• Principal – Intermedia Pty Ltd (meetings and events industry consultancy)

• Chairman – MCI Australia

• AMM – Australia’s longest serving Accredited meeting manager – 40 years

• AFMEA – Associate Fellow Meetings and Events Australia

• FPRIA – Fellow Public Relations Institute of Australia

• AJA – Accredited ICT Journalist

• E: ray@im.com.au

Who am I

This session is relevant to…Association executives, speakers’ program development volunteer committees and in-house and external organisers who hold meetings (conferences / congress / forums / seminars).

It focuses on Association meetings as a source of free or low cost “content” and what an Association, as the temporary owner of that content can do with it.

• Greying of membership

• Harnessing social media

• Financial viability

• Globalisation

• Demand for education with certification

• Competing with an overabundance of free on-line content

Associations are facing new pressures to stay relevant

• Baby boomers growing old – 15% membership loss per year

• Gen X and Gen Y don’t respond like Baby Boomers do – new rules are needed

Two factors caused most of these challenges

• Need to find new money magnets i.e. revenue streams, fix meetings, retain existing members and find new ones.

• Content capture and dissemination is a very trendy buzz word now and it seen as the new “gold” but it is very, very hard to do it right.

Associations are looking for “quick fixes”

• Since recording was invented we have been capturing presenters voice and selling “tapes”

• As time progressed tapes became cassettes, CD, DVD, USB and internet pages

• As time progressed further video was added

Let me tell you about content capture

Adding video of a presenter droning on behind a lectern does not add any value to the equation – it is “raw content” and is still a low cost, low return endeavour.

Let me tell you about content capture

• The adult attention span is <20 minutes

• The Gen X/Y attention span is <10 minutes

• The on-line attention span is <8 minutes

• Voice, not video is far more important

• Without engagement attention drop fast.

Learning is about engagement

• Experts say you must “record your presentations and make money”.

• Let me tell you now that this is

100% wrong for so many reasons

Welcome to the 21st Century

• Raw content (one speech) sells for $5

• A collection of raw content (the conference) sells for $100

• Sales of 3% (of attendees) are typical

• Post sales die within 6 weeks – content goes “off” quickly

• Very few “passive” sales are made from web sites

Low returns are predicated by low effort, cost and risk

Unique

Desirable

Well marketed

Re-purposed

Content

Sells

Valid conclusions

• Not available anywhere else

• Paper = boring

• Multimedia experience = interesting

Unique

A fundamental motivation that induces an action to satisfy a longing or craving.

And I like Michelle…

Desirable

• Simple web site listings don’t work

• Mix of strategies does work

Well marketed

• “Raw” is out

• You need to “cook” it i.e. shorten, polish, gamify and re-purpose

Re-purposed

• Take the extra effort to review, critique package and polish

• Add value by panels and other local information

Content

• Makes profit by successfully monetizing the process

• Build new revenue streams for the future

Sells

• How to identify good content

• Re-purposing

• Gamification

• Marketing and monetizing

• And what’s happening now (the MCI experience)

Lets examine some of these points

• Program committees fill program slots by lower level peer review

• Content committee identifies gold standard content and works with the authors to add value.

How to identify good content

• Hire an e-learning expert (optional)

• Look at retired members (grey power)

• Look at competitors offerings

• Ask your members

• Reassess existing education programs

How to identify good content

Imagine you are a movie producer being chased by writers to produce their script. You need to identify the gems that will make money.

What does a content committee do

• Best of/highlights

• Special interest group

• Hybrid meetings

• E-learning and certification

• Consumer and student use

• Knowledge bank

Lets look at re-purposing

• Meeting planners now using gamification to improve sessions

• Applying game thinking to non-game contexts

• Leverage peoples social needs for competition, status and more

Gamification

• Core is to provide reward and recognition

• Internal motivators like points or badges

• External motivators like multi-player (team games) and tangible rewards

• Key is to make mundane tasks feel more like games

Gamification (continued)

• Don’t let the task of organising the meeting overshadow the task of creating and marketing gold standard content

• Things don’t sell without marketing

Marketing is everything

• Depends on the market (member, non-member, attendee, non attendee) and the content

• “Raw” content $5 per speech

• “Cooked” (re-purpose) 10x

• “Chef” (premium added value) 20x

• “Master Chef” (certification) 20-50x

What ROI per speech can I get?

• Get it while its “hot” – use-by 6 weeks

• Run Hybrid events (low cost content $$)

• Re-package for sponsors use $$$

• Develop certification programs $$$$

Raw content is virtually free – Association has to get rights to re-use it.

Maximising ROI

• Partnership with BlueSky Broadcasting USA for expertise

• Leveraging Dorier (EU) and Perfectus (AP) for technical support

• Delivering in 48 offices in 23 countries

What’s happening now (MCI)

• Only capturing gold content (be selective)

• Leveraging new HD remote camera technology to reduce labour cost

• More about helping the content committee to understand added value and re-purposing.

What’s happening now (MCI)

• Specially branded portals with a money (e-commerce) gateway managed by MCI to save client costs

• MCI may take on marketing and enter into a profit share

What’s happening now (MCI)

• Meets stringent continuing education and on-line certification

• Meets FDA 21 CFR validated learning platform requirements.

What’s happening now (MCI)

• Not about who attends but who engages.

• MCI arrangement only in place for one year

• Definite increase in sell price of content

• Biggest obstacle is lack of volunteer time to run the content committee

• Clients who “get it” are showing good returns.

• Clients who expect it (as a “free” service) are not

Is it working? (MCI exerience)