by Rich Finstein | Apr 26, 2017 | Blog
As many association leaders are aware, there have been quite a few changes over the past several years with technology related companies who serve and support our community. Recently it was announced that three leading AMS companies joined forces, with a fourth announced just today. Changes like this certainly alter the playing field and have decision makers rethinking their approach to the selection of learning management solution providers.
One of the less talked about impacts of mergers and acquisitions is how it affects company culture. In most cases clients have made a decision to contract with a company based on a level of trust that has been established with the people behind the solution. If the companies mission or culture changes, or the original owners are no longer there, the relationship could be impacted and there may be a gap from what was originally expected.
A healthy company culture assures a level of stability, quality, and an overall commitment to clients, all while working as a unified team. CommPartners has watched the transactions from a far, remaining committed to a friendly culture that has extended to our community of clients for over 24 years. We recognize that the continuity of our work, the relationships that we establish and conversations we have over many years provide tremendous value.
True partnerships do not arise automatically, but are only built through understanding our clients’ goals, pressures, and vision of success. Our clients have become an intimate part of our team and their insights and ideas drive our innovation.
Our client relationships define and provide the foundation of CommPartners culture, with benefits including:
- Responsiveness and the ability to be nimble, always putting client needs first.
- Consistency, where clients are able to work with the same CP staff members over a long period of time. Our average tenure is over 8 years.
- Continuity of support by understanding our client’s mission, history, getting to know their membership and attending their events.
- Commitment to the clients planned set of priorities. There are no competing forces or politics to take away from the core mission to support our clients’ objectives.
- Reliability in the platforms and solutions we provide.
There will most likely be many more mergers and acquisitions in the association sector to come. These changes can have a rippling effect, altering client relationships and culture.
At CommPartners, we are clear and unwavering about our mission, values and culture.
by Aubrey Mellos | Mar 6, 2017 | Blog
CommPartners is proud to once again partner with Mary Byers, CAE for a livestream event on Thursday, April 6th 1pm EDT exploring how to maximize your organizational influence. Join us to see how you can help your organization catapult forward with momentum and synergy. Register Now
1. Our upcoming program with you is titled “Momentum: Where to Find it, How to Keep It.” Why that topic?
Momentum means “strength or force gained by motion.” Isn’t that what associations are: movers on behalf of members? I like the idea of doing what we do with strength. Additionally, many associations have fewer resources than previously. Others are letting the urgent overshadow the important. Asking what activities help an association gain momentum can be a valuable way to clarify what makes the most sense when it comes to deciding how to spend limited time, money and expertise.
2. What if an association already has momentum?
My work over the past couple of years has been about helping association professionals find the time to work on their association, not just in it. Setting aside one hour to join the livestream is one way to do this. If you already have momentum, a natural “next question” is how to sustain it or get more of it. And if you don’t have it, you’ll come away with some ideas regarding what might be holding you back.
3. Is it harder for associations to gain momentum than it is for corporations?
In some respects, yes. The boards we work with sometimes don’t unleash our best work, which can lead to complacency. Studying momentum is really about finding a way to uncage potential on behalf of members. That may be through an innovative program, a collaboration, or a decision. I like figuring out how to use limited resources to make a difference.
4. What’s an element that is missing when an associations doesn’t have momentum?
Often it is a lack of focus. Bill Gates attributes some of his success to the fact that he has been able to focus on a few things. That’s good advice. It’s even better when you choose to focus on related things because that’s how you harness synergy and synergy leads to momentum.
Momentum: Where to Get It & How to Keep It
Thursday, April 6th 1pm EDT
by Aubrey Mellos | Jan 31, 2017 | Blog
Webcasting, just like most things tech, is constantly reinventing itself and has evolved from a niche offering to a broad-based, versatile requirement for sharing knowledge online. Working for CommPartners, I have produced webcasts across a broad and diverse range of clients, each with individual needs, where custom and inventive webinar hosting services are often the only way to get the job done best. You know your members and how they prefer to engage, but are you leveraging the power of live streaming to grow your membership and reach?
The 3 most popular ways live event webcasting can be applied to your audience:
- Private Webcasts: These are webcasts where the content is streamed to a specific audience with the credentials to access it. Most organizations like to keep their intellectual “capital” limited to members and other paid parties, and this type of webcast is strictly for members only.
- Public Webcasts: These are free and designed to raise awareness and interest in the organization. Often an organization will utilize a popular live event streaming service such as YouTube or Facebook Live to webcast a portion of their content free of charge, in order to promote themselves and their mission.
- Private and Public Simulcasts: This is a newer category of webcast, where organizations simultaneously provide a private, special experience for their members and other paid or pre-registered parties while live-streaming a part of their content over free social media channels, in order to advertise the experience.
What a strong, exciting way to self-promote! Live event webcasting comes free with YouTube and Facebook, and most organizations already have a presence on these networks. While Facebook may be superior for organizational staff to post small live clips to promote their events, YouTube is the ideal place to provide a high-quality social media webcast experience, which can be shared rapidly among interested parties. As you know, to access a live event on YouTube, all you need is the link, and you can instantly connect to an unlimited number of viewers. An email blast advertising a live event on YouTube would likely be very well-received, as the prospect of participating in a live event broadcast draws viewers at a much higher rate than say a pre-recorded or archival program. By offering live event webcasting as a live promotional webcast on YouTube, the opportunity to organically reach new audience members increases exponentially!
Leveraging the Most Out of Event Live Streaming
CommPartners, in addition to offering webcasting in private, controlled environments, also provides a suite of event live streaming services. We have worked with clients to both simulcast and live-stream events and select content to YouTube. Social Media webcasts are one of the most powerful organic ways to expand your reach. You are already using it to keep members, fans, and other pertinent parties up to date with your organization — So, why not leverage some of your intellectual capital and show the world why membership to your organization has its benefits!
To speak directly with someone at Commpartners about our live event streaming solutions, or to find out how you can add a social media webcast to your event or virtual conference — contact Meghan Gowen at mgowen@commpartners.com or give her a call at 443-539-4851.
Post Written by Bryan Ranharter, CommPartners Multimedia Producer
by Aubrey Mellos | Nov 14, 2016 | Blog
Every day, each of us makes many decisions on how we spend our time and money. Some of these decisions require careful consideration and can take weeks or months, while others happen almost unconsciously, based on a feeling of comfort, expectations and trust.
All organizations, regardless of mission are in the business of attracting consumers to their brand and hoping that over time these people will have increasing loyalty and investment. That investment can be through a purchase or one’s actions. They are our members or stakeholders, channel partners, franchisees, or even people within our organization.
The question is; how can we influence potential customers, so making a choice to invest in us is an intuitive and easy decision?
I pose this question with a specific challenge in mind. My company helps clients provide, and in many cases monetize, online education through a learning management system (LMS). Our client organizations dedicate a significant amount of resources in their learning platforms and development of content, banking on the notion that if we build it they will come… and spend money. However, while knowledge cuts to the core of what attracts people to these organizations; expectations for participation are often not met. We find that some are having success while others are more challenged. When you look more closely at the reasons for this, you find that participation in one’s education offering has more to do with organization strategy than a learning strategy.
Where Community Comes in
Over the past several years, we are witnessing a movement towards open, transparent dialogue and sharing of ideas through social media and other means. This represents a profound shift for groups in their quest to build a following. It moves them from creating and directing to facilitating and empowering. A tangible way we see this happening is through significant growth of private online communities where conversations occur under the identity of a sponsoring organization. An online community changes the paradigm and invites dialogue. It also provides an on-boarding strategy to welcome new participants and break down social barriers which often lead to greater participation.
Private Communities and Online Education
As private online communities have evolved, these platforms have been created as separate and distinct areas within an organization’s Web presence. An organization’s LMS is typically in a different area therefore creating two, unique silos for community engagement and learning. Idea sharing happens in one area, while people enrolling and connecting through webinars, courses, listening to Podcasts or collaborating in a workshop happen somewhere else. This separate existence can cause fragmentation and a slowdown of momentum. Just like in other parts of society, social, community and learning go together.
Participation in learning calls for an investment.
People will resist that structure if they are not comfortable. Community cultivates comfort to make these decisions more intuitive.
LMS as a Component of Community
If our participants are already invested in a destination where they participate and share strategies and ideas about real life experiences, why would we disconnect them from where they go and move them somewhere else to start over? In a sense, this is what we do when we create a partition between private communities and our Learning Platforms. In contrast to this, a more effective approach is when the LMS is a component to a community building on the existing relationships and patterns of engagement?
Our Work with Higher Logic
Over the past year, CommPartners and Higher Logic have collaborated about bringing together our two platforms to support the ideas shared in this post. Our initial efforts have been directed to create the HL Learn Online Academy where online training is embedded within the HUG Community and leverages the relationships that are supported through this outstanding resource. We believe this is the ideal way to showcase the many benefits that occur when learning is a component of community.
Richard Finstein
CEO, CommPartners
rfinstein@commpartners.com
If you have questions or would like more information on the CommPartners – Higher Logic initiative you may email info@commpartners.com
by Aubrey Mellos | Aug 30, 2016 | Blog
Because associations serve a dual bottom line, they are always looking for ways to do well while doing good. As mission-driven organizations, they are called to serve those missions, but “no money – no mission.” There is a constant search for programs, products, and services that will raise revenue and benefit members and other stakeholders, the industries and professions that they represent, and the general public. Unfortunately, those opportunities aren’t always easy to locate.
Right now, both in the US and globally, the education and employment sectors are being profoundly disrupted. In their new whitepaper The Association Role in the New Education Paradigm, Shelly Alcorn (Alcorn Associates Management Consulting) and Elizabeth Weaver Engel (Spark Consulting) make the argument that associations are uniquely positioned to play a vital role in helping current and future stakeholders adjust and even thrive in this rapidly changing environment by drawing on their historic strength of experience in educating diverse audiences outside the constraints of the traditional classroom setting.
Globally, millions of workers, particularly young workers, are without jobs, and millions of jobs, many of which require “21st century” skills, are unfilled. Student debt in the US is at an all-time high. We are facing, in short, a “wicked” problem, one that is so complex and touches so many socioeconomic factors as to defy easy solutions. In the whitepaper, your authors argue that associations are a key player in solving this “wicked” problem and bridging the gap from education to employment.
CommPartners will be hosting a live webinar on Monday, September 12 at 12pm ET, in which Shelly and Elizabeth will share highlights from their research into the dramatic changes affecting the realms of both education and employment, why they believe these changes represent such a tremendous opportunity for associations to benefit the professions/industries we serve, and the real stories of associations that are fully embracing their role in nurturing the next generation of professionals and members.
Bridging the Gap: The Association Role in the New Education Paradigm | August 12, 2016 12pm EDT
We hope you can join us!
by Aubrey Mellos | Mar 2, 2016 | Blog
We see it frequently, that is, associations being threatened by new, innovative and well-funded competitors of all shapes and sizes. Indeed, it’s daunting to witness new players encroaching in our territory, challenging the relevancy of our once well-insulated industry. This is especially true for those of us who, for many years, were the only source of continuing education programs and resources for our members. Nowadays, our members have access to a virtually limitless tap of learning materials from a myriad of content sources.
Depending on your outlook, you can view this as a dire situation, or an opportunity for growth. In our opinion, negativity never seems to work to anyone’s advantage, so let’s continue on a positive—and realistic—train of thought. What sets you apart from those competitors also targeting your community for professional learning programs? We asked that very question to several folks and the following themes surfaced:
- “Associations are specifically charged with developing and disseminating late-breaking content and professional learning opportunities. This is one of our core missions, and a primary reason we exist. Given this focus, we invest significantly in developing our members through meaningful and outcome oriented continuing education programs.”
- “Associations have the clout to attract the most respected thought-leaders and change-makers to facilitate their professional learning programs. This provides members with exclusive opportunities to learn from and engage with industry titans.”
- “Associations have a duty to offer vetted, peer-reviewed and accurate professional learning programs and resources. Even if we charge for our continuing education offerings (as a way to generate non-dues revenue), we won’t skimp and compromise content quality just to generate more income.”
Folks, these are some impressive competitive advantages! The rigor that goes into your education is your inimitable edge and what places you above your competitors. You have the upper hand; instead of trying to work against these competing forces, what about aligning with them? At first, this might sound off-putting, but hear us out and consider your options.
Content Licensing
Think about those competitors who offer free or cheap professional learning programs as a marketing tactic. You know what I’m referring to…companies that have their core suite of products/services and use free education as a way to raise brand awareness, build a following, gain loyalty and increase revenue. Another example are companies that provide free or subsidized continuing education programs to their staff as an employee benefit. There are a number of other scenarios, but you get the gist. In general, designing and building quality professional learning programs is not their forte.
Have they approached you about licensing your content? Have you engaged them to see if they’re interested in licensing your content? You might consider having these conversations, even if it’s purely explorative to discuss possibilities. This relationship arrangement has the potential to be a win-win for everyone.
A New Way of Expanding Your Association’s Reach
Now, being the futurist you are, envision a great possibility that lies before you. For the purpose of this example, congrats, you’ve aligned with a former competitor and are now in the process of establishing a partnership. This happens to be an organization that offers professional learning opportunities to their staff as part of their benefits package. They admit they’re not content experts and understand it’s more cost effective and efficient for them to license your learning portfolio rather than create their own. Plus, you have top-notch programs and they can’t compete with you in terms of content quality and speaker prestige.
A Unique Proposition
They love your learning management system (LMS) and education portfolio within. In fact, they want to replicate your entire LMS (including content and resources) and offer a co-branded version exclusive to their community. In terms of content licensing, they desire an arrangement in which their learners have a credit of $250 already populated in their LMS profiles, as well as full access to your entire education portfolio. This setup would empower their learners with the latitude to customize a learning path tailored to their specific professional goals.
The Value behind This Proposition
What’s in it for them?
- The organization can focus on their core mission and provide this employee benefit (at a higher quality) in a more cost effective/efficient manner.
- Staff will be impressed their employer aligned with a high-profile association that specializes in professional learning related to their field/trade.
- New content is always being introduced, which will incentivize staff to remain connected to their ever-evolving learning community.
- The organization can monitor the learning progress of their employees to see who is excelling and who needs additional support and mentoring.
- Staff satisfaction is likely to increase with this one-of-a-kind opportunity, which equates to higher retention rates.
What’s in it for you?
- Your organization will expand its reach through key influencers who each have their own loyal community of followers.
- You will advance the industry at large as a result of more people accessing your learning portfolio and keeping current with best practices and new skill-sets.
- For years, you’ve accepted that certain people in your industry will never engage with your association…this arrangement has the potential to mitigate that dilemma.
- You will grow your non-dues revenue stream by using these alliances as new distribution channels.
- You’ll gain visibility and exposure, as well as the opportunity to demonstrate the value of membership to non-members.
From Concept to Reality
We understand this scenario doesn’t work for all associations. But, for those of you seeking the next big “Ah-Ha” moment, this might just be it. It’s a paradigm shift that holds exciting potential to reinvent your landscape.
We have the wonderful opportunity of collaborating with hundreds of innovative organizations, both non-profits and for-profits. In this position, we get to see and participate in (first-hand) a variety of pilot programs. Of course, some are more successful than others, but the important point here is we can share these ideas, key takeaways and lessons learned with our entire community. It’s especially fun to infuse ideas from our creative counterparts in the for-profit world and apply their ingenuity to the association community. In fact, that’s where we first observed the huge value potential of licensed content.
Truth be told, we’ve been noodling on this concept for a few months and wanted to come up with an easy way for associations to license their content. If the process was cumbersome, clunky or tedious, the concept would fall flat, regardless of the potential. So, behind the scenes, we calibrated our Elevate LMS in such a way that it’s now easy for you to license your content. In fact, the example mentioned earlier is 100% achievable.
With our recent Elevate enhancements, you have the ability to partner with fellow organizations (aka former competitors) and easily create co-branded knowledge communities. What is more, you have flexible options to establish the right partnership with each alliance. For example, in addition to co-branding opportunities, it’s up to you to decide how to populate your partner’s LMS (i.e. your entire learning catalog, or just select courses). And, you can also install parameters to limit user consumption based on the terms of your licensing agreement.
Strategy above Technology
As with any new venture, strategy trumps technology, and a well-conceived business plan is the first step. Should you move forward in considering this initiative, keep in mind it demands enterprise-wide support and buy-in. Collaborate with key stakeholders to figure out if/how this model makes sense for your organization, discuss the pros and cons, and identify desired outcomes.
In closing, at the very least, it doesn’t hurt to have these conversations in the near future, regardless of your ultimate decision. It’s better to proactively weigh your options now, then miss the opportunity completely. And, that’s where we can help. We understand the business of education and can support your conversations and vision with a fresh perspective and complementary solutions.
To learn how we can assist in converting your competitors into colleagues, contact Meghan Gowen at mgowen@commpartners.com or 443.539.4851.
