use this prestige to attract top speakers.
Have you identified the potential speaker "pool" for your city? Start by tracking down these folks:
- The top IT executives in town.
- The key IT vendor representatives in town.
- Vendors who are willing to bring in their experts to make a presentation.
- Authors, educators, and consultants who reside in your city.
- Your own members who have success stories or case studies to share.
- Etc. Etc. Etc.
(All of these people should be put in your announcement database as well. They may not attend meetings - but they can still "talk-up" the organization.)
Are you at a loss for planning a twelve month topic schedule? Here is a example calendar to start from and modify:
Jan: Technology predictions speaker.
Feb: CIO ROUNDTABLE (annual).
Mar: Internet/Intranet topic.
Apr: Management or Staffing topic (invite students).
May: Hardware or Telecommunications topic.
Jun: Technology writer or columnist (local paper).
Jul: Network management, control, or future.
Aug: Another ROUNDTABLE (pick a topic).
Sep: Help Desk, Tech Support, or Software Distribution.
Oct: High Profile vendor representative (VP level).
Nov: Dealing with hackers or security.
Dec: Holiday party or "IT Executive of the Year" Awards.
(Note: Roundtables should have prepared questions at first, and questions from the audience at the end. Get a moderator if possible).
Let me close out this section with my observations on the five ways I know a chapter is in deep trouble:
- The rest of the board members depend on a Program Chairperson to obtain all the speakers. Then they sit around and complain about what a poor job he or she is doing!
I consider this situation to be impending death (or a guaranteed loss of many renewals). Speakers are the life blood of both the chapter and the meetings. Yes, we all value networking, and some of us enjoy a nice dinner, but the speakers have the most impact on the perceived value of the meetings both to the membership and to our visitors. Speaker planning and selection is your most important activity as a chapter leader!
Our most successful chapters understand that getting top quality speakers in a TEAM effort and responsibility. Following through with the logistics should then become a Program Chairperson responsibility. Similarly, I feel that twelve month calendar determination is a full board responsibility. It's just to important to neglect.
- A small click of "regulars" sit together at the meetings and ignore the visitors.
It's tough to be a visitor! First impressions do count. Is there a sign-in table? How long is he or allowed to stand around feeling awkward before someone says "Hello!". Are visitors made to feel welcome? Is the meeting location professional? Is a schedule being followed? Etc.
As a chapter leader you must get out there and mingle with the new faces. Introduce them to the "old timers" in the group. Be a catalyst for networking. IT folks are just not the most assertive on the planet.
- Meetings are stale and routine (this always seems to be the case when "month by month" planning is in effect). This also impacts renewals (why should I renew when these folks don't even know what they are doing next month?).
Create a "master calendar" and break the cycle. Talk-up the big speakers and roundtables. Make the community feel that they are attending an "event". Create a little "buzz" through announcements, listings, and press releases. Make your members feel that they are really missing something by not attending. Better yet: they really ARE missing something.
- Very few visitors are attending the meetings.
This is usually caused by lack of publicity, no real effort to identify and build a contact database, or a "burned out" board. Poor speaker choices impact this as well.
Build an announcement database and put the ONE to TEN principle to work! Some fresh faces will energize everyone. Be willing to turn over a few board positions. Break the mold. Insist on top quality presentations.
- Putting the blame on the national organization, lack of IT people in your city, hard economic times, stiff competition with other organizations, and various other external factors.
I used to buy into this - but not anymore. Every city has an IT community waiting to be gathered.
Having seen what can be done by going through our experience in Austin, I now realize that attitude of the AITP leadership at the chapter level has a far greater impact than these external factors. As a board, you have to level with yourselves, and ask if you have the genuine desire and energy to take the necessary steps to move to a new "vision" for your local situation.
Conclusion: Equal doses of publicity and delivery are required for building successful AITP communities.
More to come...
