So, you want to partner with an association?
Sounds like a marriage made in heaven, right? Commercial organisers have the resources and experience to build and scale conferences and exhibitions, whilst the association has the membership and the reputational clout. Wouldn’t they jump at the chance to have the distracting business of executing a conference outsourced and run for them? Not necessarily, as not all associations are created equally. Some of the most successful global shows belong to associations who have got great commercial leadership and teams in place.
If, however, you’ve found an association and convinced them of a partnership, what then?
Joint ventures and managed events
- JV pitfalls and profit-share – getting the agreement in place to
ensure that the effort is worth the reward. How much will they really
bring to the table? - Will they hand over their data or insist on marketing directly to
their members? And if so, how good are their marketing resources to
get the job done? - How much time are you/your team prepared to spend educating the secretariat
- Acquiring and integrating
- The journey to acquisition
- Agreeing decisioning with the association’s SLT – where does their power begin and end?
Rebecca King, chief Marketing and operating officer, Collingwood Advisory will be hosting the panel to discuss all the issues of partnering with associations on the EN hub at International Confex on Thursday
King has 17 years’ experience in global B2B media as a marketing and project management leader and was previously group marketing director at Terrapinn. She will be joined by Ed Tranter, managing director of 73 Media and Julian Graves, chairman, Collingwood Advisory and non-executive chairman of Spectrum Gaming Group and Clarion Gaming for the discussion from 3pm on Thursday.
